Brian Hartline gave an interesting rebuttal to the "cult of the SEC speed" being espoused by most of the media. While B. Hartline is obviously being supportive of his team, the truth remains that being fast and playing fast are not the same thing. Ohio State did not give up any huge, down-the-field plays to Florida's offense last year. Rather, it was just that OSU couldn't finish a deensive stand and Florida kept gutting them out. Then, OSU would get the ball, Troy Smith would get sacked for a loss of 8 yards and the Buckeye deense would go right back onto the field. The quote from Austin Murphy's CNNSI artice was: We gave up long drives, and our offense couldn't do a darn thing," says Hartline, who caught 46 balls passes season, his first as a starter, for 619 yards and five TDs. With the exception of five sacks -- Hartline concedes the Gators defensive ends were damn quick -- "They didn't have big plays on us, and they took advantage of their opportunities."Hartline is better qualified than most to compare the conferences: He's been over the issue a hundred times with his younger brother, Mike, the backup quarterback at Kentucky, one of the two teams to beat LSU this season. (Yes, B-Hart will be picking the brains of Wildcats players for a little extra help)."The biggest thing I noticed watching Kentucky and Tennessee," says Brian, is that they play a lot of man[-to-man]" -- a high-risk, high-reward philosophy more conducive to big plays. "In the Big Ten, you see a ton of zone, they'll give up the short play" -- forcing teams to sustain long drives.In Brian's opinion, "there's no huge" speed gap between the conferences in which he and his bro compete. The SEC has more spread offenses, more teams hustling to the line, going no-huddle."Do I think it's a faster paced game down in the SEC? Yeah," he says. "It's just a different kind of football." That doesn't mean SEC has faster players up and down its roster."We're fast, they're fast," he concludes. "Clock speed has nothing to do with the outcome of the game."
