SEC Week 6: Tennessee continues to drop jaws, Arkansas just drops
South Carolina scored the most stunning win of the SEC calendar in Week 6 when they beat Kentucky on their own turf.
Also, Texas A&M was a dumbass decision away from upsetting Alabama for the second year in a row on its own turf in a game plagued by turnovers, while Georgia happily destroyed Auburn.
Otherwise, Tennessee went to Death Valley and destroyed LSU 40-13, Mississippi State took advantage of a porous Arkansas secondary (to put it mildly), Florida beat Missouri and Ole Miss did what was expected of them by beating Vanderbilt with a strong second half performance.
Anyway, here are our Week 6 rankings…
- Tennessee (5-0): We all thought this would be a tight game in Death Valley. We thought LSU would have something for Tennessee despite a ‘shoulda lost’ against Auburn. But the Tigers proved to be toothless, punched by Hendon Hooker’s 236 yard, 2 TD performance and Jabari Small’s fantastic 127 yard, 2 TD performance and Bru McCoy’s 140 yards on just 7 receptions. Tennessee’s defense also caused two turnovers. Although things were soured with the news that its starting safety was arrested for felony assault on Sunday night (he’ll probably get booted before the Alabama game), right now all is rosy in the ‘Vegas.
- Georgia (5-0): Georgia started slowly against Auburn, and then found another gear and drubbed the Tigers. Stetson Bennett’s 30 yard, Bo Nix-style touchdown was celebrated by all (Georgia fans, who obviously hadn’t noticed how bad Auburn is at stopping running backs).
- Alabama (6-0): Alabama survived Texas. They survived Texas A&M. The Texas game was a survival because of a last second kick and a disgusting no-hold call on the final drive, this was because of a horror show of a final playcall with the ball on the Bama five. Crimson Tide will be praying that Bryce Young’s back for the Tennessee game, because otherwise, we might see that 15 year stint ending at Neyland.
- Mississippi State (5-1): Mississippi State’s shellacking of Texas A&M suddenly looks better after the Aggies took ‘Bama to the hilt, or does it look worse because they collapsed against LSU? Anyway, Will Rogers is a star and they ripped Arkansas to shreds.
- Ole Miss (6-0): Ole Miss is 6-0 despite not being overly impressive, but it’s 6-0, which is more than can be said of all-but-4 teams in the SEC. They struggled with Vanderbilt in the first half – trailing 20-17 at the half – before they hit another gear and the Commodores simply couldn’t keep up.
- Texas A&M (3-3): Now that Max Johnson’s done for the year, we’re back with Haynes King again, who performed admirably against Alabama. There’s no secret that Devon Achane’s the heartbeat of this offense, but the Aggies have frosh Evan Stewart, a freshman who was the 11th player nationally, who brutalised Alabama for 106 yards on 8 receptions. Anyway, we don’t know if this translate into Texas A&M running the table from hereon in, but it’s highly possible now….if Jimbo Fisher can just get his head out of his ass.
- South Carolina (4-2): South Carolina deeply profited from a season-ending injury to Kentucky’s future NFL first round QB Will Levis, as well as the usual terrifyingly bad Kentucky special teams play. They managed to limit the damage against Chris Rodriguez. Oh, and Shane Beamer’s offensive philosophy letting MarShawn Lloyd to the damage on the floor instead of Spencer Rattler throwing the ball is looking much improved. In other words, it’s a stunning turnaround from what we thought they would be after their shellacking by Georgia.
- Kentucky (4-2): We now know what the Wildcats are without Will Levis, and the answer is: “Not great”. Kaiya Sheron might be the long-term answer for the Wildcats, but if the defense is exhausted and special teams remains laughable, this could be a longer season than we all imagined.
- LSU (4-2): LSU wasn’t very good against Auburn, and escaped with a victory. LSU wasn’t very good against Tennessee, and got destroyed. LSU got ripped for 502 yards against the ultra-fast UT offense, and although Jayden Daniels had an OK day (302 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT), it’s his defense that is a mighty struggle.
- Florida (4-2): Florida is not a good team, but sometimes their defense does weird stuff (see Utah game for details) that turn out to be difference makers. For the Gators, it was a pick-six early on that gave the Gators a 10-0 lead that they would never relinquish, despite being outgained by Mizzou AND another awful day for Anthony Richardson.
- Arkansas (4-2): The Razorbacks have a quarterback in KJ Jefferson (albeit out for the MSU loss), but their secondary is goddawful. The tide has turned against DC Barry Odom now, and it’ll get uglier as the losses continue to rack up for a team we think will end 6-6…if not worse.
- Missouri (2-4): If the Tigers had had some semblance of a good offense, they would have won two of last three instead of gone 0-3 in the SEC. The problem is is that Eli Drinkwitz – for some inexplicable reason – seems to trust Brady Cook instead of anyone to run the offense. Cook is third in the SEC in interceptions, ninth in pass completion percentage (but fourth in pass attempts), and tenth in passing touchdowns. His presence seems to ruin any good defensive fight out there.
- Vanderbilt (3-3): No-one could accuse Vanderbilt of not being exciting this year. They average 33 points per game (up from 15.8 the year before). Of course, their defense is still shambolic, but at least the blow-outs are less-so. In the Ole Miss game, Vanderbilt had a 20-10 lead late in the first half before a super-fast Rebels drive at the end made it 20-17. Then Ole Miss kicked into another gear that the Commodores couldn’t keep up with, and that was that. Will they go winless in the SEC? Probably. But they’ll be exciting about it.
- Auburn (3-3): Auburn is a very, very bad team. There is no nicer way of putting it. We know that they should have beaten LSU, but Missouri should have been Georgia and arguably Florida. Everything Bryan Harsin seems to be doing is a mess, and there are no green shoots.