If you thought the first few LSU football games have been stressful, you’re in for a real rollercoaster ride for the next few months. The easiest part of the Tigers’ schedule is behind them, which means the anxiety-free gamedays are a thing of the past too. It’s now time to face the test and take on unforgiving opponents week in and week out.
While LSU-Auburn games have been wild throughout a storied history, I don’t think anybody expected what happened on Saturday. I’m not sure a single person around the country had the host Tigers—who were 8.5-point underdogs—jumping out to a 17-0 lead after about 20 minutes. Subsequently, few likely predicted a dramatic comeback by the Bayou Bengals.
Where does LSU football sit in the SEC Week 5 power rankings?
This is only the beginning for Brian Kelly and Co. The Southeastern Conference newcomers have managed to pull out victories in their first two conference games. Things don’t get any easier from here though. LSU now has to take on the likes of Tennessee, Florida, Ole Miss, Alabama and Arkansas before playing another nonconference game. It’s an absolute gauntlet.
The next few weeks are where fans separate the men from the boys. The SEC will chew up any group that is unprepared for what comes next and spit it out before it can make changes to its approach. It’s a relentless and unforgiving place. Luckily for the Tigers, Kelly believes his men have the determination and grit needed to succeed in college football’s toughest conference.
Enough about the Bayou Bengals though. We’re going to find out just what each team in the SEC is made of in the coming weeks. The early days of conference play have already separated some of the contenders from the pretenders. Without further ado, let’s take a look at Death Valley Voice’s Week 5 SEC power rankings.
The bad news for Vanderbilt fans is their team remains at the bottom of the SEC power rankings. The good news for the Commodores is that they were off this week, so they didn’t add another loss to their resume. Vanderbilt deserved a bye week after being thoroughly beaten by Alabama. Unfortunately, another loss is likely looming with a Top 10-ranked Ole Miss coming to town.
It feels incredibly harsh dropping South Carolina to 13th on this list. The Gamecocks destroyed a very bad South Carolina State team—who is 1-3 on the season—50-10. They have now won two games in a row, but neither is a quality win.
South Carolina needs to redeem itself after a disappointing loss to Georgia a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately for the Gamecocks, they dropped down to 13th as a result of Missouri’s showing against the top-ranked Bulldogs at the weekend. A win at Kentucky in the coming days would be a huge resume booster for Shane Beamer’s squad.
Auburn is a dumpster fire in the middle of a trainwreck right now. The Tigers are having an extremely poor season for their standards, and blowing a 17-0 lead against LSU over the weekend sums up the state of their program perfectly. Bryan Harsin has still not been fired at the time of writing this piece (Monday night), which is astonishing seeing as he’s been dubbed a walking corpse for weeks now.
Regardless, Auburn moves up a spot because it showed it’s capable of putting on a solid show when absolutely necessary. Fewer mistakes here and there and the Tigers could be a decent football team. The SEC West is incredibly unforgiving though.
Few were talking about how close the 2022 Tiger Bowl between Auburn and LSU was because, at the same time, Mizzou was clinging onto a late lead over Georgia. This is the second week in a row where the Tigers showed up, but ultimately couldn’t finish. Mizzou isn’t quite there yet as a program, but it should be very proud of the way its football team is fighting over the last couple of weeks. The Tigers are inconsistent as any other team on this slide, but they may have the highest potential of any of them, as well.
I’ve said it before and I’ll likely be saying it again next week: Texas A&M is not a good football team right now. The Aggies have looked sluggish all season. Many praised them for their response to the Appalachian State defeat, but Miami was exposed as a fraud just a week later. Texas A&M got lucky against Arkansas before being beaten once again—rather, demolished—by Mississippi State in Starkville.
A trip to Alabama now awaits the Aggies, who can kiss their College Football Playoff aspirations goodbye as they probably pick up their third loss on the season. If it wasn’t for Mel Tucker and Michigan State’s total implosion, a lot more people would be talking about the horrible job being done by Jimbo Fisher this season.
Florida probably could have beaten Eastern Washington 100-3 if it’d wanted to on Sunday. The Gators gave their fans something to cheer about after a tragic week for the state following the landfall of Hurricane Ian. The 56-17 scoreline isn’t indicative of the demolition job that went on at the Swamp as the home team let up massively late on.
Florida is a hard team to read at this moment in time. The potential is very obviously there for Billy Napier’s men, they just haven’t quite figured it all out yet. Losses to Kentucky and Tennessee mean the Gators won be challenging for an SEC East crown this year, but it won’t be long before they’re back contending for a spot in Atlanta each year.
Mississippi State has looked like one helluva football team outside of three quarters in Baton Rouge. The Bulldogs have all of the weapons to succeed under Mike Leach, there are just questions about whether or not they can compete with the best of them after their loss to LSU. Mississippi State will continue to climb the rankings as long as the Bulldogs keep winning though. An impressive win over Texas A&M brings them up a couple of spots.
Can you really demote a team for losing to Alabama after keeping it close for three quarters? Arkansas put up a good fight for the majority of the game. Unfortunately for the Razorbacks, they’re not on the same level as the Crimson Tide. Arkansas needs to be more consistent going forward if it wants to be viewed as a top-tier SEC contender.
Kentucky is a really hard team to put a finger on. The Wildcats have gotten off to one of their best starts in program history this year. Just when they had the opportunity to make a statement to the rest of the country, they beat themselves. Kentucky was within striking distance of Ole Miss, but because the Wildcats tripped up due to a couple of self-inflicted mistakes, they drop out of the SEC’s Top 5 teams for the time being.
Raise your hand if you thought LSU would be a Top 5 SEC team at any point this season. I don’t see any hands—there’s a good reason for it. The Tigers were projected to win six or seven games by most in Las Vegas during Brian Kelly’s first season in charge. Now? The Bayou Bengals are sitting at 4-1 and they’ve broken into the Top 25. If LSU manages to beat Tennessee this weekend, it could climb even higher on this list.
Ole Miss survived by the skin of its teeth against Kentucky. If the Rebels had managed to cover the -6.5 spread in this game, it would’ve warranted a jump over Tennessee. Unfortunately, Lane Kiffin’s crew left it late instead of capitalizing on a plethora of Kentucky mistakes. Ole Miss now has a couple of very winnable games (Vanderbilt and Auburn) before taking a trip to Death Valley in a few weeks.
Does Tennessee deserve the No. 3 ranking in the conference? We’re about to find out. The Volunteers stay where they were last week due to the fact they were idle last week. However, a tough trip to Baton Rouge awaits. Tennessee is lucky to have gotten a good draw with CBS at 11 a.m. CT in Tiger Stadium. It’ll be an intimidating atmosphere nonetheless.
College football fans are about to find out what the Volunteers are made of this weekend.
Honestly, I thought Georgia was a lock for the National Championship a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps the Bulldogs let this widespread belief in them go to their heads because they’ve looked like just another run-of-the-mill team lately. Georgia struggled to put away Kent State two weeks ago before leaving it late against a mediocre Missouri team at the weekend.
Luckily for Kirby Smart and Co., they’ve got the same cupcakes as Ole Miss in Auburn and Vanderbilt coming up. The unfortunate reality of being on the top is everyone’s trying to look for an excuse to knock you off your perch. The Bulldogs have found this out the hard way lately.
Is Alabama definitively a better team than Georgia? No. However, I said last week that the Crimson Tide would have been 1b in the rankings last week if I was able to make that work. Whereas the Bulldogs struggled to beat Mizzou, Alabama went on the road and comfortably dispatched a very good Arkansas team. The Crimson Tide played a good chunk of the game with a backup quarterback too. This performance sees Alabama jump to No. 1 this week.