State of the SEC: Week 8 Recap

We're monitoring the weekly results of SEC football and how they affect the Florida Gators, so you don't have to.

For the first time this season, every SEC team played another SEC team. All 14 teams played and no results except one truly surprised, but nonetheless let's look at all of them and relate them back to the Gators.

Auburn (6-1, 3-1 SEC) 51. Arkansas (2-5, 0-4 SEC) 10.

All this does is make Florida's win over Auburn a few weeks ago look more impressive. Granted, Arkansas is embarrassing to the sport of football, but even still, Auburn is playing really good football and the Gators essentially dominated the Tigers when they came to Gainesville. As far as the standings are concerned, UF gets to brag about that win pretty heavily it seems.

LSU (7-0, 3-0 SEC) 36. Mississippi State (3-4, 1-3 SEC) 13.

This game proved to us two things: Joe Burrow is playing better football currently than any other quarterback in college and that LSU's defense is still extremely suspect. The Bulldogs were able to get chunk plays on multiple drives. Against Alabama, that can become 30-40 points. However, that offense is so ridiculously impressive it may still not matter.

Vanderbilt (2-5, 1-3 SEC) 21. Missouri (5-2, 2-1 SEC) 14.  

The surprise of the day for sure. The Tigers began the day sitting atop the SEC East, they end it in third place. Missouri may be officially the 2019 SEC team that nobody can figure out. How do you lose to Wyoming, lose to Vanderbilt and then beat South Carolina?

It is a weird dynamic in Columbia, Missouri, but even still this is a squad that Florida is historically awful against since they have been in the SEC. Also keep in mind, the Gators are currently on a two-game losing streak to the Tigers. This poor performance against the fighting Derek Mason's gives me more confidence that UF handles them as they should, but it is absolutely a trap game.

Georgia (6-1, 3-1 SEC) 21. Kentucky (3-4, 1-4 SEC) 0. 

What an atrocious game.

This game hurt my eyes to watch. It hurt my brain too. Kentucky did not complete a pass the entire first half and still were tied 0-0 with the overrated Bulldogs. This week proved yet again that Georgia was painfully over-hyped coming into the year.

The 21-0 final reads that Georgia handled the 'Cats pretty well, and they did at the end of the game. But this was a 0-0 game at halftime, in Athens, Georgia. This was a game where Kentucky did not complete a pass until the 4:30 mark in the fourth quarter.

Even more underwhelming, the NFL Draft prospect Jake Fromm threw for 35 yards. The blueprint is obvious for the Gators when they travel to Jacksonville in two weeks: contain D'Andre Swift. If Swift has a bad day for UGA, UGA loses that game, plain and simple.

Texas A&M (4-3, 2-2 SEC) 24. Ole Miss (3-5, 2-3 SEC) 17.

Bottom-feeder is too strong of a term for Texas A&M, they are better than that for sure. However, the Aggies have underwhelmed more than anyone else in the entire conference and I am not sure that it is particularly close. This Jimbo Fisher-led team was right there with Florida to start the season as the top of the tier just below Alabama and LSU.

Now, they beat an Ole Miss team that can't pick a quarterback that is still in NCAA jail by one touchdown. Perhaps scheduling Clemson as their out-of-conference power five was not a wise move. Perhaps Fisher should give that a few years.

Alabama (7-0, 4-0 SEC) 35. Tennessee (2-5, 1-3 SEC) 13. 

The biggest story of this game was obviously Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa leaving the game to head to the hospital to check out his foot after it appeared to get rolled up on during the first half. Currently the diagnosis is a high ankle sprain. The Crimson Tide play Arkansas next week, so he definitely will not play. The current idea is that he'll be back just before LSU, which is the next time an opponent on their schedule matters anyway.

Another important note though: Alabama's defense is not overwhelmingly impressive like it normally is. Tennessee's offense is absolutely abysmal, and quarterback Brian Maurer went down early with an injury. Running back Ty Chandler and wide receiver Jauan Jennings were able to actually make some formidable plays for the Vols.

Honestly, Tennessee was one horrendous quarterback-sneak attempt from backup Jarrett Guarantano, that resulted in a fumble in the end zone that Trevon Diggs scooped and ran back 100 yards for a touchdown, from forcing a one-possession game midway through the fourth quarter.

I do not pretend to tell the future, but I would be willing to bet a lot of money that Burrow and the LSU offense will not do anything like that. In fact, the Tigers probably throw that and Ja'Marr Chase is still celebrating as we speak.

Overall

The league has pretty much taken shape. Now we are in the phase of ironing out some details. To me, the tiers are pretty obvious:

Tier One: Alabama and LSU.

Tier Two: Florida, Auburn and Georgia.

Tier Three: South Carolina, Missouri and Texas A&M.

Tier Four: Everyone else.