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Kentucky senior offensive lineman Eli Cox got asked at Southeastern Conference Media Days if he ever felt the SEC East did not get the attention/respect that the SEC West did.
Cox could probably have answered that question a lot of ways but actually gave a terrific answer.
‘I think the SEC East, the competition is growing year in and year out. Georgia has become a very good football program that’s consistently in the top five, winning national championships,” Cox said.
“Tennessee has obviously got a great football program. Florida, Vanderbilt, South Carolina. They’re all good football teams. It’s a deep field of competition.”
Missouri might turn that into bulletin board material since Cox forgot to mention the Tigers, but his spontaneous answer.
Cox said even though Georgia has won the last two national championships, he thinks UK is “close” to contending in the SEC East.
“I think this football team has a lot of talent that’s flying under the radar. I think we have a lot of tools,” Cox said.
“Our defense, everyone knows how consistent they are. Coach White is one of the best defensive coordinators in the country, the SEC. That unit always produces.
“I think our offense is going to hold up its end of the bargain this year and score a lot of points.”
2 Responses
The hopes, indeed expectations are high again as we flip the calendar to August. It is difficult to argue with his assessment of the defense, and any defense that averages under 20 ppg allowed is a legitimate college defense, but the champions tend to allow 10 ppg or less, and SEC Divisional Champions tend to be in that class.
As for the offense, I believe it all depends on the OL returning to the blue wall that Coach Schlarmann produced here, but disappeared with his passing. I see the steps Coach Stoops has taken to restore the OL with transfers and coaching changes. I hear Coach Stoops’ optimism about the OL. If that happens, I think this offense can be productive. as with defenses, legitimate offenses average over 32 ppg, but the champions tend to average over 40 ppg.
We shall see what we shall see in about 5 weeks. Until then, the chatter is just chatter, just as this reply is chatter, and chatter at this time of year is cheap.
with you Professor.