Georgia football: Who will challenge UGA for the SEC East crown first

Georgia football enters the 2018 football season with a firm grip on the SEC East. The Dawgs ended 2017 with a two-game lead in the East.

Right now, Georgia football commands the SEC East. With the division’s first SEC Championship since 2008 and sheer dominance on the recruiting trail, Georgia sits alone at the top of the East. Even predicting another team to win the division seems like a stretch at this point of the off-season. With players like D’Andre Swift, Riley Ridley, D’Andre Walker, Monty Rice and Tyrique McGhee, all signs point to Georgia reloading in 2018 instead of rebuilding.

But eventually, someone else in the SEC East has to step up to contend. Georgia might win the division by two or three games again in 2018. But that’s not a cushion they’ll enjoy forever. At some point, that cushion will shrink to just one game.

So how close are the other teams to shrinking that cushion? And who will Georgia’s first true threat in the SEC be?

Florida Gators

Obviously when discussing this topic, you have to mention Florida. Before Georgia, they were the last SEC East team to win the SEC Title. They did so in 2008 when they also won the National Championship. The Gators dominated the sport a decade ago. And more recently preyed on a weakened SEC East to win the division in 2015 and 2016.

They even have a new, and arguably better, coach now in Dan Mullen. The former Mississippi State head coach brought the Bulldog faithful of Starkville a football program they can take pride in. Something that hasn’t happened for them in a very long time. Mullen also developed Dak Prescott to the NFL quarterback we see him as today.

Energy and expectations are high in Gainesville. Mullen, of course, was the offensive coördinator when the Gators ruled the SEC. He brings that offense and recruiting mindset back to Florida. On paper, it sounds like the Florida Gators are back.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves. There’s one thing that I think will hold Mullen and the Gators back, and that’s the Florida athletic department. I’ve theorized for a year now that the University of Florida puts too much pressure on its coaches and burns them out way too fast.

Maybe Urban Meyer wasn’t faking it when he talked about how sick he felt after the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Jim McElwain clearly couldn’t handle the heat last year. And why else did Steve Spurrier decide to go to South Carolina in 2005 instead of Florida. He had another 11 years of coaching to go, it’s not like retirement was a few years away.

I was a strong critic of their decision to fire Will Muschamp after he went through three offensive coordinators in four years and dealt with a bevy of injuries in 2013. I always felt like his time at Florida ended before he even had a chance to get going.

Mullen is coming from a program that isn’t exactly known for cranking up the heat on coaches who can’t win championships. He could have averaged eight wins at Mississippi State for the rest of his life. And it clearly takes a great coach with years of experience and an unmatched determination to win at Florida. And even then, those coaches don’t want to be there.

Mullen might have some good years at Florida. But I can see his time ending before he can get Florida back over the hump. It doesn’t help matters that recruiting in Florida is harder than it’s ever been thanks to South Florida and Central Florida.