Good read on the team's chances in the SECE

[CornFromAJar]

Opinions?

http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/the-case-for-and-against-tennessee-winning-the-sec-east-070815?=_mid=283631&_rid=283631.16707.87&cmpid=emc:fscom:cfb_volunteers

[Black Diamond Vol]

Pretty standard stuff there. 

If I'm Butch Jones, winning the East is absolutely my goal for this season.  And I'm communicating that to the team daily.  You always want to set your goals high.  But as fans, that should not be our expectation.  UGA is the obvious favorite, we have to go to UF and Mizzou, and, past two years aside, you NEVER take a win over Spurrier for granted.  CAN we win all those games?  Yep.  But if we drop one or two of them, it's not the end of the world.  We're still on schedule.  If we win 8 or more games but don't get to Atlanta, and some people are calling for Butch's head (and they will), that will be crazy talk. 

[BanditVol]

We are a year away.  If we flame out next season, there will be tremendous pressure on Butch.  We should be one of the favorites, if not the favorite to win the East and our expectations should be in the 10-2/11-1 range and be met.  If we don't win the East next year, it should be by a close loss to the really good team that does win it.  Nothing else is acceptable.

This year I am happy just to be in the mix.  Those were my expectations when Butch was hired, so IMO he is on track so far. 

It might be okay to expect big things in the third seasons for a normal transition such as if Butch had taken over in 2009 instead of Kiffin.  But given how beaten down we were, I think 4th season is about right.