SEC Football Power Rankings: Week 10
After Separation Saturday in the SEC, we already know who is going to the SEC Championship Game with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
Surprise: It's the same two teams that played in the national title game last year.
Georgia used a dominant performance running the ball and playing aggressive defense to upend upstart Kentucky 34-17 and will represent the SEC East in Atlanta. In the biggest grudge match of the year so far, LSU barely mustered a whimper in a 29-0 loss to Alabama that felt like 92-0.
Now, the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs are geared up to meet Dec. 1.
Missouri pulled off a shocking upset, South Carolina actually won an offensive air show, and Auburn held serve at home.
There was plenty of other action too, with only Vanderbilt and Arkansas sitting idle. Let's take a look at the SEC Power Rankings following Week 10.
14. Arkansas Razorbacks
1 of 14
With LSU, Mississippi State and Missouri remaining on its schedule, perhaps the only team with a tougher remaining SEC slate than Arkansas is the Auburn Tigers.
No, it's not going to get better for head coach Chad Morris' Razorbacks this year.
It is still important for Arkansas to find a way to get better on both sides of the ball and develop some building blocks before the coaches hit the recruiting trail hard this offseason.
Morris needs some offensive weapons to run his high-flying attack, and defensive coordinator John Chavis would like some more firepower too. Believe it or not, former head coach Bret Bielema didn't leave much in the cupboard.
When you not only change coaches but also go through scheme alterations on both offense and defense, there are going to be growing pains. Those are exacerbated in the SEC and look even worse in the West, where it's a meat grinder every year.
To be factual, though, the Hogs didn't help themselves much in 2018, with losses to North Texas, Colorado State and Vanderbilt. They have to find a way to turn it around, and that starts with respectable showings.
If they can pull off an upset, it would be huge.
13. Tennessee Volunteers
2 of 14
Coming into Saturday's game, Tennessee looked like it was on the upswing in the first year under head coach Jeremy Pruitt.
One disinterested effort against Conference USA's Charlotte 49ers ended any of those good thoughts.
After playing its best offensive game of the year in a narrow loss at South Carolina, UT had no answers for the nation's third-ranked rushing defense of the 49ers. The Vols offensive line was whipped the entire game, and if not for a Marquez Callaway punt return for a score, UT would have been in trouble.
As it is, the Vols won 14-3 at Neyland Stadium.
Yes, a win is a win, but there are issues that look unfixable on this year's team. Offensive coordinator Tyson Helton couldn't scheme around his offensive line's issues, and quarterback Jarrett Guarantano did not look good.
The Vols were nursing injuries from running back Ty Chandler (two carries) and several on defense, including defensive back Trevon Flowers. UT was also was without star freshman cornerback Alontae Taylor, who was called for targeting in the first half. It was brutal.
Tennessee has to get healthy, and it needs a little luck to win two out of the remaining three against Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt to get bowl-eligible. Pruitt is going to pull a good recruiting class, but this team seems like it's a couple of years away from being able to compete with the big boys in the league.
The Volunteers sadly looked like a CUSA-level team Saturday.
12. Ole Miss Rebels
3 of 14
For a while on Saturday, it looked like Ole Miss was going to pull off a major late-season win against a good South Carolina team in Oxford.
Then the Rebels defense did what it has all season: collapsed in a 48-44 home loss.
The team played pretty well between a bookend awful start and finish. The Rebels allowed a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Deebo Samuel to begin the action. Then, they were blitzed by Jake Bentley and the Gamecocks at the end.
Defensively, Ole Miss has to make changes. The Gamecocks averaged 11.3 yards per pass, and they had rushing success. Mon Denson's 69-yard run set up the go-ahead touchdown, and the Rebels were left frustrated once again.
"It was just missed tackles, missed tackles," Ole Miss linebacker Mohamed Sanogo told the Clarion-Ledger's Nick Suss. "We had just come off of a punt. I was a little tired. I asked Coach for a quick breather, a quick two plays. I should've stayed in on that. But there's all things we'd like to take back."
The Denson run was a huge play, but it was just one of many allowed by Ole Miss. The offense has been brilliant for much of the season and was again Saturday, with quarterback Jordan Ta'amu (31-of-46, 379 yards) and running back Scottie Phillips (21 carries, 141 yards, three touchdowns) having characteristic big days.
But when a team can't play defense, it translates into 1-4 in the SEC. That's what Ole Miss is right now.
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11. Vanderbilt Commodores
4 of 14
Vanderbilt didn't play Saturday, but the Commodores needed to find a way to stay loose and keep momentum through the bye week.
Head coach Derek Mason watched the Alabama-LSU game, and maybe some of that "championship football" will rub off on the 'Dores with games against Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee left on the schedule.
That's perhaps the most navigable stretch left for any remaining SEC team, and VU has to win two out of the three contests to make it to a bowl game. This off week needed to be about maintaining the same things that led to a 45-31 win over Arkansas.
Before that, VU was right in a 14-7 loss to Kentucky.
The Commodores need to find a way to bottle their defense against the Wildcats and their offense against the Hogs for the rest of the year. One way to do it on the offensive side is to limit pressure on quarterback Kyle Shurmur and get running back Ke'Shawn Vaughn more touches.
If the 'Dores can do that, it can wind up being a successful season. And they can put in the rearview those near-wins against Kentucky and Florida.
Getting to a bowl game would be huge for both the future of Mason and the program.
10. South Carolina Gamecocks
5 of 14
Nobody is talking about benching Jake Bentley now.
Playing against Ole Miss' struggling defense is good medication for anybody, but Bentley was exceptional in Oxford in the 48-44 win over the Rebels.
With the news that South Carolina will play Dec. 1 against Akron in a game that replaces the Marshall showdown that was canceled because of Hurricane Florence, a good season suddenly looks more realistic.
Next week's contest against a reeling Florida team will be big for perception. It's also big for head coach Will Muschamp, who'd like nothing more than to elevate his current program by pounding his former one. But the Gamecocks probably won't be favored in that game.
They certainly won't be in the Nov. 24 game against Clemson. But they play Chattanooga the week before that, so they should get a win.
If the Gamecocks are going to pull off a big upset against the Gators or Tigers, they have to fix their defense. In Week 9's win over Tennessee and Saturday's against the Rebels, that side of the ball was sorely lacking. It needed Bentley and Co. to pick it up.
Thankfully for Muschamp, they did. South Carolina needs a full effort going forward.
9. Texas A&M Aggies
6 of 14
There's no way around it: Texas A&M is heading for the danger zone.
With Ole Miss, UAB and LSU on the schedule, recapturing some of that early-season magic is still possible. But this team is facing the same questions it did during the Kevin Sumlin era in the first year of Jimbo Fisher's regime.
On Saturday, the Aggies blew a 24-14 fourth-quarter lead and wound up losing 28-24 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The collapse started with a blown chip-shot field goal and escalated from there.
Now, A&M has dropped consecutive games to Mississippi State and Auburn, and this looks like another late-season swoon.
Is this a bump in the road, or a sign of things to come? We'll find out soon enough, but Fisher and defensive coordinator Mike Elko need to push the right buttons moving forward. This is a young team that hasn't really learned how to put away opponents yet, and that needs to change.
Early in the year, the Aggies had a home upset of Clemson squarely in their sites but couldn't finish. Beating Auburn wouldn't have been a major upset, but it would have been big for the psyche of the program. Instead, the team continued a mini blip that could become a free fall.
The Aggies' schedule isn't too bad going forward, but the Ole Miss game is big because the end-of-the-year showdown with LSU looks tough. Fisher is getting paid big bucks to figure things out.
8. Missouri Tigers
7 of 14
Missouri's moral victory of giving up only 39 points to Alabama wound up being a harbinger of things to come. In the past couple of games, the Tigers have played quality football.
Defensively, they have made some strides this season, though they basically just outscored Memphis in a 65-33 win last weekend. On Saturday, though, they showed marked improvement on both sides of the ball in a shocking 38-17 upset of Florida in Gainesville.
This defensive unit struggled early in the season but looked strong against a Gators offense that wound up switching from quarterback Feleipe Franks to Kyle Trask.
Drew Lock continues to be the Tigers' star, and the quarterback had a career game against Florida despite his stats not being as prolific as they usually are. He showed up and showed out, throwing for 250 yards and three touchdowns against a really good defense (34th in the nation).
Mizzou converted 11 of 18 third downs and got in the end zone numerous times. Florida had no answers.
Damarea Crockett and Larry Rountree III had big games running the ball too, proving the Tigers may be hitting their stride at the right time.
Last year, they ran off a strong second half of the season to set up expectations for 2018. It looks like they may be doing that again, sending out Lock in style.
7. Auburn Tigers
8 of 14
Maybe all is not lost for Auburn, after all.
The Tigers dug down and overcame a frustrating first half against Texas A&M on Saturday to storm back and overtake the Aggies. It was the kind of win that can galvanize a team and send it down the stretch on a positive note.
The only bad thing for the Tigers is they still have to face Georgia and Alabama, two teams that can crush those positive vibes like a bug. Next week, Auburn heads to Athens to take on a Bulldogs team that is playing as well as it has all season.
It's going to take a full-game effort for head coach Gus Malzahn's squad to win.
That means quarterback Jarrett Stidham needs to take his second-half self against the Aggies and play that way against UGA. Also, the Tigers front seven doesn't need to stay on the bus for the first half like it did against the Aggies.
Once defensive coordinator Kevin Steele made halftime adjustments, AU played more like itself to allow for the 28-24 victory. Can this be the one that turns around things in what has been a disappointing season?
With Alabama seeming like a too-tall task, this weekend's game at Georgia will go a long way in defining Auburn's campaign. It may not be a must-win, but Malzahn needs to prove he's rallied his guys after a tumultuous start to 2018.
6. Florida Gators
9 of 14
Florida may have not built its 6-1 start to the season on smoke and mirrors, but there's no question first-year head coach Dan Mullen was squeezing the most he could out of a roster that needs to be equipped with more depth and talent.
It has come back to bite the Gators the past two weekends.
A rough six-quarter stretch following a competitive first half against Georgia has dropped Florida to a 6-3 record. UGA came back to blow out UF in Jacksonville, Florida, in Week 9, and the Gators returned home to face Missouri on Saturday.
It did not go well.
Defensively, Florida looked as lost as it has all year. On offense, Mullen finally got sick of quarterback Feleipe Franks' inconsistency and yanked him in favor of Kyle Trask, who provided a spark. It may be Trask's team moving forward.
"We'll see how they perform this week," Mullen told Gator Country's Nick de la Torre. "If there's a drastic change, we'll make a change. If not, we'll play with who’s going to give us the best chance to win."
With South Carolina and Florida State sandwiched around a game against Idaho, UF has two games left it can lose. Though Florida should be favored in all three, they aren't guarantees. That's why they have to return to their old ways on D and ride the hot hand with Trask the rest of the way.
This is the first real adversity Mullen has faced in Gainesville, and it's going to be interesting to see how he handles it.
5. Mississippi State Bulldogs
10 of 14
Mississippi State has found its offense to go along with a defense that has been among the nation's best all season.
The result is a dangerous team that now gets rewarded with a trip to Tuscaloosa next weekend to play what looks like an invincible Alabama team. If they Bulldogs are going to beat the Crimson Tide, they have to be at their best on both sides of the ball.
The warm-up Saturday was strong. MSU decimated Louisiana Tech 45-3, shrugging off a team that had been 6-2 entering the contest. The Bulldogs are second nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 12.3 points per game. They are also sixth in total defense.
Those numbers are going to be tested significantly against the Tide, who have the most explosive offense in the nation (51.3 points per game).
But even if the Bulldogs defense performs well, it can't win unless the offense performs, which means quarterback Nick Fitzgerald has to be the player who responded the past two weeks after getting embarrassed in an awful performance against LSU.
Since then, Fitzgerald not only has shone running the ball (as he has his entire career), but he's also thrown the ball well. This will be his biggest test, however. The UA defense has been overshadowed by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and crew, but it shut out LSU on Saturday night.
It will take a herculean effort to topple the Tide, but MSU has been surging recently.
4. Kentucky Wildcats
11 of 14
Kentucky didn't fall flat against Georgia. As a matter of fact, the moment was not too big for the Wildcats, even if the Bulldogs' talent level was just too much to overcome.
UK's defense made things difficult for a while, but the Bulldogs wound up breaking some big D'Andre Swift runs to take control. As the game wore on, the Wildcats ran out of depth and gas.
Georgia wound up getting 156 rushing yards from Swift and another 115 from Elijah Holyfield. The Wildcats know they have to shore up that part of their game in the final quarter of the season.
It really came down to a basic lack of execution, according to head coach Mark Stoops, who has been defiant about his team's chances all season. This, as the Lexington Herald Leader's Mark Story wrote, is the best UK defense since 1977, but UGA exploited it.
"We missed more tackles than I can remember," Stoops told Story. "They rushed for 300[-plus] yards. You are not going to win very many games like that."
On the bright side, quarterback Terry Wilson threw for 226 yards and a score, making it two quality passing outings in a row in what looked like UK's biggest struggle before the past two weeks.
The competition will be dropping considerably for the Wildcats, who travel to Neyland Stadium to take on the Vols before wrapping up the season against Middle Tennessee and a hapless Louisville team. This could still be a strong 10-2 team heading into bowl season.
But Saturday hurts.
3. Georgia Bulldogs
12 of 14
Everybody who doubted the Bulldogs after they were trounced by LSU have been getting their comeuppance over the past couple of weeks.
It looks like all Georgia needed was a wake-up call.
In Week 9, quarterback Jake Fromm was exceptional in the win over Florida, taking over the game. Though he wasn't asked to do much against Kentucky (113 passing yards, one touchdown), the Bulldogs didn't have much of an issue.
They ran for more than 300 yards, proving they can win games either way on offense.
Defensively, the young, fast, talented Bulldogs continue to improve, and there's a reason why head coach Kirby Smart seems excited when he talks about them. UGA has a lot of reasons for anticipation for the future on that side of the ball.
The UGA veterans get excited too.
"Young guys, man," senior defensive lineman Jonathan Ledbetter told OnlineAthens.com's Ryne Dennis. "I almost had two [sacks], but I missed them. I’m glad they got in and were able to capitalize. But we've been stressing that. Those guys come into practice and work their tails off every single day."
He was talking about true freshmen Brenton Cox and Channing Tindall, who got their first sacks of the year. Other youngsters played well too.
It's been a maturing year for the Bulldogs, but things are looking up.
2. LSU Tigers
13 of 14
It's fine to have all the hype and hoopla surrounding a big game, but then a team has to actually go out and perform.
LSU, its players and its fans had a lot to say leading up to this weekend's heavyweight battle against Alabama. When it came time to play, the Tigers defense outfitted itself well, but there was no offense to speak of.
That's the reason the Crimson Tide whipped LSU 29-0 at home. Even though the defense played well, limiting UA's trips to the end zone, Alabama piled up more than 500 total yards. The Tigers could do nothing as quarterback Joe Burrow and running back Nick Brossette were completely silenced.
The Tigers have some good players, but they're not in Alabama's class.
It's OK, though. Nobody is.
LSU is still the second-best team in the SEC, and head coach Ed Orgeron needs to rally his team and make sure it finishes the season strong. Though the College Football Playoff probably is out of play thanks to a puzzling road loss to Gators, the Tigers can have a big close to the year (at Arkansas, vs. Rice, at Texas A&M).
But they have to do more recruiting on the offensive side of the ball and bring in some major difference-makers if they're going to compete with Alabama for national championships. They are right there on defense, but the LSU offense was embarrassing against UA.
Orgeron needs to use his recruiting acumen to fix those offensive issues.
1. Alabama Crimson Tide
14 of 14
When asked last week if he'd elect to kick off if he won the toss against the Tigers, Saban answered that he just hopes the Tide kick, um, LSU's posterior ends.
Alabama certainly did that in Saturday night's prime-time game at Death Valley, dominating LSU by a 29-0 final tally.
While the offense was just fine and Tua Tagovailoa shrugged off his first interception of the season to have yet another big game, the defense stole the show. That had to be music to Saban's ears. The young unit has grown and developed over the year.
Faced with a big task Saturday, the defense responded, smothering LSU and giving the Tigers zero chance to win. It wasn't lost on those who watched.
"As much as we talk about Tua & the @AlabamaFTBL offense (& deservedly so) need to recognize this defense getting better each week," ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit tweeted. "Last pm LSU offense 12 yards rushing 13 1st downs in the game. 1st year DC Tosh Lupoi doing a GREAT job w/ this crew. Group getting better each week!"
The Crimson Tide are the most dominant team in college football and one of the most complete squads in the sport's history. Just how good are they will be determined in the next few weeks, but it doesn't look like anybody can beat them.
The next test comes at home against Mississippi State next weekend.
Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of Sports Reference and CFBStats.com.
Brad Shepard covers college football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @Brad_Shepard.
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