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SEC Power Rankings following Week 1 of 2018 season

By Caleb Calhoun

CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 01: A detailed view of the helmets worn by the Tennessee Volunteers before their game against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Bank of America Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 01: A detailed view of the helmets worn by the Tennessee Volunteers before their game against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Bank of America Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images /

Mark Stoops’s team deserves credit for beating an FBS program, which puts them above numerous schools in the conference. And the Central Michigan Chippewas were decent enough last year for us to almost consider this win legitimate.

However, the key word is almost. CMU lost a ton of talent from the previous season, so they are basically a bottom of the barrel team in the MAC for this year. That’s not being an FCS school, but it’s hardly impressive.

The Wildcats didn’t blowout Central Michigan the way they should have. This was only a 15-point win against what will be a bad Group of Five team this year. By the way, UK struggled the worst in the first half, as they only went into the locker room with a 21-20 lead. So they suffered a serious scare against the Chippewas.

As a result, we had to drop this team in our SEC Power Rankings. You don’t get to struggle for a half with your starters against a MAC team and get any respect after one week of the season. Kentucky will have to prove itself before moving up. They need a few real wins.

They have a chance this week. Like we mentioned on the previous slide, this team does face the Florida Gators this week. That’s on the road, and then they face the Mississippi State Bulldogs in two weeks after that. So there are about to be plenty of tests for these guys. For now, though, they’ll be down here in these rankings.

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