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We've reached the time of year in which we pretend to know a lot more about college football than we actually do. I'm not just talking about myself and other members of the media but fans as well. We've never seen any of the teams play in their current forms, yet somehow we all believe we know exactly what's going to happen.

We vote on who will win their divisions and conferences. We pick teams that will earn spots in the College Football Playoff. We will be wrong. A lot. It comes with the territory, and it's part of what makes college football so exciting.

When trying to figure out a sport that features so many teams (130 this year) all trying different things with the same ultimate goal in mind, surprises are going to happen. Every year we see a team that the general public had low expectations for coming into the year exceed them. It's going to happen again this year, that much I know. I just don't know which team it will be, but I'm going to try to figure it out.

When it comes to looking for a dark horse team, there are a few things to consider. Veteran teams have a chance to excel, and I'm not just talking about teams with a lot of returning starters. Having plenty of starters coming back is nice, but I'm talking about experience on the depth chart as a whole. I want teams with a lot of seniors and juniors in the two-deep.

I also like teams with experienced offensive lines. As important as quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers can be for an offense, replacing them is a lot less difficult when you have a strong, veteran offensive line doing all the dirty work for you at the line of scrimmage.

Then there are a few other factors. Things like a favorable schedule and it never hurts to have talent on the roster, either. When I look at all these factors and try to fit them together, I believe I can get a sense of which teams are better positioned to be that dark horse. So in this post, I'm going to look at three potential dark horse teams in the SEC this season.

Now obviously, when we talk about dark horses, we're talking about teams that aren't expected to contend for a conference title. So I've eliminated Alabama, Florida and Georgia from consideration. That left 11 teams to choose from, and not surprisingly, the ones I selected all come from the SEC East.

That's not to say a team in the SEC West can't surprise, it's just far more likely to happen in the East, and these are the three East teams I believe to be the best positioned to step up and surprise us in 2017, listed in alphabetical order.

Kentucky

When it comes to exceeding expectations, I'm not sure what kind of ceiling to give Kentucky. Would a 5-3 mark in SEC play count, or do the Wildcats have to compete for a division title?

Well, when we consider that the SEC media has Kentucky pegged to finish fifth in the East, I guess 5-3 would probably work, and I think that's the most likely ceiling. That said, this is the SEC East we're talking about here. Anything is possible.

One thing working in Kentucky's favor this season is its schedule. The Cats will get both Tennessee and Florida in Lexington, which helps offset facing Georgia in Athens. Also, the cross-divisional draw is about as friendly as it can get when we're talking about playing the SEC West as the Wildcats pull Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

Also, while Kentucky finishes in the middle of the SEC pack when we rank the teams by returning experience, it has one of the most experienced offensive lines in the conference. That can go a long way in the SEC. Maybe a SEC East title is too much to ask, but this Kentucky team is poised to be a thorn in the side of the SEC East this year.

Missouri

Listen, Mizzou was awful last year. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. While it finished 4-8, if you remove two wins against stalwarts like Eastern Michigan and Delaware State from the equation, the Tigers were outscored 357-237 last year. Of their six SEC losses, the only one to come by less than 10 points was the 28-27 loss to Georgia early in the season. The other five came by an average of 22.2 points per game.

What I'm trying to show you here is that there's a reason the media has this team finishing dead last in the division. You'd have to be crazy not to. Well, maybe not as crazy as you might think.

There are two things working for Barry Odom's team heading into the season. First, the schedule is somewhat friendly. The nonconference includes Missouri State, Purdue, Idaho and Connecticut. That should be at least three wins if not four. When it comes to SEC play, the Tigers get Florida and Tennessee at home, as well as Auburn. What's worrisome is that a couple of the more "winnable" games against Kentucky and Vanderbilt both come on the road.

Still, even with that being the case, this is an experienced team. No team in the SEC has as many juniors and seniors in the two-deep (32) as the Tigers do. While that alone doesn't make Missouri a good team, it doesn't hurt its chances, either. If Odom can straighten out a defense that seemed to fall off the face of the Earth last season, we could see a quick turnaround in Columbia.

Tennessee

Maybe we were all a year early on Tennessee? Or maybe Tennessee was en route to having a pretty successful 2017 season before the wheels fell off and injuries starting piling up faster than a Vols fan responding to somebody disrespecting their team on social media? I don't know which is true, but I do think Tennessee's going to be better than we're expecting in 2017. And by better, I mean possibly division champions.

While the media has Tennessee finishing third in the division, the Vols received less first-place votes (three) than South Carolina did (five), and they're 528 points behind Florida in the voting. To put that in perspective, the difference between Tennessee and Missouri (picked to finish last) was only 610 points.

But this is a Tennessee team with a lot working for it right now. It has one of the most experienced rosters in the SEC (only Missouri and Georgia have more), and it has the most experience on its offensive line.

Also, when it comes to recruiting, while the Vols may not be on the same level as Alabama, LSU and Georgia over the last five years, they've had classes ranked higher on average than those at Florida. So even with some key losses from last year's team, there's still quite a bit of talent left in the creamsicle-colored cupboards.

The conference schedule is a bit of a bear as the Vols get both Alabama and LSU from the West while having to play the Gators on the road, but the Vols do get Georgia in Knoxville. All of which could mean that by the time the dust settles on the 2017 season, this Vols team can be more than just champions of life. They could be champions of the SEC East as well.