LSU a big mover in SEC power rankings after huge Week 3 win over Mississippi State
While much of the SEC looked sluggish in Week 3, LSU clearly stood above the rest of the pack.
The Tigers faced no issues against Mississippi State despite the morning kick on the road, winning 41-14 with nearly flawless performances from both sides of the ball.
Meanwhile, Georgia had to overcome a 14-3 halftime deficit to dispatch South Carolina at home, Alabama was knotted up with South Florida at three late into the game before pulling away for a pyrrhic victory and Tennessee fell in Gainesville against Florida for the 10th consecutive time, sending the Vols careening down the rankings.
After a telling week in the league, our latest power rankings have seen quite a shakeup. Here’s how the teams stack up after the dust has settled from Week 3.
Vanderbilt Commodores (2-2)
Losing to Wake Forest on the road in a game that wasn’t particularly close was a disappointing but not catastrophic result for Clark Lea and a Commodores team looking to make a leap this year. A 40-37 loss against UNLV and first-year coach Barry Odom, on the other hand…
Vanderbilt squandered a 17-0 lead in this game and ultimately had to overcome a 13-point deficit after allowing 30 unanswered. It wasn’t enough as the Rebels hit a game-winning field goal in the final seconds.
Quarterback AJ Swann is an exciting — if a bit erratic — player, but this team doesn’t have much else to hang its hat on. With two losses before an SEC game has even been played, a bowl game doesn’t seem to be in the cards for the ‘Dores
Mississippi State Bulldogs (2-1, 0-1 SEC)
Look, I get it. Zach Arnett isn’t Mike Leach. He was never going to be, and trying to maintain the air raid facade as this program’s identity would have been a fool’s errand. But whatever identity this team is trying to develop in Year 1 under Arnett, at least offensively, just isn’t working.
Quarterback Will Rogers is one of the SEC’s most experienced signal-callers, but you wouldn’t know it from the workload he’s been asked to shoulder so far this season. His first two outings this year were career lows in attempts, and despite his team playing from behind all day on Saturday, he still just attempted 28 passes.
That’s alright when you’re running the ball with Jo’Quavious Marks, but Marks had just seven carries in this game. They were successful, but the game state paired with LSU’s strong defensive front limited the ground game.
The defense clearly has issues, as well, after allowing career days to Jayden Daniels and Malik Nabers. I’m not saying Arnett won’t turn it around, but this looks like a very bad team right now.
Arkansas Razorbacks (2-1)
This was just not the performance you wanted to see against a BYU team whose only FBS win prior to this weekend was a 14-0 slog against transition team Sam Houston State. Arkansas lost 38-31, and though it didn’t have star running back Raheim Sanders, it’s hard to fall back on that excuse when you still scored north of 30 points.
The Razorbacks had a pair of turnovers, one of which was a pick from KJ Jefferson in what was not his best outing, and that helped BYU’s offense, which didn’t get particularly efficient quarterback play from Kedon Slovis.
It’s a bad loss, especially when you realize Arkansas opens SEC play next week on the road for a night game against LSU in Death Valley.
Texas A&M Aggies (2-1)
Texas A&M bounced back from the Miami loss about as well as it could have, but beating Louisiana-Monroe badly just won’t score you too many points with me.
It was still an overall encouraging performance as Connor Weigman played very well despite the Aggies missing his top target in receiver Evan Stewart. The Hurricanes could end up being a pretty good team, and if so, maybe Texas A&M is underrated here.
We won’t have to wait long to know the answer as the Aggies host Auburn in College Station to kick off SEC play next weekend.
Missouri Tigers (3-0)
Eli Drinkwitz finally got his signature win at Missouri, beating a ranked Kansas State team that won the Big 12 last season. However, it’s hard to effusively praise the coaching staff when the Tigers won this game in spite of it.
An inexcusable delay of game out of a timeout moved what would have been a 56-yard game-winning field goal back five yards, but kicker Harrison Mevis drilled it from 61 yards anyway, and with room to spare, bailing out Drinkwitz.
Still, it was an overall impressive performance for the Tigers. Brady Cook had his best game as Missouri’s starting quarterback in large part thanks to star receiver Luther Burden, who finished with 114 yards and two touchdowns.
Auburn Tigers (3-0)
After surviving a sloppy game at Cal in Week 2, Auburn had a much less stressful outing in a 45-13 win over FCS Samford. Payton Thorne had his best game, using his arm and legs to exceed 400 total yards with three touchdowns, though he did throw two interceptions.
Auburn looks like a better team under Hugh Freeze, but it hasn’t really been tested. That will change next weekend after as the Tigers travel to begin SEC play against Texas A&M.
South Carolina Gamecocks (1-2, 0-1 SEC)
Give credit where it’s due: South Carolina and Shane Beamer came into a tough matchup Saturday with a very good offensive game plan. They moved the ball early as Spencer Rattler led a pair of touchdown drives, but as we ultimately expected, the Gamecocks ran out of steam as Georgia closed out the game scoring 21 unanswered.
Still, it was an encouraging performance for a team that entered as a nearly four-touchdown underdog. Some may have qualms with ranking South Carolina ahead of multiple unbeaten teams, but this has been a brutal stretch to start the year for what could still be a pretty good team.
The Gamecocks should be due for some positive regression in the coming weeks, starting with a winnable home game against Mississippi State.
Kentucky Wildcats (3-0)
Kentucky has had one of the weakest opening slates in the Power Five, so they’re one of the tougher teams to evaluate here. After a win over FCS Eastern Kentucky that was a bit too close for comfort, the Wildcats had fewer problems in a 35-3 win over Akron this week.
NC State transfer Devin Leary seems to be coming along at quarterback, and Vanderbilt running back transfer Ray Davis has had a strong start to the year. Davis will face his former team on the road next week to begin Kentucky’s conference slate, and this team has a pretty good chance of being 4-0 when it hosts what should be a ranked Florida team in Week 5.
Tennessee Volunteers (2-1, 0-1 SEC)
Tennessee’s unbelievable futility in Gainesville continued on Saturday against a Florida team that, while improved, should not have made the Volunteers look so pedestrian.
It’s clear this offense is not as plug-and-play as some thought, and Tennessee is sorely missing a lot of the personnel it lost from last year’s group. While he has arm talent, Joe Milton just doesn’t run this offense as effectively as Hendon Hooker did.
Defensively, Tennessee was a mess and allowed Florida to dominate the time of possession, running the ball and bleeding the clock the entire second half. This team has pretty clearly taken a step back.
Florida Gators (2-1, 1-0 SEC)
This was the proof of concept win that we never really got from Billy Napier’s Gators in 2022. Florida came in with a fantastic game plan, and it was executed even better.
The Gators still have issues on offense. They’re over-reliant on the run, a crutch that’s likely to disappear against the league’s best teams, and there still isn’t much of a downfield passing game to speak of.
But this defense looks legit, and 30-year-old first-year defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong deserves a lot of credit for quickly turning around what was a disastrous unit last year. That alone raises this team’s ceiling higher than many thought entering the year.
Alabama Crimson Tide (2-1)
We aren’t really accustomed to Alabama losing by double digits at home under Nick Saban. We’re even less accustomed to the Tide following up a loss like that with an absolute stinker against a Group of Five opponent.
Hitting the road for a rainy game against South Florida, the offense really struggled. Jalen Milroe, who didn’t appear, was benched during the week for Tyler Buchner. Early struggles from Buchner led to Ty Simpson entering the game, who had his share of issues but ultimately sparked the team to a win.
The ugly 17-3 final score is still misleading, and if Alabama still didn’t have a pretty good defense or was facing a more dangerous offense, this one could have gone sideways. It didn’t, but it wasn’t an encouraging performance ahead of a game against an Ole Miss team that I think is legitimately better than the Crimson Tide.
Ole Miss Rebels (3-0)
Ole Miss has, perhaps a bit quietly, had a very nice start to the season that features a pair of solid double-digit wins over Tulane and now Georgia Tech. Quarterback Jaxson Dart looks like a much better player this fall, and though it’s early, it seems the defense may have finally taken a step under new coordinator and Alabama castaway Pete Golding.
Find a way to win in Tuscaloosa next week, and we may have to start having serious conversations about the Rebels as a threat to win the West for the first time in program history.
LSU Tigers (2-1, 1-0 SEC)
The script for LSU is starting to look eerily similar to last year’s. The team struggles in a loss to Florida State to kick things off before using a conference matchup against Mississippi State as a springboard for midseason improvement.
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but not many expected the dominant performance LSU delivered on Saturday. It was as good a game as you could ask for in all facets, though we still have questions about the secondary that the Bulldogs aren’t really equipped to put to the test in their current state.
LSU hosts Arkansas next weekend, and if that game turns out to be as lopsided as it seems like it could be on paper, the narrative will have completely shifted about this LSU team compared to Week 1.
Georgia Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0 SEC)
Dang it. They almost had ’em.
Georgia’s nation-leading winning streak was extended to 20 games on Saturday, but not without a bit of anxiety. The Bulldogs were on the ropes early and faced their biggest halftime deficit in nearly three years.
UGA ultimately pulled away thanks to its talent, but it was yet another performance in which Kirby Smart’s team just didn’t look quite as dominant as it had the last two seasons.
Still, my rule remains the same. Georgia’s staying right here, at the top, until someone beats them on the field.
