Spring football: Florida’s future, more burning SEC questions
Until the Big Ten expands to 12 (or more) teams, the SEC probably will remain the most powerful force in the college football universe. It has produced the past four national champions. It has ultra-lucrative television deals. Many of its fans would travel to the moon to watch their teams play. One of its teams (Alabama) probably will start the season ranked No. 1.
Still, this feels like a season of change in the league. Tim Tebow, for three years the nation’s most visible college football player, is no longer the quarterback at Florida. Lane Kiffin, who generated a decade’s worth of headlines in a year at Tennessee, is coaching in Los Angeles. The nucleus of the Alabama defense that led the Crimson Tide to the 2009 national title is headed to the NFL. There are new head coaches at Kentucky and Tennessee, new defensive coordinators at Florida and Georgia and new quarterbacks or quarterback competitions at Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
All that change isn’t necessarily good or bad. It’s just different. It also means this could be a lively spring.
si.com
3/16/10
