SEC Power Poll Week 5

Despite Florida's loss and LSU's near-death experience, there was little change in our power poll ballot. Visit Team Speed Kills for the final tally.

1. Alabama: Watching Kirby Smart simulate a jump pass made my stomach turn. Unfortunately, it did not have the same impact on Steve Addazio and Urban Meyer.

2. Auburn: Cam Newton might be the real deal. He should get past Kentucky on Saturday, but Arkansas and LSU follow in back-to-back weeks.

3. Arkansas: The Hogs are 12th in scoring defense and 23rd in total defense. If they want to keep pace with Bama, the success of the defense is more necessary than Ryan Mallett.

4. Florida: Not since the days of Ron Zook have I seen such venom directed at a Gators coach. At least Steve Addazio has that going for him.

Clearly, Addazio is embracing it too. Note this exchange when asked if there has been a question of moving Mike Pouncey back to guard.

"When you say play better at guard, are you actually talking about playing the game?" Addazio said. "He's graded out a champion every week (at center). I guess if you want to talk about is there a low snap, we're not going to go down that path of a good football player.

"He's playing great right now. You wouldn't want to play against him. Leave it there."

Yeah, stop asking questions about our decision making. At least Addazio can still punish John Brantley with option plays since "that's a part of who we are." I wasn't aware that asking a guy to do something that his body isn't built for was a part of the spread offense. I guess I was wrong.

5. LSU: People in Louisiana are crazy. So when they think Les Miles is unstable, they know what they are talking about. Of course, they could beat Florida 21-14 in a game that solely consists of defensive scores.

6. South Carolina: The best chance the Gamecocks have to beat Bama is to play Marcus Lattimore both ways.

7. Mississippi State: They are not that bad and the defense is better than they get credit for. 

8. Tennessee: I think the LSU game proved my point that the Vols might lack talent, but they play hard. If they could count, they might win some ball games.

9. Georgia: New athletic director Greg McGarity is a Georgia grad, but he was previously Florida AD Jeremy Foley's right hand man. McGarity saw Foley fire Ron Zook after a bad loss. Maybe Mark Richt should start thinking about that.

10. Kentucky: They should allow in-season transfers for cases like Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke.

11. Vanderbilt: Statistically, the worst team in the SEC. They are also in third place in the SEC East. What happened to my SEC?

12. Ole Miss: They should use the bye week to wash off the remaining stink left from losing to Jacksonville State.