Alabama Football: Power Ranking the SEC after week three
By Ronald Evans
In last week’s SEC Power Rankings, I pointed an ‘Embarrassment Needle’ at Alabama Football, based on its failure against Texas. I never dreamed the ‘Embarrassment Needle’ would hit a new peak for the Crimson Tide after a win, but …
A reminder is these rankings are unapologetically subjective. Jeff Sagarin’s algorithm that ranks 261 teams is used to compare team records, but only as a guide.
The big movers this week are Florida, Missouri, LSU, Tennessee and Alabama. Sadly for Alabama football fans, the five teams are not all moving in the same direction.
Week Three SEC Football Power Rankings
No. 14 –Vanderbilt Commodores (2-2) Previous Week No. 12
A loss by any team to UNLV is never good, especially when it happens to an SEC team. The Commodores led UNLV 17-0 and then collapsed. What followed was 30 points by UNLV. To their credit, the Dores did put themselves in a position to pull out the win, but failed late, losing 40-37. Bowl eligibility at this point seems unlikely.
Next up: Vandy hosts Kentucky
No. 13 – Mississippi State Bulldogs (2-1) Previous Week No. 8
Almost nothing went right for the Bulldogs who hosted LSU in Starkville. The Bengal Tigers ran up 530 yards of offense on an outclassed Mississippi State defense. Worse for State is it no longer has an effective passing offense under new OC Kevin Barbay. Bulldogs’ QB, Will Rogers thrived in the Mike Leach system, but against LSU he completed a dreadful 39.3% of his passes.
LSU dominated the Mississippi State offensive and defensive lines on Saturday as the zest for cowbell ringing faded in Starkville.
Next up: Mississippi State is on the road against South Carolina
No. 12 – Auburn Tigers (3-0) Previous Week No. 9
Auburn’s defense is not bad. It will have to carry them this season. The Tigers have a decent win over Cal but beating Samford 45-13 on Saturday did nothing but ugly up the Auburn resume. A bright spot for Auburn is QB Payton Thorne is reaching ‘competent’ status, but unsurprisingly the offensive line is far short of SEC caliber.
Next up: Auburn plays at Texas A&M.