a wild and crazy season
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:33 am
It has been a wild year in college football and the SEC has not been much different. Kentucky loses to South Carolina and then beats then-No. 1 LSU. Florida loses to Auburn and LSU and then wins at Kentucky. Auburn loses to Mississippi State. Vanderbilt wins at South Carolina. It's been a crazy season and as the conference race comes down to the wire it should be even more exciting.
"Everybody has good quarterbacks," said Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer. "The open sets and the passing game or in some cases the option or the quarterback running the football has made people defend the field a lot more. The speed that's in the conference and a lot of teams have cycled up to having good football teams. Every team can beat every team. It's a credit to the programs that have put themselves in that mix."
The Volunteers have dealt with their fair share of wild adventures this season. Florida throttled Tennessee, 59-20, in September but the Volunteers handled Georgia and Mississippi State to take the lead in the SEC East. If they would have won out, they would have headed to Atlanta. But a trip to Tuscaloosa proved too much as Alabama beat Tennessee, 41-17, last weekend.
Florida, Georgia and Tennessee have been the traditional powerhouses in the East. South Carolina is emerging and Kentucky is having one of the best seasons in its history. Vanderbilt is a threat, too, after beating South Carolina last week. The Commodores lost by three points to Georgia two weeks ago.
"It was a great league when I was in it before," said Alabama coach Nick Saban, who previously coached at LSU. "The league has continued to improve. There are more good teams now. Just about every game you play is a game you can win or lose. There are eight or nine teams in the league that are not much dissimilar in terms of who they have and what they have."
Said Arkansas coach Houston Nutt: "This is our 10th year here and from the first year on it was a very fast and physical league. It was easy to see why the SEC had so many draft choices. The last four years you see Vanderbilt, Kentucky, every game you play you can't circle a 'W' and say that's a victory.
"I don't care who you are in this league. It's two chin straps that need to be buckled. Anyone can get beat anyone. Everyone got better. Everyone's worked harder in recruiting. Not all 12 can win this thing."
Florida will do its best and with Tennessee's loss to Alabama, the Gators are in the driver's seat to win the SEC East and return to Atlanta to play for the conference championship. Wins over Georgia, Vanderbilt and South Carolina are needed for Florida to accomplish that feat.
It starts at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Jacksonville when Florida and Georgia tangle in the annual rivalry. Georgia coach Mark Richt called sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow a 'freak of nature' on a teleconference earlier this week. On Wednesday, he talked about how difficult sophomore wide receiver Percy Harvin is to stop.
"He's a great player," Richt said. "I don't think there's any doubt. He's very versatile. Some receivers are great at taking a screen and doing something with it. Some guys can go get the deep ball. Some guys are mid-range or intermediate guys.
"He can do all three of those things. And then he can run the ball. He's a mismatch problem for anybody who tries to cover him one-on-one. His abilities are the reason why he's getting a lot of action, a lot of carries and a lot of balls thrown to him."
More SEC coaches quotes
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier on his team's offense against Vanderbilt: "We had one of the worst offensive games I ever coached in college. I had some lousy ones. We didn't do much. Vanderbilt played well. They have the third best defense in the SEC right now. We had a bunch of false starts and sacks and couldn't hit guys when they were open. Tennessee has not played as well defensively as they thought they would this year but they're very capable and have a big, strong front seven. We know it's going to be a struggle."
Richt on comparing Tebow and Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford: "They're doing the things you thought they'd do when you saw them in high school. You could easily predict how Tim Tebow would be used especially when he committed to Florida. Stafford is playing the role we recruited him for.
"Both guys got to play as freshmen. Timmy got a chance to play a good bit every game and was an integral part in winning the national championship. Both have similar records right now and both are very, very valuable and keys to the success of their teams. We got involved in the recruitment of Tim. We were trying to get Tim. We were trying to get Stafford we were working on (Mitch) Mustain like everybody else. There was a connection with Stafford that we had a little more. Tim was from Florida and I think they were Gators fans. Stafford was a big Florida State guy his mom and dad went to Florida State. His dad went to grad school at Georgia."
"Everybody has good quarterbacks," said Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer. "The open sets and the passing game or in some cases the option or the quarterback running the football has made people defend the field a lot more. The speed that's in the conference and a lot of teams have cycled up to having good football teams. Every team can beat every team. It's a credit to the programs that have put themselves in that mix."
The Volunteers have dealt with their fair share of wild adventures this season. Florida throttled Tennessee, 59-20, in September but the Volunteers handled Georgia and Mississippi State to take the lead in the SEC East. If they would have won out, they would have headed to Atlanta. But a trip to Tuscaloosa proved too much as Alabama beat Tennessee, 41-17, last weekend.
Florida, Georgia and Tennessee have been the traditional powerhouses in the East. South Carolina is emerging and Kentucky is having one of the best seasons in its history. Vanderbilt is a threat, too, after beating South Carolina last week. The Commodores lost by three points to Georgia two weeks ago.
"It was a great league when I was in it before," said Alabama coach Nick Saban, who previously coached at LSU. "The league has continued to improve. There are more good teams now. Just about every game you play is a game you can win or lose. There are eight or nine teams in the league that are not much dissimilar in terms of who they have and what they have."
Said Arkansas coach Houston Nutt: "This is our 10th year here and from the first year on it was a very fast and physical league. It was easy to see why the SEC had so many draft choices. The last four years you see Vanderbilt, Kentucky, every game you play you can't circle a 'W' and say that's a victory.
"I don't care who you are in this league. It's two chin straps that need to be buckled. Anyone can get beat anyone. Everyone got better. Everyone's worked harder in recruiting. Not all 12 can win this thing."
Florida will do its best and with Tennessee's loss to Alabama, the Gators are in the driver's seat to win the SEC East and return to Atlanta to play for the conference championship. Wins over Georgia, Vanderbilt and South Carolina are needed for Florida to accomplish that feat.
It starts at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Jacksonville when Florida and Georgia tangle in the annual rivalry. Georgia coach Mark Richt called sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow a 'freak of nature' on a teleconference earlier this week. On Wednesday, he talked about how difficult sophomore wide receiver Percy Harvin is to stop.
"He's a great player," Richt said. "I don't think there's any doubt. He's very versatile. Some receivers are great at taking a screen and doing something with it. Some guys can go get the deep ball. Some guys are mid-range or intermediate guys.
"He can do all three of those things. And then he can run the ball. He's a mismatch problem for anybody who tries to cover him one-on-one. His abilities are the reason why he's getting a lot of action, a lot of carries and a lot of balls thrown to him."
More SEC coaches quotes
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier on his team's offense against Vanderbilt: "We had one of the worst offensive games I ever coached in college. I had some lousy ones. We didn't do much. Vanderbilt played well. They have the third best defense in the SEC right now. We had a bunch of false starts and sacks and couldn't hit guys when they were open. Tennessee has not played as well defensively as they thought they would this year but they're very capable and have a big, strong front seven. We know it's going to be a struggle."
Richt on comparing Tebow and Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford: "They're doing the things you thought they'd do when you saw them in high school. You could easily predict how Tim Tebow would be used especially when he committed to Florida. Stafford is playing the role we recruited him for.
"Both guys got to play as freshmen. Timmy got a chance to play a good bit every game and was an integral part in winning the national championship. Both have similar records right now and both are very, very valuable and keys to the success of their teams. We got involved in the recruitment of Tim. We were trying to get Tim. We were trying to get Stafford we were working on (Mitch) Mustain like everybody else. There was a connection with Stafford that we had a little more. Tim was from Florida and I think they were Gators fans. Stafford was a big Florida State guy his mom and dad went to Florida State. His dad went to grad school at Georgia."