SEC pre-CCG power rankings

[tsweezy]

I finally got off my butt and spent a few minutes looking over the fence at the SEC west after beating tf out of our "rival" Alabama

 

anyways, I decided to make a completely factual, objective ranking of SEC teams after our inaugural season.

 

1. Kentucky
   
   1. 
      
   2. The obvious choice. Undefeated 12-0 team with a Heisman candidate. They are easily the best team in the SEC. Thanks in part to Rashaan they are 3rd overall in total yards, and #1 overall in both yardage and point differentials across all of college football for this season. The only knock? They faced the 4th easiest schedule in all of college football, due to the SEC being such a weak (lol) conference.
      

[*]Tennessee

1. Tooting my own horn here. You might think it was Alabama, but after our upset win against them last week, and assuming they will also pick up a 3rd loss when they play Kentucky in the CCG I'm giving the number 2 team in the East the edge as the 2nd team in the conference. Tennessee lost to Kentucky, Maryland, and South Carolina, but won the rest of their games (albeit by very close margins) to finish 9-3. After switching QBs to Cedric Marsh in preseason, they are ranked 6th in passing TDs, INTs and sacks allowed, while being in the top-10 in passing yards allowed.
   

[*]Alabama

1. The #1 ranked team in the preseason, but shockingly had to play this season coachless. Even still, all the talent on that roster has carried them to a 10-2 record going into the SEC CCG. They fell to Minnesota in a shocking OOC loss, leading to many hot takes about their demise, but cruised the rest of the season before suffering a rivalry upset loss to Tennessee to close out the regular season. No extremes on the stat sheet, and without a coach recruiting for them, they need to find somebody to take the reigns before the lax recruiting tanks the roster for future years.
   

[*]Texas A&M

1. A&M started the year beating a good Ohio State team to get the hype train moving a little before FSU murdered that in Week 3. Props for picking up a hard OOC, and the rest of the year went pretty well barring a loss to Missouri and not being able to overcome Alabama. This season leaves the fans fairly satisfied and they have an argument that they deserve to be over Tennessee in these rankings. With a pretty good looking recruiting class so far, they may be able to take the prime spot as the SEC west power in the future.
   

[*]Mississippi State / Missouri

1. Interchangeable here imo. Missouri had a pretty good year, with losses to Kentucky and Tennessee along with Pitt and Florida. They did beat TAMU as their highlight of the year and had an overall extremely average (on the good side of average) stat sheet
   

[*]Mississippi State / Missouri

1. In contrast, Miss State didn't have many shockers, they lost to the powerhouses in the conference and beat the teams they should beat along with winning the egg bowl. We will see what direction they go moving forward.
   

[*]Auburn

1. Started the season off with some embarrassing losses to Oklahoma and South Alabama, but bounced back a little bit to put together a respectable .500 season.
   

[*]Florida or SCAR or Arkansas

1. Hard to choose between these 3. I'm going with Florida because while they beat mostly bottom feeders, they did have a surprise win against Missouri. Overall though it was a mediocre season capped by getting blown out by rival FSU 34-3. Their defense leaves something to be desired as they had the fewest TFL in the nation and the most passing yards allowed (although that is partially a function of playing 3 of the top-10 passing offenses in the country).
   

[*]Florida or SCAR or Arkansas

1. Next up: South Carolina. Pulled the big shocker beating Tennessee, and finishing the season with a rivalry win against Clemson were good! They had lots of close games which suggest some good potential for future years. In fact I may be talking myself into putting them above Florida.... Wait.. They lost to Vanderbilt? That's bad. Very very bad.
   

[*]Florida or SCAR or Arkansas

1. Beating UAB was good! Other than that they mostly just beat a few other bad teams and overall looked a little bit mediocre this year. They had a pretty good pass attack, but the focus should definitely be on crooting in Fayetteville.
   

[*]Ole Miss

1. A narrow win over LSU saved them from starting 0-10. They did close out the season on a 3-game win streak so there is hope that the coaches may have turned a corner and figured something out that can carry over into next season.
   

[*]LSU

1. Oof. Bad year in the Bayou. Won 2 games against some lackluster OOC competition and then looked hapless against the rest of the conference (outside of a surprise win over Florida). They only had 2 rushing TDs this season (although somehow 2 teams had only 1) and were a bottom-5 rushing defense as well.
   

[*]Georgia

1. Not a whole lot of positives to write about. They were kind of close in some games? They didn't lose to Vanderbilt? On the bright side, the Dawg fans can look forward to national signing day and dream of good seasons in the future. Also a notice that Newton's 3rd law is undefeated. One of only 5 teams with NO FUMBLES is really good! Ball security at a premium. One of only 2 teams to not force ANY FUMBLES is really bad! It's not rude to take the ball away!
   

[*]Vanderbilt

1. Bookended with Kentucky, this should also be obvious. Vanderbilt sucks. I don't want to waste too much time chronicling their miserableness, but the indicator you should note is that this Vanderbilt team had THE WORST point differential in the entire FBS.
   

And that's that. If Bama pulls the CCG upset they will take the #2 slot here but other than that I think this is a good synopsis of how the teams looked this season.

Agree? Disagree? Like and comment below, and subscribe or join my patreon by venmo'ing me $10!

[Nittany Boiler]

Missouri is definitely #5. Not bad in a power packed SEC. Went into the season ranked #133 on Offense. Finished top 25 in Passing yards, Passing TDs, 32 in Total yards and 35 in Total points. Had a 3500 yard (and 23 TD) QB, 1000 yard rusher and 1200 yard Receiver (with 12 TDs). QB and WR are Juniors. Special Teams were great too with 15th in PR yards, 12th in KO TBs and 11th in FG made. Defense was 13th in Sacks with a DT with 24 TFL and 6 Sacks. One more win (Pitt or UF) would have really solidified the resume, but will take a solid Bowl and Top 10 Recruiting. Edited October 21, 2021 by Nittany Boiler

[Weeze]

, but the focus should definitely be on crooting in Fayetteville.