Tennessee's Resurgence: Good or Bad for South Carolina?
by GwinnettGamecock on Oct 8, 2009 6:14 PM EDT
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Is it in South Carolina's best interest to have a somewhat stronger Tennessee? Ahead of the Bulldogs' visit to Neyland, Michael at Braves and Birds is rethinking his take on the Kiffin regime in Knoxville. Perhaps spurred on by the AJC's Mark Bradley, he fears Kiffin can recruit well enough to potentially unseat Georgia in the East. I disagree, but I think there are reasons Carolina fans should not be disheartened by a small scale Volunteer revival.
A moderately stronger Tennessee that poaches talent from Georgia could be good for South Carolina, provided our staff continues our recent strong recruiting. I believe Spurrier is a slightly better coach than Richt, and I think both are much better than Kiffin. Anything that takes talent away from Richt and gives it to Kiffin is probably a good thing for South Carolina in the long run. As frightening as Eric Berry is, he would be much scarier in Athens than patrolling the defensive backfield for Tennessee.
The danger of Kiffin accumulating too much talent and turning the Vols into a monster is greatly exaggerated. Phil Fulmer was long known as a great recruiter and an average game day coach with one of the best DC's in the country. His greatest five year run coincided with the arrival of an SEC legend at the most important position on the field.
Kiffin seems to be a great recruiter and an average at best game day coach with one of the best DC's in the NFL. Unless you think he is going to bring in another Peyton Manning, his ceiling is likely the same as Fulmer's this decade: eight or nine wins with high side variance to ten and low side to six.
Before Kiffin can do that, he will have to navigate 2009, when the Vols could potentially miss a bowl game again; and 2010, when the program returns substantially fewer starters than Carolina, Florida, and Georgia. As long as Carolina can get a couple wins over the Vols this year and next, our coaches should be able to maintain recruiting classes in the 8-15 range. If so, there's no reason South Carolina should not benefit from Tennessee siphoning off Peach State talent.
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You make a good point about the next two years...
It’s hard to see Kiffin producing a better team than Carolina, Florida, or Georgia in the next two years. By then, will he have already lost the long-term battle? Will the fans stay behind him?
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by Gamecock Man on Oct 8, 2009 9:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Short answer: yes.
It’s pretty well universally-felt up in K’ville that the rebuild won’t be finished until 2011. There will be the usual impatience, of course, but you don’t lose the majority of both your O-line and D-line in the same offseason without some blowback. And those who would be juniors and seniors on the lines in 2010 are scarce; most of them were part of the great vanishing class of 2007.
by Hooper on Oct 29, 2009 8:55 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Is this a trick question?
Is there any other answer than: Bad. Bad. Bad?
UT has historically recruited well in South Carolina, and lights-out in North Carolina (where we’ve made some recent inroads despite Butch Davis taking over at Chapel Hill). A resurgent Vol program is going to be bird-dogging in our backyard.
Even in their reduced (current) condition, UT is going to be a tough-enough nut to crack. Make them one of the BCS heavyweights again, and the “Orange Crush” is going to be that much harder.
Finally, I cannot abide Kiffin’s mouth. He’s accomplished squat except (a) get fired by the craziest man in football (maybe not so crazy after all) and talk a lot of trash.
Let’s hope Georgia brings the wood and takes the Vols behind the shed. Hard.
by tryptic67 on Oct 9, 2009 8:11 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I concur.
I don’t see the advantages of having the Vols around to help us take down UGA outweighing the impact that a resurgent Vols program would have on our own recruiting. USC always plays UGA closely, so if we continue to progress I think we can start to beat UGA on a regualr basis. That alone will help our cause. First we need to take over UT’s position as third best in the SEC, then we can worry about taking out Georgia.
Dum spiro spero - "While I breathe, I hope"
State motto of South Carolina
by The Feathered Warrior on Oct 9, 2009 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
By way of example ...
remember the 2007 game at Knoxville on ESPN? (or ESPN2 I forget). Remember how the Vols had their hoops coaches, Pat Summit and Bruce Pearl, introduce the Vol “O” and the “D”?
In what I still consider a low-rent move, each of them talked up the South Carolinians on the Vol squad. I’ve never seen that done before (and I think I’ve watched enough games, including other random SEC match-ups, to be able to say I think it was way, way unusual). Why would they do it, other than to send a very unsubtle message that the Vols’ – in a state with only mediocre in-state talent – will always be trying to steal our best players? UT needs players from the Carolinas. You can make a decent argument that their downturn is directly related to recruiting woes in their traditional (NC and SC) recruiting beds.
True, some will always want to go out-of-state no matter what and I wish them luck. Sometimes, perhaps it’s best if one of our young recruits does leave (Ryan Bethea leaps to mind). But USC needs the keep the best at home if we realistically want to reach and stay at that elusive “next level”. A successful Kiffin just makes it that much more complicated.
by tryptic67 on Oct 9, 2009 8:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
My reasoning
is that if we can win in Knoxville this year, we should win the following year in Columbia to get a three year streak over the Vols. Our current staff is probably the strongest group of recruiters top to bottom we’ve ever had at Carolina. With a three year winning streak, they should be able to fend off Tennessee inroads into the Carolinas.
Georgia obviously has too much talent for a single program in the first place. While I’d rather see Georgia Tech make the Bulldogs work in their backyard, I think Tennessee has a stronger historical presence in Georgia than in South Carolina, despite the Albert Haynesworths and a few others over the past fifteen years. Kiffin may decide to concentrate on Atlanta rather than cast a wide net over the entire Southeast.
It’s a lot of “ifs”, but there is a possibility that a perceived Volunteer revival would not necessarily be a bad thing for South Carolina, especially if the revival is more in perception than on the field results. Regardless, I hope to see Georgia not just win tomorrow, but put a real curb stomping on the Volunteers.
by GwinnettGamecock on Oct 9, 2009 4:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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