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Oh, we thought we had the SEC figured out, didn’t we? But each week, there’s new wrinkles, teams or players who exceed expectations or leave us disappointed. Each week, we try to figure out what people, places and things around the conference are overrated and which ones are underrated. Next week may or may not render this list completely irrelevant, but for now here’s how it looks:
OVERRATED
Ole Miss Offense: The Rebels are still a good team with potential to be a defensive coordinator’s nightmare. But the huge numbers were built against some weak competition and boosted by some lucky plays against Alabama. It was an overreaction to start putting the Ole Miss offense in the all-time great category.
Alabama’s Demise: Look, hindsight is 20-20 and all, but we should probably have realized the Crimson Tide wasn’t ready to lay down and let another team claim the top spot in the SEC. When Georgia came out to warmups and tried to pick a fight, it was clear Alabama is still one of the conference’s most intimidating teams.
Greyson Lambert: It was a great story for a few weeks, but this is still the same quarterback who could not win the starting job for a bad Virginia team.
UNDERRATED
Florida: Didn’t we all think it would take Jim McElwain a little longer than this? The competition gets better each week, and the Gators just keep on winning. Florida is a real threat to win the SEC East this year, and you know what’s scary for the rest of the conference: The Gators are playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores.
Arkansas’ Resilience: It’s been a tough season so far for the Razorbacks, and even making a bowl game could prove to be a challenge with a tough SEC West schedule ahead. But instead of rolling over after disappointing losses to Toledo and Texas Tech, not to mention losing star wide receiver Keon Hatcher, Arkansas showed some fight. Knocking off Tennessee was a huge step toward salvaging the season.
Jake Coker: The Alabama quarterback might be underrated now because he was overrated before. Expectations have always been sky high for Coker, who transferred from Florida State but was never able to win a starting job until this season. He’s steadily improved this season and played his best college game on Saturday against Georgia. At this rate, he could be the kind of quarterback Alabama needs to win big.
Shane Mettlen is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers Texas A&M, Missouri and Alabama.