We’re more than halfway through the 2019 football schedule and the SEC again has asserted its dominance over the rest of the country. (With maybe a few exceptions, sorry Arkansas.) Week 9 brings us a huge game in the SEC West between LSU and Auburn. One team will take a crushing blow to its Playoff chances and the other will think it’s ready for Bama.

Let’s take a trip around the SEC and see how everyone is feeling heading into Week 9.

Alabama

Drive through Alabama and you’ll find a line of people willing to donate their ankles to Tua. But until that technology exists, Bama fans will have to resort to holding their breath and hoping everything will be OK before the big game vs LSU. For now, their hopes rely on Mac Jones and also the fact that they’re playing Arkansas.

Arkansas

At what point does watching a college football game cross the line into cruel and unusual punishment? And why does it have to happen every weekend?

Auburn

The Tigers should be well rested after a nice, relaxing bye week. Or was that a game vs. Arkansas? Who knows. The real issue is LSU this weekend. Auburn still has everything on the table and they don’t have to play in Tiger Stadium at night, so that’s a plus. Can Gus pull some magic and shock the world or will his offense drive Auburn fans insane and cost them the game? It will one or the other.

Florida

Last week had all the makings of an upset loss, yet Dan Mullen and Co. were able to dig deep and get a win at South Carolina. Now all eyes turn to the Cocktail Party and watching Georgia fans act out the “This is Fine” meme in real life after their past 2 games. With everyone returning from injuries and Mullen getting 2 weeks to prepare, Gators fans are feeling about as well as you’d expect.

Georgia

Maybe the past 2 games have just been a long con to get Florida feeling too comfortable? Maybe Jake Fromm will come out throwing with his left hand and show he’s actually been a lefty all along? If not, and Georgia loses … you know what? Let’s not even think about that.

Kentucky

After barely holding on vs. Arkansas, the Cats gave Georgia a pretty good scare last week. Now they turn their attention toward Mizzou, which was ranked and riding a nice winning streak before losing to Vanderbilt last week. Wow, this conference makes no sense.

LSU

Joe Burrow exposed Mississippi State’s defense and a little bit of himself last week, but now he faces his toughest test yet in Auburn’s defense. LSU’s offense feels almost unstoppable, but weird things always seem to happen whenever Auburn is involved. Just win this game and give us the No. 1 vs. No. 2 Bama/LSU game that everyone so desperately wants.

Mississippi State

Sure, that LSU game was pretty rough. But you have to admit there was like a solid 20-minute time span where that game was pretty interesting. Now let’s see if the Bulldogs can carry all that momentum to Texas A&M or if Joe Moorhead will take it with him to Rutgers.

Missouri

Well, that’s what happens when you start to feel hopeful about Mizzou sports. I mean, how in the world do you lose to that Vandy team? The good news is there’s still a chance to win the East, the bad news is you’ll have to beat Georgia and Florida back-to-back to do it.

Ole Miss

Calling last week an ugly game is an insult to ugly people. Unfortunately, that’s probably just what Ole Miss is this year. Now the goal becomes fighting the odds and becoming bowl eligible or at the very least, embarrassing Mississippi State at the end of the year.

South Carolina

Will Muschamp was so close to back-to-back huge upsets last week, but we all know good things are only allowed to happen to South Carolina once every 12 months or so. Now the Gamecocks have a big division game with Tennessee to look forward to Saturday, and if they watched any tape, they should know that forcing them to run a QB sneak is probably the way to go.

Texas A&M

Who could have guessed that navigating the country’s most difficult schedule would be such a challenge? The wear and tear might be taking a toll on the Aggies, but at least they found a way to beat Ole Miss and have a pretty good chance of completing the Mississippi sweep with a win against MSU on Saturday. Let’s just finish this year in one piece and see what happens after that.

Tennessee

The good news is the Vols played a much more physical game last week against Bama. The bad news is most of the physicality came from Jeremy Pruitt on his own quarterback. Whether opposing fans want to admit it or not, there are signs of improvement for this Tennessee team, but like always, you’ll probably have to wait until next year to see them really turn things around.

Vanderbilt

This time last week you could have made a pretty convincing argument that Vanderbilt should drop its football program, and then lo and behold they go and beat a ranked Missouri team. The lesson is: Never pretend like you know what’s going to happen in this league.