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.
Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.
