Week 9 is officially in the books, and the first College Football Playoff rankings are set to be released Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. eastern. You thought the BCS rankings were controversial? Just wait until 12 selection committee members (Archie Manning was the 13th) drop their top four after nine weeks. Things are about to get crazy.
Stop me if you saw this coming: Mississippi State will likely be the first ever No. 1 team the selection committee ranks on Tuesday night. Think about it…
Here are the SEC’s biggest takeaways from Week 9:
RELATED: Watch LSU’s Leonard Fournette get his facemask ripped off
Thrilling Saturday: Be honest: how many of you thought Saturday’s slate of games looked boring? Guilty as charged. Saturday’s games were thrilling, especially LSU’s upset over Ole Miss and Auburn’s awesome victory over South Carolina. Mississippi State and Kentucky also perked interest. College football reminded us Saturday why it’s the best regular season in all of sports, and no other sport can touch it…even on a perceived ‘off’ week.
And then there was ONE: Mississippi State fans — soak it up. As if the No. 1 overall ranking isn’t enough, MSU is now the only undefeated team in the SEC. Powered by Heisman contender Dak Prescott, MSU is doing things nobody thought prior to the season. Prescott combined for three touchdowns against Kentucky, and eight different receivers caught passes. It was a tough win on the road against a young, talented and improving team, but the Bulldogs’ defensive line was too nasty in the fourth quarter.
Josh Robinson is the second best back in the league: There’s Todd Gurley, and then, there’s MSU’s Josh Robinson. While Dak Prescott gets most of the ink and all of the Heisman love, Robinson powered MSU with 198 yards rushing with two touchdowns. The human bowling ball has rushed for an SEC-high 887 yards and 10 touchdowns. Robinson refuses to go down, and he’s recorded four 100-yard performances in seven games. Prescott has a lot to do with it, but Robinson is the SEC’s most underrated player.
Vintage SEC: Ole Miss and LSU was physical, smash-mouth football. That’s the type of football we’re used to seeing in the SEC. Two teams with elite talent hitting each other in the mouth, led by NFL-filled defensive rosters. A 10-7 finish had shades of LSU’s 9-6 win over Alabama in 2011.
LSU was meant to win it: With Les Miles’ mother passing away Friday, you knew LSU would play inspired football for its fearless leader. The Tigers are the most improved team from Week 1 through Week 9, and this team is downright scary for anyone to tangle with down the stretch. The Tigers’ defense stepped up to the challenge against the Rebels’ offense, and Leonard Fournette is quickly becoming my favorite player. Fournette’s a throwback who isn’t afraid to play with reckless abandonment. Ultimately, it came down to LSU executing on a 13-play, 95-yard touchdown drive to win it, and once again, Anthony Jennings led a game-winning drive. For as much as Jennings has been criticized, he’s the come-from-behind king. Jennings did it against Arkansas last year, Wisconsin this year, Florida this year and Ole Miss Saturday night. Cool as the other side of the pillow.
RELATED: Same LSU DB flopped again against Ole Miss Saturday night
Ole Miss’ offensive execution was disastrous: Let’s not avoid crediting LSU’s defense, but what was Ole Miss trying to do the final two drives of the game? Prior to the 2014 season, the knock against Hugh Freeze was that he struggled making decisions in big games. That happened again Saturday. I hated the fourth down quarterback sneak call. From an offensive line that hasn’t gotten much push all season, and you call that on fourth down? Gheesh. Bo Wallace’s pick at the end of the game wasn’t on Freeze, and if you’re Wallace, how do you not give yourself a chance to tie with the field goal? Bad Bo Wallace reappeared and struck Ole Miss when he couldn’t afford to the most.
RELATED: Hugh Freeze explained what happened on Bo Wallace’s INT to end the game
Amari Cooper is back in the Heisman race: Every time Amari Cooper touches it, he looks like a different caliber of player…you know, the ones that play on Sundays. Cooper set another Alabama receiving record with 224 yards in one game, and he added two touchdowns. He averaged 24.9 yards per reception, and he was uncoverable. Outside of Cooper, Alabama looked lackluster after it went up 27-0 in the second quarter. Tennessee crept back into the game, and the Crimson Tide just have to finish better. Alabama is as hot as anybody in the country right now.
RELATED: Watch Cooper take it 80 yards on the first offensive play
Offensive wizards: Wasn’t Auburn’s win over USC fun? The Tigers beat a vintage Steve Spurrier Saturday night, and Spurrier was at his best. That was two great offensive playcallers dialing it up. Fifty-five combined first downs, 1,086 combined yards and 77 points. The difference was Auburn’s running game torched the Gamecocks’ defense with 395 yards, averaging a nasty 8.4 yards per carry. Dylan Thompson played really well and threw five touchdown passes on his birthday, but he also turned it over with three crucial INTs in the red zone. Auburn had two 100-yard rushers in Cameron Artis-Payne and Ricardo Louis, and Nick Marshall combined for four touchdowns. For all the talk about USC’s Mike Davis, receiver Pharoh Cooper is the SEC’s best kept secret and the team’s best offensive weapon.
RELATED: Auburn got away with a penalty on the last play of the game
Most fun touchdown of the year: Arkansas hammered UAB, and that’s exactly what we expected. But the Hogs also had the most creative play of the year when 350-pound Sebastian Tretola threw a touchdown pass to the team’s long snapper. Arkansas may win four or five games this season, but the Hogs have fun playing for Bret Bielema. And what better recruiting pitch than to show Bielema’s building something and having fun doing it.
Mauk to Sasser: That connection was the difference for Missouri over Vanderbilt. Mauk threw for 141 yards and threw two touchdowns to Bud Sasser. Despite looking lackluster, Missouri is right in the thick of the SEC East race, despite not having the head-to-head over the Georgia Bulldogs.
Tennessee has found its quarterback: The Vols entered Saturday night’s contest as the SEC’s worst rushing team, averaging just 94 yards per game, but with Justin Worley out and Josh Dobbs relieving Nathan Peterman, the offense rushed for 181 against Alabama’s defense. This has been the missing piece to the puzzle in Butch Jones’ spread-em-out offense: a mobile quarterback. Dobbs may not be the future answer, but he’s the type of player Jones has to have next season in order to turn his program around.
Kentucky vs. Tennessee: This Week 12 matchup could decide which team goes to a bowl game and which team stays home. Kentucky already has five wins, while Tennessee has just three.
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
