Week 1 SEC Power Rankings

Aug 30, 2014; Athens, GA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs running back Todd Gurley (3) runs for a touchdown against the Clemson Tigers during the second half at Sanford Stadium. Georgia defeated Clemson 45-21. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Week 1 has come and gone, and it’s time to update the SEC Power Rankings. Biggest rise in the week is without question Texas A&M. Few people thought that the Aggies would be able to compete with South Carolina in Columbia, but not only did they compete, they controlled that game from start to finish. On the flip side, the biggest drop goes to their opponent, the Gamecocks. I don’t see either team staying in these spots for the remainder of the year, but these Power Rankings are going to rank the teams based on who has had the best and worst seasons. Right now, the Aggies have to be pretty high and the Gamecocks have to be pretty low. In case you were wondering, here is last week’s Rankings.

1. Georgia Bulldogs, 1-0 (Last Week 3, up 2): The Georgia Bulldogs have arguably the best running back to play in the SEC since their own Herschel Walker ran over defenses long ago. He proved it in a dominant performance against Clemson, and the defense completely shut down the Tigers in the second half.
2. Texas A&M Aggies, 1-0 (Last Week 10, up 8): Johnny Who? Kenny Hill was given the task of replacing a legend and not only did he do so, he set the school record for passing yards in a single game. The defense wasn’t great, but it was good enough, and when you score the way the Aggies did, you don’t have to be great on defense.
3. Alabama Crimson Tide, 1-0 (Last Week 1, down 2): Anybody else going to a neutral field and beating another team from one of the Power 5 conferences, and you would be supremely impressed. But this isn’t any team. The Tide will be good, but they are vulnerable, especially on the outside to big strong physical wide receivers.
4. LSU Tigers, 1-0 (Last Week 6, up 2): LSU looked dead in the water for most of this game and trailed in the fourth quarter 24-7. Then Les Miles called a fake punt that was successful and got three points out of it. The rest was all LSU as Les Miles did what Les Miles does.
5. Auburn Tigers, 1-0 (Last Week 2, down 3): Auburn can be beaten if you can slow down their offense just enough and hang with them for four quarters. Arkansas slowed them down, but couldn’t do it for the entire game. Other teams in the SEC might be able to.
6. Mississippi State Bulldogs, 1-0 (Last Week 5, down 1): The Bulldogs drop more because the Aggies and LSU had to be moved up. The Bulldogs couldn’t have done much more to dominate a vastly inferior team.
7. Tennessee Volunteers, 1-0 (Last Week 11, up 4): The Volunteers were pegged by a lot of people to be a trendy pick to get upset by the Aggies of Utah State. The game wasn’t over when I typed this, but the Vols were up 31-0. I’d say they answered some questions about how much better this program is under Jones than it was with Dooley in charge.
8. Ole Miss Rebels, 1-0 (Last Week 7, down 1): Normally beating an opponent 35-13 would have you feeling really good about your team. But when your team looks anemic on offense for three quarters and your senior quarterback who has started the previous two years throws three interceptions in the first half against an at best mediocre defense, you might need to be a little worried. Throw running game woes on top of it, and their are concerns in Oxford. The one thing they aren’t concerned about though is their defense. That side of the ball is loaded.
9. Missouri Tigers, 1-0 (Last Week 8, down 1): The Tigers looked great in the first quarter and looked like they put it on cruise control the rest of the game.
10. Kentucky Wildcats, 1-0 (Last Week 13, up 4): Kentucky looked much improved over almost every version of the Wildcats since Brooks was the head coach. Yes, it was against FCS opponent UT Martin, but there have been times that Kentucky couldn’t even do what it did against FCS teams. Probably won’t be a drastic improvement in wins this year, but give Stoops another year or two and he might have the Wildcats much more competitive.
11. South Carolina Gamecocks, 0-1 (Last Week 4, down 7): I don’t think the Gamecocks are this bad. I think Steve Spurrier spent his summer doing lots of things besides preparing for a team that many assumed would take a step back in 2014. The Gamecocks always have a loss early on that hurts their chances to get to Atlanta, and this might have been that game.
12. Florida Gators, 0-0 (Last Week 9, down 3): Mother Nature won the weekend in Gainesville.
13. Arkansas Razorbacks, 0-1 (Last Week 12, down 1): For a while, it looked like the Razorbacks would pull off an upset on the Plains. Then the vastly superior offense of Auburn wore down the thin Arkansas defense and pulled away. The Razorbacks will run the football as well as anyone in the conference. If they can get some support through the passing game and defense, they might pull an upset or two.
14. Vacant
15. Vanderbilt Commodores, 0-1 (Last Week 14, down 1): The Commodores were so bad in a 37-7 loss to Temple that they don’t even get to be ranked 14th. If they show any sign of a pulse against the Rebels this weekend, I might be willing to put them in the 14th spot.

Remember to come back here next week to see who went up and who went down after another week of SEC football.