Groo has some thoughts about our ‘Cocky neighbors in response to a post of mine about the recruiting gap between Georgia and the rest of the division. It’s a good analysis and worth a read, but I confess the main reason I mention it now is because it gives me another excuse to post this.
That never gets old.
Get The Picture 
There have never been two more polar opposites than our attitude going into the South Carolina game and our attitude going into the Sugar Bowl.
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If Kirby could bottle whatever he said and did before the USCjr game, I’m not sure we would ever lose.
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People focus on the SEC West and sometimes forget how difficult the SEC East really is. The current top team, Georgia, is functionally about at parity with Bama (we’ve seen that in head to head battles the past 2seasons). Florida won 10 games last year and if you go back a few years was a national powerhouse that won 2 national championships in the first decade of the new millennium. Tennessee is another former national brand that won a national championship shortly before the new millennium. Missouri came into the SEC from the Big 12 where the Tigers won their division roughly every other year. Kentucky was one of the bottom 2 teams historically but has. been to bowl games multiple years in a row and last year won 10 games, being highly ranked for most of the season. Vanderbilt has been the bottom team historically in the SEC East but also has shown competitiveness in recent years. Where does South Carolina fit into this scheme? A perennial loser the Gamecocks’ expectations increased dramatically under Steve Spurrier. The Cocks did manage to win one SEC East title in a year when Georgia, Florida and UT all had off years. But other then that, no championships. The most wins in school history is 11 and that happened 3 consecutive years under SOS but now he is gone. Replacing him is Boom who appears to be doing at least a decent job for that program considering it’s history. I’m saying that SC is closer to the bottom than the top in the SEC East. UK has improved and it is at the Cocks’ expense. If UT improves it will be at the Cocks’ expense. Mizzou has a better track record than SC historically. Looks to me that South Carolina will be battling Vandy to stay out of the cellar in the future. Sorry Boom, but reality can be a bitch.
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Are the fussiliers playing SANDSTORM in the background? Or are they just hollering “BOOOOOOOOM, MOTHER******S!” as the shots are fired?
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The whole SEC E should be getting fat off of the swan-dive the ACC has taken in college football prominence Except for Clemson, the whole ACC is worse than mediocre. An offer from South Carolina should trump an offer from most ACC schools.
Tennessee has no real recruiting base. I think they will eventually settle (“rise to” might be a better way to describe it) the middle of the east..but their forays into the top will be uncommon. Like Kentucky.
The state of Tennessee produces little talent compared to the rest of the southeastern US. I think most of those kids come from Nashville to Memphis…and that western part of TN is boarderd by Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky. That represents 7 SEC schools on their borders, with UGA on their SE border. throw in Vandy sitting in the middle of the state and you can see that any kid that bluechippers in Tennessee have a lot of options.
Yes, Georgia is also surrounded, but has a very deep well of talent and also has been doing well going into Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi and even Louisiana for top kids recently. That’s what winning does for you.
This is why it’s so urgent for Tennessee to try and preserve their false image as a great football powerhouse school. It’s been a long time since they were pertinent and kids don’t see them in the light of awesomeness that the aging fanbase does. The glory has faded. They need to win big soon. I don’t think they will, though.
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Jabari Davis would disagree…
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Tennessee built their success by raiding Georgia. As long as Saban and Kirby are running the programs to their south, Tennessee will remain mid tier and irrelevant
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SC failed to reach their dreams with back-to-back Hall of Fame coaches. The future looks even dimmer when you look at where UGA and Clemson are and how they appeal to regional recruits. Even UNC may shut down some migration of recruits from NC, further isolating Columbia. If SC were a stock, I would be buying Puts on it.
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The problem for Tennessee is that even with their #12 recruiting ranking, they are 7th in the SEC and looking way up at Georgia and barely on par with Florida.
The fact they have to play Bama every year puts 1 loss immediately on the board. All of this is the reason why I believe Florida and Tennessee are going to vote with the other 9 schools to eliminate the permanent cross-division opponent sooner rather than later.
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Senator, I propose that gif be used at least once per quarter, or even monthly.
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Agent Muschamp is doing excellent work in Columbia. His work in Gainesville was better than we could have hoped and is still paying dividends. Another two years and his work should be complete at South Carolina and he will be free to take over the head coaching job at another program and do his evil work there.
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Agent Muschamp was doing well in Columbia but efforts needed to be increased. That was the reason for the deployment of Agent McClendon. Soon the work there will be done.
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You are forgetting that they just hired Agent Brown to coach their RBs.
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Since the article is based on Rivals’ team rankings, perhaps USC can sign Blake Carringer.
Seriously, I’ve been cognizant of USC for over 50 years and never have I seen a more delusional bunch of fans. Every year they talk big but very seldom do they come close to delivering.
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