I have never seen LSU start the season rated in the top 5 and end the season rated in the top 5. It sure is going to be nice to start at 3 and end the season ranked higher. :geaux:
Agree No way the SEC finishes with these rankings ... too optimistic Florida ... will not be a Top 10 team ... lucky to be a Top 25 team this year Auburn will not finish in the top 25 in December ... maybe break the Top 25 at the end after another Indepencence Weed Whacker Bowl ... maybe not Tennessee is about right at #11 and might even catch a break to break Top 10 ... Georgia will be "punked out" on October 2nd by LSU and could lose two in a row when Tennessee visits Athens on October 9th ... Teams have a bad habit of losing games the week following an LSU whipping. Georgia is not gonna finish at #4 ... ain't gonna happen ... They'll be lucky to get to #8 and probably will not finish in the Top 10 with that OL, Greene & a weak running game. Who knows where LSU will finish at year's end after they steamroll the SEC? I'll say it again ... a month for Saban to prepare a gameplan against Miami ... my pick for the Orange Bowl and an LSU opponent ... who knows ... back to back :champs:
Tennessee appears to me to be HIGHLY overrated in many of these polls, including SI's. They were completely inconsistent last year with an experienced SEC QB, and there is no reason to believe that they are going to be better with only 5 returning offensive starters (only 2 returning OL out of 5), 4 returning starters on D, and C.J. Leak at QB. UT could easily lose to Florida, Auburn, UGA, Ole Miss and Alabama, and maybe even to South Carolina. I will be surprised if they don't lose three of those games. Plus, it seems clearer and clearer that: 1) Phat Phil has never been able to land a good offensive coordinator since he lost Cutcliffe, 2) Phat Phil has not considered character at all in recruiting (nor academics, but that is taken care of at Tennessee, and apparently is okay with the NCAA so long as Phil will snitch on his rivals), and 3) the overall lack of discipline engenders increasing disrespect among his players for the whole coaching staff. Head cases like Banks and that guy who recently shoved a professor and started disrobing in public seem to abound in Knoxville. From the outside looking in, it looks like the inmates are running the asylum on Rocky Top. There is no way a bunch of me-first guys, no matter how talented, will be able to consistently have success in a tough conference like the SEC. I am expecting UGA and Florida to be the best teams in the SEC East by far, and that there will be a big gap between them and the next tier of SEC East teams. I just don't see Tennessee as being among the nation's elite football programs.
When Tennessee has a couple of back to back 6-5 or 7-4 seasons I will agree that they have timbled down. Before last season we would have all been estatic with a 10-3 record and beating Miami in the Orange Bowl. Yep, they have gotten beat bad in the last to Peach Bowls but I have a feeling that is because they really didn't want to be there as much as their opponents.
Man Tennessee is in trouble. A man who was a third string at LSU and now transfered to UT and is fighting for the starting spot. If he still looks like he did when he started the Ole Miss game in 2002, UT is in deep sh*t. If I remember correctly, that man could not hold on to the ball. Well I hope has gotten at least alitttle bit better. After all he has to keep up the family name at Tennessee.
Regarding the SEC East permanent opponent: It is my understanding that these were picked from a hat (literally) and we were unfortunate to pick UF as Spurrier got a real head of steam. I think Ole Miss drew Vandy - can you imagine all those years of Florida whipping the mess out of us being substituted with Vandy... Anyway, not sure how true this is but it's what I have always been told.
I think a good reason for UT's fall has been their inability to grab people out of Georgia like they were used to doing for so many years. Remember that during their late 90's run.....literally almost half their lineups were from Georgia
There seems to be something wrong at Tennessee, and I would not be surprised to see the Vols melt down from inside. I get the impression that the Tennessee people have a sense of unease that all is not well too. Don't waste everyone's time lecturing me on the absence of objective facts, I admit that is the case. But still, something just does not seem right.
