There has been a lot of dust kicked up in the SEC as far as this coaching staff that Lane Kiffen is putting together at Tennessee. I posted this thought on another site and just wanted to get an opinion base on GatorsFirst.

UT is a sleeping Giant, I hate them as much as any of us do.....I would love to see them stay down for years. Facts are they won't stay down forever. Ifs and Buts are all they really have to their impressive staff (on paper).

talent is on that Tennessee team....Eric Berry is a star in the making. I think their D is going to be pretty solid and if they can bring in a(scale of 1 to 10) 7 quarterback, they are going to rebound form last year.

Their fans complained that their coaches and recruitment process had become stagnent. Well they have "flushed the pipes" in knoxville. Their is going to be a different message and direction taken, that we haven't seen form them in a very long time. It makes them more dangerous because we don't know whats going to happen......an ever watchful eye will have to be kept on K-town

I wouldn't expect them to be down for long. They have good history, and Fulmer built that program to be able to recruit well, regardless of the coach. Orgeron is a great recruiter, despite his vocabulary being limited to "Yo, yo, yo, yo, FOOTBALL". I'm still not sold on Kiffin, but the rest of his staff looks legit.

I think they are a solid program, and certainly should be around the top 15 nationally... but to think their rightful 'place' is anywhere near the annual top 5 finishes of the mid to late 90s if folly. They should never have years like last year, or a couple years back. Congrats on making all these coaching hires, UT... you should be back to second place in the East in no time. That is if you can pass Georgia. As even Richt is more proven their your coaching staff.

UT is only considered a 'rival' because of SOS, and because of the divisional play. In reality, they are probably struggling to be a top 5 rival. I can think of many prominent schools that don't even have 5 rivals.

i agree with you goose....but i live about an hour outside of Knoxville. Thats all i hear about on the radio, television, and conversation with the Vols fans that surround me. Bringing this up in a site amongst Gatorfans gives me ammunition to use against them.

I re-read my post and realized I came off a little harsh. Let me try to clarify some things.

But really, taking into account the in-state talent of Florida and Georgia, and despite the 'cyclical nature' of sports, especially college football... if every program was going along like 'it should'... shouldn't UF and UGA be ahead of UT each year?

As far as ranking our rivals, I put UT pretty low. Like around the LSU/Miami level. UGA is #1, easily. Then I rank FSU, and give a shout to our history and include Auburn. Doesn't hurt that they own us recently, too.

All that being said, they should be pulling in some fantastic talent. Ed Orgeron should probably still be the head coach at Ole Miss, he never got a fair shake- you can attribute pretty much all of their success to the talent he stockpiled, and the arrival of Jevan Snead. But to answer the question: am I 'scared' of UT because of the noise their making with their coaching hires? No. It's the SEC. This kind of thing isn't a surprise- it's pretty much necessary to compete for league titles. I don't see the need to prop them up for getting to a place they should have been all along.

Also, who remembers a few years ago when Bobby Bowden 'cleaned house' and brought in all those 'all star' coaches? Was FSU really in such bad shape that the turnaround should have taken this long? Though I think they have turned the corner, it wasn't an immediate thing like a Saban/Meyer turnaround.

Good points, goose. Personally, I thing they're going to have a tougher time recruiting that the UT fans think. Remember, they're recruiting to Knoxville, which ain't SoCal or Florida or even Tempe, Arizona for that matter. And also remember that these outstanding recruiters were playing with a stacked deck when they built their reputations (either as a Trojan or working for SOS at South Carolina). Think about this...a huge recruiting victory RIGHT NOW for THIS recruiting staff will be to sign ONE in-state star. I know, I know. It'll get better. But I don't think UT will approach the level or depth of talent that UF, UGA, Bama, and LSU have for a long, long time.

BTW TenGator1...I live up here in Johnson City (home of Steve Spurrier Field). Where are you?

well, they "stole" a couple. but i'm happy with our class. and our staff is much more proven than their rag-tag bunch.

Let me again thank Lane for the bulletin board material. Sept is going to get nasty.