Three weeks into the season, and we think we have a general idea of the talents of all 14 SEC teams this year. Obviously Alabama is still the class of the conference, but who could be the team to pull off an upset? Who will they meet in the SEC Championship Game?
Let's find out who has the best chance.
1. Alabama - They have far and away the best resume in the SEC. Even as a freshman, Jalen Hurts has been good, and the defense and special teams have been great as usual. Don't expect the Tide to lose the top spot very easily.
2. Texas A&M - How erratic as the SEC been this season? After just three games, the Aggies have taken the No. 2 spot in the SEC power rankings, which is a far cry from being unranked by both preseason polls. A&M has strong wins against UCLA and at Auburn, which is definitely more impressive than struggling with Nicholls, Ohio, and App. State.
3. Georgia - This is not exactly the path we thought Georgia would take to be a Top 3 SEC team. After a strong performance in Week 1 against UNC, Georgia's offense has absolutely collapsed. They aren't getting the push off the line that we are used to seeing from the Bulldogs, and the result has been just 3.48 yards per carry in their past two games against Nicholls State and Mizzou.
4. Tennessee - The Vols are undefeated, but have not looked good doing it. Their only good game came against Virginia Tech in the Battle at Bristol where they won 45-24 in front of a record crowd of over 150,000 fans. But they barely survived Appalachian State the week before that and Ohio the week after. This weekend's game against Florida will truly tell us how good this team can be this season and it's a chance to break an 11-year losing streak to the Gators.
5. Arkansas - Without Brandon Allen and Alex Collins, everyone expected the Arkansas offense to fall off a cliff. The surprise, obviously, is that they haven't and the Razorbacks were able to get a win at TCU because of it. Will they be able to keep it up? That remains to be seen.
6. Florida - The Gators have allowed only 4.7 points per game so far this year, which is tops in the country. They also own the second-best rushing defense country allowing only 42.33 yards per game on the ground to go with the second-best passing defense only allowing 87.3 yards through the air. They're coming off a dominant performance against North Texas where they allowed a school-record 53 total yards. All of those numbers come against truly inferior opponents so this weekend in Knoxville will be a true test to see how good this defense is.
7. LSU - LSU is in a similar spot as Auburn: great defense, bleh offense. The good news for these Tigers, though, is that things could change rapidly if Leonard Fournette is able to get back to 100-percent. Quarterback Danny Etling hasn't been great, but he's looked better than Brandon Harris. There is still some potential here, but the LSU offense is going to have to step it up soon if they want to realize it.
8. Ole Miss - Is there a more bi-polar team in the SEC? The Rebels have looked like world-beaters for extended portions against Alabama and Florida State, but then they just completely fell apart into a mediocre team. Things don't get any easier for Ole Miss either, as they've got Georgia, Memphis, at Arkansas, and at LSU as their next four games.
9. Auburn - Auburn's defense is great, but their offense is still terrible. They can't pick a quarterback, they can't convert on third-downs, and when they do, it doesn't matter; they don't get into the end zone anyways. It will be interesting to see how they do against LSU, because a loss their would put them at 1-3 on the season, and Gus Malzahn's job would be in serious jeopardy.
10. Missouri - The Tigers were not expected to look good at all this season under first year coach Barry Odom and they've got the one win they expected to have against Eastern Michigan. They should be 2-2 after this weekend against Delaware State, but then have to play at LSU and at Florida the next two weeks so the outlook doesn't look great for this Tigers team.
11. South Carolina - It's Will Muschamp's first year in Columbia and we already know one thing. The offense is going to look terrible and it has on its way to a measly 287.7 total yards per game, good for 123rd in the nation. Gator fans know that feeling all too well. Muschamp will need some good recruiting classes to fix all the problems there.
12. Mississippi State - This Bulldogs team is a bizarre one as it lost to the USA, or South Alabama I guess, in excruciating fashion, but handled South Carolina fairly easily. Then they lost to a struggling LSU team in a close game 23-20. They play at UMass this weekend and will rock some Patriots-inspired gear so maybe that will help build some confidence on this team post-Dak.
13. Vanderbilt - The Commodores still have a ton of room for improvement as they came close to beating South Carolina in the season opener, but did not look like a competent football team at all against Georgia Tech. The defense gave up 222 passing yards to a triple option offense and allowed them to rack up 511 total yards. There's some work to be done.
14. Kentucky - ?'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'??'? One poop emoji for every straight loss to Florida.