Tennessee football in top half of SEC Power Rankings after Week 4

Defeated Kentucky Wildcats 29-13

We discussed in the preseason how the Auburn Tigers always seem to take a step back offensively the year after they beat the Alabama Crimson Tide under Gus Malzahn, usually doing it with the same quarterback. Well, in an ugly win against the Kentucky Wildcats that included a horrible call against UK in the first half, that may have looked like the case.

To be fair, the quarterback himself didn’t struggle. Playing for Chad Morris now, Bo Nix threw for 233 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. He completed 16-of-27 passes, and he ran for another 34 yards. Simply put, he did his part against a Kentucky defense coached by Mark Stoops, so that should all be considered pretty impressive.

Auburn also committed no turnovers. The story of the game was them forcing Kentucky to commit three turnovers. Outside of that, though, UK did move the ball on Auburn’s defense, and that’s actually a bit concerning. We still have the Tigers as a top five team in our SEC Power Rankings, but they have a lot to work on heading into next week.

At this moment, Tennessee football should consider Auburn winnable just like the Texas A&M Aggies, two teams who would have been considered likely losses at the beginning of the year. Before getting to that point, though, both teams have plenty of chances to prove themselves. For Auburn, it’s next week against a major rival and the next team in these rankings.