SEC Power Rankings: Iron Bowl snoozer, Egg Bowl reversal shake things up
Each week we’ll take a look at every Southeastern Conference football team’s performance and rank them, in ascending order.
Click here for last week’s scores.
14. Vanderbilt (0-8)
Kudos to the Commodores for stepping up to make history this weekend and props to Sarah Fuller for being bold enough to call out the lack of a team mentality. It’s unfortunate that the only Black head coach making calls in the Southeastern Conference has been fired, but that too was probably the right call.
Derek Mason (for the last time) says: (on Sarah Fuller) “She’s been a trooper. I mean, she came right in, she was all about the challenge. Man, I have the utmost respect for her, for (soccer coach) Darren Ambrose for allowing this to happen, and for her to be a part of it. Look, man, she could have very easily said no in this. And instead, you know, man, she prepared all week. And she did what she was supposed to do. She was as prepared as anybody.”
13. Mississippi State (2-6)
Will Rogers’ career effort (45-of-61 passing for 440 yards and three touchdown passes) was not enough to keep the Bulldogs from dropping their sixth game in the last seven trips out. As of right now they have only one more opportunity on the schedule: a Dec. 12 date with Auburn.
Mike Leach says: “Save it for this drive, save it for that drive. It’s kind of like asking which knife do you want to get stabbed with.”
12. South Carolina (2-7)
An already short-handed Gamecocks squad had a couple of guys dinged up on defense in a blowout loss to Georgia, and will go to Kentucky this week as a double-digit underdog.
Mike Bobo says: “Part of being a man is you don’t make excuses, and you don’t let people make excuses for you. It’s easy to say we didn’t have this, we didn’t have that, that’s evident. If you’re on the field and you’re wearing a Gamecocks uniform, you need to fight your ass off.”
11. Tennessee (2-5)
The Volunteers’ game against Vanderbilt was postponed due to COVID-19 procedures. They’re scheduled to host Florida on Saturday.
10. Kentucky (3-6)
UK’s trip to Florida followed essentially the same script as the one it took to Alabama on Nov. 21: Play well enough to be in the game most of the the first half, blow a few special team plays and then have your offense grind to a halt in the second half to erase any chance of an upset.
Mark Stoops says: “You can only hold on for so long without creating explosive plays. We’re not doing that.”
9. Arkansas (3-5)
The Razorbacks had too few players available to host Missouri as scheduled, but are set to play the Tigers on Saturday. Their game against Alabama previously scheduled for this past week will probably be played Dec. 12.
8. LSU (3-4)
Ahead of an anticipated matchup with Alabama, the defending champs turned in their worst offensive performance of the year at Texas A&M. Right now the Tigers have only two scheduled games left, but depending on how other adjustments work out they could again be playing on championship Saturday — just not in Atlanta.
Ed Orgeron says: (On a touchdown pass that was reversed following a review) “Obviously, I thought he had it. They said that he gained possession when he hit the ground. I thought he had it when the ball crossed the goal line — I thought he had possession — but hey, they’re not going to listen to me.”
7. Missouri (4-3)
The Tigers were the latest team to hand Vanderbilt a brutal loss, 41-0. They’ll have an opportunity to assure themselves of at least a .500 season next weekend at home against Arkansas, against whom they were supposed to play last week before COVID-19 procedures shuffled their schedule.
Eli Drinkwitz says: (On last year’s loss to Vandy being a motivator) “I think last year we were all embarrassed. When the headline says, ‘Knocked out in Nashville,’ you know, that’s something that you want to remember and use as something to increase your focus and make sure that we don’t take anybody for granted. And so I told ‘em, it’s not about what happened, it’s about what are you going to do about it? I wasn’t even here, most of our staff wasn’t here. But I said we’re gonna do something about it. And we owned it and tried to do something about it.”
6. Auburn (5-3)
The Paper Tigers finally showed their true stripes against Alabama. Questionable officiating might be as much to credit for Auburn’s winning record as anything, but their road record — 1-3 — is also revealing. They’ll host Texas A&M next week, so we’ll see if they’ve got any bounce-back in ‘em.
Gus Malzahn says: “The frustrating thing for me is we never really got close enough to apply any pressure on them. They could play loose really the entire game.”
5. Mississippi (4-4)
This year’s Egg Bowl featured fewer controversies and two different head coaches, and it went to the Rebels for the first time since 2017. Ole Miss now leads the all-time series 63-46-6. As of right now, neither of its postponed games — at LSU and at Texas A&M — have makeup dates announced.
Lane Kiffin says: I was excited obviously but to see them in the locker room after it was like winning a Super Bowl. It’s neat to see them so excited. They put a lot of work in to get to this point.”
4. Georgia (6-2)
J.T. Daniels’ second appearance for the Bulldogs was not as jaw-dropping as his debut, but not much was needed from him in a rout of South Carolina. He finished 10-of-16 for 139 yards and two touchdowns with an interception.
Kirby Smart says: “I don’t know if anybody really understands the college football environment this year, it’s just so different in terms of motivation, what these kids go through. They’ve sacrificed a lot to have this season. They don’t get to go and get to do things they used to do. This season has really been long, all across college football, with injuries, the COVID concerns, cancellations, it’s been a very unique year and I just want to give our kids a lot of credit for sticking through it, staying together and continuing to fight.”
3. Florida (7-1)
A win over Tennessee this week will assure the Gators of a trip to the SEC championship game regardless of whether or not they ultimately play their final regular-season game against LSU on Dec. 12. Given the state of the Volunteers this season, they should book their hotels now.
Dan Mullen says: (On a slow start against Kentucky.) “I think we came out and we didn’t play very well to start. I’m not going to say we played bad, I just don’t think we played very well.”
2. Texas A&M (6-1)
It’ll be interesting to see how a 20-7 victory over defending national champion LSU plays in the eyes of the College Football Playoff committee, which last week had TAMU as the first team outside of the top four. On one hand, LSU isn’t exactly a bear this year, but it’s been a big one for the Aggies; Saturday’s win was only their second in nine meetings since joining the SEC.
Jimbo Fisher says: “I’m not worried about the playoffs. I’m worried about playing football and playing good football. And if we play good football it’ll take care of yourself. Everything will take care of itself.”
1. Alabama (8-0)
The Crimson Tide’s win continued a recent pattern in the Iron Bowl, which has seen Alabama and Auburn alternate wins in the rivalry starting with a ‘Bama victory in 2016. Alabama would like to end another trend that involves that game’s result: the last two times it’s won the game, it went on to lose in the CFP championship game.
Nick Saban says: (On having to miss the game due to COVID-19 policies.) “The Iron Bowl is such a great competitive venue, it means so much to so many people — man, it was really hard, especially the fact that I feel great. But I did what I could do to help prepare the team throughout the week, was involved in everything that we could do right up till 90 minutes before the game, then we just had to sit and watch from afar.”
