SEC Power Poll, Week Eleven

by mlmintampa on Nov 18, 2009 6:00 AM EST in Florida Football

Our SEC Power Poll ballot. Final results at Team Speed Kills.

1. Alabama: Like the Gators, Alabama gets everyone's best shot. The difference is that Bama knocks out their opponent and UF goes 12 rounds and leaves in the judges' hands.

2. Florida: Like 2006, it is the defense that gives the Gators a chance to win.

3. LSU: Why is LSU so much better than in 2008? Their defense is only allowing 14 points per game; a 10 point improvement over last season.

4. Mississippi: When he gets the carries, Dexter McCluster is a monster. In his first five games, he had 38 carries for 173 yards. In his last three games, McCluster has 69 carries for 602 yards.

5. Georgia: With a win against Kentucky and in their bowl game, UGA will finish 8-5. It's a down year, but it could have been far worse.

6. South Carolina: They have lost 4 of 5 games, but three of those were road losses. They get Clemson next week at home in a very winnable game.

7. Auburn: I'm glad that the Auburn segment last week on "Outside The Lines" profiled people who tattled on rule breakers at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Now we know who are the least fun fans in the SEC.

8. Arkansas: Ryan Mallett is third nationally in passer rating with an average of 10 yards per completion and completing 60% of his throws. Maybe Arkansas will have to worry about him leaving early next season?

9. Mississippi State: Their last two games at Arkansas and home to Ole Miss can have a huge impact on the off season. If they split, especially with a win over Ole Miss, Dan Mullen Year One has to be a huge success.

10. Tennessee: Nu'Keese Richardson should get a second chance some place. 18 year olds can be stupid, but stupid can be fixed.

11. Kentucky: The loss of Mike Hartline hurts, but they can lean on Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke to carry the load.

12. Vanderbilt: Only Tennessee stands between Vandy and 0-8 in the SEC.

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Comments

LSU.

The improvement for LSU’s scoring defense comes from not having Jarrett “Pick-6” Lee at QB…

"A player who conjugates a verb in the first person singular cannot be part of the squad, he has to conjugate the verb in the first person plural. We. We want to conquer. We are going to conquer. Using the word 'I' when you're in a group makes things complicated." ~ Wanderley Luxemburgo, 1999

by ejruiz on Nov 18, 2009 12:35 PM EST reply actions

Really!?

How can you rank a red-hot Arkansas team behind both Auburn (a team it beat by 21) and South Carolina (17 point victory for the Hogs) in this “power poll”??

The rest of your rankings are reasonable, but I think Arkansas should be bumped up to number 6 at the very least. Some would make the argument that they are currently a better team than Georgia, as well, but I digress…

by sec_homer on Nov 18, 2009 12:45 PM EST reply actions

Arky has always been at the bottom for me; 10, 10, 10, 5, 7, 9, 10, 10, 9, 8. I guess I have a subconscious bias against Arkansas. I do know that I pump up the East teams because I do have bias there.

mlmintampa
UF C/O 06

by mlmintampa on Nov 18, 2009 4:22 PM EST up reply actions

Is it a “subconscious bias” or are you just too lazy to look at the records and head-to-head matchups for teams not named Alabama or Florida? As for the east bias, I think there’s no question that it is the weaker of the two divisions in the SEC this season. What say you?

by sec_homer on Nov 19, 2009 2:10 PM EST up reply actions

I use defense as my stat of choice.

Arkansas has a great offense (10th nationally in total offense) but awful defense (97st in total defense, 68th in scoring defense). In addition, of their six wins, only 3 were against BCS teams (Aubie, SC, Texas A&M) and all three of those teams are under .500 in their league. A&M and Auburn can score and not play defense, while SC can play defense and not score.
I do think the East is the lesser of the two divisions (notice I have UT, UK and Vandy as my bottom three), but as a league, after Bama, UF, LSU, the next eight are interchangeable (most of the season) with Vandy in the basement. Don’t take it personally.

mlmintampa
UF C/O 06

by mlmintampa on Nov 19, 2009 5:50 PM EST up reply actions

<<Like the Gators, Alabama gets everyone’s best shot. The difference is that Bama knocks out their opponent and UF goes 12 rounds and leaves in the judges’ hands.>>

IDK, leaving the game in the judges’/refs’ hands has worked pretty well so far.

by txhog on Nov 18, 2009 7:50 PM EST reply actions

I see what you did there

But no one really cares about some blown call against a meaningless team anymore.

Buffalo, that's where it's at baby. - Adam 'Pacman' Jones

by silverstreak3k on Nov 18, 2009 10:22 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

Try again

Boxers who try to win on points hope their talent and reputation will carry them since they have no knockout punch. After a while, you start losing rounds and before you know it, you lose a fight.

mlmintampa
UF C/O 06

by mlmintampa on Nov 19, 2009 12:30 AM EST up reply actions

Yea

I mean beating everyone but 10 or more points (obviously the ark game is the exception) is obviously not good enough. I mean even the lead blogger on here is drinking the Alabama cool aide now. Yea every team is gonna struggle. Uf has had some obvious problems scoring in the red zone. But have they struggles to win? I don’t think so. Everyone is so quick to say “well the defense bailed them out” no crap! The entire hype about this team was that they returned all 11 starters and backups. Of course this team is depending on the defense, it’s the obvious strength of the team. But whatever, think what you will, but I will always have faith in the gators to be able to win every game. Ask Iowa if they would rather win or dominate. All those great USC teams dominated almost every game, but always lost a game too. I’d much rather win every game than look pretty most of the time.

And to add to your boxing metafor, uf can go 12 rounds strong and still be standing, every team they have played so far hasn’t been able to say the same thing. A 10 point victory leaves me to think there’s nothing for any “judges” to decide.

Buffalo, that's where it's at baby. - Adam 'Pacman' Jones

by silverstreak3k on Nov 19, 2009 6:20 AM EST via mobile up reply actions 1 recs