The final month of the college football regular season is upon us, and for once this past Saturday the primary source of chaos came from outside the SEC.
There were still plenty of takeaways following the five game slate. Here are our latest power rankings.
Bottom Six
16. Vanderbilt
15. Arkansas
14. Mississippi State
13. Texas A&M
12. Oklahoma
11. Auburn
Top Ten
10. Florida
What an embarrassing loss for the Gators in Atlanta. They started the wrong quarterback, turned the ball over four times and mustered just eight points in Jon Sumrall’s first game in this rivalry as the head coach.
Not great.
9. Missouri
Missouri dominated Arkansas, per usual. The Tigers beat the Hogs 34-10 and then Eli Drinkwitz danced on their grave immediately after.
The Tigers are much healthier than they were before the bye, and that’s huge since Texas comes to town this weekend.
8. Texas
The Texas defense had another dominating effort, but the good news was even without the run game, the offense looked good again.
Well, the passing game looked much more efficient at least. Arch Manning was 16-of-20 for 220 yards and three touchdowns against Mississippi State.
7. South Carolina
I guess the secret formula for Shane Beamer is that he has to lose three games out of the gate, be firmly on the hot seat and then his team will catch fire.
The Gamecocks won their third straight game, and are now possibly in control of their own destiny. They need one more win to get to bowl eligibility, and they have Texas A&M, Clemson and Arkansas still ahead.
Eight wins doesn’t feel like a longshot anymore.
6. Alabama
Alabama was off this weekend before they head to Baton Rouge in a playoff elimination game for each team.
5. Tennessee
Tennessee was off this week, but let’s not forget that they smashed Alabama a few weeks ago, and their two losses this season have come by a combined six points.
4. Ole Miss
Ole Miss throttled Auburn on Saturday, and looked their best once again. They have been elite at home and struggled on the road this season.
Luckily for them, the biggest remaining game on their schedule against Georgia is at home this Saturday.
3. LSU
LSU is the most dangerous team in the conference right now. However, they have to play the No. 1 ranked strength of schedule the rest of the season with Alabama, Texas and Tennessee on deck.
2. Kentucky
Kentucky is 7-1, and they are still an underdog this weekend in Knoxville. They’re almost a full touchdown underdog, at that.
If the Cats can knock off the Vols, will they finally be taken seriously?
1. Georgia
Georgia didn’t even have their fastball against Florida, and they still dominated the game.
The offense couldn’t get going in the passing game for most of the night, and Gunner Stockton had the lowest QBR (24.1) of his career and they still won by nearly 20 points.
This team is still dangerous, and after a relatively easy start to the season, November looks tougher than many expected. Back-to-back-to-back matchups against Ole Miss, Missouri and South Carolina will put that to the test.
