SEC Power Rankings, Week 11: Alabama clinches SEC West
By John Buhler
Tough Losses
It’s okay. South Carolina was supposed to lose to SEC East rival Florida in Gainesville on Saturday. The Gamecocks can still get to a bowl if they just beat the Western Carolina Catamounts in Week 12. They might even have a shot at upending arch rival Clemson, as the Tigers lost on Saturday to Pittsburgh at home.
The only issue with Will Muschamp’s Gamecocks is that their offense disappears for lengthy stretches. They may have found something pretty good at quarterback in true freshman Jake Bentley. However, growing pains are expected from a true freshman signal caller. He looked lost at times against Florida.
South Carolina overachieved this season and a ton of that has to fall on the great job that Muschamp is doing in Columbia. However, he only had seven points against a team led by upperclassmen he recruited to Gainesville.
In a similar situation to that of rival South Carolina, the Kentucky Wildcats didn’t need to win on the road in Week 11 to go bowling. Did we really expect Big Blue Nation to beat its big brother rival in the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville?
Probably not, but this loss to Tennessee puts an immense amount of pressure on the Wildcats to beat the Austin Peay Governors in Week 12. Kentucky has no shot at beating in-state rival Louisville at the end of the season.
Getting to 6-6 is probable for the Wildcats, but they did lose to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in Week 1. For an SEC team to go 4-4 in conference play and still not make a bowl is embarrassing. A loss to Austin Peay might be the end of the road for head coach Mark Stoops. It’s not great to be Kentucky right now. So much pressure on an otherwise meaningless game.
Auburn suffered an absolutely brutal loss on the road to cross-divisional rival Georgia on Saturday, 13-7. Tigers quarterback Sean White could not convert a first down in the second half against the Georgia defense, costing Auburn its chance to make the College Football Playoff.
The Tigers had to deal with injuries to key players like White and running back Kamryn Pettway, but the offensive ineptitude on Saturday falls back on head coach Gus Malzahn. His hurry-up-and-run offense was rendered useless as Georgia’s Kirby Smart would only substitute when Auburn did.
This third loss and second SEC loss might have been enough to knock Auburn out of the New Year’s Six bowl conversation. To get to a meaningful bowl, Auburn has to beat arch rival Alabama. That just doesn’t seem likely anymore.
The once-proud Texas A&M Aggies have fallen on hard times. Maybe this team wasn’t as good as we wanted to believe it could be? After getting crushed by Alabama, Texas A&M has now suffered its third loss of the season to Ole Miss at home on Saturday.
The Aggies have dropped its last two to the Mississippi schools. It stinks that they will be without graduate transfer quarterback Trevor Knight the rest of the way, as he suffered a shoulder injury in Week 10’s loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
They’ll be the UTSA Roadrunners on Saturday, but we are looking at an Aggies team that will likely finish 8-4 (4-4) this season. Without Knight, the Aggies will fall to the LSU Tigers at the end of the season. It’ll be quite the fall from grace from the No. 4 spot in the first College Football Playoff rankings.