SEC power rankings: Ole Miss, Mississippi State get statement wins vs. Texas A&M, Auburn

It was a big weekend for the state of Mississippi with Ole Miss and Mississippi State getting big wins to make a move in this week’s SEC power rankings.

This college football season continues to be bizarre. Unfortunately for two future members of the Southeastern Conference, things weren’t easy on Saturday. This past week, the Texas Longhorns lost to the Kansas Jayhawks in Austin for the first time while the Oklahoma Sooners were beaten by the Baylor Bears.

Over in the SEC, things were odd with the conference’s current members.

One team managed to blow a 28-3 lead as their opponent scored 40 unanswered points, an FCS team put up 52 on a once-proud program, and two teams that have had fun offenses this season found a way to play a really low scoring affair.

How do things shake out with the SEC power ranking after week 11?

SEC power rankings: Mississippi State makes statement in comeback against Auburn

Football season is almost over and fans of the Vanderbilt Commodores are almost certainly ready to move on from this mess of a year. Maybe next season will be a little better? After losing to Kentucky 34-17, the Commodores fall to 2-8.

On one hand, it’s impressive that the Florida Gators were able to score 70 points Saturday afternoon. That’s apparently worth celebrating. On the other hand, Florida was gashed for 52 points by the Samford Bulldogs. The calls to fire Dan Mullen will not be silenced by this abysmal showing. His job may be safe for now, but Mullen will need the Gators to improve in the coming weeks if he hopes to somehow stay coaching in Gainesville for a little while longer.

Shane Beamer and the South Carolina Gamecocks had very little offensive production going on Saturday afternoon in a 31-28 loss to the Missouri Tigers. Mizzou isn’t all that impressive, so losing to them is a pretty bad deal. But, all South Carolina needs to do to make a bowl is win one of their next two games. Those bowl practices would be very beneficial for a team that is seeking to improve.

So, the Missouri Tigers are an odd team. In a sloppy, ugly way, the Tigers managed to beat the South Carolina Gamecocks 31-28. That’s an improvement, technically, but Mizzou did not look good as they managed to get that win. On the bright side, Mizzou is one win away from bowl eligibility. Get to a bowl game, get some extra practices, and improve going into next year. That should be the Tigers’ goal at this point.

Hey, the Kentucky Wildcats snapped their losing streak! Mark Stoops and company even got a 34-17 conference win out of the deal! That’s not bad. Of course, it helped that Kentucky was playing Vanderbilt, but you take what you can get, right?

The LSU Tigers aren’t doing so hot at the moment. Their coaching search is going to be the most interesting thing about this program for a little while because the Tigers just simply haven’t been all that impressive. After a 16-13 overtime loss to Arkansas, there’s a very real chance that the Tigers won’t make it to a bowl game this season.

Look, it’s hard to fault the Tennessee Volunteers for losing to the Georgia Bulldogs. Is getting crushed in an awful blowout a good thing? No! Is losing to Georgia expected? Yeah, pretty much everyone is doing it. The Vols have a bright future and Josh Heupel’s offense is exciting when it’s clicking that is. Tennessee lost 41-17 and there wasn’t much to be happy about with the offense in this game, but this is Georgia, the team with the best defense in the country.

Typically, when a team is leading by nearly four touchdowns early in the first half, that team is expected to win. Unfortunately for the Auburn Tigers, 28-3 leads are never safe and Mississippi State’s Air Raid found all sorts of life in Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday. The Bulldogs scored 40 unanswered at one point and went on to win 43-34. That’s probably not what Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin wanted.

Well, the Texas A&M Aggies managed to beat both the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers. Unfortunately for Jimbo Fisher, both Mississippi schools seem to find a way to consistently spoil Texas A&M’s fun. Texas A&M probably didn’t enjoy the Rebels finding a way to play defense seemingly overnight and Fisher didn’t have an answer for Matt Corral. A&M can still finish with a decent record, but this won’t be the year many Aggies were dreaming of. November strikes again.

While this game will get overshadowed on a national scale because of more bizarre happenings during week 11 (looking at you, Kansas and Texas), the Mississippi State Bulldogs made history as they crushed Auburn’s hopes with a fascinating comeback. With how Will Rogers is performing and the way this team keeps defeating ranked opponents, it should be evident by now that the Air Raid can work in the SEC. Mike Leach is building a pretty dangerous team in Starkville, but they need to learn to be consistent before we can really make any definitive judgments on how good they are.

It may not be a great sign that the Arkansas Razorbacks needed overtime to beat the LSU Tigers, but hey, the Razorbacks were able to get a win. They keep improving, slowly and steadily, and Sam Pittman continues to impress. Considering the state of the program he inherited, it’s remarkable that Arkansas has improved this much in such a short period of time.

Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels looked like a complete team Saturday. Not only was Ole Miss able to move the ball on a talented Texas A&M Aggies defense, but the Rebels were also able to halt everything Texas A&M tried offensively. That’s impressive for a team that typically fails to stop anyone’s offense. Kiffin has a real shot at guiding this team to a 10-win season in his second year in Oxford. That’s also pretty impressive.

The New Mexico State Aggies were obliterated Saturday. It’s never any fun to play the Alabama Crimson Tide and lose by some ridiculous sum of points. But hey, on the bright side, Alabama paid New Mexico State a lot of money, which should help the Aggies’ athletic department in meaningful ways.

The Georgia Bulldogs are the best the SEC has to offer this year and that’s evident once more with another crushing victory. Georgia has everything it needs to compete for a national championship. It’ll be fun to see just how far Kirby Smart can take this team.

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