Ranking Best SEC Football Matchups of Week 8
The SEC divisional races are beginning to take shape as we've moved past the season's midway point. But with Florida, Tennessee and Georgia all off this weekend, it's the West's week.
The best division in college football is undefeated against its weaker eastern division, and, this week, the participants get to beat up on each other. Three ranked showdowns take place, and all of the teams involved are from the West.
It's going to be a fun weekend with Ole Miss traveling to hated rival LSU, along with Arkansas and Auburn meeting in a pivotal, potentially season-changing affair on the Plains. Then, there's the Top 10 battle in Tuscaloosa between the mighty Crimson Tide and fellow unbeaten Texas A&M.
While the East is away, the West will play.
It's a top-heavy slate in Week 8, and a couple of lesser showdowns round out our top five games to watch, but it could wind up being one of the best weeks the conference will play all season.
This weekend's winners will show who the real contenders are in the SEC's top division. Let's take a detailed look at the top games of the week.
5. Middle Tennessee at Missouri
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At times early in the season, it looked like Missouri could turn things around from its dismal 2015 campaign. But that has taken a dour detour recently.
Following a late-game 28-27 loss to Georgia followed by a 79-0 win over a hapless Delaware State, the Tigers have been blown out in back-to-back weeks at LSU and Florida by a combined score of 82-21. Now, they aren't looking like a threat to anybody near the top of the division.
This weekend, they venture out of conference as they welcome the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders to Columbia.
It probably isn't going to be an easy contest, either.
Though the Blue Raiders were defeated 47-24 by Vanderbilt, they've proved to be a handful for defenses. Last weekend, they dropped a 44-43 double-overtime thriller to Western Kentucky, and they routinely put up a bunch of points.
The Tigers must relocate their offensive mojo behind sophomore quarterback Drew Lock. He was brutal against the vaunted Gators secondary, completing four of 18 passes for 39 yards with two interceptions—both of which were returned for pick-sixes.
He didn't play well against LSU, either, but nobody on the Tigers is worried.
Senior linebacker Michael Scherer told the Columbia Daily Tribune's Blake Toppmeyer: "What am I going to say to Drew? Drew is good. You guys are crazy. Anybody talking about Drew this, Drew that, is crazy, because three weeks ago, you thought Drew was God. You're nuts."
MTSU also has a strong quarterback in Brent Stockstill and one of the top runners in the nation with Ole Miss transfer I'Tavius Mathers. So, this could wind up being a shootout.
4. Mississippi State at Kentucky
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As Mizzou's season has begun to spiral, Kentucky is showing some signs of breaking out of an early season where it looked like the league's worst team.
After losing to Southern Miss and Florida to open the season, head coach Mark Stoops' team has won three out of its last four games. The only loss during that stretch was a demoralizing 34-6 setback to No. 1 Alabama, but the Wildcats also have beaten New Mexico State, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
They currently sit at 3-3 and will host Mississippi State this weekend in a game they absolutely must win if they have any bowl hopes. The Cats have State, Missouri and Georgia coming up, and with a gimme against Austin Peay left to play, they can make a bowl if they win two out of those three.
The Bulldogs are finding life after Dak Prescott to be predictably rocky. The current Dallas Cowboys rookie star signal-caller left a considerable void in Starkville, and the Bulldogs are scuffling around at 2-4 this year.
Losses to Auburn and BYU in the past two weeks have head coach Dan Mullen testy. But if there's been anything that has cured his ails in the past few years, it's been the sight of UK. He's 7-0 versus the Wildcats.
A caller named Bill on Stoops' show this weekend referenced Mullen in a question to Stoops, according to SEC Country's Joe Mussatto: "What I'm wondering is if Coach (Dan) Mullen at Mississippi State gets fired, do you think he could come to Kentucky maybe?"
The show cut to a break before Stoops could answer, but the most resounding response would be if he beat Mullen head-to-head this weekend. That would be a potentially job-saving victory if Kentucky could parlay it into a postseason berth.
3. Ole Miss at LSU
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The inconsistency of Ole Miss' football team must be maddening to its fans.
Head coach Hugh Freeze has some sick Alabama voodoo action against the Crimson Tide even though the No. 23-ranked Rebels lost a close one this year, but no matter how good the Rebels look at times throughout the year, they seem to drop games they shouldn't.
Last year, it was Memphis and an Arkansas loss that cost them their first trip to the SEC Championship Game. Last weekend, even though the Rebels had begun to look stout following the early-season second-half collapses against Alabama and Florida State, the Razorbacks shocked them again.
Now, they must travel to Death Valley to take on the No. 25 LSU Tigers, who've found new life under interim head coach Ed Orgeron since firing Les Miles. Coach O would love nothing more than to beat the team that gave him his first head coaching gig and fired him after an unsuccessful tenure.
This weekend, the two rivals renew their series, and it'll be led by two coaches who are buddies and former co-workers; Orgeron hired Freeze on his Ole Miss staff.
"I always thought Hugh was a tremendous coach," Orgeron told the Advocate's Ross Dellenger. "I almost hired him as my offensive coordinator—probably should have."
Asked about his 10-25 record with the Rebels, Orgeron said: "I had more success in The Blind Side than my coaching," referring to his cameo in the movie that also lampooned Freeze.
For his part, Freeze told Dellenger he believed Orgeron would have won in Oxford, but there was no patience. Now, after a few successful years, Freeze himself has earned some leeway, but he needs to get this year's team back on track.
This is the perfect game in which to do that.
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2. Arkansas at Auburn
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Auburn is surging, and the Tigers are rested following a bye week that piggybacked a thumping of Mississippi State on the road.
Arkansas upset Ole Miss last weekend, and the Razorbacks look like they could play spoiler in the SEC West. The Hogs are now ranked 17th in the nation, and the Tigers, who were left for dead after losses to Clemson and Texas A&M, are now 4-2.
Neither of those losses looks bad, either.
Now, it looks like the winner of this game could hold an outside chance of sneaking into the Alabama and Texas A&M echelon as the top contenders in the West. Last year, the Razorbacks beat Auburn in four overtimes in a game that AU head coach Gus Malzahn still thinks about.
He told AL.com's James Crepea that game was the "most pivotal" of a disappointing season.
"When you think about it, it still makes me mad, but that's last year," Malzahn said. "You got to figure out a way—that's history, there's nothing you can do about it. … I try not to think about things I can't control any longer."
What Malzahn can control is '16, and things have taken an upward trajectory with Rhett Lashlee calling plays. Toss in what looks like a brilliant hire at defensive coordinator in veteran Kevin Steele, and the Tigers are an intriguing team to watch as the season wears onward.
The Razorbacks, behind quarterback Austin Allen and running back Rawleigh Williams III, are proving life without Brandon Allen and Alex Collins isn't the end of the world. The Hogs are responding to the program head coach Bret Bielema has built, and this is heading toward a surprising year.
What could catapult it to another level would be a win over a bit of a new rival in Auburn. This is a key game for both teams as the season heads for the finish line.
1. Texas A&M at Alabama
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Not only is the Texas A&M-Alabama game a huge one and the best contest of the week—perhaps in the entire country—it may wind up being the SEC's game of the year.
That's just what this game means for the No. 1 Crimson Tide and sixth-ranked Aggies.
Head coach Kevin Sumlin's team should need no additional motivation. After beating Tennessee in double overtime heading into a bye week, the Aggies are a stunning 18.5-point underdog to UA, according to Odds Shark. That's little love for what is supposed to be the sixth-best team in the country.
Nothing seems to faze head coach Nick Saban's team, though. The Tide easily dispatched the Volunteers in a historic hammering last weekend 49-10, and UT was supposed to be the ninth-ranked team in the country at the time. So, what's winning by 19 points against A&M?
Per a tweet from TexAgs, receiver Christian Kirk said the large line does motivate the Aggies: "The 17-point line adds fuel to our fire. We know what people think about us, and we want to prove them wrong. It makes us play harder."
TexAgs added a tweet referencing Sumlin: "Somebody said, 'Nobody is giving you a chance.' Good thing 'nobody' is not playing this week."
A&M quarterback Trevor Knight will try to hark back to his heroics against the Tide as a young starter at Oklahoma, when the Sooners dominated Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Saban knows what kind of player he's facing, and he also had high praise for the Aggies, according to GridironNow.com.
"Texas A&M probably presents as many issues as any team that we've faced all year," he said.
It'll be a tough out on the road, but if the Aggies can come into Bryant-Denny Stadium fired up, it would be great if this game lived up to expectation.
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