SEC
East Division
1. South Carolina: In the last three years, South Carolina has won 33 games and lost 6, outperforming their biggest rivals in the vaunted SEC East; Georgia 30-11, Florida 22-16, & Tennessee 15-21 .. (# Please Note; Missouri has only been it the league for 2 years). Yet, during this time frame, SC did not win a division championship! If you were to look at these teams over the past ten years, they do look a little different; Florida 94-36, Georgia 94-37, SC 83-44, & Tennessee 67-58. While one could argue that the SEC East is the second best division in all of college football, there is little question it is the second best of the two Divisions in the SEC. The Gamecocks return 14 starters, 8 on offense, led by Preseason All Americans, RB, Mike Davis, & LG, A.J. Gann and All SEC Preseason picks, WR, Shaq Roland & O-Linemen, Brandon Shell & Corey Robinson. On Defense 7 starters return for the 2014 season, the Gamecocks feature, LB, Sharrod Golightily, DT, J.T. Surratt, & Safety, Brison Williams. The 2013 season marked the 3rd time in a three year period (011 to 013) that SC beat the team that won their division! In 2011, Georgia won the Division, yet Carolina beat the Dwags, 45-42 at Sanford Stadium. In 2012, Georgia won the division again, yet SC hammered them, 35-7 @ Williams-Brice! Finally, in 2013, Missouri reigned in the East, but fell to South Carolina @ home in Memorial Stadium, 27-24, in 2 OTs. In 2011 the Gamecocks lost two divisional crossover game, Auburn 16-13 & Arkansas, 44-28 but dominated the East going 5-0 in the division. In 2012, the Cocks went 5-1 in the East, tying Georgia & Florida in the Division (Note; Not Conference, SC went 6-2 overall in SEC Play, while Georgia & Florida tied at 7-1). In 2012, SC lost to Florida, 44-11 (they actually outgained the Gators, 191 to 183, but turned the ball over 4 times to UF’s zero) & lost one of their Divisional crossover games, 23-21 to LSU at Tiger Stadium and then later in the year beat Arkansas @ home, 38-20 (only 2 crossover games after 2011 with Missouri coming into the East and A&M the West). In 2013, SC posted a 4-2 slate in the East, an upset loss to Tennessee, 23-21, at Neyland Stadium (once again SC won the total yardage battle, 384 to 325 but turned the ball over twice while forcing none) & were outscored by Georgia, 41-30 @ Sanford Stadium. Yet, once again, beat the East Champion, Missouri, 27-24. This year, SC has Georgia at home and their divisional crossover games are the season opener, at home, against Texas A&M and later, October 25 at Auburn. While their chief challenger, on paper, for the Division title, Georgia, has Auburn at home (payback for the tipped pass?) and Arkansas on the road. The game at Florida, 11/15, is worrisome for SC’s divisional title run! That said, Sully’s CFP has SC going 6-0 in the East & 7-1 in the conference, losing only at Auburn and for the first time, since 2010, arguably, the best team in the East these past three seasons (at least best in head to head competition) actually wins the East!
2. Georgia: In the SEC, divisional Crossover games matter, as you are assigned one permanent rival, (Georgia vs Auburn, South Carolina challenges Arkansas, Florida takes on LSU, Tennessee plays Alabama, Vandy steps up against Ole Miss, & Kentucky battles MSU … Please Note: Permanent rivals may chance to accommodate scheduling issues.. for instance; SC does not play Arkansas in 2014) and one rotating opponent. Giving the power of the teams at the top of the West (Auburn & Alabama may be ranked in the top 4 nationally in 014), it becomes critical to the race in the East, as to who your rotated game with the West is against in a given year. This year, Georgia draws Arkansas on the road, this may be the best opponent to play out of the powerful West, giving the current problems in Fayetteville. That said, Uga has to play Auburn, this is the South oldest rivalry, the teams began playing in 1892 and have met 117 times as of 2013. Auburn leads the series 55-54-8 and last year’s game was reflective of the excitement this game can & does generate. Auburn was down, 38-37, when the Tigers got possession of the ball with 1:49 left to play, on its own 27 yard line. A 4th down, Hail Mary pass, from Nick Marshall was deflected by a Georgia Safety, Josh Harvey-Clemons and was caught by Ricardo Louis (The Prayer at Jordan Hare as it is now known) with 25 seconds left to play for the winning score, Auburn 43 Georgia 38! Georgia returns the best duet at RB in the country, Todd Gurley & Keith Marshall (Alabama & Wisconsin may disagree) and one of the best receiver corps in the nation, Malcolm Mitchell, Chris Conley & Michael Bennett. The question on offense is how good is new QB, Hutson Mason? The O-Line is solid and with healthy RB’s this year, should have better numbers in 2014. The defense returns 8 starters from a year ago, led by LB’s Ramik Wilson & Jordan Jenkins, the D-Line will feature DE, Ray Drew, & Secondary is anchored by CB, Damian Swann. Georgia’s D will be better at all three levels in 2014, especially the secondary that under performed in 013! Get ready for the early showdown in Colombia, on September 13th, ‘the Dwags come-a-callin’, the winner is clearly in the drivers seat for the SEC’s East Crown. Or is it? Georgia may want to lose this game, as the last two times they lost to SC, 2011 & 2012, they won the East Division!
3. Florida: This is one of the most dangerous teams in the country. Last year, Florida was 4-8, say what? Let me say again, 4-8, yes 4-8 and no, it’s not a misprint!. After beating Arkansas on October 5th, 30 to 10, to run their record to 4-1, the Gators never won another game! Losing seven in a row, including a loss to Georgia Southern, (an FCS that was in transition to the FBS), 26-20! For those of you who are interested, Georgia Southern will play in the Sun Belt Conference this year! That said, UF lost to their biggest East Division rivals, Georgia, 23-20 & South Carolina, 19-14, a bounce here or a play there and the Gators may have won both of those games. Florida is led on offense by QB, Jeff Driskel, RB, Kelvin Taylor, & TE, Demarcus Robinson; while the defense has Preseason All Americans, CB, Vernon Hargreaves & DE, Dante Flower and Preseason All SEC, LB, Antonio Mason. The Gators get East Division rival SC & LSU (permanent/on-going West Division rival) @ home, Georgia, at a neutral site, Jacksonville and defending East Champ, Missouri, in Gainesville. All positives, however, the Gators have to go to Alabama in the second divisional crossover game and end their season against defending national champ, Florida State in Tallahassee! Florida will be better in 2014, no question, there is also, no question, that playing @ Alabama, LSU, Georgia (Neutral site), South Carolina, & at Florida State is battling through one of the toughest schedules in the country! Will Muschamp will have his team on a mission this year and they could be one of the most interesting storylines of the 2014 season! The Gators should be 3-0 when the travel to Tuscaloosa, on September 20, to take on the Tide!
4. Tennessee: Butch Jones had the Volunteers (5-7) close to being bowl eligible in his first year as Tennessee Head Coach. A loss, late in the season, to in-state rival, Vanderbilt, 14-10, kept UT home for the holidays. What made the loss even harder to accept was that the game was played in Knoxville! This year, the Vols return 10 starters, 5 on either side of the ball. WR, Marquez North is the lone headliner back on offense, while the defense returns first team, Preseason All American, LB, A.J. Johnson and two DB that have received All SEC recognition, SS, Brian Randolph & CB, Cameron Sutton. That said, it is important to note, Jones has recruited well in his first full year on the recruiting trail. The good news is, a lack of experience can be addressed with superior talent; the bad news is, this is the SEC and everybody recruits well! Jones’ goal in year two, will be to become bowl eligible, this will be no easy task! The Volunteers play a NC game at Oklahoma, divisional games @ Georgia & SC, and Alabama (Periment West foe @ home) & @ Ole Miss in their crossover games. The Vols face Kentucky, Missouri, @ Vandy in the final three weeks of the 2014 season. Chances are they will need to win 2 of these final three and possibly, all of them, to get their six wins to be eligible for the second season!
5. Vanderbilt: The Miracle Worker, James Franklin, has departed for Happy Valley, after winning 18 games in Nashville the past two season a rare occurrence for the Commodores. In fact, in Vandy’s 122 year history of playing football, they had one season, prior to 2012, where they won 9 games. Thanks to Franklin, they now have three! Enter Derek Mason, the Stanford Defensive Coordinator the past four years, his hire is intended to send the clear message that Vandy intends to continue on Franklin path of maintaining high academic standards, while winning football games in the powerful SEC! Mason’s success at Stanford was achieved @ one of the few Division One Universities, that has educational expectations, that match or exceed Vanderbilts. The Commodores return 10 starters, 6 on the offensive side of the ball and 4 on defense. Mason task will be a very difficult one, as he does not have a single offensive player, who is receiving preseason recognition on Phil Steels’s, four deep position chart. On defense, LB, Kyle Woestmann is the sole player to be recognized. Vandy’s non-Conference schedule will help them toward bowl eligibility, as they do not face an opponent from a power conference (Temple, U-Mass, Charleston Southern (FCS), & Old Dominion). Last year the Commodores beat Tennessee, 14-10, Kentucky, 22-6, Florida, 34-17, & Georgia, 31-27. The best one can say is that it will be unlikely for them to repeat that Herculean effort in 2014!
6. Missouri: Last year Missouri had one of the best and clearly, one of the tallest receiver corps in the country, Dorial Green-Beckham, 6’6” , Marcus Lucas 6’5” & L’Damian Washington 6’4”. All three are gone for the 2014, Lucas & Washington to graduation & Green-Beckham was dismissed from the team for multiple violations. The unexpected loss of Beckham was a “sucker punch” that the Tigers will not be able to overcome during the 2014 season. With Texas transfer, WR, Darius White 6’3, coupled with Green-Beckham, MU would have been just fine at Wide Out, now, not so much! QB James Franklin is gone, enter Maty Mauk, again Missouri is fine, as Mauk, aside from his unorthodox throwing motion, will be an effective signal caller. RB, Henry Josey was a remarkable story in 2013, out for the 2012 season with one of the worst knee injuries the team surgeon had ever seen; Josey under went multiple surgeries and was able to return for his final year. HJ rushed for 1207 yards in 2013, quiet a journey & success story. This year, Russell Hansbrough, who rushed for 714 yards last year will be the starter. The O-Line has three starters back led by Center, Evan Boehm and should be able to reproduce last years numbers. The D-Line features, DE, Marcus Golden, the linebackers will look to MLB, Kentrell Brothers for leadership, & the secondary’s best player is Safety, Braylon Webb. Missouri will start the season 3-1, South Dakota State, @ Toledo, Central Florida (a Loss to UCF at home) and Indiana. The Tigers then take a trip to the other Columbia, to face South Carolina and a real difficult beginning to their 2014 SEC season!
7. Kentucky: The Wildcats have gone 4-20 the past two years and their seems to be little relief headed Mark Stoops’ Team’s way. The Cats have currently lost 16 straight games in the vaunted SEC; their last conference win was in 2011, a 10-7 nail-biter against Tennessee, who outgained the UK, 276 to 215, but turned the ball over three times to Kentucky’s none. Kentucky does return 15 starters from a year ago, seven on Offense & eight on defense. The best player on the offensive side of the ball is LT, Darrian Miller, while on defense, the Cats feature, DE’s Alvin DuPree & Za’Darius Smith. UK should go 3-1 in their Non-Conference games (beating UT Martin, Ohio, & ULM), losing to only Louisville in the season finale. To go Bowling this year, kentucky will have to beat Vandy at home and then pull an upset, make that two upsets, within the Might SEC!
Up Next: SEC West Division
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