Alabama Rising, Florida flying – Week 5 SEC Rankings
Week 5 of the season came and went with these feelings about the SEC: The Swamp was titinus-causingly loud. And Florida is good. Or Ole Miss was overrated. Alabama playing at their best will be unbeatable. Or Georgia was overrated. Auburn fans toilet-papered Toomer’s Corner out of relief. Les Miles has got to get his team’s head together against lower opponents. Maty Mauk may have started his last game for Missouri. South Carolina is awful. Kentucky is overrated. Texas A&M is good. Mississippi State’s run game is bad. Kyle Field is loud.Vanderbilt scored a nice upset win. Over MTSU. The weather was horrible in most parts of the SEC this week. Prayers to Columbia, SEC, where it’s flooding at the time of writing.
Anyway, here’s your rankings after Week 5.
- Alabama (2): They came, they saw, they conquered. Brutal weather conditions meant nothing to Saban, who’s defense took advantage of Georgia having no vertical passing threat whatsoever. The Tide played near-enough a perfect game. If they play like this, they will win the College Football Play-Off. With some ease. And Saban was actually happy. Beware, SEC folks, when Nick Saban is happy.
- Texas A&M (3): Defense stood up nicely against Mississippi State, and the offense did what it needed to do against a better-than-advertised Cowbeller team. We still love Christian Kirk, and we’re already eyeballing the Alabama game.
- Florida (6): The Swamp and the Gators fans that lived in it were a loud, drunken, rageful-turned-delirious frenzy on Saturday night. The refs couldn’t hear themselves think. Even watching on TV, nor could we. From the first whistle, it was obvious that blood was sensed. By the end, Ole Miss and Hugh Freeze were crucified at the altar of The Gator. Florida was great in almost all passages of play, and unlike the orange unis, were great to watch. This Gators team is good, folks.
- Ole Miss (1): The Rebels’ destruction at Ole Miss proved that if you’re not playing Fresno State, then maybe your offense isn’t that good after all. And it shouldn’t have been too much surprise that the defense was at times shredded in the second half….that’ll happen with a bunch of 3 or 6-and-outs.
- LSU (5): “LSU’s great because it has Leonard Fournette” seems to be the line that ESPN and all the other guys trot out. Yes, Fournette may have had a 200-yard game, but the defense and a lot of the quarterback play is pretty ugly. The worst part? Les Miles cannot seem to get his team psyched up for crappy teams. This has now happened for two weeks’ straight. Against the likes of Alabama, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Florida, can LSU get psyched up for the good ones? I just don’t know.
- Georgia (4): After their shellacking in the rain, Georgia fans can lie there with their hangovers, comforted that at least the Alabama loss wasn’t a divisional loss. They can also worry that in-division Florida’s suddenly looking a lot better than they are. Another thing that Georgia fans are annoyed about: Abandoning the running game too early. In Brian Schottenheimer/Mark Richt’s defense, every 3-and-out seemed to be leading to points for Alabama. They had to do something.
- Mississippi State (7): Losing at Kyle Field isn’t something to hate your team about, but going 14-0 down quickly and having an offense that’s not good trying to dig yourself out of that hole probably is. If Manny Diaz’ defense can play two halves and Mississippi State can get something going on offense, this will be one of the SEC’s toughest outs this year.
- Arkansas (10): Alex Collins is a beast, and again proved that against Tennessee. The 24-20 win – especially the final drive – was an exhibition of run-down-your-throat offense, with no stupid penalties given away. Brandon Allen looked serviceable.
- Kentucky (10): Kentucky’s risin’ and Tennessee’s fallin’. Kentucky was lucky to win on Saturday. Against Eastern Kentucky.
- Missouri (11): Mizzou’s got a quarterback in Drew Lock, who went 21/28 for 136 yards and 2 TDs against South Carolina. The defense had 3 picks. They were a lot better against this crappy opponent than they were, say, against UConn. Mind you, that’s hardly a high standard.
- Tennessee (8): On the surface of it losing 24-20 at home to Arkansas is simply another heartbreaking loss. But when the offensive co-ordinators seem to have no clue as to what they are doing, and the wide receivers don’t seem to be allowed to catch – or even try – for a deep ball (and the Razorbacks’ secondary was hardly special going in), all you can think is: “This team’s got problems.”
- Auburn (13): Peyton Barber might have gotten five touchdowns, and the defense might have gotten four turnovers, but ‘D’ still gave up 406 yards. I’m sorry, but I don’t think future SEC opponents give the ball up four times to Auburn this season. And I don’t think Peyton Barber scores 5 TDs against future SEC opponents either.
- Vanderbilt (14): THE COMMODORES ARE OFF THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST!! An ‘upset’ win over MTSU will do that for you. And the defense is looking much improved, even if the offfense is, er, poor.
- South Carolina (12): South. Carolina. Is. Awful. And the cry for Steve Spurrier to retire are getting even louder.