No Preseason Respect.....Again

[baldcat]

After perusing the few preseason FB Mags out, the Cats are picked to finish next to last in the SEC East in all of them.

This after returning a bunch of starters from the MCB championship team.

I'll say it again....if the D steps up like it did in the MCB...we could be the dark horse in the SEC east this year.

[johnkyblue]

We have twice, three, heck maybe ten times the chance of winning the SEC East than we have had of late.

[DenCat]

I understand their viewpoint. You have the defending national champs, then you have UT, UGA, SC(although it's their coach that ranks them much higher than deserved, IMO), you have us and Vandy. We have to beat some of the top teams in the SEC on a regular basis to get any respect.

[RV]

Phil Steele has us 6th in the East with a 6-6 projected record.

[Kyboy1934]

Bottom line boys and girls, you have to show sustained success. When you do things once it's considered a fluke. To change the opinions of writers and nay-sayers, ya gotta prove to them and the country that you can do it each year and have a legit shot at beating any team on the schedule to get success. In past seasons, we've done good to hold on to the half and then lose big in the 3rd/4th quarters.

WE all believe it's going to be a special year....just gotta show everyone how special we are. It doesn't matter what they think, it matters how we kick @ss!

[TrueblueCATfan]

what we need to do is prove all of them WRONG.......that will be the only way to shut them up

[BlueBloodCatFan]

what we need to do is prove all of them WRONG.......that will be the only way to shut them up:thumbup:;)

[BowlingGreenUKGrad]

Fifth in the East is about what we deserve. Of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina - who do you think we are better than? I don't think you can say definitively that we are going to be better than any of those teams. Throw in our recent (and long-term) history in the SEC and fifth is where any sportswriter should put us preseason.

[teamchemistry09]

Fifth in the East is about what we deserve. Of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina - who do you think we are better than? I don't think you can say definitively that we are going to be better than any of those teams. Throw in our recent (and long-term) history in the SEC and fifth is where any sportswriter should put us preseason.

I think we will be right there with Georgia and South Carolina this year. We can beat UT but they will have a better record and Florida will be great again this year. I think we will be anywhere between 3rd and 5th in the East. It just depends on when we play Georgia and USC. If we beat both I say 3rd, beat 1 and we are 4th, and lose both of them and we end up 5th. IMO

[baldcat]

I'm still not sold on the idea that South Carolina is that much better than us.

[BowlingGreenUKGrad]

I'm not sold South Carolina is that much better than us right now either. If I'm a sportswriter and I'm staking my reputation on either UK or South Carolina... USC is the safe pick. Maybe not the right one, but it is the safe one.

[Lexvol]

I'm still not sold on the idea that South Carolina is that much better than us.

With the departure of Rice, I would give the offensive skill player edge to UK, but SC is very deep on defense this year. They are not nearly as soft in the middle as UK. The real problem in playing SC is the X factor that Spurrier brings.

[The Old School JPS]

UK improved greatly last year but unfortunately for us the rest of the SEC has not been standing still.

Tennessee will probably be much better this year than last; they had three very very close losses last year and among other things almost managed to defeat a remarkably solid LSU team (a feat they pulled off in 2005). Georgia has a ton of talent and will probably be much better. Florida will probably not be as good as last year but they were a remarkable team last year and may actually have solid producers in their backfield this year, and they might have the best coach in the country. South Carolina may well arrive this year; the kids are used to Spurrier and his system and their roster is pretty solid. Vanderbilt has been improving under their coach and we haven't walked over them since 2002; I would not be surprised at all if Vanderbilt went bowling this year. The SEC East is monstrous. This year (as in many years) there are three legit national title contenders in it.

The West and UK's schedule against the West are murderous too. LSU may well be the best team in the nation. Arkansas has the best running back in the nation and two of the very best running backs in the nation. Mississippi State is going to be considerably better this year as well which is not good for us as we've had our hands full against 3-8 MSU teams the past three seasons.

Pit UK against an ACC or Big East schedule and 9 or 10 wins isn't unlikely this year. Against the SEC schedule we have, matching 8 is a tall order. It seems counterintuitive following an 8 win season, but UK may very well be the underdog in 6 out of 8 SEC games this year and might even be the underdog in 7 or 8 of its conference games this year and 8 or 9 games overall.

I would guess that the preseason mags, even if they pick UK at 5th or 6th in the East, will have UK ranked higher in their national rankings than the past few years' preseason mags did. UK is better but so is the rest of the conference.

[RCS]

Life in the SEC East is no fun. We have 4 top 20 teams just in our half of the conference. Hard to move up much with those teams ahead of us. We have to beat USC at USC to really move ahead of them. Doable, but tough. Columbia is a tough place to play. We have a brutal schedule this year.

[poodoo]

Pit UK against an ACC or Big East schedule and 9 or 10 wins isn't unlikely this year. Against the SEC schedule we have, matching 8 is a tall order. QUOTE by JPS
___________
Exactly, JPS.

Too, as RCS just stated, life in the SEC East is "NO FUN," and this year's schedule is BRUTAL. On the bright side, though, we are playing some especially tough teams inside Commonwealth Stadium this season, though, and the home fans will HOPEFULLY see the Cats pull off a huge upset or two.

Regardless, because of our being in the SEC and the SEC East, specifically, besides also playing Louisville, matching last season's eight wins is indeed "a tall order," which some UK fans may not fully realize. GO CATS!!!

[FCFS82]

Wake Forest (defending ACC champs) conference schedule:

at Boston College
Maryland
at Duke
Florida State
North Carolina
at Virginia
at Clemson
NC State

I would have UK at a solid 5-3 in that slate, 8-4 overall if they lost to Louisville. Not worrying about needing a game to get to 6-6 with the Cats' current slate...

[johnkyblue]

I'm not convinced anybody is better than UK.

[Blue4ever]

Bottom line boys and girls, you have to show sustained success. When you do things once it's considered a fluke. To change the opinions of writers and nay-sayers, ya gotta prove to them and the country that you can do it each year and have a legit shot at beating any team on the schedule to get success. In past seasons, we've done good to hold on to the half and then lose big in the 3rd/4th quarters.

WE all believe it's going to be a special year....just gotta show everyone how special we are. It doesn't matter what they think, it matters how we kick @ss!

Ditto! You stole my thunder. But I like the Cats being off the pre-season radar. If we start the season 3-0 we'll get top 20 recognition. I think what probably spooks most pollsters is they realize (knock wood! I'm tapping my head :icon_lol:) that we're one or two injuries away at key positions from not being a top 20 team. We have to stay healthy at key spots and shore up our kicking game.

[gerntz]

I've seen us ranked nationaly 25-40 in preseason polls. That's a big step up from 75+ in the previous 3-4 years. We can't control how good the rest of the SEC East are. Some day we could be ranked 5th both the country & SEC East.

[poodoo]

I've seen us ranked nationaly 25-40 in preseason polls. That's a big step up from 75+ in the previous 3-4 years. We can't control how good the rest of the SEC East are. Some day we could be ranked 5th both the country & SEC East.

It is indeed a "big step up," gerntz. Also, that last statement isn't so ridiculous. The competition within the SEC East is absolutely unreal. GO CATS!