For the Georgia Bulldogs, spring football is about finding answers on defense. Jarvis Jones, Alec Ogletree, John Jenkins, Bacarri Rambo, Shawn Williams, Cornelius Washington, Sanders Commings and more are gone. The keys to the car are being turned over to Garrison Smith, Jordan Jenkins, Amarlo Herrera, Damian Swann, Ray Drew and the young Dawgs. Despite losing all of the "big names" on defense, the Georgia defense was a bit of a disappointment in 2012 and statistically ranked as the sixth best defense in the SEC. NFL Draft scouts say they should have been much better.

Bret Bielema had a very good run at Wisconsin. He was 86-24 and led the Badgers to three Rose Bowl births although he never won one. He had three top ten finishes out of his seven seasons. But he's inheriting a big challenge at Arkansas.

Spring practices are in swing as teams try to get better so they can hit full stride heading into the fall. Let's take a lap around the SEC East and see what's going on with each school....

We had Florida State ranked 7th in our pre-season poll and many thought this would be the year that the Seminoles once again challenged for a National Championship. The Seminoles came into this game at 5-0 and was ranked #3 in the country. They had also just beaten a top ten Clemson team two weeks prior to this game. NC State came into the game at 3-2 having lost to Tennessee and Miami (FL). FSU was a two touchdown favorite and had beaten the Wolfpack in 2011 by 34 points. 

Cincinnati came into this game 5-0 and ranked #21 in the country. Toledo came in at 6-1 with a road loss to Arizona. The Bearcats were a 7.5 point favorite despite playing on the road.

Pittsburgh came into this game 0-2 with losses to Youngstown State (31-17) and Cincinnati (34-10). Virginia Tech came in at 2-0 and was ranked 13th in the country. Virginia Tech was picked to win by Vegas by 12.5 points.

If this game had taken place in the regular season instead of bowl season it would have been a bit higher on the list of upsets. Bowl season can be a strange time and sometimes upsets don't feel like they have as big of an impact. That being said, Florida was a clear favorite in this game as Vegas had them favored by 14 points. 

This Boise State team wasn't on the same level as the teams of the last few years starring Kellen Moore and Doug Martin but it's hard to ignore the fact that they came into this home game having won 71 of their last 72 on the blue turf. The Broncos entered this game at 7-1 (and had climbed back into the polls at #19) having lost only their season opener at Michigan State. San Diego State came in at 6-3 having lost to Washington, San Jose State and Fresno State. Not many expected the Aztecs to come out of this one as the victor. 

After having their scheduled opener against Nicholls State postponed, this was the season opener for Oregon State. The Beavers were coming off of a 3-9 season and facing the #13 Wisconsin Badgers who were coming off of an 11-3 season and a trip to the Rose Bowl. Oregon State did have home field advantage but not many thought they would stop Montee Ball and the Wisconsin rushing attack.

The sixteenth edition of the CFBZ podcast is in the books! Bernie from Bernie's Dawg Blawg joined me on the show. In addition to his Georgia Bulldogs based site, Bernie also writes for Blog on Draft, a craft beer website on the Bloguin network.

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