As we put a bow on the month of October in the SEC, could there have been a starker difference between the trajectories of two teams than Saturday's matchup between Oklahoma and South Carolina? The Sooners are going nowhere fast, and they looked lifeless in a 42-25 loss at home. It was another anemic offensive showing from Oklahoma, resulting in a staff change on Monday as Brent Venables fired offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle.
There are now serious questions about whether Venables has what it takes to get the Sooners back on track in the long term. On the other side, Shane Beamer is the rare example of a coach who has coached himself off the hot seat with relative ease. The Gamecocks offense is explosive, and LaNorris Sellers looks like the quarterback everyone thought he could be a couple of years ago.
Vibes are high in Columbia as South Carolina looks to complete its second midseason turnaround in the last three years. As for the rest of this week's SEC Power Rankings, there wasn't a ton of movement at the top due to a slew of open dates, but there is plenty of misery to be found at the bottom. The Bulldogs came out of their open date with a decisive 27-8 win over rival Florida, but they also have a tricky stretch coming up over the next three weeks.
Georgia gets Ole Miss, Missouri and South Carolina to wrap up SEC play. Those are all winnable games, but they may also require the Dawgs' passing game to hit a level that we haven't seen in a while. Even with those lingering questions on offense, Georgia has proven to be the conference's most trustworthy team.
After a week off, Kentucky kicks off a critical month of November with a road trip to Tennessee. The Wildcats have lost five straight to the Volunteers and seven of the last eight in a series dominated by Tennessee since the 1930s. Of course, this is the first time Will Stein has coached against Tennessee, and he's already proven that this team is not the Kentucky of old.
The question for the Cats is whether they have enough on offense to overcome an elite defense and hostile atmosphere on the other side. In their last two games before the open date, the Tigers seemed to be hitting their stride with blowout wins over Mississippi State and Auburn. Was that the quality of the opponent, or was LSU finding another gear for real?
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