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Disparity on display in SEC East standings

7:00 am October 19, 2012, by Tim Tucker

ATHENS – In the top-heavy SEC East, the bottom has fallen out.

The division’s top three teams — Florida, South Carolina and Georgia — are a combined 12-2 in league games. The bottom four teams — Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri — are a combined 1-14 in the league.

The division’s disparities are displayed in Saturday’s Georgia-Kentucky matchup. The rested Bulldogs (5-1, 3-1 SEC) are a four-touchdown favorite on the road against the injury-ravaged Wildcats (1-6, 0-4).

The Wildcats are on a five-game losing streak. They trailed Arkansas 42-0 at halftime last week. Their top two quarterbacks are injured. Their coach’s job is in jeopardy. They’re facing a fourth game in five weeks against a ranked opponent.

And they’re playing a sport that has no room for compassion.

“We’ve got our own problems, you know,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “We’ve got enough problems of our own.”

Georgia’s problems stem from its 35-7 loss to South Carolina, a loss that reinforced the gap between the division’s upper and lower echelons. (The Bulldogs had rolled past Missouri, Vanderbilt and Tennessee before stumbling on South Carolina.) But Georgia’s problems pale in comparison to the plights of Kentucky and several other SEC teams.

The SEC gets much acclaim for its top teams — teams that have won the past six national championships and occupy the top two spots in this week’s BCS standings. But the league’s claim of top-to-bottom strength is thrown into question when four teams are winless in league play — one in the West (Auburn, two seasons removed from a national title) and three in the East (Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri).

Georgia vows to take nothing for granted against Kentucky, which, according to three computer rankings, has faced the nation’s toughest schedule.

UGA players note that Kentucky led South Carolina 17-7 at halftime three weeks ago (before losing 38-17) and gave the Dogs a tough game last year (losing 19-10). They don’t mention that the Cats have been outscored 152-38 in SEC play this season, lost to Western Kentucky and last won Sept. 8 (vs. Kent State).

“In the SEC … you really do have to have a good game, no matter who you are (playing), the best team or the worst team in the conference,” Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray said. “Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri — those are still very talented teams. If you don’t come with your ‘A’ game … any team has a chance to beat anyone.”

Florida coach Will Muschamp said that in his experience as a player, defensive coordinator and head coach in the SEC, “week in and week out there are no gimmes. That’s what I would say separates our conference from a lot of conferences.”

Yet the top three teams in the SEC East are 9-0 this season against the division’s other four.

Kentucky was picked to finish last in the East in a preseason media survey, and that was before injuries wrecked the team.

“That’s just football. We understand that. Our motto has been ‘next guy up,’” Kentucky coach Joker Phillips said. “A lot of times, the next guy has been a true freshman.”

Starting quarterback Maxwell Smith is out for the season with a torn ankle ligament suffered early in the South Carolina game. Another quarterback, freshman Patrick Towles, suffered a high ankle sprain the next week and hasn’t played since. Freshman Jalen Whitlow, seen as possibly a wide receiver when the Cats signed him, is expected to start at quarterback for a third consecutive game.

“You go through two or three quarterbacks — it’s got to be tough,” Richt said. “I can’t imagine what that would be like.”

Kentucky also lost two tailbacks and two safeties to season-ending injuries. Four other defensive backs have been injured, resulting in three freshmen starting in the secondary last week.

Asked if he has gotten to the point of wondering what else could go wrong, Phillips laughed. “We got to that point about a month ago.”

Richt was asked if part of him feels for Kentucky. The question sounded familiar to the Georgia coach, who was asked something similar a year ago when his team started 0-2 after going 6-7 the previous season.

“My answer was, ‘I don’t expect anybody to feel sorry for me. I expect everybody to hook it up and play the very best they can. I expect everybody to watch film and get the best plan possible and try to exploit whatever you think can be exploited,’” Richt said. “I’m sure that’s how all the coaches around the league feel.”

– Tim Tucker

Staff writer Chip Towers contributed to this article.

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156 comments Add your comment

Kingdaddy

October 20th, 2012
12:32 am

Damn
Dew is Rocking like a broken rocket. Dawgs will be ready for Kane-Tuck-ee…

G Marmalard

October 20th, 2012
2:52 am

Take Kentucky and the points.

Dog4Life

October 20th, 2012
8:54 am

Here is an interesting football anecdotal reference. My father and his first cousin were boyhood chums, inseparable hunting fishing and carousing around. Cousin went to Ga Tech and Dad went to UGA. Edwin was a math guy and wanted to be an engineer; good for him he was very successful. Dad went on to Law school in Athens and also was very successful–God rest both their souls. Cousin Edwin’s claim to fame is that as a senior, he intercepted a pass thrown by Roger Staubach–now to the crux of the story. Edwin and tech people used get fighting mad when told they were an academic institution that happened to have a football program–after all they desired to be the Notre Dame of the South. Since that time for over 50 years they have bragged on being an academic institution because their football program became irrelevant to a large degree with small bursts of success here and there (Ross, btw was a good coach). Cousin Edwin’s grandson also attended Tech and played football. Merely a second teamer–still he was there. Different story from an insider; once Tech instituted the general studies category (they actually call it something catchy–cannot remember), they were able to recruit better athletes especially under Ross and O’Leary and even Gailey–Cousin grumbles that it isn’t fair that at Tech if you are a good athlete (football, basketball, baseball even in women’s sports) you are in a different academic category and many do not take Calculus or have the difficulty of curriculum that many tech students have to suffer through regardless of status. Its laughable because Cousin went to school with hamilton and played on the same team–said he was an ignoramus, but was a good athlete. Again, no disrespect to Tech and its academics, but athletes at any institution are treated differently–so please stop alluding to the education or academic path of athletes at tech, or any school for that matter. All institutions are credible if you measure their true student body, not athletic program–second teamers have a difficult path, but others not so much–told to me a by an insider who knows and even made extra money as a tutor to the athletes. People are so delusional about college sports–all of them are mostly factories–some better than others. I quote Bear Bryant and Bobby Dodd here, “hard to rally around a math class!”

Dog4Life

October 20th, 2012
9:01 am

When I stated regardless of status, obviously I am referencing the normal student body not athletes (business etc … all take a rigorous curriculum).

UGA’s Jordan Jenkins to start at outside linebacker vs. Kentucky as Jarvis Jones rests | UGA sports blog

October 20th, 2012
1:34 pm

[...] Disparity on display in SEC’s Eastern Division [...]

catlady

October 20th, 2012
2:27 pm

When I was a grad assistant at FSU in the late 80s, we had a player who was labeled dislexic, disgraphic, discalculic. He could not read, write, or do math, but he could run very well. He had a stable of “student assistants” who took notes for him, attended class with him, read to him, etc. Laughable.

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