re: which "former glory" SEC team is least likely to ever be relevant again?

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The correct answer is Florida.

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The world and the rant would be a better place if the answer was Florida, but this is highly unrealistic.

For all the shite we give our Gator brethren, it's pretty easily a top 5 job in college football. Top tier talent in state... only SEC team in the state. Well perceived home field and finally starting to invest some dollars in needed facility upgrades. Academics are on the high side of the conference, and proximity to south Georgia/Alabama gives them a really good general "recruiting radius".

My personal opinion is that Mullen will turn out to be more or less a bust as a hire, but the reality is that it clearly doesn't take a long time to turn Florida around with the right coach. There will be more "Urban Meyer" like coaches out there in the future, and if the Gators manage to make that kind of pull, there's not much that anyone can do to prevent them from jumping right back to a huge pain in the arse in the East at a minimum. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe Mullen will be that guy. He's pretty clearly a mediocre recruiter, but if he's a great evaluator, the recruiting rankings may not matter as much. Broadly, they do tend to equate to more success, but individually, less so.



FWIW, the real answer to the question asked is either "no one" or "unknown"... Too many variables to say "ever again" for any team not named Vandy with SEC $$ coming in every year... (Keep in mind that Kentucky was more relevant than they've been in a long time this past season... IIRC they were some pretty piss poor officiating in the aTm game away from going into the UGA game at 9-0.)

But if I take that as more of a "for the foreseeable future" the easiest answer here is Tennessee in the current environment. Less in-state resources, annual matchup with Alabama, general perception right now makes it a hell of an uphill battle, went through an absolute debacle just to get their last coach (and fricked up the 2-3 previous hires depending on what your take on Kiffin is). If Florida turns things around fast under Mullen and Georgia doesn't pull a complete U-turn, life gets awfully hard in Knoxville for Pruitt. This year's schedule is pretty manageable, but they pick up Oklahoma next season, then the SEC West rotation kind of comes back on them shortly after with LSU & A&M rotating back. Until Saban leaves the sidelines in Tuscaloosa, Tennessee is in a pretty unenviable position in the East.

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As soon as Saban retires, Alabama will probably fall back into irrelevancy just like they had been in for their entire history prior to Saban.

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As soon as Saban retires there’s going to be an arms race for Dabo.

He’s gonna win another title with Lawrence and he’ll likely win 1 with DJ.

Dudes gonna have 4 nattys at Clemson. Ahif, Bama keeps waiting and they might not. W able to get Dabo.

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I could have sworn I made that point when I said that 1951 and 1998 were their only undebatable titles.

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I missed it

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While TN state talent is improving as the mid state grows, TN stage talent doesn’t matter as much as most think. Knoxville is close to the Carolinas, VA, and GA. The best TN teams were composed of a ton of out of state guys. We made some bad coaching hires and had a terrible athletic dept. We made what seems to be a good hire as a coach and replaced our AD with a football guy. All sports across the board are improving. We will be fine going forward. Everyone hopes we aren’t, but no one “knows” anything

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Bad Karma. UT might have worked through it but then you go and hire Fulmer again. He promptly kills the deal that would brought Leach, who was the best bet.

Congratulations

This thread is a testament to the concept that a lot of people on this message board think they're smarter than they really are.

Yes absolutely. I totally consider the fact that we may never be good again. It’s very possible. But I don’t think it will happen based on a number of factors. And no one knows for sure.

Leach has won divisional titles in the Big 12 and PAC 12 and won 7 bowl games.

Pruitt's only experience as head coach has been in high school.

I don't think there is any doubt that Leach would have won more and won quicker than Pruitt. If he washed out, he'd have done so with more victories than Pruitt will have.

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Bammers

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Phan is that you?

excellent analysis, the big knock on Mullen is that he's a lazy recruiter

more good news for us?

Yes. You used to get those athletes from wherever you wanted. You don’t any more because you don’t offer kids anything else that they can’t get at any other place in the SEC. Tennessee used to very seldomly lose out on recruits to state, Ole Miss, South Carolina, etc.....Nowadays when that happens no one bats an eye. The SEC explosion of money and tv for everyone has made the “have nots” catch up to “the haves” as much as possible in our conference. Yes, the bigger schools still have a lot more money, but there is only so much you can spend that money on until you get diminished returns. For Tennessee to get dominant again they would have to make the next Nick Saban type hire and they don’t have any better of a chance at doing that than 20 other schools in the country. Georgia is in a hugely populated area and can sign a top ten class without leaving their back yard almost. Texas A&M has a shite ton of talent in their state. Same with Florida. Tennessee just does not have that national allure to pull kids away from their footprint like they used to and it would take that for them to be dominant again.