SEC teams well represented at top of ESPN’s Week 1 power rankings
By Keith Farner
Published:
The usual suspects are at the top of ESPN’s Week 1 power rankings as the top two SEC teams won handily despite missing key pieces. For Alabama, that’s LB Dylan Moses. For Georgia, that’s a host of key receivers from last season.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach summarized the first full weekend of college football this way: “Six teams — Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio State and LSU — seem to be the cream of the crop, at least after one week. Auburn, Boise State and Wisconsin were among the big surprises. Florida State, Missouri, Tennessee and UCLA were among the disappointments.
His top 10 teams are Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio State, LSU, Texas, Michigan, Notre Dame and Auburn.
As the Crimson Tide look to replace Moses, Schlabach noted that freshmen linebackers Christian Harris and Shane Lee each had six tackles in their first career starts.
For Georgia, it’s about finding new targets for QB Jake Fromm, and two appear to be Demetris Robertson and Matt Landers.
LSU’s new offense was noteworthy, as Schlabach wrote, “The Tigers scored 21 points in the first and second quarters each — after failing to score three touchdowns in any quarter in 2018.
About Auburn, Schlabach wrote, “(Bo) Nix still has a long way to go, but Auburn’s defense is good enough to keep the Tigers in games while he gets more comfortable and develops as a passer.”
Texas A&M (11) and Florida (14) were the only other SEC teams in this list of top 25 teams.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
