Ugh, all this talk about the fake UT.
If people doubted that this was Fulmer's best season of coaching ever, the tremendous recruiting class we got shuts down that argument. Tennessee is a perennially strong recruiting program, but this year's is especially strong. A near shutout of Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl helped a LOT too. I give Tennessee two years to be a national contender again, but at this point they're good enough to win the SEC at least, but there are several teams that fit this profile right now. The conference is wide open this year, with the East being especially so.
Note how South Carolina actually has some recruiting buzz about it now thanks to Spurrier. If he can put together a steady rebuilding program and maybe an 8 or 9 win season each year following this year, then it's not too far-fetched to see them winning 10 or 11 a year and becoming a new SEC powerhouse, as if the conference needed any more right now. I'm almost tempted to say they'll be in the national picture by 2010 just so they'll be jinxed.
Bring it on, I say. We own South Carolina (the other USC is called USC-Los Angeles in joking around here) and now they've got our most hated opponent as a coach. Some serious shit's about to go down, and it'll probably result in a new heated rivalry in a few years' time. At that point I'll be skinned around these parts for wearing Tennessee stuff, but whatever.