ROUNDTABLE: Ranking the strength of SEC East programs
In today's roundtable, Cats Illustrated writers take on a big question.
How would you rank the SEC East's football programs in terms of overall strength?
(This is not a projection of next year's standings. This is an overall health check that takes a lot of things that go into "overall program strength" into account).
Travis Graf: Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, South Carolina, Vanderbilt.
Kirby Smart is doing a fantastic job down in Athens and the Bulldogs will continue to bring in top recruiting classes. Florida always has the talent, now Mullen will bring the program some stability. Kentucky has more talent across the board than they’ve ever had at one point in history and is in uncharted waters when it comes to recruiting. Missouri’s expectations aren’t outlandish and the Tigers hired some new blood this offseason. Jeremy Pruitt is 13-12 over the last two seasons at Tennessee and it the trend continues, they could be looking to start over. Will Muschamp probably has the hottest seat of anyone in the conference and it wouldn’t surprise me if 2020 was his last season. Derek Mason is lucky to be back for another season and he has the least amount of talent to work his way off of it.
Jeff Drummond: I think Georgia would have to be a solid No. 1. That's not going to change in the near future. Florida's due to get back in that spot eventually, but the Gators have to catch up on the recruiting trail. Tennessee appears to be heading back in the right direction. I'd like to place Kentucky above them in the pecking order, but the reality is the Vols keep finding a way to beat the Cats. UK has to settle for No. 4 for now. Round out the East with South Carolina, Missouri, and Vanderbilt at 5-7.
Justin Rowland: Georgia, Florida, Kentucky/Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina, Vanderbilt.
The hardest call for me is whether Kentucky or Tennessee should be third. I think all of the others are pretty clear at this point.
Georgia has been the division's strength and Florida has won 10 games for two consecutive seasons and Dan Mullen has them trending up.
Head to head, Tennessee gets the nod against Kentucky. But Kentucky was 10-3 two seasons ago and UT hasn't had a season like that of late. The 'Cats have a better record overall over the last four years. They're recruiting on a pretty equal plane and Kentucky's situation is more stable, if not stronger. Still, head to head is hard to ignore.