2012 SEC Eastern Division Predictions: Predictions and Analysis of Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt’s 2012 Seasons
2012 SEC Eastern Division Predictions: Predictions and Analysis of Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt’s 2012 Seasons
SEC Conference
East
South Carolina – 10 – 2
Georgia – 9 – 3
Vanderbilt – 7 – 5
Tennessee – 7 – 5
Florida – 7 – 5
Missouri – 7 – 5
Kentucky – 4 – 8
Kentucky
Head Coach: Joker Phillips
Predicted 2012 Record
Overall: 4 – 8
SEC: 1 – 7
Kentucky Number of Cupcake Opponents in 2012: 2 Cupcakes (Kent State and Samford)
Commentary: The difference between the “perception” of Success and Failure for University of Kentucky football is very small because Kentucky is one of those football programs that should be playing in a bowl game every year….BUT….with Kentucky being in the SEC Conference it is not real easy for the Wildcats to have a winning conference record and that makes their out-of-conference games of paramount importance to Kentucky having a “successful” season and that is again the case for Joker Phillips in his football team in 2012
In some ways former Kentucky head coach Rich Brooks pulled off a small miracle in his last four seasons at Kentucky by putting up records of…
2006: 8 – 5
2007: 8 – 5
2008: 7 – 6
2009: 7 – 6
Overall: 30 – 22
….and in Joker Phillip’s first two years as head coach of the Wildcats he has put up records of…
2010: 6 – 7
2011: 5 – 7
Overall: 11 – 14
….and if Phillips wants to stay on the “Non-Hot Seat” side of the win/loss record then Kentucky will just have to play better and more fundamentally sound football which at its simplest is:
Must limit turnovers
Must have solid QB play
Must be solid with their special teams
Must give up few or no big plays from the line of scrimmage on defense
Joker Phillips and his Wildcats have a big challenge in 2012 with an opening game at Louisville, Western Kentucky (which is a tough football team), a game at Florida, South Carolina in Lexington, a game at Arkansas, Georgia at home, a game at Missouri, Vandy at home and Tennessee in Knoxville to end the season and if Phillips can get to 6 – 6 this season he will have done a Damn good coaching job.
Missouri
Head Coach: Gary Pinkel
Predicted 2012 Record
Overall: 7 – 5
SEC: 3 – 5
Missouri Number of Cupcake Opponents in 2012: 1 Cupcake (SE Louisiana)
Commentary: Gary Pinkel has had a nice run at Missouri over the 6 seasons in the Big 12…
2006: 8 – 5
2007: 12 – 2
2008: 10 – 4
2009: 8 – 5
2010: 10 – 3
2011: 8 – 5
Overall: 53 – 24
Big 12: 31 – 16
…BUT the Big 12 is not the SEC and in our opinion the biggest obstacles that Missouri will have to overcome to be as successful in the SEC as they were in the Big 12 is the two things that makes the SEC such a juggernaut in college football right now:
The SEC’s Speed Advantage
The SEC’s More Physical and Tougher Style of Play
It’s not that the SEC’s Speed Advantage and Physical/Tough Style of Play is vastly different from the Big 12…BUT…it is enough to make a difference on the scoreboard and with Missouri having to play Georgia, at South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Kentucky, at Florida, at Tennessee and at Texas A&M (which has played like a SEC team for years) then that “small” SEC Conference difference may stop Missouri from posting a .500 or better record in conference play.
The goal for BOTH Missouri and Texas A&M in 2012 in their first year of SEC play is to survive and to prove they belong in the conference and very early on Missouri will get that chance to prove itself in a Saturday night game on September 8 against Georgia in Columbia, Missouri. If Missouri beats Georgia in that game the Tigers will be off to a great start in the SEC….BUT…if Missouri loses to Georgia at home then the 2012 season could be a long and painful one.
Vanderbilt
Head Coach: James Franklin
Predicted 2012 Record
Overall: 7 – 5
SEC: 4 – 4
Vanderbilt Number of Cupcake Opponents in 2012: 2 Cupcakes (Presbyterian and Massachusetts)
Commentary: For the Stanford folks here at Coaches Hot Seat we have seen what is going on right now at Vanderbilt movie before and that movie we have seen before is how eerily similar that the James Franklin era at Vanderbilt is to what Jim Harbaugh talked about and did with Stanford football just a few years ago. The TRUTH is that there really is NO Damn good excuse for the Stanfords, Vanderbilts, Northwesterns, Dukes, etc. of the world to NOT be good at football because there are plenty of good football players in America to field very good football teams at America’s top academic universities AND if a great player or two is added to those high-academic schools teams….think Andrew Luck at Stanford…then “WA-LA” you have a Damn good football team and that is what Stanford, Northwestern and maybe even what James Franklin now has cooking at Vanderbilt.
As we heard former Auburn head coach Pat Dye say one time and we paraphrase since it has been a long time ago…
“Nah, an opposing team having some kind of new-fangled offense or defense doesn’t worry me. What worries me is the team that will pop you in the mouth and get up in your players throats.”
Translation to English: A physical football team rather than some scheme cooked up by a coach will have the biggest impact in a football game between two roughly even teams and in our opinion turning around a morbid football program which Stanford and Vanderbilt have been in recent years UNTIL Jim Harbaugh arrived at The Farm with a physical style of play and which James Franklin has now arrived at Vandy with is committing to a physical style of play that starts in the football team’s commitment to training and working out in the offseason. A few years ago the following video of Stanford football players working out before Jim Harbaugh arrived on The Farm would have been a joke since most of the 30 and 40 somethings at Coaches Hot Seat could have whipped the Stanford football team with our bare hands. That is no longer the case….
Oh, the Stanford football team can now whip your ass on the football field AND still in the classroom:
With all of the above being said Vanderbilt is playing in the SEC not the Pac-12 and thus a Vandy schedule in 2012 that includes…
South Carolina, at Georgia, at Missouri, Florida, Auburn, at Kentucky, at Ole Miss and Tennessee
….would be a tough road to hoe for the Chicago Bears which means Vandy fans will have to be satisfied with progress and in 2012 we again see Vanderbilt football under James Franklin making progress and taking another step with one more win than they had last season which would put Vandy ahead of Jim Harbaugh’s overhaul and transformation of Stanford football which looked like this…
2007: 4 – 8
2008: 5 – 7
2009: 8 – 5
2010: 12 – 1
Can Vanderbilt ever go 12 -1 under James Franklin playing in the SEC?
If Vandy ever does go 12 – 1 under James Franklin playing in the SEC then James Franklin will be have to be considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of college football because we rather doubt Bryant or Lombardi could in their heydays coached the Commodores to a 12 – 1 record while playing in the SEC!
2012 Coaches Hot Seat Team and Coach Predictions, Coaches Hot Seat
Coaches Hot Seat Number of CUPCAKE Opponents Teams Are Facing In 2012, Coaches Hot Seat
