Fansided

SEC power rankings, Week 5: Kentucky, South Carolina secure big wins

By Rucker Haringey

(Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
(Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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OXFORD, MS – SEPTEMBER 15: Head coach Matt Luke of the Mississippi Rebels reacts during a game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on September 15, 2018 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
OXFORD, MS – SEPTEMBER 15: Head coach Matt Luke of the Mississippi Rebels reacts during a game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on September 15, 2018 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /

Matt Luke’s team needed a game to get well and Kent State provided them just that. Critics might have wanted to see the Rebels win the game a little more comfortably, but they did more than enough to dispatch the Golden Flashes with relatively little drama.

Jordan Ta’amu certainly enjoyed this game more than last week’s debacle against Alabama. He threw for 442 yards on just 38 passing attempts. Scottie Phillips also contributed 112 yards on the ground. Ole Miss still isn’t a good football team, but they are 3-1.

There was a lot of optimism in Nashville last week after the team’s narrow loss at Notre Dame. It’s fair to say that’s evaporated after the pitiful effort against South Carolina.

Vanderbilt just didn’t look ready for anything the Gamecocks had to offer. This loss looked a lot more like the listless Vanderbilt teams of yesteryear than the competitive program Derek Mason leads today. Kyle Shurmur, in particular, really struggled. This team won’t win many games where he completes just 18 of 38 passes. It was an utterly forgettable performance for the Commodores.

It speaks to the quality of the SEC that Missouri has a first round NFL talent at quarterback and can barely scrape into the top 10 of the power rankings. Drew Lock is that good, but the talent of the Georgia defense forced him to struggle on Saturday.

The Tigers do deserve credit for finding some running room against the Bulldogs defense though. Four different players found the end zone on the ground. This team is going to depend on Lock to move the football this year, but the offense might not be as one-dimensional as we previously thought.

Clearly, winning at Tennessee doesn’t have the same cache that it used to hold. That’s why Florida only moves up one spot after beating the Volunteers soundly.

The Gators defense was definitely the star of Saturday night’s contest. They forced six turnovers which meant the Florida offense didn’t need to do much on its own. It was a great formula to beat a bad Tennessee team, but it may not work as well for Dan Mullen and company in the future.

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