OT- CFB Divisions - SEC East
We have 10 weeks until CFB kickoff weekend, and 10 P5 divisions, so I plan to (if I remember each week) to start a thread to discuss one division per week leading up to the season. Maybe I'll skip the B1G since the staff does a great job covering them, and include non - P5 teams one weekend.
Anyways, I figured I'd start with the SEC East since I heard a few people talking about them this week on the radio.
The teams:
Georgia: The favorites to win the division again, and possibly the only contender in the conference with Bama? They get ND at home, TAMU at home, Florida at home, and Auburn on the road.
Kentucky: They are replacing a lot of guys on both sides, expect them to slide. OOC includes Toledo, EMU, UTM, and Louisville.
South Carolina: Opens with UNC, FCS game, then Bama at home. At Georgia, At Tennessee at TAMU, and home vs Clemson. I'd guess 7.5 wins would be O/U.
Florida: Opens with Miami, host Auburn, UGA, FSU...at LSU. They are expected to be the 2nd best team in the division.
Vanderbilt: Starts their season home vs UGA, @Purdue, Home vs LSU.
Missouri: Wyoming, Troy, SEMO, and WVU are OOC. WVU probably smokes them. Ole Miss & Ark are SEC West crossover games. That's not a terribly difficult schedule. At UGA, but host FLA, SC & Tenn
Tennessee: The furthest they will travel from home is Mizzou. BYU at home, UGA at home, Miss State at home...Bama, Florida on the road. What I heard about Tenn (the Tenn reporter from The Athletic says) they had the worst P5 OL he's ever seen last year. They aren't expected to be much better this year, and he thinks they are likely to finish last or 2nd to last in the division again. LB Darren Kirkland Jr retired, a starting OL retired, and one of their starting tackles from last year transferred. They did pull in 2 excellent tackle recruits last year (1 was Wanya Morris) so they are likely going to start 2(!) freshmen tackles in the SEC this year.
If Tennessee sucks again, that’s going to be some bad ROI for their bagmen.
Tennessee will be bad. They may get better simply because the talent level is on the upswing, but it will tale awhile.
I wonder how long the money cannon is going to shoot without any on field results. That coach wasn't brought in to suck ass for years.
Their bags are empty from the Butch Jones era.
I am imagining JPC infiltrating bagmen networks and calculating P/E and Beta ratios to sell to the booster clubs.
Give me UF to win this division. I think UG has a down year for no reason at all. I'm going to the UF vs UK game in lexington this year (Michigan's bye week) with my b-i-l who is a gator.
Eric Gray.
Georgia is the most complete team. Florida is the most likely spoiler. Tennessee & Kentucky will be middling to good. UT needs a couple years for the bagmen's results to kick in. The rest will be middling to bad in this division.
Georgia probably rides to the SEC championship game again here.
So Georgia doesn’t have Florida at home. That game is played in Jacksonville every year, but otherwise, I’d still pick Georgia to win the division. They are definitely the most complete team, talent level is on par with Alabama or maybe a half smidge under it, and most of their toughest games are at home. They also have easily the best QB in the division by several country miles.
I still think Florida is a year or two away from having the kind of talent and depth that Georgia has. Now if anyone in the division beats them, it’s Florida. And it wouldn’t completely surprise me to see Florida beat Georgia. Upsets happen all the time, and they are coming off a strong finish to last season. But on paper, the game against Georgia is still somewhat of a mismatch.
If Georgia looses to Florida.... they are still likely to win the east. Just saying
I'm taking Georgia to FINALLY meet the hype (we know something about hype around here) and win the national title. Jake Fromm is the truth and I see him having a phenomenal year en route to being a top 5 draft pick.
The rest of that team is absolutely loaded as well. Swift might even make a run at the Doak Walker.
Vanderbilt is a good school. I would like it if we gave the SEC rutger and we take Vandy. I will sweeten the pot by also giving MSU. Seems like a natural trade.
Props to Figthins for playing UGA on the road. They're gonna get curbstomped, but the moxie is admirable.
I imagine when it was originally scheduled Mark Richt was still at Georgia and they were in the middle of going 8-4 seemingly every year.
1. Georgia
2. Florida
3. Kentucky
4. Vanderbilt
5. South Carolina
6. Tennessee
7. Missouri
South Carolina has a brutal schedule this year. Alabama, UGA, Clemson, UF, A&M. I’ll be interested to see if Muschamp can pull off a couple of upsets to keep his job.
Tenn can be the chaos team of the division. Lots of talent but probably will find ways to lose spectacularly.
Georgia is the obvious pick.
I wish I knew enough about these programs to speak knowledgeably on them
Florida with Mullen might finally get themselves figured out and be a national contender again. It's probably more of a when, not if
Definitely expect Tennessee to suck again which I will thoroughly enjoy
Kentucky will fall back to earth hard. 4-8. They weren't even that good last year
Esss ehhh seeeeee
If GA doesn’t walk to championship game it’s because of potential injuries. Those are some bad football teams
but, best conference in the history of college football, blah blah blah
UGA and UF --- the predictions for them are pretty standard. Georgia is a National Title contender and Florida should be Top 10 with a fairly decent chance to win in Jacksonville, and if that happens, likely get to Atlanta.
That 4-some of Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee are the wildcards. I think ONE of them emerges (like Kentucky in 2018) and ONE of them under-achieves and win 5 or less games. It's just figuring which one will be which.
I'll take Kentucky for the emergent team (again). I really like Stoops and he has built a foundation there in Lexington. There still is some talent back from last year's excellent defense, particularly up front. Their home game against UF in Week 3 is huge for setting a tone for the season.
I'll take South Carolina for the under-achiever. Tough schedule and Muschamp has never impressed me.
Missouri's always easy to forget about (they're still an odd-ball in the SEC) --- but Kelly Bryant is there now. Even with Drew Lock gone, they should score a whole bunch. They're also under probation in 2019. May effect the team's demeanor.
Tennessee who the hell knows? As someone upstream said, they seem fairly likely to be "Team Chaos." Talent is there to win games but they also ended 2018 with a 4-score (!!!) loss to Vandy in a game necessary to get Bowl eligible.
Speaking of Vanderbilt, I think will surprise a bit: win 2 games against the group of 4 above (S.C., Tenn) and get to 6-6. They won't win the East but they won't finish last either. They've Bowled in 2 of the last 3 seasons and Derek Mason appears to know what he's doing there.
(1) UGA, (2) Florida, (3) Kentucky, (4) Missouri, (5) Vandy, (6) Tennessee, (7) South Carolina.