The brutality of playing in the SEC has every team besides LSU showing signs of schizophrenia. Tennessee gets slaughtered by Florida, but then plays their best game weeks later. Florida Follows their victory over the Vols with 2 straight conference loses, one of which came at home to Auburn who had just lost at home to MIss. St. Alabama opened their conference schedule with 2 big wins only to fall at home to Georgia, a team that has been humbled by an amazing 6 straight SEC east losses. Every team in the SEC not named LSU already has a conference loss and we aren’t even at the halfway point in the season!
The depth of this league makes the challenge of going undefeated tougher than battling Knoxville traffic 2 hours before kickoff on game day. In today’s college football climate a one loss team with some quality wins has a good shot to play for the national title. That is easier said than done in the SEC, where even great teams have three or four games in a season which could have been losses. That being said, I think 3 SEC east teams have a shot at having really special teams in the coming years capable of winning a national championship.
1)Florida– This team is set for years to come. Almost 70% of their roster are freshman or sophomores. They only have 13 seniors and 15 juniors on the roster with only a few of them making major contributions. The sophomore class of Tebow, Harvin, and Brandon James make up the nucleus of that team. You add that to the #1 2007 recruiting class, as well as USC running back transfer Emmanuel Moody, and you have all the ingredients to win a title. This group of underclassmen have already shown that they aren’t to far away from taking the next step. The Rich get richer.
3)Georgia– Despite their pathetic play against UT this team is young and talented. The offensive line has three freshman playing significant minutes that should gel nicely in the coming years with freshman running backs Knowshon Moreno and Caleb King. The dawgs are set to bring in a top 3 recruiting class in 2008 that includes the top DT in the country, the #2 rated WR, and some talented defensive ends as well. However, to really mold this team into a championship contender, Georgia might need to make some coaching changes. Their level of play has clearly dropped off since Mike Bobo took over the play calling duties, and Willie Martinez became the defensive coordinator.
2) Tennessee– When I look at the potential on this roster in the coming years I can’t help but think they can be the next great UT team. Losing Eric Ainge will definitely be this teams biggest loss, but whomever replaces him(probably Crompton) figures to have plenty of weapons to use next season and beyond. Foster will be a senior but Coker and Hardesty will be juniors next year, and Creer only a sophomore. The Vols return everyone at WR next year, and almost the whole Oline for the next 2 years. Both starting defensive ends will have to be replaced, but Ben Martin,Chris Walker, and possibly Chris Donald are future stars. The vols will also add some prep school and Juco tackles to anchor the line. The linebacking corpse losses Karl but will return McCoy, Mayo, and Wilson along with some heralded youngsters. The secondary will lose Hefney but return everyone else including Eric Berry. The Vols also should add TE Brandon Warren a transfer from FSU,and hope to have Brad Cottam receive a medical redshirt. Do not rule out Demetrice Morley returning either if he can fix his academic issues, and regain the coaches trust. The potential is there folks, but only time will tell if they can be developed into a title contender. Go Vols
Guy Tiller