SEC Football Power Rankings, Week 14: Georgia, LSU on collision course

The Rebels have played a lot better of late. These young upstarts have given a game to all of their superior opponents, they haven’t seen it in at the pay window, however. An Egg Bowl loss was disappointing, but even to be in the game until the very end — literally — was a nice confidence-booster for the future. Unfortunately Elijah Moore will be the goat on campus for a while after his celebration penalty moved the tying extra point back which the kicker missed to lose.

From what we know here at headquarters, this game over an Egg is as fierce a rivalry as there is in college football. We began to wonder, is it a proximity thing? They are less than a two-hour drive away from one another. It could be a state bragging rights thing. The Bulldogs reside in smallish “Starkvegas” while the Rebels dwell in the posh and typically southern “Heart of Dixie” Oxford. The rivalry definitely seems very blue collar vs. white collar. Whatever the case, this one means the most in Mississippi and the Bulldogs have bragging rights.

Another team that dips into the ACC for its interstate rival are the Kentucky Wildcats. This game has so many implications for each team for different reasons. The Wildcats have shown so much moxie this season. They’ve played without a quarterback for much of the season, yet they’ve scratched and clawed their way to a six-win campaign and a bowl after losing their heart and soul to the NFL in Benny Snell and Josh Allen.

The Cardinals want to cap off a wonderful regular season for first-year head coach Scott Satterfield with a win over their in-state rivals. This one has some of that Egg Bowl feel to it. You have the clean cut sort of upper crust school in Kentucky versus the gritty blue collar city school in Louisville. This one is strength-on-strength with Kentucky’s physical defense against the speed of the Cardinal offense.

The Aggies, much like their former SWC running mates, don’t have a natural rival since joining the SEC. Their in-state rivals — Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas — are all in the Big 12. A&M fans also always got up for Oklahoma and Nebraska as well. With no real rival in the SEC, the Aggies finish their regular season against the LSU Tigers. This is the end to one of the more brutal schedules in recent memory. Texas A&M will have played the No. 1 team three times. This is the season to get-got, and the Tigers have a lot to play for, so they better be careful. It stands to reason that they’ve played all these elite teams close, and they are bound to get one.