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SEC Power Rankings after week 4: Vols near bottom

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images /

Again, we don’t have much to add to the South Carolina Gamecocks this week in our SEC Power Rankings. Will Muschamp’s team is awful without Deebo Samuel. His absence renders them useless in scoring, and they struggled for a second straight week as a result.

The defense is still fine, but a 17-16 victory over the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs is hideous, even if this Tech team is decent.

South Carolina is probably happy to be 3-1, and they have played a quality enough schedule to be higher than where we are putting them. But this team is 1-1 without Samuel, including a home loss to the Kentucky Wildcats and this hideous win.

As a result, there’s no reason to have faith in them right now. It may be unfair to these guys, who had the perfect setup early in the season.

But when a key piece of that setup goes down, we have to adjust our rankings. The Gamecocks have shown no ability to beat decent teams anymore.

We’re about to find out from them just how bad they are also. Up next for them is a trip to College Station to face the Texas A&M Aggies, then they have to host the Arkansas Razorbacks. So they have some chances to move up.

And they’ll definitely want to beat the next team after those two on the schedule when they see where we put them. We put them just ahead of the Gamecocks and go there next in our SEC Power Rankings as well.

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