SEC Power Poll Week 3

by mlmintampa on Sep 22, 2010 12:03 PM EDT in Florida Football

While I missed the voting deadline, here is what would have been my SEC Power Poll ballot for week three. Visit Team Speed Kills for the final tally.

1. Alabama: It was against Duke, but Mark Ingram running for 151 last week should put the fear of God into the rest of the SEC. The Tide remain the most complete team in the conference.

2. LSU: The Tigers are 2-0 in the league and will probably go 2-0 against legit OOC teams with a win against West Virginia on Saturday. With Tennessee the week after, LSU will go into the Florida game as an undefeated team. Jordan Jefferson is not exactly helping the Tigers, but he isn't hurting them either.

3. Auburn: They showed a lot of heart in rallying to defeat Clemson. But Cam Newton has three interceptions in the last two games.

4. South Carolina: I still like the Gamecocks to challenge UF in the SEC East, but their sloppy effort against Furman raised some questions.

5. Arkansas: We are going to find out a lot about the Hogs this weekend against Alabama. I'm thinking it is that Arky is not as good as they think.

6. Florida: The Gators have yet to score in the first quarter. No matter how much of a homer you are, you have to admit that is worrisome. UF can handle Kentucky, but John Brantley especially needs to step up to handle the doubleheader of Alabama and LSU to start October.

7. Kentucky: If there is any year for the Wildcats to win their first game against UF since 1986, this is it. UK has offensive playmakers and I'm thinking the Florida crowd will be pretty lazy for a 7pm start.

8. Tennessee: The Vols don't have the talent, but they played hard the last two weeks. Hell, UF needed a fake punt to shift momentum last week.

9. Georgia: The Dawgs are bad. Really bad. What is worse is that they couldn't figure out how to stop Marcus Lattimore two weeks ago and Ryan Mallett last week. That's on the coaching staff.

10. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs gained 249 and 268 yards the last two weeks. Maybe the Dan Mullen offense will take off in year three.

11. Vanderbilt: Vandy could actually be higher than this, as they are a blown call and two points from being 2-1. Considering how weak Georgia is, maybe Vandy avoids being the worst in the East.

12. Ole Miss: Is this the Curse of Colonel Reb or the Curse of Admiral Ackbar?

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Comments

I think I will keep a tally for your rankings

as its getting harder and harder for me to follow you.

Week 1
Alabama, LSU, MSU, USC, UF

Week 2
Alabama, USC, LSU, Auburn, UF

Week 3
Alabama, LSU, Auburn, USC, Ark, UF

Ill skip Alabama, because thats the only one you have been consistent on. And also they are very good and deserve the number one spot till someone takes it from them

LSU – After Barely hanging on to a now 0-2 team, and beating perennial bottom feeders in MSU and Vandy, you have them vaulted up to number 2 again, for a reason I can’t seem to grasp. And you can’t be serious about Jefferson. He is terrible, his stats against bad teams is worse than Brantley’s.

Auburn – Even more puzzling to me is putting Auburn at 3 after struggling against MSU and mediocre Clemson (in OT! at home!) Not sure how they deserve the recognition they are getting…

USC – I can see them being this high as they have actually beat UGA (but at this point, that win doesn’t look any better than the UT win by UF) other than that they beat Furman a d-1a school and Southern Miss, a mid teir program.

Arkansas – Again I could see them ranked ahead of UF, but all they have done is beat a down year UGA team (barely). We will see their mettle this week.

It kills me when i go around to all these SEC sports blogs and they have UF so low. People say they “look” terrible and not up to their potential, and I agree, they should be playing better, but only UF and Alabama are able to say that they have beaten their opposition by no less than 14 points. They are also the only two teams to allow no more than 17 points in any game they have played so far.

Its fine though, let the doubters keep doubting.

Buffalo, that's where it's at baby. - Adam 'Pacman' Jones
To us winning is a tradition. We are victors and need not explain. You may hate us, but your girlfriends love us. - BC
One more than Shaq. - Kobe answering how it felt to win Championship number 5

by silverstreak3k on Sep 22, 2010 2:06 PM EDT reply actions

For the record

My rankings would be

Alabama, UF, USC, Ark, LSU, Auburn. (basically the status quo from the first week minus UGA and adding USC)

by silverstreak3k on Sep 22, 2010 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions

USC is pretty good, but I didn't know about the points thing.

Only thing is, will we even be able to keep that up? Doubt it…

I wouldn’t be talking trash about Georgia just yet. At least wait til we play them.

"When you argue correctly, you're never wrong."-Nick Naylor

by Hook85 on Sep 23, 2010 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions

LSU: Has defeated three BCS conference opponents, and likely a fourth Saturday. That counts for something. Also, Jefferson just has to manage the game, not win it.
Auburn: Won a conference road game and defeated a decent team in a comeback win (with a QB starting only his 3rd game, too). If you discount the win over MSU, you discount every SEC road win for every team.
South Carolina: They have a go-to-guy and a stout defense. I also think they could beat Auburn since they play up to their competition. (See the Florida games in 2006, 2009.)
Arkansas: Ryan Mallett looks good and he has power forwards at receiver. I think they’ll lose to Alabama, but they are a quick strike team.
Florida: I don’t know if you have watched the Gators this season, but they have not scored in the first quarter of any game in 2010. Also, since we’re discounting Auburn beating Miss State, we’ll downgrade UF over Tennessee. That means UF has done jacksquat on offense in three games.

Besides, the top six, as demonstrated by silver’s post, are a jumble. Pick the names out of a hat and I can make any combination work.

mlmintampa
UF C/O 06
http://www.alligatorarmy.com

by mlmintampa on Sep 22, 2010 4:34 PM EDT reply actions

LSU: I just don’t think you can blanketly look at their schedule and say “well they beat 3 BCS conference teams” when those teams are a combined 2-6 (with one win against Memphis, and the other against Ole Miss who lost to a d-1a team!). Quality not quantity.

Auburn: They struggled at home against a mediocre ACC team and beat a perennial loser in MSU. I think if you asked most people who they think would win a UT-MSU game, a larger majority would say UT, making the UT win more emphatic, so no, you don’t have to discount every SEC road win, just put them in perspective.

USC: is stout, but as of right now I don’t see them beating the gators, and a power poll is about who would beat who. USC will have to prove it against a more legit team than UGA that they are for real.

Ark: same as my statement about USC

Florida: who cares if they lose every first quarter as long as they continue to put up 38 points over the course of the game Are you seriously suggesting that not scoring in the first quarter means they are worse than LSU, Auburn, Ark, and USC? (Auburn has scored 7 points in the first quarter against FBS schools, Ark has scored 14 points in the first quarter all year, LSU has scored 10 points, and USC has scored 14 against FBS schools, honestly who cares).

And you are absolutely correct, its still a jumble, I just expected someone who follows and is a fan of the gators would be able to realize that nothing has really occurred to break up the status quo besides moving UGA out of the SEC east champ talk and inserting USC.

by silverstreak3k on Sep 22, 2010 6:36 PM EDT up reply actions

I think you’ll care if the Gators lose the first quarter against Alabama and lose, don’t you?

Also, status quo has changed. UF, UGA, Auburn, Ole Miss, Tennessee all have new quarterbacks. South Carolina has a NFL running back, while UT and Vandy are playing much harder for their current coaches than their old coaches. I try to ignore previous seasons in grading, otherwise I’d have Arkansas 8th because I know they’re going to f’it up, just like always.

As for my scale, I think I rank UF harder, just as you’re harder on your kids when coaching their ball team. That’s why it is significant to me that UF’s offense plays only for 45 minutes. Where I use UF’s past to grade them, I’m using other teams most recent performances. That is probably wrong and I should grade UF on their last four quarters. In that case, they would probably be behind Alabama, Arkansas and LSU, but ahead of Auburn and SC.

mlmintampa
UF C/O 06
http://www.alligatorarmy.com

by mlmintampa on Sep 22, 2010 7:43 PM EDT up reply actions

I wont care if they start off with a 0

and still put 38 points on that Bama defense! haha

I get your rankings now more since you explained them, and I think in the end we just differ on how we view the conference this early in the season. Let just hope I am more right than you are. haha

by silverstreak3k on Sep 22, 2010 7:50 PM EDT up reply actions