The SEC East heavyweights can’t overlook Tennessee any longer.
Georgia football and Tennessee football are two programs that need to be good in the SEC East.
Along with the Florida Gators, those three teams make up the blue-blood programs in the division. All things equal, one of those three programs should be representing their division in the SEC Championship annually. However, we’ve rarely had all three programs humming in the SEC at the same time.
Georgia was down in the 1990s, not becoming a viable threat in the conference until Mark Richt arrived in 2001. The Dawgs won their division a third of the time Richt was in Athens, but his 15-year run was unfortunately marred by disappointment and several down years in the second half of his stint. Kirby Smart has come in and won the SEC East in each of the last three years.
Florida dominated the SEC East in its infancy with the head ball coach Steve Spurrier at his alma mater. Once he took his visor to the NFL in 2002, Florida got weird there for a few years under Ron Zook. The Urban Meyer run was great but short-lived. The 2010s were not kind to the Gators, but they did win the East twice under Jim McElwain and they’re trending up under Dan Mullen in 2020.
Then, there’s Tennessee…
The Vols were strong in the 1990s and 2000s under Phillip Fulmer. However, his departure after the 2008 campaign rendering Rocky Top into the SEC’s biggest big top circus for a decade. From Lane Kiffin to Derek Dooley to Butch Jones, it was a clown show. But with Fulmer back as athletic director he seems to have made a great hire in Jeremy Pruitt to lead the Vols back on top.
Should Georgia and Florida start taking Tennessee football seriously in 2020?
Let’s hope so because Tennessee is coming together under their head coach. Pruitt overcame a dreadful start to get the Vols bowl eligible and winning on the recruiting trails. Tennessee may only be the third or fourth-best team in the SEC East, depending on how you classify Mark Stoops’ Kentucky Wildcats, but they’re certainly not a pushover anymore.
Since Fulmer was let go as head coach, Georgia has won eight of the last 11 meetings since 2009. This has allowed the all-time series lead to be ever so slightly in Georgia’s favor at 24-23-2. Keep in mind Georgia and Tennessee rarely played before 1992’s SEC realignment to include the Arkansas Razorbacks and the South Carolina Gamecocks to the conference.
The reason Georgia won’t overlook Tennessee is that Smart won’t allow that to happen. He and Pruitt both stem from the Nick Saban coaching tree while with the Alabama Crimson Tide. Both are adept defensive back coaches. In fact, Pruitt left Georgia in 2016 to replace Smart at Alabama as defensive coordinator once Smart was hired to replace Richt at his alma mater.
The reason Florida won’t overlook Tennessee is this annual rivalry game is a tone-setter for the season. It’s usually the first game of SEC play for both schools. Whoever drops this game usually finds itself in quite the hole in September, desperately trying to claw its way out. Keep in mind Florida has to make the trek to Knoxville this year, which will be the Gators’ toughest road game.
Eventually, Tennessee will start to separate from its SEC East division rival Kentucky. That rivalry will be fantastic now that both programs are trending in the right direction. Stoops is a phenomenal coach and an outstanding recruiter, as he is crushing it in Big Ten country by getting kids who want to play some SEC football. However, Kentucky has its upper limits as a program.
Maybe one day Big Blue Nation shocks us all and wins the SEC East for the first time ever? It would be about as big of a deal at Pat Fitzgerald winning the Big Ten West at his alma mater with the Northwestern Wildcats. It should never happen, but Stoops has done unbelievable things in his time leading the ‘Cats.
While Tennessee doesn’t have the in-state recruiting base of a Georgia or a Florida, Pruitt has the recruiting chops to dominate the Volunteer State’s hotbed in Memphis, as well as recruit regionally and nationally. If he can do what Fulmer did in his coaching prime, Tennessee can contend for SEC Championships and national titles at some future date.
It may not happen this year, but it will happen eventually. There will be a game where Pruitt’s Vols get the best of Smart’s Dawgs, whether that be Between the Hedges or along the Banks of the Cumberland. Georgia is not going to rattle off an Alabama-level winning streak over Tennessee. It’s at three now, but we’re not getting to 10. Fulmer, and Pruitt, won’t allow that to happen.
Georgia and Florida are the better programs today, but they better not dismiss the Vols any longer as they have in the past. This is the beginning of a new era of Tennessee football.
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