Preseason SEC Power Rankings for 2019: Should Vols start in bottom tier?
Similar to the Florida Gators, the LSU Tigers won a New Year’s Six Bowl game as well. Ed Orgeron’s team was the one to end the UCF Knights’ winning streak, which was the longest streak in all of college football. They beat them 40-32 in the Fiesta Bowl to stake their claim as an elite program that has finally arrived. Or has it?
Well, despite the questions surrounding Orgeron, that finish combined with LSU’s offseason puts the program at No. 2 in these SEC Power Rankings. The Tigers did have the No. 3 ranked recruiting class, again close enough to the Georgia Bulldogs and even closer than Florida. And they also return over 75 percent of their production, good for top 15 in the country.
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Part of that returning talent obviously includes Joe Burrow. But it’s also worth noting that LSU’s momentum coming off a 10-3 season and top 10 finish is even greater than it looks. The Tigers should have finished on a four-game winning streak, as they were robbed against the Texas A&M Aggies in their final conference game.
This year, despite reservations about whether or not Orgeron can live up to the hype, the program in Baton Rouge clearly enters the season with a ton of momentum. And it’s more than enough to put them up here.