Quote:
Originally Posted by Best22
I'm not sure about Clemson. That was always a great job. Surrounded by talent, solid tradition, rabid fanbase, pure football school.
I think we're more like South Carolina. Potential yet to be fully realized
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And I'm not sure why I'm supposed to be worried about some sleeping giant that is Tennessee football.
That fanbase has always believed that program is better than it is. It isn't as though TN is a hotbed of football talent or anything. Johnny Majors was essentially their version of Gary Pinkel; good coach for a long time that never quite got over the hump. He made them relevant again much in the same way that Pinkel finally pushed Mizzou past the ignominy of the Widenhofer/Stull years.
And then Fulmer came along, continued a similar trend but won that one key game that Pinkel couldn't win (damn you, Oklahoma...) that built on what Majors accomplished before him.
Tennessee has no cause to be considered obviously better than Missouri, regardless of what their fans or the pundits think.
Florida can make that claim but they're dealing with so much competition for FL kids that it makes it pretty hard for them to stay on top for any appreciable period of time as well. With Florida State always being FSU and Miami constantly lurking in the shadows, not to mention the fact that everyone in the SEC makes it a goal to poach from FL, I'm not going to just concede that FL should be a perennial powerhouse.
Georgia scares me more than either of those 2. GA has a great talent base and far less competition from in-school powers for them. If UGA got the right coach (and they might have him), they could be set up for some pretty long-term domination due to legitimate logistical advantages they have.
Mizzou could be considered on par with South Carolina if you wanted to go that route, sure. But they have the ability to go toe to toe with TN.