The hype in the SEC East this year originates from Athens, Georgia, where the Bulldogs have a moment of great opportunity ahead of them. However, with opportunity also comes pressure. Georgia has not won the SEC East since 2012, and it has not won the SEC championship since 2005. That’s a very long championship drought for a school which takes its football very seriously.
The central drama of the SEC East season is highly likely to occur where it often does: in Jacksonville, where Georgia and Florida stage their neutral-site rivalry game each year. The game occurs at the end of October, when two-thirds of the season have run their course. Florida has played its toughest SEC games by then, while Georgia’s only hugely difficult SEC game following the Florida contest is the annual November game against Auburn. Florida-Georgia and Auburn-Georgia figure to loom large again this season, and the expectation in Athens is that the beloved Dawgs will finally break through… but will they?
Here are more notes on the 2017 SEC East
Odds:
Vanderbilt +10,000
Missouri +2,500
Kentucky +2,000
South Carolina +2,000
Tennessee +300
Georgia +150
Florida +125
Team On The Rise:
The Georgia Bulldogs will be better than last year’s mediocre team, but will they be good enough to win the division? They have so many important pieces: a veteran offensive line, a tandem of stud running backs – Nick Chubb and Sony Michel – and a generally cohesive roster with ample experience. The big key – and the big unknown – is sophomore quarterback Jacob Eason. If he is great, Georgia can have a monster year. If he struggles the way he did as a freshman in 2016, Georgia will fall short of its goals. Eason will likely be somewhere in between, which means his central goal is to be great in the most important moments of his team’s season, and that’s something we cannot know until the lights go on and the pressure rises.
Team In Decline:
The Tennessee Volunteers had their chance last season. Butch Jones is a great recruiter, but he needed to manage to make his talent mesh on the field. Josh Dobbs was an ultra-fast and highly talented quarterback. Alvin Kamara and others provided blazing speed at the skill positions. Derek Barnett was a demon as a pass rusher, a terror for opposing quarterbacks and offensive coordinators. The Vols toted a lot of high-end NFL talent. They were supposed to be in position to win the SEC East, especially since they hosted a Florida team beset by injuries at quarterback. Tennessee even beat Florida AND Georgia, giving itself a stranglehold on the division. Yet, the Vols lost down the stretch to South Carolina and Vanderbilt, teams they easily should have handled. The team came apart – injuries played a role, but Dobbs was always healthy at quarterback. The offense simply didn’t do its job against South Carolina. The Vanderbilt loss was marked by a complete defensive collapse. The Vols blew their shot. Now Dobbs, Kamara, Barnett and other stars are gone, and the Vols are nowhere near as talented as they were in 2016. It will be very hard for them to win more than eight games this season.
Hot Seat:
Butch Jones of Tennessee, for all the reasons mentioned above. Tennessee did not pay Jones to finish second or third in the SEC East unless he was winning 10 games and Florida was winning 12. Florida has not been a dominant team the past few years, but the Gators have managed to win the East because everyone else has been worse… including Tennessee. Jones needs a big season, but he is not in a position to deliver it.
Outlook
This race should be close as the betting lines indicate. The Gators might be favored but the Georgia Bulldogs are right there. The Vols seem like they’re a step behind and to be honest, if they couldn’t get the job done last year, it’s hard to see them doing it this year. They have less developed talent.
Go with the Gators on this prop. They’ll win the East this year.
Prediction: Florida to win the SEC East
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