SEC power rankings, Week 8: Georgia crushes Kentucky, Alabama rebounds

While Georgia continued to prove it was the best in the SEC, Alabama responded to a rough road loss by beating Mississippi State. Here’s what that does to the SEC power rankings.

Much like the rest of the college football world, the SEC is having a weird year. The SEC power rankings somehow get shaken up seemingly each and every week as some team or another finds a way to be either incredibly impressive in an unexpected way or remarkably disappointing in shocking fashion.

This week, we saw Georgia get a relatively easy over the Kentucky Wildcats, Alabama bounce back and pulverize Mississippi State, Florida somehow completely forget that its supposed to be good and lose to LSU, and then some really weird nonsense between Ole Miss and Tennessee.

There were other surprises around the conference too, such as Auburn’s solid win against Arkansas (does anyone know just how good either of these teams happen to be?) and Vanderbilt looking dangerous against South Carolina (are either of these teams any good at all?), which all of that does impact the SEC power rankings for this week.

Here is how the SEC power rankings shake out after week 7

Vanderbilt came so close to getting another win! The Commodores almost found a way to beat South Carolina! Clark Lea and Vandy didn’t get that win, but the Commodores did show some potential to improve on Saturday, which is something, right?

Mizzou is in a rough place right now. Clearly the Tigers aren’t achieving what they want to and Eliah Drinkwitz has to be frustrated after his Missouri team looked to be out of its league when it was facing Texas A&M on Saturday. Mizzou has lost three of its last five games with the only wins in that stretch coming against North Texas and Southeast Missouri State. The Tigers get a bye week to get some things figured out and will then face Vanderbilt, who provided a surprising challenge for South Carolina on Saturday.

South Carolina needed some late-game heroics to be able to beat the Vanderbilt Commodores at home. That’s generally never a good sign when examining how your team is doing. Vandy is just 2-5 on the year, while South Carolina now sits at 4-3, but the Gamecocks looked very vulnerable in their 21-20 win.

It’s never fun to face Alabama after the Crimson Tide suffers an unexpected loss. Nick Saban’s team was likely going to punish anyone it faced after losing to Texas A&M. Unfortunately for Mississippi State, that just happened to be the Bulldogs. Will Rogers got a bit dinged up during the game and tossed three picks, but he also threw for 300 yards. While the Bulldogs couldn’t beat Alabama, Mike Leach and his team will have a few more opportunities to shock some ranked teams up ahead. Of course, depending on Rogers’s health and when considering how inconsistent MSU plays, it’s probably a good idea for the Bulldogs to make sure they stay focused against foes like Vanderbilt.

Dan Mullen has to be on the hot seat after losing to LSU on Saturday. When he was at Mississippi State, Mullen was able to consistently beat the teams he was supposed to and generally avoided bad upsets. Clearly, that sort of trend hasn’t carried over from Starkville to Gainesville as the Gators got humiliated by way of a 49-42 loss against an LSU team that is losing its head coach. After starting the season with some promise and the Gators are heading into a bye week with a disappointing 4-3 record. Florida better get ready for its next game as the Gators will have to battle Georgia soon.

Tennessee has a very, very good offense. Tennessee also has some work it needs to do on defense. The Vols tried to upset the Ole Miss Rebels and beat one of their former coaches, Lane Kiffin, on Saturday, but Matt Corral and his 426 total yards of offense helped carry Ole Miss to a 31-26 win over Tennessee.

Well, Arkansas’ special season took a bit of a rough hit when Bo Nix and the Auburn Tigers decided to have a great road performance on Saturday. The Razorbacks weren’t able to go score-for-score with the Tigers and ended up losing 38-23. Arkansas is still a good team and will have opportunities to prove it down the stretch, but this season may not end up being as great as it once appeared it could.

Ed Orgeron won’t be back in Baton Rouge for another season, but that didn’t stop LSU from shocking the Florida Gators on Saturday. It was a bizarre, back-and-forth affair that featured Tyrion Davis-Price rushing for 287 yards and three touchdowns as LSU went on to win 49-42. While the win wasn’t anywhere near enough for Orgeron’s job to be saved, LSU fans probably enjoyed seeing the Gators fall short against the Tigers for the second year in a row.

Bryan Harsin and the Auburn Tigers couldn’t keep up with Georgia a week ago, but they bounced back nicely and were able to get a 15-point win against the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville. Auburn is inconsistent, but the Tigers are talented and they’re demonstrating that they can win big games against really good teams.

Just how good are the Texas A&M Aggies? Well, that’s still hard to tell, but it’s clear that they’re certainly better than the Missouri Tigers. A&M got off to a hot start against Mizzou and then just cruised to an easy 35-14 road win. Fisher’s team may not be great, but the Aggies look really good and they completely avoided a hangover following a shocking win over Alabama.

The talent differential between Kentucky and Georgia might just be what separated the two teams on Saturday. The Wildcats have a disciplined, experienced roster, but Georgia boasts one of the most talented teams in the country. It’s hard to overcome that sometimes. Kentucky is still really solid and, despite losing 30-13, is still in a position to finish out the year on a high note.

Lane Kiffin’s trip to Knoxville ended in a tense, bizarre fashion due to some unnecessarily rowdy fans, but the Ole Miss Rebels were able to get a key win against a fun Tennessee Volunteers team. Kiffin may not have a great defense at his disposal, but Ole Miss has a defense that is just good enough to go right along with a thrilling offense.

After a speed bump in College Station, Alabama is back on track for winning the SEC West. The Crimson Tide looked incredibly in Starkville and effectively shut Mike Leach’s Air Raid down. Alabama can’t afford to make many more mistakes if it wants to make it to the SEC Championship Game this season, but Nick Saban’s team looked drastically different this week when compared to last week. Bouncing back and winning 49-9 on the road certainly helps improve the outlook of a team.

Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs just keep bulldozing through foes and it still doesn’t matter who UGA is facing. The Bulldogs didn’t have any real issue when facing off against the Kentucky Wildcats, who have been a fun team to keep up with this season. UGA’s offense was a little slow to start, but the Bulldogs’ defense was consistent and helped it secure a 30-13 win. After throttling a really good Kentucky team, Georgia is in the driver’s seat for the SEC East and still looks like a national title contender.

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