Project the SEC East
- Thread starter UK2KJAG
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Don't worry, Wvvrn, this board has a policy against "homerphobia."
Can't wait. I could be disappointed, but then that would be because I expect a lot.
Three or four wins, nah.
I don't think either Georgia or UK has to worry about changing coaches for a while, both staffs recruit too well. Good players make good coaches.
But it is pretty late at night and most people are asleep so I have a deal for you, how about kidnapping one of your second string DL and bringing him up to Lexington and I guess we would have to have Blue Decade kidnap one of our surplus OL since he is in Lexington and I'm not and you can take him back with you. I know it is a little risky but millions are at stake as well as the pride of two states, and both players could end up heroes.
1. Kentucky
2. Georgia
3. Florida
4. South Carolina
5. Vanderbilt
6. Missouri
7. Tennessee
2. Georgia
3. Florida
4. South Carolina
5. Vanderbilt
6. Missouri
7. Tennessee
They were only 8-4 last year with Joshua Dobbs (Butch's dream QB) and a team projected to be way better. And let's face it, were it not for a shat luck play against Georgia they'd have finished 7-5. Why would we expect them to be even that good this season? Besides, the coach is on the radio talking about APR scores so you know he knows they aren't going to be all that good. I'd be selling that stock if I owned any and I'll boldly predict them to finish last in the East. Who do you think they're going after for their next coach?
lol, you could be right, its strange how one school has trouble getting a certain group while others have players just fall into place., But that's what separates Bama from the rest of us, they don't have any areas where they are lacking.
It's true we lost a lot (Dobbs, Kamara, Bsrnett, etc.) but if recruiting counts for anything then talent alone with our remaining roster we should easily top 2 to 3. Also, people forget we did beat fla and GA , and yes it was a hail Mary but we had also just given up a hail Mary of our own - we led pretty much the whole game at their place. Losing to SC and Vandy was inexcusable , and no reason for it.
My prediction 1 fla 2 UT 3 GA 4 UK 5vandy 6 SC 7 missouri
Logically how do you come up with that? No one lost more offensive production than UT, On the other side of the ball you lost an all time great, career leader in sacks, your leader in the secondary, or at least he was last off season when all UT fans were talking about how good he was and his leadership ability, plus your best LB. Be real with your self, those subs you are so high on were the ones who lost to Vandy and SC.
At this time last year many UT fans, maybe not you, were debating if UT would beat Bama twice or lose the first and win the SEC championship game. Then the opener and it was we were playing very vanilla to not show anything. Looked bad against UF for a half and made a huge comeback, look bad against us and pulled it out with a fluke play, a hail mary maybe, but it was a pass that hit a receiver in stride behind your DB, not one tthrown up for grabs and hoping for the best.
Now this year, all those guys that were so good heading into last season weren't really all that good, the guys replacing them are better, surely you don't believe that, they would have been ahead of them on the depth charts if they were. Every team returns more than UT is, UT has a first year starter at qb, 5 teams return qbs, everyone returns their stud RB, but UT. UT has several player returning from injuries, and who is your opener with? GT, the most dangerous team in the country for your DL with their cut blocking. UT finishes in bottom half of the East, will struggle to get to a bowl.
You keep saying the same things over again so I won't repeat my responses to the same points.
I never said that Kirby smart will fail at Georgia. I said that he looked like a deer in headlights during year 1. Chances are, he'll do just fine at UGA. If I were a UGA fan with the talent on that roster (yes, you had more talent than UK and Vandy), I would have found 2016 to be disappointing, especially after booting a coach that averaged 10 wins a year.
I don't mind UGA, have nothing against Smart (aside from the fact that I usually root against the Saban disciples). I root for all of the other SEC east teams to fail if it can benefit UK, but otherwise I'd rather UGA do well than UT or UF.
At some positions we had more talent, DL, a slight advantage at LB, UK probably at DB. On the other side UK had huge advantage on OL, big advantage at WR, RB was close, qb was close, TE was close, if anything UGA had edge there because of the number of guys we have there. So there was no glaring talent edge, we were probably deeper. UK had a big edge in the kicking game, both punting units were bad. The first units were close the game was close. Kirby wasn't perfect, but he made no glaring mistakes, in fact his call is the one that stopped UK and forced a FG to tie instead of taking the lead. He didn't make the call at Vandy, he didn't veto it either, but the game turned with the sr return guy taking the 2nd half kick off and stepping out of bounds inside the 1, with a punter that kicked about 30 yards we were in the hole the entire half,
iF 10 wins are your goal, then booting Richt was a mistake, But there is no reason we should settle with for 10 wins, with the instate talent Georgia produces get 20 of the top 40 and cherry pick 5 from other states and you would be in the hunt for playoff every year. That's what Georgia fans want and no reason to expect less, Richt was content to win 10. I don't know if we would have won more than 8 with Richt there or not, we would have had a new DC because Pruitt is a south Alabama redneck who likes to party, showed up at Richt's house drunk, came very close to getting physical with Richt until Thomas Brown stepped in to stop it. A very good coach, but a loose cannon, I am looking forward to seeing Saban jump him like he did Kiffin, it might get exciting. We could win the East this year, decent OL play and we will, but that's a big if. If Hurts is Bama's qb and he still can;t pass downfield, who knows in the championship game.
I'll give you the fact that most of out offensive output is unproven, but again if recruiting means anything then we have skill players that can be productive as well- qg included. The main thing is that both sides of our line are going to be top 3-4 in the league. The trenches are where you win in the sec. Pretty much all our dine last year was decimated the last half of the year, except for Barnett, and that is why vandy and SC beat us PLUS there were some internal problems between some coaches. That problem has been rectified. Now let me ask you one thing: having beaten GA last year, what gives you confidence that you are that much more improved from last year's team? I mean it basically is the same team and I wasn't overly impressed last year.
We won't be starting a true frosh at QB for one, Chubb appears to be the Chubb he was before his injury, was at about 90% last season. We have one of the best set of LBers in the country, if not the top, one of the top DL's in the country returning, over 35 starts returning in the secondary. Our OL was awful last year, we had an FCS grad transfer at LT because Richt left us with zero OT on the roster, not one. We return 2 backs who have rusher for over 1k yards in a season, a group of TE's who are as good as any in the country. OL is a question, but at least we now have 3 OT on the roster, WR doesn't have anyone that scares anyone at this time of year, but remember the name Mecole Hardman. Always was a qb, never played DB but wanted to try it last year and moved to WR this spring. Eason has to show improvement, but he has lots of help in the backfield, he will get alot of single coverage to throw against when teams stack the box. Schedule is a little tougher this year, all teams in the East return alot, except UT. Last year was the year UT fans all claimed was their year, I thought it was too, yes you had some injuries, but I don't think even UT fans saw what they were expecting on the field before the first injury. UT had to make huge comebacks against Appy St. who is no pushover, but did you expect problems beating them? UF who thought the game was over at the half, and a last second hairl mary against us. Just watch out for GT, they dive at your DL's knees every snap, coming off surgery that won't be much fun for your DL.
1. GA - with tiebreaker H2H against us for East win
2. UK
3. UF
4. USC jr
5. Dores
6.Tenn - BUTCH GONE Mid Season
7. Missouri
2. UK
3. UF
4. USC jr
5. Dores
6.Tenn - BUTCH GONE Mid Season
7. Missouri
Good info. I know on paper GA should be the favorite and rightly so, but Im still not sold on them. If they take care of DM easily then I'll jump on board. I just know if everyone is healthy and stays healthy- big if- then UTs lines will be pretty stout. Our problem is our schedule , as usual but at some point we have to break through against the west.
To the OP above who says we should stay on our teams site , go to our site and see how many UK fans are there. I came over here b/c of this thread , sec east prediction. I figured we can make just as an insightful predictions as UK fans, and really , to some, more reasonable predictions and more objective.
As a general note to all, visitors from other programs are welcome here, and even encouraged if they come to provide info and discuss football in a respectful manner. I have seen nothing in this thread that would be an issue. Feel free to continue.
I lobbied for Kirby Smart when we made our last hire. He knew then he would get the UGA job and told Mitch thanks but no thanks. I'm not sure how good of a head coach he will become but a healthy Nick Chubb will help! IMO the Dawgs fans will give him at least two more years to succeed before wagons are circled
I think Florida is going to be an interesting team to watch. Since McElwain has been at Florida, they have played a lot like Bama----tough defense and ball control. I don't know if that has been more dictated by the roster inherited by McElwain from Muschamp, or just preference---but after losing the Geoff Collins to Temple it will be worth watching to see if the defense takes a step back. Collins produced some great defensive units at State, and when he got Florida talent, his defense was even more impressive. If Randy Shannon can't maintain the same level of 'psycho d' Collins was known for combined with the lackluster offense McElwain has fielded, and all of a sudden Florida doesn't look as good to me.
Hard to argue they haven't done that, but the flip side is they haven't recruited at near the level Bama has and McElwain hasn't recruited at the level Muschamp did. Muschamp wasn't a good coach at UF by any stretch, but he was a good recruiter and he was an excellent recruiter for defensive guys. Lots if not most of those guys are now gone. The big question is will their defense still play at the level they have played the last 5-6 years. Until someone shows they can beat them, they have to be the favorite to win the East, but the homer in me just can't pick them.
Even Bozo likes UK as top 3 in the SECE.
http://www.wdrb.com/story/35861386/...finish-in-sec-east-top-3#.WWaXlWPge1o.twitter
http://www.wdrb.com/story/35861386/...finish-in-sec-east-top-3#.WWaXlWPge1o.twitter
You said the key thing there, did good for a Vol fan, it is basically the same team.
Your team, not so much.
Agreed, love some of the outside info they bring AND and their valued opinions of our team.
Also love harassing some of the disrepectful ones from outlaw programs with FACTS, as I am sure has been noticed.
And who could blame him for turning down UK at the time, Stoops saved mitch a huge headache, and probably some embarrassment. Did Smart have any background in Ohio, and did he know about Marrow?
And now with our growth (AND support for football) we can recruit at a high level a lot of places. By the way, Brooks (and Joker) put about as much emphasis on Georgia recruiting as we do Ohio now, but NEVER got a prospect from a SEC state with a valid Home State U offer.
You are correct in that there will be some key new players, esp. on the offensivev side, namely the qb position. But I know they have recruited there with 2 very good prospects, but it still is a question mark until proven otherwise. The biggest thing is pretty much all our o and d lines come back intact (minus Barnett). And we have much more depth at all positions. Remember that with several of our starters were out against GA , namely Tuttle, McKenzie, Sutton, Reeves-Maybin, etc. and we still pretty much controlled the game against GA the whole game. THAT is why I am confident that we can handle GA in Neyland this year, even though it is not the same team from last year.
TONS of talent in Florida, but you have to have a good program to keep it away from all the other in state schools-----and everyone else-------they haven't had a great program lately, barely beat UK a couple years, lol. In 2010 when I ran the numbers their TWO deep on offense and defense AVERAGED over a 5.9. Bama is doing that now, 17 class with TWENTY SIX four and five stars that average a cool 5.950 Incredible that we played Florida back then with TWO four stars starting-----and some fans expected us to win. They had a ton of five star linemen at the time. And Georgia is starting to get a lot of the same caliber talent now.
Some good points for sure, sorry to hear it, lol. But you couldn't have two tougher teams from the west, talk about new talent, Bama signed 26 players that AVERAGED a 5.950 on Rivals.
And Saban was just "complaining" about being so young this year, hard to keep those SEVEN new FIVE stars off the field, about the same number of 6.0s, not too shabby either. Our ONE played a lot last year, and we had an excellent returning OL unit.
Spot on about Saban and his "young" team!! I guess that is why he has had so much success- 5-stars developing before they actually play.
Question for you : why do you think Bama is struggling in recruiting at this point in time? They usually are top 10 easily at this point, although I know that they will finish that way this year. Are all the staff changes finally getting a negative effect on their recruiting?
you keep talking about such good recruits. however i'll take quality experience over recruits. Missouri won the east 2 yr. in a row because of their experienced 2 and 3 star recruits. how many high 3 and 4 star recruits have not panned out? coach bj has done an impressive job recruiting since he's been at ut, according to the ratings of his recruits. however, since they have not proven it on the field then the recruits were overrated or coach bj has not done a good job with the talent available to him. where were the great recruits last year when ut was projected to win the east? ut had their share of injuries but UF had just as many injuries yet they won the east. again. if ut was such a well coached team, why did they get 6 new coaches this year? ut lost too much production and has too little experience this coming year. they will be extremely lucky to finish in top 4 of the east. i can't change your opinion and you sure can't change mine.
I keep forgetting : did the vols beat both Fla. and GA last year ? Oh yeah they did.... with the recruits coach Jones got ( remember those games were at the first part of the season). We lost to SC and Vanderbilt b/c we were literally down to 4th string dine men - that is how much we lost on the defensive side of the ball. I'll give the names if you want of those that didn't play the last half or more of the year. At that point , major division and problems were occurring w/in the coaching staff and that surely exponentially made things even worse. Jones got rid of some of them and some of them left for better opportunities. I'm not trying to change your opinion but I am trying to tell you that we have some tremendous talent coming off injury and some also getting their first true chance to be a player. If you don't believe me, at least believe the last few recruiting rankings.
Just saw your question.
Quite frankly I have been trying to figure that out myself. Here is their present standing:
Alabama
51st in Rivals standings. Only six commits, which accounts for a lot of it. Zero five stars, five four stars and one 5.5 three star but he is a kicker, usually 5.5 is good there, star average 3.83, only 761 points. But still high quality, three 5.9s and two 5.8s for regular position players.
Funny thing though, only a few days ago they were 48th and had seven commits IIRC, must have lost two commits??, the seven were four 5.9s and three 5.8s IIRC but I might have missed the kicker.
Hard to explain, scary thought I had is that they might just let teams like UK do their scouting for them and plan on swooping in later and getting decommits they want------if they don't wait too late. Probably can get a lot of them also, all the emphasis on winning nowadays. But I think Jarren is smart enough to stay with UK, they already are loaded at QB and will probably add another five star anyway. They already got Jones from us, that will probably redshirt and end up transferring, returning QB was MVP in the conference as a true freshman and their five star freshman looked very good in the spring game.
Another factor might be early playing time, their huge haul last year included 26 four stars and above, seven five stars and five 6.0s, and the 26 averaged a 5.950 on Rivals Richter Scale, lol. But then a lot of high school stars probably believe their clippings and think they are the best in the world, whether they are or not, and Bama will reinforce that if they want to give them a "tryout."
And you know they will add MORE than their share of five stars, that add a huge number of points plus a lot of bonus points------they won't stay there very long once they make their move, not sure why they are waiting.
I went back and checked the stats for that game, lelts start with first downs, UGA 24 to UT 18, total yards UGA 392 UT 354, time of possession UGA 36:07, UT 23:53. Those are normally 3 of the main criteria used for controlling the game. How do you get UT controlling the game from those 3 stats? No one but a UT fan would see that as UT being anything other than fortunate to get out of there with a win. UT was very fortunate to be in the game late, they made a play and come out with a win, but UT did not control the game by any means used. I won't post a link but google is your friend, ESPN has them, need to check some facts before making claims that stats and facts don't back up.
Georgia has been one of the most underachieving programs in the country in my lifetime. They should at the very least have a couple more SEC E titles and should have been in the race for some NCs with the amount of talent that comes through that program. I don't even understand why they're not more successful. Blue blood program with an absurd amount of in state talent and yet they always find a way to lose a game or two that they shouldn't. It must be frustrating for the fans. They're always a good team and I would love to see that kind of success at UK but at Georgia it shouldn't be acceptable.
Perhaps it was mostly Richt becoming complacent and playing it safe when he should've been pushing the pedal. I think Smart will do just fine and have them in the hunt but will he be able to get them over the hump?
There is still a good distance to go for UK but if Smart can't do more with that talent then he will start to see the gap between UK/Vandy and the big 3 in the east get even more narrow. UK/Vandy don't have a lot of the advantages that the big dogs in the east have but both teams do have, imo, better coaches than UG/UT/UF. Switch Stoops or Mason on any of those teams and they would be getting much better results, all imo of course. Jones in particular would've been a terrible hire for UK, SO glad he didn't end up here. I'm sure we would've had an excellent APR and been champions at life though lol. The jury is still out on Smart and McElwain (I think we already kind of know what Jones and Muschamp are going to be) but their leashes will be very short.
