SEC football power rankings 2021: Will Georgia end Dan Mullen’s Florida tenure?

SEC football power rankings entering Week 9 when Florida and Georgia clash in Jacksonville and Ole Miss and Auburn meet in an SEC West battle.

With a relatively easy and predictable week of college football behind us, it’s time to examine how the SEC looks right now. The SEC had a fairly straightforward slate of games with no real upsets or surprises.

Some teams responded well after getting thumped, such as how the Mississippi State Bulldogs did following their loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, and other teams came out looking flat for seemingly no good reason, like the South Carolina Gamecocks when they faced the Texas A&M Aggies.

Here’s how the SEC looks right now:

SEC football power rankings after Week 8: It’s Florida-Georgia week

The Vanderbilt Commodores had such a rough time against Mississippi State and the Air Raid that Mike Leach was talking about Halloween candy during a postgame interview rather than the 45-6 road win his team earned. That’s not exactly a great sign. On the bright side, Vandy did pick Will Rogers off twice. On the less-than-bright side, the Commodores gave up 461 passing yards and four touchdowns.

The South Carolina Gamecocks offense was essentially non-existent when they faced off against the Texas A&M Aggies. But it wasn’t just South Carolina’s offense that let it down, the Aggies had no issue running up the score even though their own offense is flawed in some significant ways. South Carolina has some issues all over the place that need to be addressed, but that could take some time.

No team needed a bye week more than the Missouri Tigers. Eliah Drinkwitz and Mizzou need to figure out what’s going on with the Tigers’ defense and why this offense is so inconsistent. Maybe the bye week gave Missouri an opportunity to do just that.

Dan Mullen’s Florida Gators need to be making some major adjustments right now, and a bye week is a pretty good opportunity to do just that. There’s not much to say about Florida right now other than the Gators haven’t looked good for most of the season.

The LSU Tigers should be a little embarrassed with their road loss to the Ole Miss Rebels. Sure, LSU did a decent job of slowing Lane Kiffin’s offense as Matt Corral somehow only threw for 185 yards, but the Rebels still scored with ease and racked up 470 total yards of offense. Oh, and in addition to that, LSU couldn’t score on one of the weaker defenses in the SEC. That’s not great.

The Air Raid is still a work in progress for the folks in Starkville, but Leach has the Mississippi State Bulldogs going in the right direction. Rogers was far from perfect against the Commodores, but he was still able to throw for 384 yards and four touchdowns. Sure, he threw a couple of picks, and he can’t have that against better opponents, but those largely didn’t impact the outcome of this game.

Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Volunteers certainly have a fun offense developing in Knoxville, but there’s some work to do on the defensive side of things. Tennessee made the Alabama Crimson Tide sweat for a few quarters and then ultimately ran out of gas. Before the game got ugly and lopsided, the Volunteers should some real potential. Maybe that can be realized later down the line.

Sam Pittman and the Arkansas Razorbacks haven’t been having much fun in recent weeks, but they got the perfect chance to take out their frustrations on Arkansas-Pine Bluff, who is probably just happy to get a nice payday from the Razorbacks.

The Auburn Tigers have consistently been one of the weirder teams in the SEC this season, but Bryan Harsin’s team didn’t have a chance for any fun shenanigans or odd upset wins with the bye week.

Despite the fact that the Kentucky Wildcats rolled into Athens, with an unbeaten record, they ended up leaving with a lopsided loss against the Georgia Bulldogs. After a bye week, Kentucky is getting a chance to bounce back against the Mississippi State Bulldogs this week. Mark Stoops is 0-4 on the road against Mississippi State as he has yet to get a win in Starkville. Maybe this will be the perfect chance for him to do just that.

Jimbo Fisher’s team continues to look like an intriguing bunch as the Texas A&M Aggies used their stout defense to fluster the South Carolina Gamecocks. And while A&M’s offense isn’t all that great, the Aggies still put 44 points up on the scoreboard. The Aggies might have some flawed parts, but as a whole, this team is pretty impressive.

Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels were able to give Eli Manning a pretty fun afternoon as they handled the LSU Tigers with ease. The Rebels still look like one of the best teams in the SEC. Going into their game against the Tigers, everyone knew the Rebels had an offense that can get them plenty of wins this season, but it was the defense that looked pretty solid and impressed a bit on Saturday.

Alabama’s game against Tennessee was probably closer than Crimson Tide fans and Nick Saban wanted it to be, but they got a win. And, well, that win ended up being by 28 points as Alabama took complete control by the fourth quarter. But at least Vols fans can enjoy the fact that they made things competitive for a few quarters, right?

The Georgia Bulldogs didn’t have to do anything this week to hold on to their top spot here in the SEC power rankings. They’ve got a rivalry game coming up against the Florida Gators, who desperately need something to go right for them to be able to salvage their season. Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs are far better than Dan Mullen’s Gators, but they shouldn’t overlook this upcoming contest. Rivalry games always have the potential to get weird.

For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.