One of the most repeated mantras the past few offseasons has been the bemoaning of how Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State have pulled away from the rest of the sport. There were cries of a lack of balance, too much predictability and the sport getting stale.
The tempest to the SEC portion of that theory, of course, has been the 2022 interlopers from Tennessee. The Vols have already rocked the SEC establishment with a 52-49 home victory over the Crimson Tide that resonated as part seminal victory and part exorcism. They debuted in the College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday as the country's No. 1 team.
This weekend, there's another litmus test for how college football -- still a font of unpredictability -- has changed this season. The No. 1 Vols head to No. 3 UGA for this season's Game of the Century.
ESPN spoke to a total of 15 head coaches, assistants, NFL scouts and staffers about Tennessee, UGA and Alabama as a way to break down both the season's top game and handicap the SEC race. Perhaps a surprise to some, a majority of the coaches -- but certainly not all -- picked Tennessee to win at Georgia despite being an 8-point underdog.
"I won't be surprised if Tennessee scores 50," one coach said. "Georgia's front is average. Their back end is below average. They really miss William Poole [who left the team early in September]. I don't think their corners are special. The [Kelee] Ringo kid, he doesn't run nearly as well as you'd expect. The others are just OK. They're going to run right by those corners."
Tennessee's sudden ambush of the SEC elite -- and potentially the College Football Playoff -- offers evidence to one of the working theories that's evolved during this season. Alabama and Georgia raced ahead of the rest of the sport last season, as they each won their CFP semifinal games by three touchdowns and won the past two titles. But this season, even with Georgia undefeated, it appears the field has caught up to them.
The slight regression of Alabama and Georgia from superior to merely elite leaves the sport poised for a delicious finishing kick. The teams between No. 1 and No. 6 in the college football rankings appear to be more muddled this season, as the inevitability of Alabama and Georgia dominance has been replaced by the specter of mortality.
"At this point, the way they are built, an Ohio State loss [in the regular season] would be more of a surprise than either Georgia losing or Alabama losing again," an NFL scout said.
Here's a breakdown of the SEC's top three playoff contenders, with a special focus on the matchup between Georgia and Tennessee this weekend.
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