Tennessee football team takes aim at SEC East title
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Josh Heupel and his 12th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers have their sights set high for his third season.
The NCAA investigation that hung over the program since January 2021 has been resolved, leaving the Vols ready to build on the program’s best season since 2001.
“We’ve done a good job of resetting,” sixth-year senior tight end Jacob Warren said. “But now the focus is on winning the SEC East and doing everything we can to get ourselves in that position.
Heupel and the Vols are coming off an 11-2 season and a rout of Clemson in the Orange Bowl. Heupel also has more players available after Tennessee voluntarily reduced scholarships the past two seasons, anticipating NCAA punishment.
The Vols haven’t won the Southeastern Conference East since 2007. But Tennessee has sold more than 70,000 season tickets for this season, and Heupel said the best is yet to come.
“[I] don’t know that there’s ever been a better time to be a Vol,” Heupel said.
Bulldogs shying from talk of historic three-peat in 2023: ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia isn’t ready to talk about a historic three-peat.
The Bulldogs showed no signs of complacency while capturing their second straight national title, and maintaining that edge will be essential to becoming the first school in the poll era to make it three in a row.
“You can’t set a goal that far ahead,” receiver Arian Smith said at the start of camp. “We can’t win a national championship right now.”
Coming off a perfect season capped by a 65-7 demolition of TCU in the national championship game, Georgia goes into the new season as the country’s most dominant program.
Not surprisingly, the Bulldogs were a near-unanimous choice as the No. 1 team in the Associated Press preseason poll.
“So many people make an assumption off of last year’s team and their accomplishments,” coach Kirby Smart said. “I asked this team ... ‘What have you done to deserve anything you have gotten?’ They have done nothing.”
Wildcats seeking rebound from 2022 falloff: LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mark Stoops is intent on getting Kentucky back on track after falling short of last year’s lofty expectations.
The Wildcats (7-6, 3-5) last year aspired to be East Division runners-up behind heavyweight Georgia after winning 10 games in 2021. They started 4-0 and achieved a No. 7 AP Top 25 ranking in September before cratering in many phases. Kentucky finished below .500 in league play for the second time in three years before Iowa halted its postseason winning streak at four in a 21-0 Music City Bowl loss.
The Wildcats are projected to finish mid-pack but Stoops isn’t paying attention. With seven offensive starters returning among 14 overall and a familiar face back to guide the offense, the 11th-year coach feels goods about regrouping from last season’s falloff.
“Some of the weaknesses that we had a year ago are being addressed,” Stoops said. “They were addressed in the offseason by personnel. They’re being addressed by scheme, making sure we’re doing our part as coaches to put players in a position to be successful.”
Kentucky’s winningest coach also hopes a busy offseason in the transfer portal addresses other concerns. He landed 6,000-yard passer Devin Leary (North Carolina State) and 1,000-yard rusher Ray Davis (Vanderbilt) among 15 newcomers, half coming from fellow Power Five schools.
Statistically, that duo could offset the respective departures of quarterback Will Levis and running back Chris Rodriguez Jr. to the NFL. Stoops believes the potential is there, especially with Liam Coen back as offensive coordinator.
Coen, whose pro-style system keyed that 10-win season, returned to Lexington after a one-year reunion with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams in a similar role. He replaces Rich Scangerello, whose offense was the SEC’s worst (324.7 yards per game) even with Levis and Rodriguez.
Coen re-familiarized himself with the program this spring, and he’s now figuring out what combinations could work. After sputtering last fall, offensive lineman Eli Cox anticipates improvement this season.
“I think he brings an ability to get our playmakers the ball in good situations,” Cox said. “He gives them the confidence that when the ball is in their hands, they’ll do something special.”
Gators turning to 30-year-old Armstrong to lift defense: GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As the music gets louder, so does Austin Armstrong. Florida’s new defensive coordinator starts screaming, bouncing around and slamming into players just before 11-on-11 drills.
“Get your hardhats ready,” Armstrong shouts. “This is a construction zone!”
And part of a massive rebuild in Gainesville.
The Gators (6-7) set several defensive records last season — none of them good. They allowed the most points (375) and the most rushing touchdowns (29) in school history and surrendered more yards than ever on the ground (175.2 per game).
They gave up 30 or more points in six games and ranked last in the SEC in third-down defense, allowing opponents to convert more than 49% of the time. It was the worst third-down defense in the program’s 100-plus seasons.
Talent, depth, scheme, coaching? Maybe a combination of everything.
Second-year head coach Billy Napier tasked the 30-year-old Armstrong with cleaning it up. Napier plucked the energetic, visor-wearing assistant from Alabama’s staff in February to replace Patrick Toney, who bolted for the NFL less than two weeks before spring practice.
While Napier’s offense — with Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz at quarterback — will get much of the attention this season, the defense seemingly has more room for growth. And Armstrong will be calling the shots when the Gators begin Aug. 31 at No. 14 Utah.
“He’s a good one,” Napier said.
So good that Napier recommended him to Georgia coach Kirby Smart for a quality control job. Armstrong spent the 2019 season with the Bulldogs before Napier brought him back to coach linebackers at Louisiana. The following year, Southern Miss made Armstrong the youngest defensive coordinator in the country.
Now at age 30 Armstrong is the youngest in the SEC. Although he hasn’t tweaked Florida’s scheme very much, he has changed the approach and the intensity.
“A lot of energy,” Gators defensive tackle Tyreak Sapp said. “You don’t want a low-energy DC. You need somebody that can be that every day because you’re not going to be like that every day, but you have a little firecracker as a DC. He’s always ready to pop.”
Southern Miss’s defense popped under Armstrong. The Eagles forced 45 turnovers in his two seasons and ranked sixth nationally in red-zone defense in 2022 and seventh in touchdowns allowed.
“We have to play with physicality and we’ve got to play with a relentless effort,” Armstrong said. “Those are all controllable. That has nothing to do with scheme, it has nothing to do with talent. I know that sounds like a bunch of coach-speak, but every great defense, regardless of if it’s the ’85 Bears, it’s Georgia last year, it’s the Ravens, they ran and they hit.
“We’re going to mess up. But you erase that by playing your [butt] off and punishing the ball carrier.”
Commodores eyeing bowl appearance this season: NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Clark Lea makes his goals for Vanderbilt very clear. He wants his Commodores playing in the postseason no matter how tough that is in the mighty SEC.
“The margins remain razor thin for our program, and the difference between achieving our goal and being left in the wake of disappointment likely comes down to a handful of snaps this season,” Lea said.
Vanderbilt last played in a bowl game in 2018. Lea took a big step in the right direction last season with his Commodores matching the number of wins since that Texas Bowl loss in just his second season, going 5-7. They notched their first SEC road win at Kentucky, then followed up with a very rare win over Florida.
Only a home rout at the hands of in-state rival Tennessee kept Vanderbilt from being eligible for a bowl.
Lea feels his Commodores making up ground going into their third season with him. He also knows that means nothing when the season opens.
“We better show up with a chip on our shoulder and hungry for something too because we cannot ever sit back and take anything for granted here,” Lea said.
QB Rattler expect to keep improving with Gamecocks: COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler saw too much progress and potential to abandon the Gamecocks.
For a second straight offseason, the strong-armed Rattler thought long and hard about the NFL. But he said he, receiver Antwane Wells Jr. and the Gamecocks have more to achieve after their surprising — most would call it stunning — finish to last season.
South Carolina and Rattler mostly bumped along much of the year until catching fire at the end, defeating top-10 opponents Tennessee and Clemson in back-to-back weeks to close the season. The Gamecocks, underdogs to the fifth-ranked Vols and eighth-ranked Tigers, knocked both out of the College Football Playoff picture.
“Obviously, that next level had a real, you know, choice to pick,” Rattler said. “I just weighed it out. I thought there were more pros coming back. I just feel like we left a little on the table.”
The Gamecocks finished 8-5 in coach Shane Beamer’s second season. Once Rattler, who threw for 3,026 yards and 18 touchdowns, and Wells, 68 catches for 938 yards and six TDs, chose to come back, it sent expectations through the roof both for fans and the team.
Beamer said his players have worked hard during the offseason — “It was a physical-as-could-be, gnarly, nasty grueling summer,” the coach said with a grin — to take that next step forward.
Rattler must be show more consistency to make that happen.
The fifth-year senior, like the much of the team, played his best in those final two regular-season games. He completed better than 72% of his passes in those victories (63-38 over Tennessee, 31-30 at Clemson) for 798 yards and eight touchdowns. Rattler only had two of his 12 interceptions in those wins. His 12 picks were the most of any SEC quarterback who finished in the top 10 in league passing statistics.
Rattler did not rest on what he did at the end.
“He has not slowed down,” Beamer said. “He was voted our most outstanding offensive player during spring practice and excited to see what he’s going to do this upcoming year.”
Rattler understands he needs to limit his mistakes if the Gamecocks are going to succeed.
“I take total accountability for that. What I see on film is just sometimes me trying to do too much, trusting my arm too much. Just trust the play, trust the offense, just protect the ball. That’s what it comes down to,” he said.
Tigers trying to prove they belong in the SEC: COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri’s record at the conclusion of Eli Drinkwitz’s third season as head coach hardly suggested that the Tigers, who were once a Top 25 mainstay and twice played for the SEC championship, had taken strides toward the top of the conference.
They went 6-6 during the regular season before losing to Wake Forest in the Gasparilla Bowl.
But perhaps no other team in major college football was less a reflection of its record than the Tigers, whose quarterback played with a torn labrum for the final 10 games and at one point lost four games by a combined 18 points — one of them in overtime.
Still, Drinkwitz doesn’t make a whole lot of excuses. He understands that his 17-19 record since taking over following one wildly successful season at Appalachian State is not what fans expect, and the three middling bowl games Missouri has qualified for — one of which was not played because of the pandemic — have produced not a single trophy in the case.
The Tigers have certainly recruited well the past three years. It’s time for those recruits to produce.
“We’re not trying to prove that individually we’re talented. We know we have talent on this team,” Drinkwitz said. “We want to prove that collectively we belong in our league and play better than we have and produce better results than we have.
“The only way they’re going to see it is results on the field,” he added. “They’re not going to believe it because we say it.”
Like most teams, proving the Tigers belong will depend largely on the play of the quarterback.
Brady Cook hurt his shoulder against Kansas State last season, but proceeded to start every game and throw for more than 2,700 yards with 14 touchdown passes and seven interceptions. Whether it was the injury or simply inconsistent play across the offense, the Tigers struggled to produce points, and that was a big reason for losses to Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Kentucky.
Cook is healthy this season and has the inside track to keeping the starting job. But he will be pushed by Sam Horn, who flashed his big arm by hitting 97 mph on the mound for the Tiger baseball team, and Miami transfer Jake Garcia.
“Physically it was really hard. Just mentally it was probably even harder knowing I wasn’t able to give a full reflection of who I was,” Cook said of his injury. “But that’s just part of the game. It was a battle the whole year, but I’m glad I went through it.”
He would be much happier to avoid going through it ever again. As would the rest of the Tigers.
