This year it's certainly a case of the haves and have nots.

Honesty Please – SEC East Just Not That Good

By: Larry Burton

Sec fans have become spoiled over the years into thinking that this is the supreme conference in all of college football, but there’s not denying the truth this year, the SEC is down and the East is just not that good.

If Tennessee is truly the best the East has to offer, what does that really say? There is no escaping the fact that is says one thing: The SEC has Alabama and the rest may just not be that good, especially the East.

While the SEC West has teams that are competitive and it remains to be seen just how good Texas A&M is, the truth is, the SEC East is lagging far behind.

Going team by team in the East at this time of the year –

Missouri – 0-3 in the league and 2-4 overall – Blasted by LSU and Florida a team that looks good on offense against Our Lady of the Poor schools and troubled with good teams. Missouri is just lacking a lot talent right now and only great recruiting will help them in the future.

South Carolina – 1-4 in league play and 2-4 overall – Just no talent there, they struggle on offense but at least look competitive at times against lower to mid good teams. If Muschamp can recruit they can get better, but will recruits want to go to school whose coach bounces around as much Muschamp?

Vanderbilt – 1-3 in the league and 3-4 overall – When Vandy beats Georgia it says everything this article is all about. Vandy has a harder time finding touchdowns on offense than a blind driver has finding a parking space. The offense managed one TD on their own and had one courtesy of a long kickoff return to near the goal line the punched in. They do have a great SEC defense, but nobody’s good one sided.

Kentucky – 2-2 in the league and 3-3 overall – It’s taken us four teams to find an SEC East team playing .500 football we still haven’t gotten to a team that will make a bowl game. Remember when the SEC had almost every team in a bowl? Not this year, not by a long shot. If Kentucky wins five games it will be as good as expected.

Georgia – 2-2 in the league and 4-3 overall – Didn’t live up to preseason projections, never got the offense in gear and looked flat in some games they did win. Barely beating Nichols by two points show just how bad the Dogs are this season. At least they should make a bowl appearance.

Tennessee – 2-2 in the league and 5-2 overall – Before the Tide game people wondered if the close comeback wins were the sign of a great team that couldn’t lose or just a lucky team. Alabama answered that question. The bad part is, that if Florida stumbles one more time, everyone will have to watch a repeat of that humiliating loss all over as Tennessee will play Alabama for the SEC Championship. At least they’ll go to decent bowl game since they finish the season with a pushover schedule.

Florida – 3-1 in league play and 5-1 overall – But the one loss was to Tennessee so with the tiebreaker rule in effect, they can’t afford another SEC stumble and with games against Arkansas and LSU on the schedule, that’s very likely. This is a team that is up and down. They barely escape Vandy 13-6 but blast Missouri and Kentucky out of the stadium. Just three teams from the SEC East will make a bowl appearance and Florida is set to be one of them, but with possibly 3 losses in the league and perhaps four overall, it won’t be the ones they were hoping for.

To put it mildly, Arkansas, who is on the bottom half on the SEC West, would be ruling the SEC East if it were on that side of the slate and that’s all you really have to say about the power of the SEC East this season.

Larry has been published in almost every media outlet for college sports and now primarily writes here for Touchdown Alabama. Follow Larry on Twitter for inside thoughts and game time comments at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter

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