I had a chance to talk to ESPN’s Lee Corso at last week’s Atlanta Sports Council College Football Preview Luncheon. Here are some of his thoughts on the SEC and the rest of the nation.
Butler: Who is the team to beat in the SEC?
Corso: Georgia, Florida. You can’t speak [on] one without the other. Georgia and Florida are both good football teams. They are well coached. They’ve got everything coming back to win a national championship.
What about South Carolina?
A guy asked me who is the surprise team in the country, I said South Carolina. Watch out! They play Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Kentucky on the road. And then they have 16 [starters] coming back. They can be a surprise team in the country. The only thing I question now is, if Spurrier gives up calling the plays, I might take my pick back.
Choose the top coach in the SEC.
Right now I would say Mark Richt, because I think Mark Richt has taken a program to a level that’s just amazing. I think he’s one of the top five coaches in the entire country and that’s the general perception as I travel the country. His name is always up in the top five, he and Urban Meyer. Urban Meyer’s up there also.
Who’s your choice for top quarterback in the league?
I’ll take Tim Tebow. He’s proven that he can win big games and I love his competiveness. He’s a tremendous leader, so I’ll take Tebow.
Who do you see playing in the BCS Title Game?
I don’t know. I don’t have any idea yet. I haven’t studied it.
OFF-THE-FIELD ISSUES
The Bulldog football team is halfway through the first week of Fall camp, and the players have shed the shells and are practicing in shoulder pads. Still, a lot of the talk concerning the Dawgs is centered on issues away from the field. The recent off-the-field troubles and indefinite suspensions of junior safety Donavan Baldwin and senior long snapper Jeff Henson, along with the two-game suspension of linebacker Darius Dewberry, has generated heavy concern about whether or not there is a discipline problem at Georgia. Eight football players have been arrested this year.
“Discipline problem” means that the players are not held accountable for their actions and have their transgressions swept under the rug. That does not appear to be the case up in Athens as discipline has been on full display after each off-the-field incident. Head coach Mark Richt is quick to react to these problems and thus discipline is not the problem with the Bulldogs. If anything, the discipline has been timely and consistent.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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