Some final thoughts before our first game

Amongst the observations I had while Tennessee struggled to beat a faaaarrrrr inferior opponent was, “Maybe a year does not change much of anything and maybe things do not magically improve.” According to the telecast, Tennessee brought back 17 of their starters from last year.

They won 9 games, right? Lost no one. A whole 'nother year has got to be worth like 1 or 2 more wins, right?

And BTW, I think it is entirely premature to say Tennessee sucks. I mean, they sucked last night. But was anyone claiming that Tennessee was going to win a national title this year? I think people just assumed that you win 9 games a year ago, you bring most everyone back, you cannot possibly do worse, right?

And now some people are saying maybe they could do worse. Maybe a 9-4 record was the absolute, top-of-the-f@*king ceiling? While a game does not prove anything, it absolutely made people reconsider the logic that teams are like plants that just need good soil, sunlight and fresh water to grow and grow and grow.

And Florida fans are kinda doing the same thing with our team, right? Our kicking game was the problem. Our quarterbacking game was the problem. Those areas got improved. Opponents achieved higher score differentials in second half of games because our defense was so tired. We have more weapons on offense, so maybe they stay rested? Another SEC East Championship then, maybe?

I did compare Grier to Harris earlier this year and did not poast it because the statistics were far from conclusive. Yeah, Grier had some explosive plays and his way stronger arm translated to a higher pass-route vocabulary....

...but, we still had drives that went 20 yards and stopped, 35 yards and stopped, 40 yards and stopped. Even when Grier was on fire, our offense was still aggregately weak. Look for yourself. He dominated Kentucky to 14 points. The same Kentucky team that gave up, on average, 27 points to every other team on their schedule.

So yeah, it is going to take multiple recruiting cycles to clean that up. This team is not going to bump our 23 PPG average to a 30+ PPG average. We are not a full touchdown better than last year. I would be delighted if we were 5-6 points better because it means we would be improving.

But Eddie Pinero, right? Absolutely. I am stoked to have that guy on our team, just for the peace of mind that we can score from the redzone even if we get stopped. And I want to end my thought right there, but I need to add some perspective, we only had three games last season that were decided by 5 points or less aaaand we won all those games. So if you are looking to improve our record based on a 4th-quarter field goal, we already won all our close games with the crap we had last year.

So we are back to generic speculating like all the other fans at all the other schools.

Blah blah blah pyschology. Blah blah blah momentum.

But I cannot help but feel that an SEC East Championship is more likely. I watched three SEC East teams on Thursday and, if they had on different uniforms, I would have probably said things like, “I hate these Conference USA games mucking up Thursdays.” or “An SEC offensive line would mow through those undersized, little beatles..”

And yet, there I was, watching one of our future opponents struggle to push a 230 lbs DL (actual weight) off the ball. That's not a misprint. Appalachian State's defensive line averages less than 250 lbs. That's like the average weight of a woman from Tennessee.

Then there is Georgia, who was legitimately going to start a true freshmen QB before everyone made a big deal about it. And Georgia is getting the benefit of the doubt because of Kirby... who is still a first-year head coach and does not have the 5-star recruits that he was accustomed to at Alabama.

Those right there are the only two teams we have to worry about. Seriously. Mushcock ain't gonna do crap and how good can Vandy be if they can choke against Mushcock?

And I return to my thought, “Maybe a year does not change much of anything.” Maybe the SEC East is having another down year? Maybe the Gators can, again, capitalize, but this time with a slightly more improved offensive and a slightly worse defense. Teams tend to look good when other teams suck.

And maybe we will have some good surprises along the way. Isn't the second year the year where teams get the most improved? Nevermind, I am doing that hype thing again.

Final Prediction: 11-3

I see us beating Tennessee, Georgia and LSU (home)