The SEC of today is much, much tougher than the SEC of the Peyton era.
You want to list Georgia as a good team when Peyton played against them? They were coached by two consecutive terrible coaches: Goff and Donnan. Georgia had only two winning seasons from '94 thru '97.
Peyton NEVER beat Florida, even though you claim he "lit them up". Peyton had terrible games against Vanderbilt his So, Jr, and Sr years. And, please let me know how Tennessee did against Nebraska possibly for the National Championship?
The 1997 Bama team won only 4 games. Tennessee beat the 1996 Bama 20-13 in Knoxville (imagine that defense giving up 40+ points). We beat the 1995 Bama team that was on probation and not eligible for a bowl. The '94 Bama team beat us.
And, Peyton played with some of the best Tennessee defenses we ever fielded. Bray played with the worst we ever had, plus he played with Dooley as a head coach.
Bray's Vols allowed 40+ points per game against "good" teams this past year. Peyton's 1997 Vols scored 40 or more points exactly three times all year. I think the 2012 Vols would have struggled even with Peyton at the helm. You simply cannot give up that many points and win consistently.