Where does LSU football sit in the SEC Week 4 power rankings?

Mississippi State bounced back nicely after a loss to LSU in Week 3. The Bulldogs wasted no time taking their emotions out on Bowling Green. Mike Leach’s men scored 31 points in the first half before letting up on the poor Falcons after the halftime talks.

Mississippi State would go on to win 45-14.

Starkvegas is set to be loud next weekend as the cowbells will come out in full force for the first SEC home game of the season. Texas A&M is coming to town and the Bulldogs will finally get a chance to correct the mistakes they made in the second half against the Tigers.

I feel bad not allowing Florida to jump up in the rankings after their performance at Neyland Stadium. The Gators hung around with Tennessee all game and they looked like a very good football team for most of that game. Unfortunately, they didn’t do enough to jump any of the teams above them.

If Billy Napier’s men start to figure it out, they can make some noise this season. Florida won’t be contending for a spot in the SEC Championship after already dropping games to SEC East foes Kentucky and Tennessee. Regardless, that doesn’t mean the Gators can’t play spoiler sometime down the line.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, Texas A&M was the luckiest team in the country last weekend. Jimbo Fisher’s squad showed some good heart to remain in the game down early. The Aggies don’t control the refereeing decisions, but they just seemed to get break after break after break.

Truth be told, the talent gap between No. 9 (Florida) and No. 6 (LSU) is about as thin as they come. Texas A&M just falls somewhere in the middle because it has yet to convince anybody in any game this season. The Aggies struggled for a while against Sam Houston State (FCS), they lost to Appalachian State, they edged out a win over a mediocre Miami squad and they caught some lucky breaks against Arkansas.

Let’s see how they perform against Mississippi State before we reevaluate their position in the rankings. The talent is there, but can Fisher get the best out of Texas A&M?

Similar to Missouri, Arkansas should have won their game last weekend. I’m not usually one to dwell on the ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’s in sports, but it’s hard to ignore the blatant officiating error on the scoop-and-score touchdown for the Aggies. If forward progress is correctly called, Arkansas likely holds on to win the game.

Even after the bad luck, the Razorbacks put themselves in a position to win before the most bizarre doink you’ll ever witness. Arkansas is going to need some serious help if it wants any chance of competing in the SEC West from here on out.

The Tigers took care of business once again, this time in blow-out fashion over New Mexico. LSU has looked excellent this season aside from the first half against a good Florida State squad. If they can improve to 4-1 with a convincing win over Auburn, people will likely start talking about how Brian Kelly’s rebuild is off to a fast start.

Fans need to temper their expectations though. LSU has a gauntlet to go through with the remainder of its schedule. The Tigers have what it takes to become a very formidable squad.

Unlike the three teams listed below it, it’s hard to imagine the Bayou Bengals elevating themselves into the SEC’s upper echelons this season. LSU has played the best amongst these teams this season. It just also has one of the lowest ceilings at this moment in time given the fact it’s Year 1 of Kelly’s rebuilding of the program.