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For the SEC East to rebound, Tennessee and Florida have to return to elite
By Drew Laing
Published:
Another year, another season in the SEC where the superior West division overshadows a mediocre East division.
The SEC is largely considered the best conference in college football, but many of the better teams have resided in the SEC West for quite some time now, leading to a rather large discrepancy between the conference’s two divisions.
It wasn’t always like this, however.
Just two decades ago, the discrepancy was flipped. The SEC East featured three top programs — Florida, Georgia and Tennessee — all competing for SEC and national championships seemingly every year. Although the current landscape has six or even seven quality teams in the SEC West, those three SEC East teams were so dominant back then that it didn’t matter what the rest of the division looked like.
Since then, the SEC East has become the little brother in the conference with the SEC West featuring four of the top six teams in the CFP rankings at one point this season.
Of course, the main reason for the SEC East’s demise has been the decline of two of its former headliners — Florida and Tennessee. As recently as 2009, the Gators were on the verge of a dynasty under Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow, but the departure of both significantly set the program back. With the exception of 2012, the four seasons since 2010 have featured two seven-win seasons and a 4-8 record in 2013.
For the Vols, it was the departure of head coach Lane Kiffin after just one season that seemed to put Tennessee’s demise into motion. Kiffin’s charisma led to a lot of recruiting momentum for the Vols, but the subsequent hiring of Derek Dooley all but erased any momentum Tennessee had and the Vols suffered three consecutive losing seasons under Dooley.
Outside of Florida and Tennessee, Georgia has remained at the top of the division, but rather inconsistent. The ‘Dawgs, despite having some of the best talent in the conference, fail to get through their season without a bad loss or two. South Carolina had a few good seasons, Missouri is beginning to establish itself, Kentucky is improving and Vanderbilt has fallen back to the bottom.
But for the SEC East to regain it’s place in college football, it’s clear that Florida and Tennessee must return to their once proud positions atop the SEC.
Fortunately for the SEC East, both teams are in position to make improvements in 2015.
Tennessee seems the most likely out of the two to make the largest step forward next season. With its first winning season since 2009, the Vols emerged as a dark-horse team for 2015 behind the play of a rising quarterback Joshua Dobbs and the impact from several key players who are just freshmen or sophomores.
Head coach Butch Jones has assembled talented recruiting classes during his time at Tennessee and is on the verge of putting together a top-five class in Knoxville. While the Vols haven’t returned to their former glory of the 90s and early 2000s, they certainly are bringing in the right kind of talent to do so in the next few seasons.
Add in a favorable schedule in 2015 and the Vols could realistically contend next season as they attempt to complete a turnaround from one of the more dramatic falls from success in college football.
The Gators, on the other hand, have always had the talent, but poor coaching has severely limited the potential of its recent teams, which is why Florida brought in Jim McElwain to help the Gators rise back to the top.
Muschamp was never a poor recruiter while at Florida, bringing in three consecutive top-10 classes from 2012-2014. Yet, all the Gators have to show for it is a 29-22 overall record during Muschamp’s four-year tenure at Florida.
Because coaching changes are rarely a quick fix for a program, the Gators likely won’t be real contenders until 2016. They have the talent on defense, but until McElwain is able to get as few recruiting classes under his belt and bring in the type of offensive players he wants, it might be a slower turnaround process for the orange and blue.
But rest assured, no matter what South Carolina, Missouri and Kentucky do in the next few seasons, the SEC East truly won’t be able to reclaim its position atop the conference until the Gators and Vols do the same.
As great as it having programs like South Carolina or Missouri competing for division titles and contributing to the parity within the SEC East, they simply can’t compete with tradition and past success of Florida and Tennessee.
Both programs are crucial to the division’s success and respectability within the conference and the rest of college football and until they return back to elite, we won’t see either increase in the SEC’s inferior division.
Drew Laing will be providing analysis and insight on Florida, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina.
