SEC Power Rankings, Week 12: Florida clinches SEC East
By John Buhler
Won, still a shot at a New Year’s Six bowl, maybe?
The No. 19 Tennessee Volunteers must have taken out their frustrations on not being able to win the SEC East despite beating Florida earlier in the season by eviscerating the terrible Tigers of Missouri, 63-37.
Tennessee has an outside shot at getting to a New Year’s Six bowl, but will have to handle a Vanderbilt Commodores team fighting for bowl eligibility in Week 13. The Volunteers tend to play down to their competition and could very well lose to in-state rival Vanderbilt if Butch Jones doesn’t have his team playing fired up.
Tennessee is probably one of the five best teams in the SEC in 2016, but have shown tendencies to be too emotional for its own good. The Volunteers will have to play their A game to beat Vanderbilt.
If the season were to end today, we’d have to like the No. 15 Auburn Tigers’ chances at getting to either the Sugar or Cotton Bowls. At 8-3, this Tigers team seems to be one of the best four teams in the SEC.
The problem is that the Tigers’ 12 game of the season is against the heavily favored No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl. If Auburn stuns Alabama, the Tigers will be playing in a New Year’s Six bowl. That’s not debatable.
Auburn plays great defense and is elite in special teams. Offensive inconsistencies have knocked this solid team out of the College Football Playoff picture. One has to wonder if Auburn is winning because of defensive coordinator Kevin Steele in spite of head coach Gus Malzahn and offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee. How do we assess an 8-4 2016 Auburn team?