SEC power rankings: Can Georgia beat LSU in SEC Championship Game?

With Georgia having clinched the SEC East and LSU needing to simply beat Arkansas to win the SEC West, the Bulldogs and Tigers are set to collide in Atlanta.

LSU is just one win over a dysfunctional team away from earning a trip to Atlanta. The Georgia Bulldogs are simply waiting to find out who they will play at this point as Kirby Smart and his team has already punched their tickets to the SEC Championship Game. With LSU in the driver’s seat in the SEC West, all the Tigers need is a win over Arkansas.

That shouldn’t be too hard.

Elsewhere in the SEC, the biggest storyline of the weekend is Tua Tagovailoa going down with an injury in the midst of Alabama blowing out Mississippi State. The Crimson Tide was leading the Bulldogs 35-7 close to halftime when Tagovailoa got hurt.

Unfortunately, that probably means that we’ve seen the last of Tagovailoa in college. But more importantly, hopefully, he’s able to recover enough so that he can continue playing football in the National Football League.

The Arkansas Razorbacks didn’t play on Saturday as they had a bye week. Arkansas is still awful and still doesn’t have a coach. They’ll get LSU this week and, barring something miraculous happening, there’s no way the Razorbacks get within 35 points of LSU.

Vanderbilt’s had a pretty rough season and this weekend didn’t make things any better for the Commodores. Kentucky ran up and down the field, over, through, and around Vanderbilt’s defense. But what has to be extra frustrating about this game for Vanderbilt is that Commodores led the Wildcats 14-3 following the first quarter. Of course, that lead didn’t hold. Kentucky scored 35 unanswered points and won with ease.

While Texas A&M isn’t exactly a college football powerhouse at the moment, Will Muschamp and the South Carolina Gamecocks almost made the Aggies look that good on Saturday. After Muschamp and the Gamecocks fell to Appalachian State, they managed to muster a total of six points against A&M, losing 30-6. The Aggies have a pretty solid defense, but it isn’t quite that good.

Joe Moorhead’s offense was non-existent against the Alabama Crimson Tide. While Alabama has been scorched by many teams this season, Mississippi State couldn’t score more than a touchdown against one of Nick Saban’s more dysfunctional defenses. At halftime, Alabama led 35-7 and it felt like Alabama’s lead could have been tripled if the Crimson Tide really wanted to have scored more points. By the time it was all said and done, Alabama was content to win 38-7. Moorhead and Mississippi State are lucky this game wasn’t even more lopsided than it was.

On top of all of that, MSU’s game against Alabama was a mess all around for just about everyone involved and there was an alarming amount of injuries in this contest. Unfortunately, an injury in this game may have caused the end of Tua Tagovailoa‘s college career.

The Egg Bowl certainly will be an interesting contest, to say the least. Ole Miss, like Mississippi State a few weeks back, was demolished by the LSU Tigers. That shouldn’t shock anyone. But the Rebels actually found a way to score some points against a really good team. With freshman quarterback John Rhys Plumlee leading Ole Miss, the Rebels have seemingly embraced the very Mississippi State strategy of “#AlwaysRunNeverPass” and it led to Plumlee rushing for 212 yards and four touchdowns against LSU. That’s just about the only positive that Ole Miss has from a 57-38 loss to LSU.

I will say this, Missouri, things could have gone so much worse for you. Losing 23-6 to Florida at home is bad. Having Kelly Bryant back leading your team and still struggling to move the ball is bad. Having to watch this offense flounder and the defense slowly erode away over the course of the game is bad. But, on the bright side, this season is almost over. And that is almost a good thing, right?

Kentucky did exactly what it needed in order to get a much-needed win. The Wildcats are in the hunt for bowl eligibility and absolutely needed to beat Vanderbilt in order to make a bowl game a legitimate possibility. Now, just one win away from that prize, all Kentucky has to do it beat either UT-Martin or Louisville. With Louisville looking like a tough test for Kentucky, this win over Vanderbilt should hold a lot of weight for Mark Stoops and his team.

The 2019 college football season got off to a rough start for Tennessee as the Vols dropped their first three games of the year. But, Tennessee has won four of its last five games and is now in a position to make a bowl. After taking a bye week, Tennessee gets to shots at becoming bowl eligible with Mizzou and Vanderbilt up ahead.

Texas A&M had no issue processing the South Carolina Gamecocks, but the road is about to get very rough for Jimbo Fisher and his team. The Aggies are about to hit the road to Athens, Georgia and then they follow that up with a trip down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Playing against the best teams in the Southeastern Conference might not be much fun for Fisher and the Aggies.

Florida took a while to put Missouri away, but the Gators were able to take down the Tigers when it was all said and done. Dan Mullen and his team get a bye week before hosting Florida State. The Gators probably don’t need to rest up to win this game, but a nice little break never hurt anyone.

Auburn had a perfect opportunity to cause some College Football Playoff chaos when the Tigers faced the Georgia Bulldogs, but Gus Malzahn and company couldn’t pull off the upset. That’s the third time this year that Auburn has fallen short against a tough SEC foe. The Tigers will get a shot at that elusive win over a good SEC team in the Iron Bowl as Alabama tries to finish out the season. Unfortunately, we won’t get to see Tua Tagovailoa in that game and it’s not quite clear just how good Mac Jones is.

Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide won on Saturday, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. With Tua going down with an awful injury, Alabama will now have to finish the season without a once-in-a-generation type of talent at quarterback. Soon we’ll find out if this Crimson Tide team can beat Auburn with all of the injuries that it has suffered. Alabama’s playoff hopes, as dim as they are at this point, now rest on Mac Jones‘ shoulders.

Another year of SEC football, another year of Georgia clinching the SEC East. The Bulldogs held on to get past the Auburn Tigers on Saturday, securing another trip to Atlanta for Kirby Smart‘s team. Georgia can’t celebrate for too long as they have to host as Texas A&M Aggies team that is looking to prove itself this week.

The LSU Tigers didn’t have too much trouble against the Ole Miss Rebels. Sure, John Rhys Plumlee running all over the place and scoring seemingly when he wanted might be a slight cause for concern, but LSU still looked phenomenal as it cruised to victory on Saturday. Joe Burrow threw for 489 yards and five touchdowns to pad his Heisman resume.

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