Mississippi Powerhouses: SEC Week 6 Power Rankings

Wow. What a week for Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Ole Miss shows up at The Grove with the College Gameday crew wearing bow ties and looking pretty great, and Katy Perry makes an ass of herself on camera, and Ole Miss goes on to beat Alabama. Before that Mississippi State had beaten the living daylights out of Texas A&M, and looked worth the victory. Auburn beats the corndog out of LSU, while Florida and Tennessee plays the worst game in the History of Man. It ends 10-9 to Florida. Georgia throttles Vanderbilt, as predicted. Oh, and Kentucky scores a massive upset, beating South Carolina. Spurrier’s probably a little pissed by now.

We called the Mississippi State and South Carolina wins, by the way. Yeah, otherwise we’re feeling sheepish….

Anyway, here are our Post Week 6 rankings. Sorry we’ve been late on this. So, so sorry. We’re still recovering.

1) AUBURN (5-0, 2-0) 

The disposal of LSU showed either how bad LSU was or how good Auburn is. A lot of people aren’t believers in Auburn, but I’m starting to be. Nick Marshall’s a great quarterback, and the speedy offense is just exhausting and shredding defenses right now. Who’s going to be able to keep with them?

2) MISSISSIPPI STATE (5-0, 2-0)

Mississippi State looked really damned good against Texas A&M, crushing the Aggies 48-31 in a game that was ‘only’ decided by 17 because State was cruising. Anyway, Dak Prescott, Josh Robinson and THAT defense are looking great. We can’t wait for the Auburn match-up this Saturday. Expect a lot of cowbell, sportsfans.

3) OLE MISS (5-0, 2-0)

We should rename the Alabama Gameday experience bowties and bourbon, because that’s what a lot of it was. Before the game, there was more focus on The Grove than the freaking game. But that was OK, because Ole Miss were only there for the party, right? Wrong. The defense stifled Bama and ending up winning out 23-17, and grabbing two of the biggest plays in an end-zone….the game-winning TD and the game-clinching interception. One thing though, Ole Miss: Y’all probably need to work on your kicking.

4) ALABAMA (4-1, 1-1) 

Right now in the SEC West Standings, Alabama is third from bottom of the pile. If this was Premier League soccer, they would be facing demotion (or as the Brits put it, relegation) to the B1G or something. Anyway, Nick Saban probably wasn’t too happy at his pass defense or his offense right now. As a Bama fan, I wouldn’t be either. Huge loss of Kenyan Drake early on was a big blow for Tide fans, but for the first time all season Derrick Henry actually looked human. Maybe it was because this was the first game the Tide were truly tested? Nick Saban’s gone 0-3 in his last three games against ranked opponents, by the way. START THE SABAN OUT CAMPAIGN, CRAZIES!!

5) TEXAS A&M (2-1, 5-1)

Texas A&M dropped from 1st to 5th after getting shellacked at Mississippi State. The rush defense gave up 280 yards, the passing defense gave up 279 – and a lot of these were big plays. State averaged over 10 yards per play — and a lot of these were big 3rd down plays (they went 5/11 on third down, compared to A&M’s 5/17). And the offense? Kenny Hill didn’t have his greatest game, but he wasn’t helped by some terrible drops by his wide receivers. It’s not the first time we’ve said it this season, either (see first three quarters of Arkansas game) As we said, it was a loss by 17. But Mississippi State had the game in the bag by the time Texas A&M scored two touchdowns in, like, 2 minutes at the end.

6) GEORGIA (4-1, 2-1)

We actually toyed putting Georgia above A&M this week, but we realised…..A&M would shred Georgia’s awful secondary (which is getting worse by the minute that the Bulldogs dismiss players), which gave up 188 yards to Vanderbilt. The good news for the Bulldogs is that Todd Gurley’s still immense (163 yards on the ground, plus a 50-yard throw). The bad news? The Dawgs go to Mizzou for a SEC East showdown which will probably see the winner go to Atlanta. And Mizzou has a QB called Maty Mauk who can throw against a crappy secondary, too. The good news? Mizzou give up 144.6 yards/game against the rush.

7) ARKANSAS (3-2, 0-2)

Hogs running back Alex Collins and Jonathan Williams are flat-out filthy, but if you can stop those two (and that’s a big ‘IF’) then Brandon Allen isn’t anything special. Their only losses of the season have come against Auburn and Texas A&M (the latter should have been 1-1, folks), so let’s not say that the Razorbacks suck just yet, shall we? Alabama is going to be in for a test on Saturday.

8) MISSOURI (4-1, 1-0)

Maty Mauk’s a good quarterback, the team rushes well and the defense isn’t terrible (32nd in the country). The problem that sticks in our mind is Missouri’s loss at home to Indiana, which is looking increasingly unforgiveable. A lot of Mizzou fans will blame the center who couldn’t snap the ball properly, or the fact that the ‘D’ couldn’t deal with an up-beat offense, but they still lost. Hence why they are below Georgia. But if they beat the Bulldogs in Columbia on Saturday, then they move higher and nearer a second straight SEC East crown.

9) LSU (4-2, 0-2)

I’m playing this song for the LSU Tigers at the moment. In the recent years of college football I’ve never seen a LSU team that couldn’t tackle (see Auburn and Mississippi State), were awful at quarterback (see Auburn and Mississippi State) and completely lacked leadership (see all season long). This LSU team is really, really bad. They may end up winless in the SEC West. They could end up winless in the whole of the SEC if they fail to beat Florida, folks.

10) KENTUCKY (4-1, 3-1)

Kentucky’s monster upset of South Carolina put them above Tennessee in our rankings, even though they lost to Florida – a result that should put them BELOW the Gators. Why? Because I reckon you play that game again in The Swamp, the Wildcats win. Kentucky’s got momentum, yo.

11) SOUTH CAROLINA (2-3, 3-3)

OK, so Dylan Thompson isn’t one of the SEC’s best quarterbacks by any stretch of the imagination. And the defense is still trying to recover from the loss of Clowney and Quarless. And guess what? There is a real lack of leaders on this Gamecocks team. OK, Steve Spurrier, you were right: this Gamecocks team really isn’t good.

12) FLORIDA (3-1, 2-1)

Florida celebrates winning the most boring game of the century against the hated Tennessee by seeing its quarterback suspended for alleged sexual assault. Bummer for Will Muschamp.

13) TENNESSEE (2-3, 0-2)

The Volunteers don’t have an offensive line to help QB Justin Worley actually make good decisions (he didn’t against the Gators). The receivers are very talented, but they also drop the ball too much. The defense was fine against an inept Florida attack, but how will they hold up against better offenses? This team may well go winless in the SEC, folks.

14) VANDERBILT (0-5, 1-4)

“DEAR GOD WE’RE HORRIBLE” – Vandy fan. Question: Is Derek Mason out of his depth?