SEC Power Rankings after week 4: Vols near bottom

Yes, this is a crazy jump in one week. But it puts our point in a nutshell that the No. 3 team in our SEC Power Rankings could lose to the No. 13 team this week. That’s how up in the air things are at this point.

Gus Malzahn’s team rebounded from looking horrible in a win against Mercer to absolutely demolishing the Missouri Tigers. Missouri may be the worst team, but Auburn’s performance was so flawless that we had to bump them up.

And when you look at their body of work, they’re 3-1 with their only loss coming to the defending national champion Clemson Tigers. And that game was decided by a touchdown at Clemson.

So Auburn right now looks pretty solid. Jarrett Stidham ran the offense beautifully last week, and Gus Malzahn is doing a terrific job spreading the running game around. The defense remains great, so this team as a whole is pretty solid.

This week, though, everything is on the line.

The Tigers host the Mississippi State Bulldogs in an elimination game from the upper echelon of the conference. The loser may not drop, but they won’t clearly be among the top three teams. The winner, meanwhile, will be.

But don’t forget that the Tigers also have to face the LSU Tigers on the road later this year along with their hated rival the Alabama Crimson Tide. And they also have another rivalry game against a team competing to be the top in the conference right now. We go to them next.