SEC power rankings after Week 2: Georgia struggles and Arch Manning arrives

There are plenty of arguments about who is the No. 1 team in the SEC, but one thing is for sure, Mississippi State is the 16th best. In Week 3, first-year head coach Jeff Lebby’s Bulldogs hosted Toledo, a team they paid nearly two million dollars to come to Starkville and the Rockets handed them a 41-17 beatdown. Even Vanderbilt’s loss to Georgia State and Florida’s continued embarrassment under Billy Napier aren’t as bad as the state of affairs at Mississippi State right now. 

At the top of the conference, things just got very interesting. Georgia entered the year as the No. 1 team in the country and even with a 3-0 start, the Bulldogs have dropped to No. 2 in the AP poll behind the 3-0 Texas Longhorns. In Week 3, Georgia struggled in its SEC opener at Kentucky, grinding out a 13-12 win, while Texas rolled UTSA 56-7. 

To add another layer of complexity to the situation, Texas starting quarterback Quinn Ewers went down with an abdominal strain, so the country got a good long look at the chosen one, Arch Manning. Manning finished the blowout win 9/12 passing for 223 yards with four touchdowns and another score on the ground, a 67-yard touchdown run that had many questioning his lineage. 

Ewers will return at some point, but for now, is Texas with a backup quarterback better than Georgia, surprisingly it’s hard to say. Week 3 wasn’t the only time this season that moving the ball has appeared to be an arduous task for the Bulldogs. In Week 1, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and quarterback Carson Beck only managed six points in the first half before pulling away from Clemson. 

The two teams will meet in Austin on October 19, but until then we’re left to speculate and do so with quite a few other teams nipping at the leaders’ heels. Six of the top seven teams in the country are from the SEC and in Week 3, Georgia, and Missouri were the only two that didn’t dominate. Tennessee stomped Kent State in Knoxville, Ole Miss rolled Wake Forest on the road, Alabama went up to Madison and buried Wisconsin 42-10, and Texas sparked Manning-mania. 

Manning will be a great quarterback, someday, but with a banged-up Ewers or an inexperienced starter heading into the teeth of an SEC schedule, I’ll hold firm to my take that Georgia is the best team in the conference, and that Saturday night was an aberration. Georgia's defense still looks dominant, even with injuries piling up on the offensive line. These are the two best teams in the country, and I'll feel comfortable siding with Kirby Smart and Carson Beck.

The other most important game in the SEC took place in Columbia South Carolina, and even though LSU escaped with a win, the Tigers are dropping in the power rankings this week because if South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers doesn’t get hurt right before halftime, I feel confident that the Gamecocks protect their 24-16 lead.