What may be most concerning is that a lot of these teams we are battling now have some of their worst classes as their current upperclassmen. Florida and UT are good examples. So it will be interesting to see where both stand when most of the players on the field are from these top 12 classes. And before people scream "Well they have more homegrown talent!" (which is true), both of Florida and Tennessee's current classes combine for their top 10 recruits being 16 of 20 from out of state. Thats why my excitement for this season was so high. Most of the upperclassmen from Mizzou, Florida, and UT were on par with our talent. It was a good year to try to take advantage considering we did better in the portal than most of those teams as well. But we unfortunately went 1-2 in those matchups. Just concerns me where we will be when UF and UT have a majority roster of top 12 classes.
7 of our 8 SEC opponents for next year are top 19 in recruiting for 2023 and/or 2024. Only 3 of our 8 SEC opponents this year were top 19 in 2021 & 4 in 2022 (would have been 2 & 3 if not for playing Bama this year). So essentially, the talent of our opponents is going to take a pretty big step over the next 2 years compared to our last 2 years.
Florida
2024 #3
2023 #13
2022 #18
(Florida has had a high transfer-out % as well, including a lot of their most talented guys from the 21-22 classes)
Tennessee
2024 #12 (but has the least amount of commits in the top 12, so almost 100% sure will move up, likely top 8)
2023 #10
2022 #17
2021 #22
South Carolina
2024 #18 (but has THE least amount of commits in the top 18 and will almost 100% move up, likely top 15)
2023 #18
2022 #24
2021 #56
Not to completely spew doom and gloom, but this year and last year were some of the most un-talented SEC rosters (beyond UGA) we have seen for awhile and the most untalented we will see for at least the near future. Just a complete bummer that we weren't able to take advantage of that fact.