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@TomLuginbill #AskLoogs Based off of UT's young talent and the astounding incoming class, is it realistic to see second or better in the SEC East?
Ian Robertson-Gouge (@Shamu54) October 22, 2013
Yes, I do believe this is possible, but it will not happen overnight. This roster is lean and does not currently possess the talent overall for them to compete for SEC East titles.
However, Tennessee is on the tail end of terrific facilities enhancements, a reorganized football administration and a completely overhauled academic support service program, which in our opinion is going to dramatically improve their efforts in recruiting. All the pieces are in place at Tennessee for a great run. It is a gold-mine job, in my opinion, right now. They can compete in every facet of football with all their conference peers and then some.
The biggest challenge at Tennessee is in-state talent year in and year out. It is imperative they keep the best players in state every year, similar to Ohio State. As always, this means that they must mine fertile recruiting ground in all their competitor's backyards. This is going to be a large class with room for a few more, even though they are already have 27 verbal commitments. This is their foundation class and if they can manage to get to a bowl game this year (which would happen at 6-6 because of how well they draw), it could really do wonders for their offseason 2015 class momentum.