McElwain’s third team at Colorado State exploded, meaning the same sort of leap could be in play for the Gators come September.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ook-college-football-florida-gators/97851138/
Florida has LSU and Georgia does not. I think Georgia wins the East
if they can beat Florida. The East should be wide open this year. I am going with Georgia just because of the LSU game. I have Florida in my Top Ten.
So then......you have both UGA AND UF in your top ten?
Florida managed to beat LSU on the road last year in a game most folks here kept saying they were trying to avoid because they were skeered.
Georgia's biggest asset is they're returning 17 starters. They were 8-5, but they were three plays away from being 10-2. Of course - to be fair - they were also four plays from being 3-9, too. UGA last year walked that 2011 Auburn tightrope and wound up pretty much the same. Kirby Smart has yet to impress anyone as a head coach - and let's be honest, if Pettway plays for Auburn, the Bulldogs probably lose that game (their sole TD was a pick six early in the second half). Auburn's leading receiver in that game was Georgia's Maurice Smith, who had 34 yards on the pick six while Auburn only passed for 37 yards the entire game.
I'm by no means saying Kirby will not eventually be a good or even possibly great head coach but last year at UGA confirmed my repeatedly stated opinion that an elite SEC program is NOT the place for your FIRST head coaching gig. Name me any above average coach in the SEC since 1970 and it's nearly 100% that the guy was a head coach elsewhere first (the one notable exception I'll grant is Mark Richt....okay, Phil Fulmer). Saban, Meyer, Miles, Spurrier, Dye, Bryant. And I would point out in the cases of Richt, Fulmer, and even Vince Dooley that they were average head coaches at best pushed into the 'above average' realm by a really good 3-4 year stretch where they fielded top five teams. Dooley's entire reputation was made out of the Herschel Walker years, and I'd argue that Fulmer's was made out of the Peyton Manning era and two years when Ron Zook was at Florida, and Richt had the good fortune to arrive at UGA just as Spurrier was leaving.
I say all that to say that UGA has given me no reason and Smart has given me no reason to see them as a top ten team next year. Their biggest asset is that they return 17 starters, most in the SEC. Of course, Tennessee and LSU returned 17 starters as most in the SEC in 2016 - LSU's coach got fired in September and Tennessee's is in line to get canned this year. Most years Alabama returns the fewest or second fewest starters in the SEC but winds up going to the playoff.
ALABAMA RETURNING STARTERS
2017: 11
2016: 11
2015: 12
2014: 12 (MSU led the conference and this was the year they went to #1; but Kentucky brought back just as many and I don't recall them being a top five team)
Thus, the reasoning behind why UGA would be considered good seems to be, "Returns 17 starters from a five-loss team," but I don't know if that's a strong argument. Just looking at Georgia's schedule, Coach Saban could take the team they have RIGHT NOW and go unbeaten through the regular season with them.
I'm hoping for Coach Smart's success, but I won't be surprised if he's the next Gene Chizik, either....a talented DC who cannot serve as head coach.