SEC Power Rankings after Week 10
SEC Week 10 was another week where the gaps between the haves and have-nots was pretty darn clear. With November football behind us, here’s the latest installment of our weekly power rankings.
14. Vanderbilt (0-8, lost to Missouri 41-0)
This was a credible Missouri team, but there’s no reason anybody in the SEC should lose by 41 points to this group. On a week where we all wanted to see Sarah Fuller get on the board, not only didn’t Vandy score, they didn’t even come close to giving her a chance to boot the ball through the uprights.
13. South Carolina (2-7, lost to Georgia 45-16)
The Gamecocks got boat-raced by a Georgia team that beat Kentucky by 11 and Mississippi State by 7. There’s just nothing remarkable about this team. Luke Doty might be the answer in 2021 and Kevin Harris has been the highlight of USC’s season, but he was held to 3.1 yards per carry on Saturday.
12. Mississippi State (2-6, lost to Ole Miss 31-24)
For the second week in a row, the Bulldogs couldn’t pull the game out in the 4th quarter. That said, they’ve done a good job of leaning on their defense and getting meaningful experience for QB Will Rogers, who passed for 440 yards and 3 TDs. This isn’t a good team, but unlike several of the other lower-echelon teams in the league, it’s a building year for Leach and Co.
11. Tennessee (2-5, postponed this week)
Frankly, State probably is playing better than UT, but since the Vols were off, there was no good reason to move them.
10. Kentucky (3-6, lost to Florida 34-10)
Kentucky may not be better than UT or Mississippi State, but they did beat both of them. It’s been a rough couple of weeks for a Kentucky team that’s just getting hammered by injuries and COVID issues. That said, the offense is horribly broken and the special teams aren’t any better.
9. LSU (3-4, lost to Texas A&M 20-7)
After opening the season with a sharp offense and absolutely no defense, LSU flipped the script this week. How ugly was the LSU/A&M marathon? The teams combined to go 34-for-81 passing for 336 yards, 1 TD and 2 interceptions. Meanwhile, LSU rushed 25 times for 36 yards. Max Johnson did some good things in garbage time, but what a weird loss for the Tigers.
8. Arkansas (3-5, postponed this week)
The Razorbacks didn’t play, and as a general idea, we don’t like to move teams that don’t play, but Mizzou was sharp.
7. Missouri (4-3, beat Vanderbilt 41-0)
Larry Rountree III is the Rodney Dangerfield of SEC football in 2020. All he does is take the ball and run hard. He has 3 100-yard games in the Tigers’ last 5 games. Meanwhile, the Missouri defense has done a great job of playing big against some of the SEC’s weaker offenses. Kentucky, Carolina and Vandy can all attest, scoring an average of 6.7 points per game against Mizzou.
6. Ole Miss (4-4, beat Mississippi State 31-24)
The Rebels remain the best show in the SEC, with a dynamic offense and a defense that hasn’t been afraid to take chances. It doesn’t always work out, but the Rebels belong toward the top of the middle of the SEC pack.
5. Auburn (5-3, lost to Alabama 42-13)
It’s not that Auburn isn’t going to win the West, or even best A&M for second place. It’s that their 3 losses came to a South Carolina team that sits at 13th in our rankings and then by 21 and 29 points against the 2 best teams on their schedule. Auburn hasn’t had a shot at belonging among the better teams of the SEC, and only an upset of A&M can change that. Honestly, they might belong below Ole Miss and/or Mizzou, but for at least a week, we’ll stop their freefall here.
4. Georgia (6-2, beat South Carolina 45-16)
The burning question is how much different would this season have looked had the Bulldogs gone to JT Daniels at QB earlier. It’s not like it’s a novel idea. Anybody who watched Georgia play recognized that the lack of a top-shelf passing game (and possibly some issues with focus) was the only real stumbling block keeping them out of the SEC’s top teams. In any case, Georgia is at least finishing well.
3. Texas A&M (6-1, beat LSU 20-7)
This was not a sharp effort. Kellen Mond suddenly looked like he regressed by a season or two. The good news was that Isaiah Spiller and the defense saved the day. But Mond is the difference between A&M being a longshot at the CFP and, say, Auburn. They’ll need him to get right next week against the Tigers.
2. Florida (7-1, beat Kentucky 34-10)
Yet again, Florida was kind of “meh” in victory. And yet again, they rolled in the 2nd half easily. Fair or not, they’re biding their time until they get to Alabama. Kyle Pitts might be the impact player that Alabama really can’t stop. That said, the UF defense can’t afford to take halves off.
1.Alabama (8-0, beat Auburn 42-13)
What? Did you think they would lose? Many of the numbers from this game ended up even or close to even … but it was window dressing. This was domination, and Alabama’s got more where it came from.
This is a good list and yes Mizzou has beaten teams worse than them but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? Mizzou got their two best olinemen back and it made a huge difference. Can’t wait to face Barry Odom’s defense. Nick Bolton is the best linebacker in the SEC hands down and Larry Rountree is one of the better backs.
You guys are in for a rude awakening. Ill go on record and say Florida is going to get served a slice of humble pie against Bama. They will key on Pitts, and then what? If I’m wrong, ill eat crow. This column sounds like Herbstreit saying ND is the most complete team yesterday. Like did anyone even watch Alabama play?
Probably fair to say. Bama will definitely be the best offense we’ve had to face, and will arguably be the best defense as well. I could still see us executing and getting something like 30ish points, but I think they’ll score as many points as they choose to against us.
But anything can happen, and as they say that’s why we play the games. Just hoping for a good one with everybody healthy and available.
Not here to say we’ll beat Bama by any means, but to say “They will key on Pitts and then what” doesn’t make sense when the offense was just fine for the 2 and a half games he was out. He is by far, our best offensive weapon, but not our only weapon at all
Yeah that just goes to show how many Gator games this guy has watched. And “then what” happens is Trask throws it to Toney, or Grimes, or Copeland, or Shorter, or Henderson, or Gamble, or Zipperer or one of the 3 running backs who have caught 10 or more passes this season.
As usual, these kinds of discussion always require additional detail. My point partially is not be down on Florida, but to point out the writer is basing what he thinks on Pitts in large part as if Bama can’t do anything about it, and then to emphasize that Bama has other players too. My comments aren’t meant to be down on Florida, but high on Alabama.
Florida has grimes and toney, sure, they are great, but bama has people too. We can’t just assume that if Pitts is keyed on that Florida will simply just use someone else. This can’t be treated that simply. So ironically, the simplicity of the argument I used, highlighted the simplicity of the point the author made, but to point out the absurdity. You did the same as the author. Its not that simple. They are not just going to throw to grimes to toney.
Florida may score 30, but that won’t be enough. Bama is the most complete team, and that will take its toll. Did you watch the Bama game?
All respect to Florida’s offense; it’s very good, easily the 2nd-best in the SEC IMO. However, Alabama’s defense is as good as or better than the defenses you’ve already seen. So if we can hold you to approx. 2/3 of your average output in points, that puts you at about 28 points. Bama’s allowing 18.5 PPG (down to 14 if you take out the Ole Miss game).
However, your defense is giving up 26 points/game right now. You gave up 35+ 3 times, and 40+ once. It’s hard for me to imagine Alabama not scoring at least 40, and probably more, in this game.
My guess is that it’ll be something like 45-24 or 52-31, and that it won’t feel any kind of close after the 1st quarter (something like 35-14 at the half). UF hasn’t shown anywhere near the defense needed to slow down this offense, whereas Bama’s defense looks much improved. The gap between the offenses is fairly small, though I believe Bama still has more weapons than UF in total. The gap between the defenses, however, is pretty significant, and that’ll make the difference in the game.
ATMColdChills: At the end of the day it’s still easy to say that Alabama will take Pitts away, when no one has been able to do it. Again, at this point, I wouldn’t put money on florida beating Bama, but there is a path to victory for sure. Just because Bama has the best defense in the SEC does not mean they will just shut us down. Georgia was the best defense until they played us and we didn’t have Pitts for half the game.
Also, anyone that has watched Florida play extensively will realize, our defense actually has the players to be elite. It’s just that our best players (mostly in the secondary) are freshman and sophomores and Dan’s staff prefers to play older players who, in this case, are trash McElwain recruits. This can be fixed. Will it? That’s the same question florida fans have been asking Grantham all season
Funny how playing Vanderbilt can make you look like you are “sharp”. I dont know but Vanderbilt will have to be making some tough decisions in the years to come as college football continues to change, consolidate power into fewer and fewer programs. Its going to be tough to compete and not have a dwindling fan base. I see a realignment coming when the elites from several conferences leave the NCAA and form a super conference. You can guess who those “elites” would be. But it could end up looking like a college version of the NFL, maybe 32 teams in divisions.
If the elites formed their own conference, they’d be giving themselves a historically brutal schedule against other elites. Elites from all conferences enjoy feasting on lesser opponents for many reasons.
Good post boxster
Teams like Nebraska and Colorado used to be elite but then they lost their coaches and fell into the second tier. When the super conference is formed and some of these teams fall to the way side what do you do then? Will there be a clause that says if your football or basketball program is bad for 5 seasons we’re going to kick you out?
What about Kansas and Duke? They have top basketball programs but bad football programs?
I don’t see a super conference happening for that reason. Too many egos.
Does this guy even follow the storylines usc had 10 starting defensive players out and starts comparing to other losses. We had some 20 odd players OUT.
That’s not much of an excuse this year. I haven’t seen one Kentucky fan complain about having 18 players out against Florida yesterday. And Kentucky showed up to play yesterday. They would’ve went into the half with the lead if not for a timely punt return TD
LSU’s defense showed some improvement. Hard to expect much from freshman QBs against arguably the best defense in the SEC. Not arguing with the ranking, just the logic. The sharp offense was when Brennan was QB.
Disagree that Bama will shut down Pitts, but they will slow him down. FL will get its points, but Bama can probably name their number on O. The FL D is NOT GOOD. I’m not even sure it’s more than Fair, and that’s not enough to keep them under 45. 48-24.
Ole Miss and probably Arkansas should be ahead of Auburn. Were it not for two botched calls, both would have beaten Auburn.