SEC power rankings: Arkansas earns respect after handling Texas A&M

The Arkansas Razorbacks are rising as they stymied Texas A&M on Saturday. Here’s how the SEC power rankings shake out after Week 4.

Just as with the rest of the college football world, the SEC might finally have some parity in it once again. College football as a whole is experiencing an odd year that has been loaded with upsets and chaos. Teams like the Arkansas Razorbacks are somewhat unexpectedly on the rise and looking to make things interesting.

That certainly happened this past Saturday as then-No. 16 Arkansas was able to hand then-No. 7 Texas A&M a 20-10 beating. But even though Arkansas only won that game by 10 points, the game didn’t feel that close at times given how much the Aggies struggled on offense.

As such, Arkansas is getting plenty of respect. The Razorbacks deserve it and appear to be capable of making things difficult for the traditional power of the SEC. That includes Georgia, who Arkansas faces this week, and Alabama, who the Razorbacks meet later this season.

And so, with Arkansas handling Texas A&M, here’s what the SEC power rankings look like after Week 4.

SEC power rankings: Texas A&M tumbles after falling flat against Arkansas

It’s hard to state just how bad things were for Vanderbilt on Saturday. The Commodores managed to gain 77 total yards of offense, which is horrendously low, while Georgia scored 62 points. In case you’re wondering how Vanderbilt’s defense did in limiting the Bulldogs’ ability to gain yards, UGA ended up racking up 532 total yards of offense. Vanderbilt is not good. There is no reality in which this Commodores football team is any good. At all.

It’s never fun to lose on the road and it’s never fun to lose in overtime. Unfortunately for the Missouri Tigers, both of those things happened as Mizzou faced off against the Boston College Eagles. Mizzou got off to a great start and led 14-3 after the first quarter. By the time halftime rolled around, Missouri and BC were tied up at 17-17. The Tigers were trailing 17-27 as the fourth quarter started and roared back to tie things up at 34-34 to force overtime, but Eliah Drinkwitz’s team was unable to match Boston College in overtime. This is the second road loss Mizzou has endured this season and the Tigers did not look sharp at all in the process.

Mississippi State couldn’t get out of its own way when the Bulldogs hosted LSU. MSU quarterback Will Rogers, at times, looked to be in control of the offense and the Air Raid was moving, but turnovers and dumb penalties ended up dooming Mississippi State yet again. It didn’t matter that MSU racked up 486 yards of total offense or that Rogers threw for 371 yards and three touchdowns while completing 75.8 percent of his passes. A costly fumble, an interception, dropped passes, and a completely preventable penalty on a punt block attempt ended up helping LSU win 28-25. State’s errors doomed them for the second time in as many weeks. Because of that, Mike Leach is drawing an abundance of criticism. This team has shown progress, but for every step, it takes forward, it makes some sort of frustrating mistake.

Shane Beamer and South Carolina were able to make an ugly game interesting. While trailing the Kentucky Wildcats 10-0 entering the second half, Beamer and the Gamecocks found a way to crawl back into the game. Their comeback efforts fell short and South Carolina lost 16-10, but it’s clear that this team is trying to improve. Of course, there’s still a lot of work to do.

Tennessee has a long way to go and Josh Heupel found out how hard it can be to compete in the SEC on Saturday. The Vols struggled to consistently put up points against Florida and they really only did any damage in the first half of the game. While this loss came against a much better team than Tennessee’s previous loss (a 41-34 defeat from Pitt), it was likely still very frustrating for Vols fans to watch.

Ed Orgeron and the LSU Tigers desperately needed a win. While a second-straight loss to Mississippi State may not have been enough to doom Orgeron, it certainly would have made his hot seat that much hotter. Luckily for him, LSU was able to escape Starkville with a 28-25 win. The Tigers still have plenty of issues that need to be addressed, but they showed some potential with this road win.

It was a little sloppy, but the Kentucky Wildcats were able to get their second SEC win of the season when they handed South Carolina a 16-10 defeat. While this team is unbeaten at 4-0, it’s hard not to wonder just how good Kentucky is as the Wildcats have won their past three games by an average of six points. Wins are wins, and at the end of the day that’s what matters, but Kentucky has not always looked sharp as the Wildcats beat Missouri, Chattanooga, and now South Carolina.