SEC Football: What we learned in Week 5 of the season

The fifth week of the college football season is in the books, and the SEC football picture is becoming more and more clear.

We already thought Alabama and Georgia were the class of SEC football, but on Saturday, they proved again how much better they are than the rest of the SEC. Alabama never let Ole Miss even think they were in the game in their 66-3 win. While Georgia avenged last year’s Hail Mary from Tennessee with a 41-0 beatdown in Knoxville.

There were five conference games this weekend, and we were able to learn a lot. We may have learned the most from a team that didn’t play a conference matchup… Looking at you LSU. Here’s what we learned in Week 5 on the SEC football season.

There are three SEC Championship contenders

We all know about Alabama and Georgia. They’ve each dominated on their way to a 5-0 record and top 5 rankings, but there is one more team that actually looks like a title contender. Auburn wasn’t spectacular to begin the season, but their one loss also came against Clemson, the reigning nationa champion and current no. 2 team in the country.

The Tigers have made a statement the last two weeks. They blew out a lousy Missouri team 51-14 on the road last week, then came back this week with a 49-10 win over Mississippi State. Through five games Jarrett Stidham has thrown 5 touchdowns and 2 intereceptions while completing 72 percent of his passes. There aren’t many teams that have looked like SEC title contenders this season, but the Tigers are one of them. The biggest thing going against them is their dates with Georgia and Alabama in November.

Jarrett Stidham went 13-for-16 for 264 yards and 2 touchdowns in 49-10 win over. Mississippi State. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images) /

The SEC East is a Two-Horse race

A lot has been made about how weak the SEC East has been in recent years. Georgia looks to be a legitimate College Football Playoff contender through five games, but no one else in the division has been very impressive. However, with wins over Tennessee, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt in consecutive weeks, Florida has proved they are the Bulldogs’ biggest competition.

It hasn’t been pretty, but the Gators are still undefeated in SEC play. It should be interesting to see how Feleipe Franks responds to being demoted and now getting the starting job back after Luke Del Rio’s injury. We are four weeks away from the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville. It’s worth noting that Florida has won three straight games over Georgia in the series.

Ed Orgeron was the wrong guy for the LSU job

I’m not big on knee-jerk reactions. And while it may sound like that’s what I’m currently doing after LSU’s 24-21 loss to Troy, take a closer look. Ed Orgeron went 10-25 in three years as the head coach at Ole Miss from 2005-2007. He’s been a good coordinator in stops at Tennessee, USC, and LSU, but if he wasn’t already on the LSU coaching staff, there’s no way he would be the head coach in Baton Rouge right now.

Orgeron went 6-2 as the interim coach at USC in 2013, but they refused to make the knee-jerk reaction, and hired Steve Sarkisian instead (say what you want about that hire now). Fast forward to 2016 and the same thing happened. Les Miles was fired and Coach O went 6-2 as the interim coach. While many fans wanted to go get Tom Herman or one of the other hot coaches out there, they chose to do the convenient thing and make Orgeron the full-time head coach.

Orgeron proved years ago that he wasn’t head coach material, and now the folks in Baton Rouge are learning that the hard way.

Mississippi State was overrated

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This isn’t meant as a knock on Georgia or Auburn. They should both be proud of their home blowout wins over Mississippi State, but they might should take a step back and realize that they didn’t beat a team that will be ranked at season’s end.

The media seems to make this mistake every year. They rank a team highly in the preseason, then someone has a big win over said team, and now the media falls in love with the new team, only to find out that neither team was actually any good in the first place (see: Texas over Notre Dame in 2016). Confused? Let me explain.

Mississippi State bursted onto the national scene with their 37-7 win over LSU at home, and everyone assumed that the Bulldogs were legit. It’s not because they’ve been blown out Georgia and Auburn. They both appear to be good teams. But their one “legitimate” win was over LSU, who is now 3-2 after Saturday’s loss to Troy.

So it’s starting to look like a decent team (Mississippi State) just blew out a lousy team (LSU). Dan Mullen is now 2-15 in his career against ranked opponents, which is the worst mark in NCAA history.

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