In business, the saying is “change or die.”

In the animal world the name of the game is evolution and adaptation. Survival of the fittest.

In the SEC, I call it the circle of life. It’s natural. It’s always gone on and it always will. New coaches rise and take the place of the old coaches … until newer coaches rise and eventually take their places.

In the nation’s toughest football conference, the landscape is merciless, unforgiving and brutal. And it’s constantly being modified.

Just look at how the SEC has changed over the past 15 years.

In the 1990s, Steve Spurrier and Phillip Fulmer owned the SEC. Sure, Spurrier had the top limb of the tree all to himself, but the view from Fulmer’s perch was pretty darn good, too.

Those two coaches sat back and culled the best talent from across the South. And with that talent, like two massive predators on the African Savannah, they left a trail of bones and carcasses in their respective wakes.

Smaller critters like Joe Lee Dunn, Woody Widenhofer, Rod Dowhower and Gerry DiNardo were no match.

Hal Mumme, Bill Curry, Brad Scott and Sparky Woods were victims, too.

So were Joe Kines, Curley Hallman, Jim Donnan, Ray Goff and Mike Dubose.

But the bodies they disposed of only left vacancies in the food chain. Vacancies waiting to be filled by bigger animals, by better coaches.

LSU, weary of getting pushed around, hired Nick Saban to rebuild them, then Les Miles to sustain Saban’s success. Who do you think was easier pickings: Saban or DiNardo? Miles or Hallman?

Alabama might have stumbled around for a while, but eventually it followed LSU’s lead and brought in Saban to rebuild their program. His recruiting ability is already on display, which is bad news for everyone else in the SEC.

As for Georgia, who would you rather face: Ray Goff or Mark Richt?

Even Kentucky has upgraded from the likes of Mumme to Rich Brooks, a man who once built Oregon into a Rose Bowl-worthy program.

At South Carolina, Woods and Scott were booted and Lou Holtz was brought in first, then Spurrier (albeit the less successful, current version).

The point is this: the league’s pushovers aren’t pushovers anymore. The coaching animals that Spurrier and Fulmer used to feast on are gone, and the new coaching beasts are a whole lot more difficult to take down. Ironically, this evolution in the SEC was brought about by the successes of Spurrier and Fulmer. As a result, their once highly successful methods are less effective.

In Spurrier’s case, his ability to create separation for his receivers, always the key to his offense, has been curtailed by coaches who now put their fastest athletes on defense. Competitors adapted to his methods. The other animals evolved, if you will.

In Fulmer’s case, his brand of conservative football (which every Tennessee coach has embraced since General Neyland’s days) is not as effective without a Peyton Manning, Travis Henry, Al Wilson, or John Henderson to make the big play at crunch time. Fulmer’s forte was always recruiting, but the new coaching animals who have come into the league have done a better job of marking their territory and keeping their local recruits at home.

Now, sadly, both coaches are left to hear boos rain down on them. It happened to Fulmer last Saturday as his team no-showed against bold and brash Florida. It happened to Spurrier last Saturday as his team struggled with tiny Wofford.

“We didn’t all of a sudden get stupid as coaches,” Fulmer said of his staff on Tuesday. And there’s no doubt the man knows exactly what he knew in the 1998 national championship season. He hasn’t forgotten his X’s and O’s.

Neither has Spurrier who won his own national title in 1996.

But they have seen new coaches with new methods (Florida's Urban Meyer and his spread offense, for example) enter the league in the last decade. What experience did either of these men have with him or that?

“Wild Rebel” packages, more intricate zone blitz schemes, “Jack” linebacker positions, recruiting via webcams. New coaches are bringing new ideas into the SEC.

And in this instance, it’s apparent that the championships of the past can actually work against the great beasts of the 1990s.

“I’ve won a lot of games THIS way. Why would I change? I know how to win.”

It’s natural. Who wouldn’t feel that way after enjoying great success?

But that failure to evolve, to adapt to a changing landscape is the reason many animals have become extinct. It’s why many companies have been put out of business by smaller, faster, quicker-to-adapt companies.

Saturday, Fulmer and Spurrier will lead their teams against Auburn and UAB, respectively. Both may win. Both may lose. Either way, both have tough SEC schedules ahead of them. Can they survive?

That’s not a knock on either coach.

That’s just Darwin. That’s “change or die.” That’s evolution and adaptation. That’s the circle of life in the SEC.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.