Quick Hitch . . .  

I have been accused of hating on the SEC on this blog, largely because I feel that Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee are all overrated this year. Well my response is twofold:

First, if you would bother to read the entirety of this blog, you will see that I have quite a bit of respect for several SEC teams. In fact, I predicted Auburn to win the national championship. Further, on several occasions I have stated that both Florida and LSU boast some of the best talent in the entire country, and that I think Georgia will be the 2007 preseason #1. I have also listed Arkansas as one of my most underrated teams. Overall, I think the SEC is an incredibly strong conference with a ton of talent.

Second, if you read the posts the reason I think teams like Georgia and Florida are overrated is because of how hard their schedule is (ipso facto - how strong the SEC is as a whole). It's not that I think those teams are bad, but it is that I believe they have too many difficult away games to go undefeated, and thus they are being overrated as legitimate national title contenders. Espcially when viewed in the light of contenders from other conferences who do not have nearly as hard a path to the BCS title game (e.g. Texas, Ohio State). The only reason I like Auburn so much is because they get an incredible schedule break getting Florida, Georgia and LSU at home. The SEC is so strong this year that it will work against the conference because it is going to be so difficult for any single team to emerge undefeated.

All that said, I will admit it.......I just don't like Tennessee. I don't like Phil Fullmer, and I find him drab, unimaginative, and believe that he consistently gets outcoached by the stable of masterminds in the SEC (Spurrier, Meyer, Richt, Tubberville, Miles). I don't think Erik Ainge is the answer at QB. Despite his great freshman season he has never improved and the talent around him has gotten worse. His situation is almost identical to that of former Notre Dame QB Ron Powlus. I think Tennessee would be wise to dump Fullmer and go after some of the other coaching names on the market. Imagine what someone like Butch Davis or Bobby Petrino could do with the talent Fullmer has had.