Tennessee football up two spots in SEC Power Rankings after Week 5 of 2020

Defeated Vanderbilt Commodores 41-7

This week’s win over the Vanderbilt Commodores did enough to move the LSU Tigers up a little bit in our SEC Power Rankings, but they still didn’t prove much. Ed Orgeron’s defending national championship team still only beat the team we consider to be the worst in the SEC right now, so the only thing helping was margin of victory.

In fact, last week’s loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs looks even worse now given the fact that MSU has now lost itself. As a result, LSU’s first two opponents are a combined 1-3, and that one win is against them. There’s no way to consider that a good look, and it’s why we have to keep them in the middle of the pack of the league for now.

When it comes to positives, you have to give credit to Bo Pelini and the defense for seemingly improving dramatically, but it could still be only because they played Vanderbilt. Early in the season, LSU was the one elite team in the SEC Tennessee football avoided, but at this point, that doesn’t even look like a break for the Vols.

Now, the Tigers at least get another breather game before their gauntlet begins. They host the 0-2 Missouri Tigers. However, then they visit the Florida Gators, Auburn Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide in three of their next four games. As a result, they could easily fall to 3-4 this month, which would be disastrous for them.