SEC Power Rankings, Week 1: Alabama dominates, but league is down
By John Buhler
Wins, But Nothing More
South Carolina rallied after a terrible first half in Nashville to Vanderbilt on Thursday night. The Gamecocks looked like the worst team in the SEC entering halftime down 10-0 to the Commodores. However, the Gamecocks managed 13 unanswered points to win an important game in the SEC East.
The Gamecocks went 3-9 (1-7) last year and few expected new head coach Will Muschamp do much of anything his first year in Columbia. Muschamp is a strong defensive-minded coach, but South Carolina fell to the wayside in the final years of the Steve Spurrier era.
A committed defensive effort against a solid Vanderbilt defense has to have South Carolina feeling good about its Week 1 win. Quarterback Perry Orth game managed well, but the real hero for the Gamecocks was kicker Elliott Fry. Fry drained a 55-yard field goal late in the game to give South Carolina the 13-10 lead and eventually the victory. South Carolina is the first team in the conference to get a SEC win. Who would have thought that?
Tennessee did not look like a top 10 team on Thursday night against the Appalachian State Mountaineers. The Volunteers needed one period of overtime to knock off Appalachian State to move to 1-0 on a flukey play if there ever was one.
Quarterback Joshua Dobbs dove at the goal line in overtime but coughed up the football before crossing the plane. Fortunately for Tennessee, running back Jalen Hurd had the presence of mind to leap on the fumbled football before anybody else could.
Tennessee should fall out of the top 10 for its mediocre performance at home in Week 1 to the Mountaineers. Not that Appalachian State isn’t a good team in its own right, but Tennessee should have crushed them with how well Butch Jones has recruited in Knoxville. He remains a liability as an in-game tactician for the Volunteers, exactly what Tennessee doesn’t need in this season of great expectations.
The Arkansas Razorbacks were on upset alert in Week 1 versus the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at home. Arkansas was down 20-14 to Louisiana Tech before new starting quarterback Austin Allen completed a four-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Sprinkle to tie the game at 6:37. Cole Hedlund’s PAT gave Arkansas the decisive 21-20 edge over the Bulldogs.
Arkansas is one of the few teams in the SEC that could really go either way: a dark horse SEC West contender or hovering around .500 for bowl eligibility. The Hogs will lean on the run while Allen grows as a passer, but one has to wonder how Arkansas will do up front on the offensive line now that coach Sam Pittman is now at Georgia?
Head coach Bret Bielema is proving that he can win close, defensive struggles at Arkansas. The Razorbacks aren’t going to win pretty this fall, but are still very much in the mix to win eight or nine regular season games should the Hogs defense hold its own.
Florida improved as the game went on versus UMass. The Gators looked to be on upset alert at home in Week 1 to the Minutemen, as it was 10-7 Gators heading into the fourth quarter at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday night.
The Gators held the Minutemen to only 187 yards of total offense but didn’t get the ball rolling on offense until the fourth quarter. Florida would put up 14 points in the fourth quarter to seal the deal with a 24-7 win. The best part of the game for Florida was that new starting quarterback Luke Del Rio looked good when his team needed him the most.
Del Rio was 29-44 passing for 256 yards and two touchdowns. Florida head coach Jim McElwain seems to have the right guy under center in Del Rio. Should the head coach/quarterback tandem grow together this season, Florida can certainly repeat in the SEC East.
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