SEC Week 2: Power Rankings – Georgia rises, Florida falls
It was a weird and wild weekend in the SEC. Georgia and South Carolina played a classic that Georgia finally one (it’s been the opposite direction at Sanford between these two recently), Texas A&M struggled with mighty Sam Houston State in the first half of their game (mainly thanks to some terrible defense), LSU’s Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham were bringing the circus to ‘circus-like catches’ in Death Valley against UAB, and, er, Florida lost at Miami.
Anyway, here are your SEC Power Rankings after Week 2. And yes, we know Alabama isn’t on top.
1) LSU (2-0): Odell Beckham Jr and Jarvis Landry were exceptional, and Zach Mettenberger’s looking comfortable in defense. In the proclaimed ‘run first’ offense, suddenly Cam Cameron’s horses are able to rest a little while the ball flies through the air. And connects. This team’s the strongest in the SEC because it’s played two teams that weren’t complete jokes, and beaten them.
2) Georgia (1-1): OK, so Mark Richt and Aaron Murray might be able to win a big game, after all. Seriously though, Todd Gurley looked fantastic against South Carolina, running for 134 yards and a TD in Georgia’s victory. Murray passed for 309 and 4 TDs himself. Not a bad effort. They might want to work on their tackling though…..they gave up 454 yards.
3) Alabama (1-0): We wait and see for Texas A&M if this is the best team in the SEC. If they beat A&M, they are (and beat LSU in Tuscaloosa later in the year, we think)
4) South Carolina (1-1): We’re not dropping them too badly because they lost at Georgia in a rivalry game. The defense once again struggled against the run, and it’s interesting for us to notice that Jadeveon Clowney wasn’t too pleased about not having offenses running straight at him. If Clowney’s frustrated now, imagine him at season-end when OC’s do everything not to go anywhere near him. And the defensive co-ordinators fought amongst each other. The argument was dismissed by SEC fans as ‘the passion of the SEC’. We’re SEC fans, but I would call it unprofessional. Still, Barrett Shaw’s looking better and better week by week.
5=) Florida (1-1): Their defense was GREAT but their offense (five turnovers) was dreadful in the loss to Miami on Saturday. Imagine what might happen if both sides of the ball click at the same time. Oh. Gosh.
5=) Texas A&M (2-0): The offense was GREAT but their defense (28 points) was dreadful in the win over mighty Sam Houston State. Imagine what might happen if both sides of the ball click at the same time. Oh. My. God. The offense against Alabama’s D should be riveting. The defense against Alabama’s offense – and especially their running game – doesn’t bear thinking about.
7) Ole Miss (2-0): No great prizes for beating SE Missouri State. Actually looking forward to seeing what this option offense will do to Texas’ ‘D’, who gave up over 500 yards against BYU on Saturday (laughter). The QB duo of Bo Wallace and Barry Brunetti could have a field day. Ole Miss wants to watch the turnovers – they gave up 3 on Saturday.
8) Vanderbilt (1-1): Beat Austin Peay comfortably (38-3) after their heartbreaking loss to Ole Miss. Nice to see Jordan Matthews rebound, grabbing 6 catches for 111 yards. Bigger tests will comes for the Commodores than Austin Peay, and it’s still making me think: Is this team a 6-6 team or a 7-5 or a 5-7 team? Aargh! It’s driving me nuts. Too early to say.
9) Auburn (2-0): Auburn’s victory over Arkansas State puts them up in the rankings a bit because they dulled the blades of a very sharp offense. I’m impressed. The Gus Malzahn-Nick Marshall ESP thing going on is really cool (Marshall had 147 yards and 2 TDs, We’ll see what this all means in the big, bad SEC West (and we still think they’d struggle with Ole Miss), but this isn’t looking like a bad team. By the way, Tre Mason’s the real deal. By the way, a note to Arkansas State: DO NOT PLAY IN THOSE UNIFORMS AGAIN.
10) Mississippi State (1-1): After seeing their offense choked against Oklahoma State, Cowbell Country once again rang after the Bulldogs stomped Alcorn State 51-7 at home. Dak Prescott on his first start was economical, throwing for 174 yards and 2 TDs. Word to the wise, they were only 5-13 in 3rd down conversions and 2-6 on 4th down conversions. This needs to improve. On another note, Alcorn State’s Golden Girls’ dancing >>> Mississippi State’s cheerleaders dancing. That’s no shame to lose that battle.
11) Tennessee (2-0): After the Vols beat Austin Peay on Opening Day we didn’t give Tennesssee the time of day. After beating Western Kentucky – and showing some opportunistic ‘D’ in the process, causing SEVEN turnovers (go to over 1 minute on the reel if you want to watch some highlights) – we’re giving them a bit more time of day. The offensive line looks good – even if we’re not sold on Justin Worley just yet.
12) Missouri (2-0): We’re definitely more excited about Missouri’s 38-23 win over Toledo that we were against Murray State. The James Franklin-to-Dorial Green-Beckham/L’Damian Washington combos are looking increasingly fun to watch. We’ll see about the O-Line. Henry Posey can do a job in that backfield, too.
13) Arkansas (2-0): Slid down the list because for three quarters, the Razorbacks really, really, really struggled (the highlights won’t show the struggles) with Samford, trailing them 21-17 until the early part of the fourth quarter. Alex Collins’ 172 yards on the ground and a pretty good performance from Brandon Allen’s got a bit of us believing, but can the ‘D’ do its job against better competition than, er, Samford?
14) Kentucky (1-1): Great to see Kentucky get Mark Stoops his first win, even if it was a clueless defensive team in Miami (Ohio). Was Maxwell Smith’s 317 yards for 3 TDs a new dawn for the Neal Brown’s Top Gun ‘Air Raid’ Offense, or is this just a false dawn before the big boys start calling?