Matt Luke’s team is not looking great right now, but they are 2-1 with their only loss coming to the Memphis Tigers, who may be the best Group of Five team in the nation this year. And that was a close loss on the road for a very young team to open the season, so things could have gone much worse than they did in that game.
But since then, they held off an Arkansas Razorbacks team and won by two touchdowns in a win that now doesn’t look as bad after what the Hogs did to the Colorado State Rams. Then comes this past weekend, when they are only able to beat the Southeastern Louisiana Lions 40-29 with the game close in the fourth quarter.
So where do we go with this team? Well, we’re keeping them at No. 10 in our SEC Power Rankings. They are still young with Matt Corral at quarterback, and consistency is likely to be an issue. But they’ve hit pars on the season so far, and that has to matter.
This coming Saturday will be a huge test for them, as they host the No. 23 ranked California Golden Bears. If they can win that, then they’ll accept a loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide the next week and try to cash in on the following two games, at home against the Vanderbilt Commodores and at the Missouri Tigers.