Is Mizzou, Arkansas or Vandy the worst teams in the SEC? Week 8 Standings
eorWorking out an order for who are the best teams in the SEC is hard work. While No.1 (Alabama) is easy, then it becomes a headache.
LSU has a claim because it battered No.2 Georgia last week. Florida has a claim because it beat LSU. Kentucky has a claim because it beat Florida. Georgia will have a claim if it beats Florida (although it will strengthen LSU’s position at the moment). Texas A&M has a claim because it beat Kentucky. Those out of the running include Auburn, Mississippi State, and Tennessee.
But it’s even more difficult at the bottom to work out the crappiest. Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Missouri (all winless in the SEC) can all battle it out for the title, and it’s going to get riveting because all three play each other in a vomitous Hunger Game/round-robin where the survival is nothing in particular.
Anyway, read on…… We’re going in top-to-bottom order.
- Alabama (7-0): Unbeaten. Weren’t especially great against Missouri, but still ran out easy winners. Worries about Tua’s knee are still there, and everything else – apart from Raekwon Davis – is fine.
- LSU (6-1): Yes, we know they lost to Florida. But the Tigers were fantastic against Georgia, outplaying the Dawgs in every facet of the game. Are the Tigahs back? We don’t know yet, but my gosh they played well on Saturday afternoon.
- Florida (6-1): Despite a poor showing against Vanderiblt, this is a team that’s finding ways to win. That’s the mark of a good team.
- Georgia (6-1): The heavy loss against LSU was a culmination of three games of poor play from the Bulldogs, who failed to perform particularly well against Missouri, Tennessee, and for a half against Vanderbilt. Looking back at it, the loss was due. Kirby Smart got rightly criticised for his tactics against LSU….and it’s something he’ll need to get right against Florida. Oh, and there’s a QB controversy brewing in Athens between Jake Fromm and Justin Fields. After Fromm’s poor game in Baton Rouge, a lot of people want Fields’ presence, er, on the field.
- Texas A&M (5-2): Speaking of teams finding ways to win, A&M nearly screwed it up against South Carolina before coming away with the ‘W’.
- Kentucky (5-1): Despite their slide down the rankings, nothing’s really changed: The Wildcats are good offensively and good defensively.
- Mississippi State (4-2): It’ll be interesting to see how Joe Moorhead’s strategy of running Nick Fitzgerald down the middle will work against LSU, who were relatively untested by Georgia in that sense last week (we still don’t know why).
- South Carolina (4-2): South Carolina is an inconsistent, not particularly good team. They are fourth in the SEC East because a bunch of teams fall into that category (and are probably worse).
- Tennessee (3-3): A huge win at Auburn Tennessee gave Jeremy Pruitt his first SEC win as a head coach and the Vols program a marquee victory. It was also Tennessee’s first SEC win in two years. Sure, it was great for UT that they were playing a team who’s wheels seem to have completely come off, but a win’s a win.
- Auburn (4-3): This is turning into a trainwreck. Auburn fans are starting to want blood.
- Ole Miss (5-2): Survived an ugly-but-awesome game at Arkansas to pull out victory. The defense still isn’t great, but the Rebels are still fun to watch.
- Arkansas (1-6): In another season, this Razorbacks team – which should have beaten Ole Miss last week, outgained Auburn and played Texas A&M very close indeed – could be 4-3. This team is going in the right direction.
- Missouri (3-3): If you want a team that’s going in the wrong direction, it’s Missouri. Drew Lock at the moment is looking for a cylinder to fire on, making bad decision after bad decision. Defensively things are a joke, and Barry Odom’s looking hopeless. The good thing for Mizzou is that they still have Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Arkansas to play. The bad news is that they will probably have to lessen up on their stupid mistakes to pull out victory in any of those games.
- Vanderbilt (3-4): The ‘Dores played OK against Florida, but Derek Mason’s motivational talks don’t seem to be getting the victories. We don’t know if Mason’s on the accursed ‘hot seat’, but it’s not looking great for him.
IMPRESSED:
- Ed Orgeron: That’s three massive wins for Orgeron in 7 weeks after a dominating win over the No.2 team in the nation. His team loves him. The fans (right now) love him. LSU is rolling.
- 5,000 Volunteers: That win wasn’t so much for Jeremy Pruitt as for the 5,000 travelling Vols fans who came into Jordan-Hare expecting a fun day out rather than victory, and getting both.
UNIMPRESSED
- Raekwon Davis: The more you see Davis’ punches getting thrown at the Missouri player, the worse it looks. Hopefully Nick Saban will suspend Davis for a game or two, but it’s likely it’ll be a quarter because he will have ‘learned his lesson’ in practice.
- SEC refs: First of all, WHY IN THE HELL WASN’T DAVIS EJECTED? Secondly, the refs don’t seem to have a clue what targeting is. Thirdly, they had great control of the Florida and Vanderbilt sidelines. Said nobody.
- Kirby Smart and His Merry Men: Opting to throw the ball against one of the SEC’s best secondaries instead of running it down their throat wasn’t a great look for the Georgia coaching staff, folks.