SEC football power rankings 2020: Alabama stands alone, Georgia finds a QB, LSU gets its groove back

The latest SEC football power rankings affirm that Alabama is in a class of their own while Georgia’s offense has new life and Florida stays strong. 

On the heels of a week in SEC football in which over half of the games were canceled due to COVID-19 issues, it was nice to see a nearly full slate of action in Week 12 as only one game (Ole Miss at Texas A&M) got postponed or canceled. Having said that, there weren’t that many breaking developments throughout the conference.

Alabama rolled handily because that’s what the Crimson Tide do while Florida and Auburn beat up on ailing Vanderbilt and Tennessee teams, respectively. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the offensive outburst from the Georgia Bulldogs after a quarterback change as they passed for over 400 yards in a win over Mississippi State.

Even with the action not necessarily being full of stunning results, the SEC football power rankings still have plenty of movement. So yet again, let’s check in on how the teams in the conference stack up against one another.

SEC football power rankings entering Week 13

Hats off to Vanderbilt as Derek Mason’s team welcomed No. 6-ranked Florida to Nashville and held their own for much of the first half. The Commodores simply don’t have the firepower to match up with their SEC foes for 60 minutes, though, and that bore out in the eventual 38-17 loss.

In their first game without Will Muschamp and after several players opted-out for the remainder of the season, the Gamecocks fought hard against Missouri but ultimately dropped another game. It feels as if the season is already over for South Carolina and that the focus of everyone has moved on to the next coach and next year.

It’d be doing Mike Leach and Mississippi State a disservice to say that they didn’t acquit themselves better against Georgia than expected. But in the end, the defense played terribly and the offense was unable to come through in the clutch. With their scholarship players dwindling, it’s time to think about the steps forward the program can take in year two under the head coach.

Do the Vols need to make a tough decision with Jeremy Pruitt? It looks like it might be coming to that in Knoxville. The talent that has been brought in is evident but they are still held back from competing seriously with a team such as Auburn. If Pruitt wants to save his job, he needs to look to the future over the closing weeks and give young players reps instead of spinning the wheels yet again with the likes of Jarrett Guarantano.

If you needed any stark proof that Kentucky was a decent team with no chance of competing against the best SEC football teams they came up against, Saturday’s matchup with Alabama provided that. Terry Wilson Jr. had no answers on offense and the defense wasn’t good to stop an elite unit. That’s pretty much the state of the Wildcats right now.

Sam Pittman has pulled Arkansas up by their bootstraps to be more competitive than anyone could’ve imagined in the 2020 season with Feleipe Franks at quarterback. But at the end of the day, the Razorbacks still have a talent gap that’s tough to close every week. A loss to LSU showed us that, even if narrow. Still, the Hogs appear to be in more than capable hands to return to prominence.

Despite all of the shortcomings that they’ve put forth this season, you can’t say that the LSU Tigers aren’t still fighting. TJ Finley and Tyrion Davis-Price led the offense in a dogfight with Arkansas on Saturday and a late touchdown pushed them ahead. While going 3-3 by this point probably wasn’t part of the plan, it’s positive given how bad they’ve looked at times this season.

When you watch Missouri this season in the first year under Eli Drinkwitz, there’s nothing overly impressive about the Tigers. Their offense and defense are both fine but don’t necessarily overwhelm anyone. But they are well-coached and that was evident in the 17-10 win over South Carolina in which they jumped out to a commanding lead and then staved off a comeback.

Ole Miss was likely anticipating the chance to shock the world in Week 12 as they had a matchup with Texas A&M on the schedule and seemed to be hitting their stride. Instead, the Rebels saw their game get postponed and will have to wait for that opportunity. Still, the Lane Train is chugging along and presents a tough matchup for anyone who faces them, even if they aren’t elite quite yet.

If you just look at the fact that Auburn has a 5-2 record on the season, you’d likely be impressed by Bo Nix and the Tigers. But the simple truth is that their schedule has been Charmin soft outside of playing Georgia, who they lost to by 21 points. And they’ve even struggled at times with this slate.

With the Iron Bowl and a date with A&M looming over the next couple of weeks, we’ll learn more about just how good Auburn is.

The big question in Athens right now is why it took so long for the Bulldogs to get JT Daniels in at quarterback. While health was a concern at one point, seeing him throw for over 400 yards in a dynamic offensive performance against Mississippi State makes you wonder how high the ceiling of this team could’ve been had he played against Florida instead of Stetson Bennett IV.

As mentioned, the Texas A&M game scheduled for this past week was called off due to COVID-19 issues, which is a shame for an Aggies team that was seemingly coming into their own prior to two postponed/canceled matchups. We’ll see if their rivalry matchup against LSU survives but the hope is that Jimbo Fisher’s group can pick up where they left off.

Early on in Week 12 against Vanderbilt, it most definitely looked as if Kyle Trask and the Florida Gators were trying to sleepwalk to a victory. They turned it on in the second half, however, and ran away with a three-touchdown win. This offense is as dangerous as ever, even with Kyle Pitts out of the lineup, and it’s hard to see them losing again with Kentucky, Tennessee and LSU remaining on the schedule.

It speaks to just how good the Alabama Crimson Tide are that Mac Jones played arguably his worst game of the 2020 season and that they never felt like they were clicking on all cylinders against Kentucky and they still ended up with a 63-3 win. Not only are the Tide the class of SEC football but it’s hard to imagine any team in the country matching up with them for 60 minutes.

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