Week 1 SEC Power Rankings: Geaux up top, Johnny Football falls
Right, here are your SEC power rankings.
In this power rankings, we’re not going on who we think are the best teams in the SEC UNTIL THE GAMES ARE PLAYED, so Tennessee’s not going to go to No.1 because they shelled Austin Peay, and nor is Alabama because they beat up on an injured Virginia Tech. And Georgia’s not going to the bottom because they had a ‘L’.
So here we go:
1) LSU: The Tigers put up 448 yards and 37 points on a dangerous TCU side. Zach Mettenberger looked a lot better than last year. And Jarvis Landry – if he continues to catch like he did on Saturday night – should be in the shout for the ‘Best Wide Receiver in College Football’ Award.
2) South Carolina: Despite an underwhelming performance from Jadeveon Clowney (who saw UNC’s offense try and keep him out of the game as much as possible), South Carolina’s defense showed up mightily, giving up 293 yards and 10 points to what is one of the ACC’s more potent offenses. The Connor Shaw/Dylan Thompson tandem is working at QB, too. We wish Shaw would learn to run the ball properly, though.
3) Alabama: Same bone-crushing defense. Offensive line was awful in the win over Virginia Tech. They’ll be fine in the future, but Nick Saban’s been given a lot to work on for the next two weeks before the small game at Kyle Field.
4) Georgia: Oh my gosh! They had a loss! Let’s put this into perspective. They still managed to put up a ton of offense without their best wide receiver, Malcolm Mitchell, who’s out of the year after celebrating Todd Gurley’s TD. Todd Gurley still runs as strongly as a bull. And they lost momentum after screwing up a game-tying field goal. And the defense is still young. This is a good UGA team, folks.
5) Florida: Bone-crushing defense beats an uninteresting offense every time, and twice on Sundays. This defense is scary good, though. And will only get better if everyone behaves themselves. I still can’t believe how underrated the Chompers are. But then again, it was only Toledo.
6) Texas A&M: The good bit was Johnny Manziel’s brilliant second half performance, in which he threw 3 TDs and told a Rice player he couldn’t have his autograph, which actually made me laugh, a lot. The bad bit was that the Aggies don’t look deep. Sure, a bunch of their team was suspended (that’s their fault, by the way), and they REALLY miss Damontre Moore, but Rice ran all over the Aggies. Bettors hate the Aggies too because they didn’t make the spread.
7) Ole Miss: Great comeback to win the game at Vanderbilt on Thursday night. Laquon Treadwell looks like the real deal at WR. We’re not so sure about the defense, though, which looks young. Robert Ndkemdiche is fantastic, if raw. Watch out Texas, though.
8) Vanderbilt: No disgrace in losing a heartbreaker on Thursday night. Oh, if only Jordan Matthews had caught that ball….Austyn Carta-Samuels is definitely a good sign at QB for the Commodores, though.
9) Mississippi State: Lost to a quality opponent in Oklahoma State, so there’s no worry about that. But there’s now worries about Tyler Russell’s fitness after he sustained a head injury in the third quarter, and Dak Prescott didn’t exactly set the world alight. Still, it’s a loss to a quality opponent, which is why there are so ‘high’ at 9.
10) Auburn: War Eagle won ‘War Shoot-Out’ with Washington State. The ‘D’ picked up 3 interceptions, and Tre Mason looks like being Tre Mason. Nick Marshall was pretty good in his first game – and his improvement could put big smiles on Auburn fans’ faces this year.
11) Arkansas: Bounced a dangerous ULL team by 20 points to put a big smile on Bret Bielma’s face. New QB Brandon Allen was 15-22 for 230 yards and 3 TDs, and the team put up nearly 300 yards rushing. It was ULL, so we’re not going to start giving out Heismans and SEC West trophies yet, Arkansas fans, but it’s enough to make you feel a little happier after last season’s joke of a season.
12) Missouri: Got entangled early with Murray State (I thought they played basketball?) and found themselves down 14-13 in the first quarter. But James Franklin got his act together, Dorial Green-Beckham had four catches for 83 yards, and the team together put up nearly 700 yards of offense. Against Murray State, but at least there’s a bit of hope, people.
13) Tennessee: Rolled over a team that was 2-10 last year. As they should have done. And yes, this was a confidence-boosting victory. Nice to see 97,000 showed up to Neyland Stadium, too – there must be a bit of hope in the air. Next up it’s a dangerous Western Kentucky side, who already have one SEC scalp to their name after Week 1.
14) Kentucky: It wasn’t that they lost to Western Kentucky (who actually is a pretty good team, despite the disrespect given to it in the Sun Belt). But it was the fact that they were outplayed by Bobby Petrino’s side. Their new ‘Air Raid’ offense was out-passed. Their rushing offense ended up totalling 216 yards (level with WKU’s). They had only 15 first downs. It was abysmal. Oh, and they were outscored 35-26, too.