SEC Power Rankings: Mississippi State’s surprise sends it soaring up the charts
Each week we’ll take a look at every Southeastern Conference football team’s performance and rank them, in ascending order. Click here for week one’s scores.
14. Arkansas (0-1)
Georgia didn’t take it easy on its former offensive line coach in his first second half as the Razorbacks’ head man. Arkansas actually led into the third quarter, but gave up the final 32 points of the game, its lack of depth relative to the Bulldogs’ bench apparent.
Sam Pittman says: “I just think our defense played hard and it looked to me like we needed to sub a little bit more. We didn’t have enough juice to finish the game.”
13. Missouri (0-1)
Mizzou covered a high spread (28 points) and got a decent performance out of new quarterback Shawn Robinson (19-of-25 for 185 yards and a touchdown, no interceptions), but otherwise a young group of Tigers performed about as haphazardly as expected against the Alabama machine.
Eli Drinkwitz says (regarding defense struggles): “I mean, saying ‘a little bit’ is being nice — they were 9-for-14 on third downs. That’s not good enough.”
12. Vanderbilt (0-1)
True freshman starting quarterback Ken Seals was inconsistent and the Commodores got little from their run game, but they were able to hang with Texas A&M (in part due to the Aggies’ own rust). Seals was adamant afterward that this isn’t the same old Vandy, but we’ll see how the Commodores handle an angry LSU squad in front of an empty stadium this week.
Derek Mason says: “It wasn’t pretty all the time, but the effort was there.”
11. Mississippi (0-1)
On one hand, Ole Miss got exactly what it wanted with Lane Kiffin at the helm: a thrilling offense that piled up 613 total yards against a defense that never gave up that much a year ago (though Florida wasn’t exactly a brick wall in 2019, giving up 400 or more yards eight times and more than 500 yards on three occasions). On the other, the Rebels were as equally generous to the Gators, and gave up 50 points for the second time in their last three games going back to last season.
Lane Kiffin says: “In order to beat teams like that, you have to play better than that.”
10. Kentucky (0-1)
The Wildcats outgained their top-10 counterpart Auburn on the road but essentially five turnovers (two fumbles, two on downs and an interception following an apparent missed TD run by the officials) and a mostly nonexistent downfield passing game kept them from recovering their early momentum.
Mark Stoops says: “You can play 95 percent of the game right, and if you play 5 percent of it wrong in certain, critical areas, you’re not going to win.”
9. South Carolina (0-1)
First-time starter Collin Hill led the Gamecocks back from a 21-7 hole to knot things at 24-all early in the fourth quarter but a go-ahead touchdown and a misplayed punt doomed them in the final seconds against Tennessee. Carolina’s offense showed signs of life it hadn’t for much of last season.
Will Muschamp says: “These games are always going to be close. We always play conference games, and they’re gonna come down to two or three plays and decisions there late in the game. You’ve got to come out on top of those plays.”
8. LSU (0-1)
There won’t be any losers in this initial top seven. The Tigers lost their best defensive back the night before the game but it’s hard to think one guy would have made the difference in a game that saw them surrender 623 passing yards. Myles Brennan was adequate, but he ain’t Joe Burrow.
Ed Orgeron says: “When we win, It’s on them. When we lose, it’s on me.”
7. Texas A&M (1-0)
Veteran quarterback Kellen Mond lost three fumbles, not the kind of security expected or needed from a guy I picked as the SEC’s first-team quarterback this season. We’ll find out fast whether Vanderbilt was a fluke or if trouble’s brewing in College Station: the Aggies get Alabama and Florida over the next two weeks.
Jimbo Fisher says: “I’m going to promise you this, it’s a lot easier to go fix mistakes when you win than when you lose.”
6. Tennessee (1-0)
The Volunteers appeared to have things well in hand but found themselves fending off South Carolina in the fourth quarter. It gets one more “tune-up” against Missouri before traveling to Georgia, after which we’ll know how legit of a threat Tennessee is.
Jeremy Pruitt says: “It’s a shame right now that, with what all these young men are going through, that there has to be a winner and a loser.”
5. Auburn (1-0)
Kentucky moved the ball well against the Tigers — the Wildcats were 8-for-10 on third-down attempts — but the play of its star receiver (Seth Williams had six catches for 113 yards and two TDs) along with a goose egg in the turnover department helped give it the edge in the league’s only showdown of top-25 teams last week.
Gus Malzahn says: “We tackled more than we had any fall camp since we’ve been here, and it paid off. That was a big key.”
4. Mississippi State (1-0)
It’s possible the Week 1 afterglow from upsetting the defending national champs has made my opinion of the Bulldogs higher than it ought to be, but the beauty of week-to-week rankings is that they can change quickly if needed. Mike Leach’s head-coaching debut in the SEC could not have gone better, and the stats should only keep piling up this week against Arkansas.
Mike Leach says: ”We played these guys cause New England, Kansas City, and Green Bay already had opponents.”
3. Florida (1-0)
Kyle Pitts was a one-man wrecking ball for the Gators, grabbing four of Kyle Trask’s six touchdown throws, and the duo kept the Gators from being run over by “The Lane Train” in their opener. There’s cause for concern defensively, but Florida showed it can score with the best of ‘em — and that was with 13 players sidelined for undisclosed reasons — while putting up a school-record 642 total yards.
Dan Mullen says (on breaking one of the school records set under Steve Spurrier, his neighbor): “That’s at least deserving of a nice bottle of wine I think.”
2. Georgia (1-0)
The reigning SEC East Division champs looked more primed for an upset than a smackdown at Arkansas in the first half, but the Bulldogs found their footing and were able to shake off 98 yards of first-half penalties to win comfortably. Mistakes like that are less affordable this week when Auburn visits.
Kirby Smart says (on Georgia’s sloppy start): “Yeah, it starts on the penalties, it starts on guys busting assignments, and it starts on missing signals and not doing what they’re supposed to do. That’s 100 percent what I attribute it to.”
1. Alabama (1-0)
Former Kentucky commit Mac Jones threw for 249 yards and two touchdowns despite sitting for part of the third and all of the fourth quarters at Missouri, helping Nick Saban improve to 14-0 in season openers with the Crimson Tide. A date with Texas A&M seems appetizing on paper, but Saban’s 7-1 record against the Aggies (the loss came in 2012, their first SEC meeting) raises an eyebrow.
Nick Saban says: “I think the spirit of the game was different in terms of having fans but I don’t think the competitive spirit that the players played with and how they played and how hard they tried, I don’t think that was any different than it ever is.”
