Retour
We had a feeling Week 7 was going to be a chaotic one in the SEC, with a whopping three different ranked-on-ranked matchups on tap. Little did we know, that wouldn't even be the half of it.
If you called Florida and Auburn going on the road and upsetting Texas and Georgia, respectively, please raise your hand, and then stop lying. Oh, and Alabama got manhandled by Tennessee in Knoxville — the first time the Longhorns, Bulldogs and Tide lost on the same day in the regular season since 1996.
It was that kind of day in the deepest conference in the country, and the race to the SEC title game in Atlanta is now more wide-open than it's been at any point in recent memory. Kentucky and Oklahoma have still yet to play in the primetime slate, but now that the dust has (mostly) settled, which teams now have the inside track? Let's dive in.
Here's how we'd rank all 16 teams after truly one of the wildest Saturday afternoons in modern college football history.
Somehow, some way, the Dawgs stay at No. 1 despite a shocking upset at the hands of an Auburn team that looked lifeless against Tennessee last week. Wins and losses are the only things that count at the end of the day, but context does matter here: Georgia was exhausted after going on the road and beating Alabama in Week 6, and they outgained the Tigers by nearly two full yards per play — only to be undone by three uncharacteristic turnovers from Gunner Stockton.
With a bye week coming up to reset, I still have more faith in Kirby Smart's team than any other in this conference, especially with everyone around them at the top taking Ls. Well, everyone but ...
I'll admit, I was an Ole Miss skeptic. Trinidad Chambliss is all-world, sure, but I had less than zero faith in Pete Golding's defense — a unit that got shredded by Louisville and Florida to start the year. Since a bye week following that Florida loss, though, the Rebels have completely turned things around on that side of the ball, throttling Vanderbilt (less impressive) and Missouri (much more impressive) in consecutive weeks.
We know what Chambliss is going to bring on a weekly basis. But if this is what Ole Miss can do defensively, then why can't they win the conference? They go to Texas next Saturday, but hosting Georgia is the only other truly scary game on the schedule to close the regular season.
Lane Kiffin was the butt of everybody's jokes after suffering another road loss at Kentucky last Saturday. But the Tigers got right against a beleaguered Mississippi State team this week, and all of a sudden the rest of the conference has come right back to them.
Two conference losses will be tough to overcome as far as the race to Atlanta is concerned, but they get Alabama and Texas at home before going to Tennessee in November. We still need to see this team execute in a hostile environment, and if you don't trust Sam Leavitt, I get it. But this defense is ferocious, and I'd still take their ceiling over pretty much everyone but Georgia, Ole Miss and Alabama.
As if snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Red River weren't embarrassing enough, Steve Sarkisian and Co. came back home and did it again against a previously flailing Florida team. And at this point, why should we expect anything else? The Horns have looked like a title contender for exactly one quarter this season; outside of the dramatic comeback against Ohio State, what evidence do we have to suggest that Texas is serious?
The schedule doesn't help, either, with a visit from Ole Miss next week followed by trips to Missouri, LSU and Texas A&M. It seems hard to believe that the Horns don't drop at least one more before the regular season is through, and that might be generous.
Auburn got outplayed on a down-to-down basis and had some extreme turnover luck aid their upset efforts in Athens. Florida, meanwhile, was down two scores and averaged less than four yards per play on the day before Texas decided to melt down completely.
None of which should make those wins any less meaningful to their fan bases, or dampen enthusiasm about where things are headed under Alex Golesh and Jon Sumrall. I just don't think they're viable conference contenders just yet, especially with two losses apiece already.