Where does LSU football sit in the SEC Week 3 power rankings?
(3-1). . Commodores . 14. team. 887.
This is not your dad’s Vanderbilt team. The Commodores have started the season off hot, coming out the gates with a 3-1 record. However, that doesn’t mean Vanderbilt is necessarily a good football team. The Commodores have picked up wins over Hawaii, Elon and Northern Illinois with a lone loss to a ranked team in Wake Forest.
In a few weeks, we’ll be talking about 3-4 Vanderbilt after it inevitably loses to Alabama, Ole Miss and Georgia. The real tests as to how far the Commodores have come this season come against Missouri and South Carolina at the end of October and the beginning of November.
. (2-1). . Tigers . 13. team. 822
Similar to Vanderbilt, Missouri sits at the bottom of the SEC with a winning record. The Tigers have a couple of wins to their name, but they haven’t necessarily been entirely convincing. Mizzou also looked horrendous in its only loss of the year to Kansas State. There was a lot of buzz around Columbia before the season, it now seems as if that was all for nothing.
team. 850. . (1-2). . Gamecocks . 12
Speaking of teams that had a lot of unjustified preseason hype: South Carolina comes in at No. 12 on this list. Shane Beamer is an exciting coach and I believe he’ll turn the Gamecocks around at some point. That time is not this season though.
Spencer Rattler was supposed to reinvigorate a South Carolina program that has failed to win eight games in half a decade. The Oklahoma transfer has been a huge let down though. Nobody is going to blame the Gamecocks for their performance against Georgia—the Dawgs are on another level right now—but Rattler needs to be held to a higher standard.
South Carolina probably has the highest upside of any team in the SEC’s bottom four. Luckily, Beamer and his men will have a couple of cupcake opponents in Charlotte and South Carolina State before a match-up with a Top 10 team in Kentucky.
11. team. 842. . (2-1). . Tigers
There’s no sugarcoating it at this point, Auburn is a bad football team. A week after struggling against San Jose State, the Tigers were embarrassed in front of a ruckus crowd at Jordan-Hare Stadium by Penn State. Bo Nix leaving the program somehow seems to have hurt the team more than it helped. T.J. Finley has struggled to get anything going on offense.
If Bryan Harsin doesn’t make some changes soon, it’ll be his head rolling when Auburn inevitably doesn’t turn things around. Things don’t get any easier from here.