At least at the top and the bottom of the SEC, last week was more a confirmation than anything else. LSU and Alabama are certainly the class of the conference; the question left remaining is whether they’re also the two best teams in the country. Meanwhile, Kentucky and Ole Miss solidified their hold on the basement.
The middle remains muddled, but that’s what October’s for.
- LSU (4-0, 1-0). It really is a case of 1A and 1B with LSU and Alabama. The Tigers get the slight nod here because they’ve played a tougher schedule, their turnover margin is better and – hard to believe I’m typing this – their offense seems better balanced. They’re a lot of fun to watch, too.
- Alabama (4-0, 1-0). That defense is simply filthy. Trent Richardson is every bit the running back that Marcus Lattimore is. It’s just that ‘Bama isn’t nearly as reliant upon him to succeed.
- South Carolina (4-0, 2-0). As long as you win, nobody cares if you keep playing down to the level of your opponents.
- Florida (4-0, 2-0). Hello, October.
- Arkansas (3-1, 0-1). Well, now we know the answer to that question.
- Georgia (2-2, 1-1). I wanted to rank ’em lower. I really did. But given the schedule, the stats suggest this team belongs here.
- Auburn (3-1, 1-0). That was not exactly a convincing win against a poor Sun Belt Conference team. Now, Ted Roof gets to figure out how to stop Marcus Lattimore.
- Mississippi State (2-2, 0-2). The Bulldogs struggled with Louisiana Tech because they were looking ahead to Georgia? Seriously? Who gets caught looking ahead to Georgia these days?
- Tennessee (2-1, 0-1). This season’s first recipient of a bye week bounce.
- Vanderbilt (3-1, 1-1). Against South Carolina, the Commodores finished with more penalty yards (79) than yards on total offense (77). You don’t see that every day.
- Kentucky (2-2, 0-1). Rich Brooks thinks this team is bullshit.
- Ole Miss (1-3, 0-2). The good news is that Houston Nutt had his team ready to play last Saturday. The bad news is that it didn’t make any difference.
Get The Picture 
I’d put Florida ahead of uSC right now but it’s still 1A, 1B and everyone else in the SEC
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Agreed. Might also put Arky ahead of USCe as well.
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Florida being the ecxeption comparing east sos and west sos it’s like two different leagues. could u imagine lsu or bama playing our schedule?
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I think it’s more a case of LSU and ‘Bama being head and shoulders above every other school in the conference. Contrary to what we were told in preseason, the rest of the West doesn’t look particularly dominant in comparison to the East.
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If by “our schedule” you mean opening up with Boise State at the Georgia Dome and then playing an SEC East schedule that includes florida and South Carolina, yes, I can imagine that.
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Florida, though untested, deserves that ranking with how their D has played so far. I know, soft schedule so far, but they win nonetheless.
I came to the realization after Saturday’s game that we are just an average team at best. I don’t see us getting much better unless the O-line suddenly decides to start overachieving. One bright spot was the defense, though. I was proud of how they played Saturday.
You could arrange teams 6-9 in any order and it wouldn’t make much of a difference. None of those 4 teams are going to do anything special this year.
MSU +7.5 is a steal this weekend and I’ll be putting a lot of money down on MSU.
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No snark intended by my question, but exactly why is the spread a “steal”? MSU struggled to beat a WAC team led by a 17-year old quarterback last Saturday. At least the Dawgs have put both of their weak opponents away.
Statistically, despite playing a much weaker schedule, MSU doesn’t look better than Georgia on offense and looks much worse on defense.
I’m not saying MSU can’t keep it close, or even win, but I don’t get why that’s such a lock.
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MSU only lost by 13 to the #1 team in the country.
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So? MSU also lost by seven to a team with the 110th-ranked defense in the country.
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We did cover a 10 point spread last week against a Mississippi school.
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I agree, despite the obvious weakness of our OL, there is no reason to put MSU on a pedestal. Over 500 yards of offense against The Barn and they couldn’t win, then a mighty struggle with La Tech, how is that a confidence builder for a bettor? As a person who partakes occasionally in a wager (was heavy on UGA and LSU last Satuday), I will sit this dance out. We are so thin at a couple of critical positions, I can make a case of us winning by 10-14, or losing by a TD. There are better plays to make.
I didn’t think I would be concerned about either MSU or TN this year, but who could have imagained an OL that couldn’t knock a HS team back? Until we get this fixed, hard to feel comfortable about anyone on our remaining schedule (at the same time, none of them should feel great about playing us either.)
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To me the next 2 games are the key to this season. Win against Miss State and at UT and we will probably have a good if not great season. Lose those 2 and it’s probably .500 again.
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Can’t argue that, if we win against MSU, I like going into Knox Vegas with momentum. State is a physical team so the injury situation will be the deciding factor. We just cannot afford to lose anyone at LB or OL during this stretch where we have a cdecent chance to run the table during October. Do that, and we could salvage a season that started with the worst case circumstance. Not sold on us being any better than 7-5 with our inability to block but would love to see them prove me wrong.
If we keep winning until we get Ogletree back we could turn this into something decent with the way the defense is playing. One can always hope the OL gets their act together and improves, but I think the D will have to carry this team by keeping us close and giving us a chance to pull a couple of tough ones out. UT’s defensive line problems makes them the easier win over the next two weeks.
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Methinks Dan Mullen has Richt’s number. I’d love nothing more than to be wrong, but until that happens I’d take state + 7.5. We always struggle with the run/pass option like MSU plays. Does MSU have our talent…no, but they have a coach who will adjust his gameplan to give his oppnent fits, not just go with the tried and true every week. What was it Todd McShay said….(paraphrasing)… everybody knows what UGA is going to run and there’s 10 years of film on it.
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Agreed senator, I actually am way more concerned about the UT game, and I was way more concerned at the beginning of the year about the MSU game than I am now. If our defense continues to play like it has, I see our offense doing just enough to win us a few more than I had thought.
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“As long as you win, nobody cares if you keep playing down to the level of your opponents.”
Unless you say this about UGA, then the “Fire Mark Richt” crowd gets going by the middle of the 3rd Q.
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I have great confidence in Georgia’s ability to make MSU one dimensional….and that zone read thang ain’t gonna get it done against the now confident Dawg defense. This defense, while not Bama or LSU strong, is impressive when receiving even mediocre offensive support. If the offense is clicking, they are the third best in the conference……from the perspective of my own ass, of course.
These brown colored glasses, that I’m looking through….
Show only the beauty, cause they hide all the truth,
And they let me hold on to the good times, the good lines,
The ones I used to hear when I held you,
And they keep me from feeling so cheated, defeated,
When reflections in your eyes show me a fool……..
Red Kool Aid and Everclear.
The Official Drink of Red Blackman
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If UGA wins out except looses to fla, will they end the season in this position on the list? I would suppose so…
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The South Carolina and the Arkansas teams I saw this past weekend are going to lose at least 3 games. If UGA wins out except for Florida UGA ends up #4 in the SEC.
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The West: LSU (1) at Alabama (2).
The East: Florida (3) at South Carolina (4).
The West champion dominates the East “champion” in the SECC and plays for the national title.
The rest is just noise.
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I must respectfully disagree DC. If USCe loses as many games as I think they will the SEC East title will go to the UGA-Florida winner. Plus, we have had upsets in the SECCG before. I seem to remember that LSU was favored one year when UGA beat them.
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