I wouldn't bet the house in a nice neighborhood and all three kids on it. Russell made some pre-season All SEC lists already. He's this weeks SEC offensive player of the week, the second time he has earned this honor and its only the halfway point in the season. He is #3 in passing yardage, #2 in passing efficiency, and #2 in total offense, and ahead of both Leak and Cox. Ainge is the only quarterback statistically better than Russell and there is a lot of season left. Russell is a very good bet for All-SEC quarterback this year. And he will be missed with a 19-4 record so far.
On your first point regarding a championship, I'd guess you've probably stated the obvious since we've lost 2 SEC games already and most bets seem to be that he will leave for greener pastures. As for honors, SEC accolades still very possible.
I wish I could remember the guys name, but I was flipping through the sports channels on a friends XM radio just checking it out, and I hear two guys talking about next years (07) draft. So I stop and listen. One of the guys is a scout, the other the host. I honestly had never heard of either of them. Anyway to the point at hand. JR is gone after this year. According to this scout he is the purest NFL style quarterback in college football. The guy said he doesn't think he will be the first quarteback taken because of name recognition, but that he will have a similar path through the offseason as did Jay Cutler. Basically saying that once he hits the comibine and everyone can confirm the stories of his monsterous arm he will shoot even higher up the draft boards. The guy was pretty high on JR as you can tell, and said that he has all the tools to develope into a SuperBowl type quarterback with proper coaching. This is where it got interesting. He basically said that Jimbo Fisher has a good reputation for developing mobile quarterbacks, and maybe doesn't know what to do with a pure passer like JR and that is why he has been very sluggish in turning JR loose and letting him use all his tools. It was very interesting to listen to this guy. Not just about JR, but about the draft in whole. When he was asked what QB was way over hyped, he quickly answered Brady Quinn, and then through in that he would take JR in a heartbeat over Quinn. Sucks that I didn't catch the whole show. Apparently it was an hour long, I caught about 15 minutes of it.
I think the only time it is even halfway effective is when the quarterbacks are completely different styles. I think Myer is doing a near perfect job with the rotation of Leak and Tebow. The 2 guys compliment each other pretty well. We won't have a situation like that with RP and Flynn, they are too similar.
JR will be one of the top 3 QBs taken if he leaves early for the draft, and would be late second round at worst.
I'm trying to figure out why anyone should care what the Touchdown Club of Ohio thinks about SEC football.... Nope, still not working.
