What was learned about SEC Football from Week 4 results

For nine SEC football teams, Week 4 was important because of five key games. Five more SEC teams had games, but none of the opponents provided a challenge. The remaining two SEC teams, Alabama and Georgia enjoyed a bye week.

Based on our SEC Power Rankings from last week, the upper half of the SEC had only two eventful games; Tennessee at Oklahoma and Vanderbilt at Missouri. The Commodores were impressive on the road, taking the Tigers to overtime in the 30-27 Missouri win.

Tennessee's defense stuffed the Oklahoma offense in route to a 25-15 win in Norman.

The SEC's other member of last week's top eight teams, LSU mucked around in Baton Rouge, beating a weak UCLA team, 34-17. Tiger Stadium had a glaring number of empty seats in the second-half. The heat might have driven away LSU fans, or it might have been ragged first-half play by the Bengal Tigers. The game was tied at halftime, 17-17.

What we learned about five SEC football teams in Week 4

• The SEC's worst team is Mississippi State. On Saturday the Bulldogs lost to the suspect Florida Gators, 45-28 in Starkville. One word often comes to mind when watching State; awful.

• After losing 24-14, at home against Arkansas, two things stand out about Auburn. The Tigers don't have a quarterback and Hugh Freeze has no clue what to do about it. The Tigers at 2-2, are looking at a three to five win season. The only sure thing about Auburn is that Hugh Freeze's roster progress will erode. Auburn fans cannot ignore something that happened Saturday night. Hugh Freeze had no space in Auburn's quarterback room for Robby Ashford. Ashford started for South Carolina against Akron and produced 243 passing yards and 133 rushing yards, in three quarters.

• Thanks to Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt almost gave Missouri more than the Tigers could handle. The New Mexico State transfer passed for 178 yards and rushed for 84 yards. Coupled with a solid defensive performance by the Dores, Missouri barely survived. In Week 10, Pavia will get a chance to knock off Auburn for the second time in his college career.

• Tennessee got a strong win against Oklahoma in Norman. A good Sooner defense got no help from the Oklahoma offense. The Sooners have serious problems on the offensive line and at quarterback. Oklahoma might have a quarterback solution in backup, true freshman, Michael Hawkins Jr. The Sooners are not a Playoff contender.

• With a weak schedule before Week 4, it was hard to know if Tennessee was for real. Based on the Oklahoma game, we can say the Vols defense is for real. The offense, led by a poised Nico Iamleava at quarterback is also impressive. The Vols are a legit Playoff contender.

Going into Week 5, the SEC has four Playoff contenders in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. Ole Miss and Missouri are potential contenders, yet to be measured against any top competition.