Auburn wide receiver Sammie Coates (18) catches the ball for a touchdown against LSU defensive back Rashard Robinson (21) in their game on Oct. 4, 2014, in Auburn, Ala.With Oregon losing Thursday night and with Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and UCLA losing Saturday, the college football landscape was expected to have a different look this week.
Indeed it does.
While Florida State remained No. 1 in Sunday's Associated Press poll following its thumping of Wake Forest, a trio of Southeastern Conference West Division teams are next in line. Auburn, which nearly knocked off FSU this past January for the national championship, is a mere two votes behind the Seminoles in this week's balloting, with Magnolia State rivals Ole Miss and Mississippi State tied for third.
Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State are a combined 6-0 in SEC play after combining to go just 7-17 in league games two years ago. Gus Malzahn's Tigers won the SEC last season after going 7-1 within the league, but Ole Miss and Mississippi State were a combined 6-10.
"I have not heard one player or coach talk about being ranked," Malzahn said in a news conference Saturday night after Auburn held LSU to 0-for-13 on third-down opportunities in a 41-7 throttling. "We are focused. Our whole deal is at the end of the season. This was just the first game of the grind, and it will all sort out in the end."
This past week marked the first time in the history of the AP poll, which made its debut in 1936, that five of the top eight teams lost.
Auburn's grind consists of six league games in a seven-week stretch against LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Georgia. This week's game in Starkville was picked up Sunday by CBS and will have a 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
Mississippi State racked up 559 yards in Saturday's 48-31 defeat of visiting Texas A&M, which has resulted in the loftiest ranking in program history. The previous high for the Bulldogs was No. 7 in 1981.
Hours after MSU downed the Aggies, Ole Miss ended a 10-year losing streak against Alabama with a 23-17 upset in Oxford. The setback was the earliest in a season for the Crimson Tide since 2007, and it dropped them from No. 3 to No. 7 in the AP poll.
"We obviously have a lot of things to fix so that we can become the team we want to become," said Alabama coach Nick Saban, whose Tide have lost three straight games to ranked teams dating back to last year's Iron Bowl. "Every goal we have as a team is still in front of us, but we have to improve and we have to respond the right way to losing."
Alabama's loss Saturday may have been costlier from a personnel standpoint. The Crimson Tide lost linebacker Denzel Devall to a high-ankle sprain early in the first quarter, tailback Kenyan Drake to a broken leg in the second quarter and center Ryan Kelly to a sprained knee midway through the third quarter.
Devall and Kelly are starters, while Drake was averaging 5.1 yards per carry and had an 87-yard touchdown reception in the rout of Florida.
"That certainly affected what we wanted to do, especially Kenyan Drake, who's been an explosive player for us," Saban said in his news conference, "but there are opportunities now for other players."
Alabama will have to regroup quickly, as the Crimson Tide will visit Arkansas this week in a game that will be televised by ESPN at 6 p.m. It will be followed on the cable network by Ole Miss visiting Texas A&M at 9.
The lone SEC West team not playing a division foe this week is LSU, which is traveling to Florida, its permanent foe from the East. The seven SEC West teams are a combined 31-6 so far this season, with all six losses coming from within the division.
"The biggest game in your career comes up every week," Mississippi State offensive lineman Ben Beckwith told reporters Saturday. "I'm betting our crowd is going to be even louder next week, so it should be a good one."
Said Malzahn: "This is the best division in college football, and I think that's pretty clear."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.