my original thought was that, yes, 08 would be a very, very good year for the resaons you've stated above. i still think it could be very good. but i've gotten in to this debate with VIA before, and he does have a good point. As much better as i think we will be by then, with some of the young guys coming in having some experience etc......there are some other teams that will be in the same boat as us, with maybe better on hand talent during the same time.
FL, GA, SC, Bama and TN could all be very good over the next 2-3 years based on who's being brought in to the programs. especially FL and GA...they will have more experienced QB's than we will for 08, the majority of FL and GA's offense by then will be jr's and sr's and pretty talented. the same should be true of us, with the exception being Crompton or who ever is the qb.
then there's the schedule......the 08 schedule is a little more difficult, though the bama and fl games do come back to knoxville.
so given all of that, i've kind of put the brakes on my thoughts about 08 or 09 for now. i think the SEC for the next 3 years is going to be really tough, because between 5-6 teams, each will have pretty much equally good talent. I'll wait til after 07 season to make any hard predictions.