We’re starting to get some better data for evaluation, and this coming week should really start filling in the blanks. For right now, though, the West looks like it’s way ahead of the East.
- Texas A&M. The Aggies are +122 in scoring margin, still with the most impressive conference win in their pocket, so first they’ll stay this week.
- Alabama. Mississippi State beat Southern Miss worse, so I wouldn’t read much into the result. The question will be how much to read into the Florida result.
- Auburn. Intriguing trip to Kansas State Thursday night.
- LSU. The Tigers’ defense isn’t giving up any points lately.
- Ole Miss. Sure, they haven’t played anybody decent yet, but they’re pounding their opponents. Isn’t that what good SEC West teams are supposed to do?
- Missouri. In the second half, Mizzou put away a UCF team that made Penn State struggle. In the SEC East, that’s good enough for the benefit of the doubt.
- Georgia. Forget it, Mark. It’s Columbia.
- South Carolina. Spurrier worked his Georgia voodoo again. But the ‘Cocks remain last in the conference in defensive scoring, and if that doesn’t get fixed soon, there are more losses coming.
- Mississippi State. Yeah, the Bulldogs are undefeated. But here’s what’s coming up in their next three games: at LSU, TAMU and Auburn. I’m just getting a little ahead of the curve here.
- Florida. Hey, the Gators are leading the East this morning. That’s not gonna last long.
- Arkansas. Back-to-back wins, baby! The running game was impressive, but the secondary holding Texas Tech to 252 yards passing was even more so.
- Tennessee. Played respectably on the road against a very good Oklahoma squad. Respectably isn’t the same thing as well, mind you.
- Kentucky. You can’t really have a moral victory without being screwed by SEC officiating, ‘Cats.
- Vanderbilt. Three games into the season, the Commodores have already played four quarterbacks. Yikes.
Get The Picture 
Kentucky really did get hosed. That’s just typical of Florida at home.
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Senator, how can you really justify placing Georgia higher than South Carolina when they just played and the Cocks won? C’mon. Even homerism has its limits.
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It was a three-point win on SC’s home field. Last time I checked, that makes it a pretty even match. And Georgia’s resume outside of Saturday night is better than SC’s.
You think that Carolina team wins in Athens, Mayor?
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If Spurrier is making the game day decisions for his team and Richt and Bobo are making the decisions for Georgia, yes.
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At this point in the season, UGA’s body of work is better than Carolina at this point in the season. It is also better than Ole Miss and Missouri in my humble opinion, and maybe LSU and AU, time will tell…
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Senator, I too question how you could place Georgia over Carolina. South Carolina outplayed the Dawgs all day and came up with stops when they needed them (with or without help). And yes, Carolina beats UGA in Athens this past Saturday. The secondary would get beat here, there and everywhere.
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So would theirs.
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Everyone is underestimating Mizzou, in my opinion, they are better than they are getting credit for. They look to be the only team in the East capable of playing a winner from the West. UGA should be a slight edge over SC but it doesn’t matter because neither are through taking it on the chin, anyone with the ability to pass can dust them off. Arkansas looks better than Florida and Miss State to me, and could/will give SC and UGA concern. I agree that LSU is the monster lurking in the West but there are some outstanding matchups coming in the next few weeks, gonna be a very entertaining season.
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You might be right about Missouri, I just can’t get behind them. Not sure why, maybe it is because they don’t belong in the Conference. 🙂
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Poll looks ok. But I’ve watched more of LSU than anyother team in SEC. For many reason they look really good at this point in ’14. They seem to have an intangible that they can win tight games even though they have not been there yet.
Dawgs secondary.
Thanks Coach Pruitt. I just wonder what Bobo would do had had lost game experienced players like you had going into Saturday’s game on the road. Players like Shaq Wiggins, Jonathan Taylor, Josh Harvery Clemons, and Trey Matthews.
In defense of Coach Pruitt. When the game was on the line to be taken. His boys came thru. That was a damn brillant coverage call by Pruitt. Closing minutes, on the road, bad weather, and you give the offense as good a situation as it can get. That is coaching. That is game management and game coaching. That is what we call getting it done.
Unfortunately, we still have the same mind set and culture of Bobo and Richt…a we lose another game we could have probably taken.
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You can’t cherry pick single plays to prove your point. The only reason that the defense COULD give us the ball back with a chance to win the game is because the offense had been bailing their butts out all game long. If our offense had played like our defense then that interception would’ve been meaningless. Doesn’t Bobo get credit for that?
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Another point for Pruitt.
Think everyone who saw a still photo of the chains and the ball would agree Carolina did not make the first down.
But tag that possible play if the Dawgs had scored a TD from the 4 yard line LOS.
My thoughts, the officials would probably given the ball to the Dawgs. Sometimes plays, calls, and results can get strung together in a game. Called game management. Sorta like in the business world.
Mark Richt and Mike Bobo…always, always, behind the chains.
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When was the last time a Dawg’s secondary had back to back interceptions in 2 games. Interception against Clemson. One against Carolina. Probably been but just do not remember.
And they almost had another against Spurrier.
Think most would agree there was space on several routes between secondary and LBs.
But most agree Thompson had a great day throwing the ball. Even his coach said that. And Carolina has some very good WO running from good schemes facing a very young inexperienced secondary.
Understand the offense played well …at times. After all A&M and ECU put up more than 30+ points on Carolina’s defemse. Just do not recall either of them having the ball 1st and goal at the four and coming away with no points.
Officials call, poor execution, whatever, it was a bad set to run at that point in the game. But the offense still had 3 plays to play with. Zero sum after 4 at the 4.
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Power rankings should reflect head-to-head outcomes, not neutral field or what could have happened at home.
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No, power rankings should reflect the relative strengths of the teams, standings reflect wins and losses, and you are ahead there. I know this CFB thing is new to you but the best team doesn’t always prevail in a specific game. We are equally incapable of championship play due to our below average defenses. We will see how it plays out over the course of the season. Afraid both of us have additional losses ahead of us that will makes ahy question ofbwho is 6th or 7th best pretty uninteresting for discusson. Same for the polls, we are ahead of yiu there but we will gladly trade that for the W we let get away from us. You guys celebrate and aspire to the wrong things, perhaps if you could ever win something lasting it would bring clarity to your confused analysis. But I don’t see it in your future at this point. But go ahead and order pretend rings if you wish.
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Florida – Kentucky game. Florida and Alabama border each other in the Panhandle. If you live in southwest or central south Georgia, Florida is close. Closer than from one side of metro Atlanta to the others.
Many thought Kentucky would play UF tough, They did. But the kid out of Peach County had a solid night catching the ball. He will get a lot of touches in Roper’s schemes.
Back to geography. Hard to see Kentucky without going thru Bama and Georgia. No doubt UF had the Bama game in mind Saturday.
Except for the no call by the officials that the play clock expired on UF’s tying TD in OT, Kentucky possibly could have gone out a winner. No doubt SEC office is getting a lot of blow back from Kentucky on that no call.
Bama and UF is going to be interesting.
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Georgia also had 2 weeks to prepare for Carolina and still came out of Columbia with a L. Don’t see how you can just brush that off. Its hard to play the what if game. Even if UGA had made 1 or two of their field-goals, its hard to say that USC wouldn’t have scored again. At some point you’ll have to admit that UGA just got out played Saturday.
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Who’s brushing anything off? I dropped Georgia five spots in my PP rankings.
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