AUBURN | Tennessee is 5-0 in the SEC and recently moved up to No. 1 in the AP Poll. No. 25 LSU is also undefeated in the SEC while No. 8 Kentucky, No. 20 Ole Miss and South Carolina are all 4-1.
Auburn, which is 2-2 in the conference and fell to No. 16 in the rankings after Saturday’s loss to the Wildcats, faces a challenging week if they’re going to stay in the race for the SEC Championship with road games at South Carolina and No. 22 Mississippi State.
“If we want to keep pace for a championship, we’ve got work to do this week,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “We’ve got to get back into it and go to a couple of places where hardly anybody’s going to win. South Carolina is not going to lose a lot of home games in the SEC at South Carolina, and Mississippi State’s not going to lose many.
“So if you can get those, yea, you better believe we’re now where we helped our chances of staying in range of a championship.”
Pearl has repeatedly said the Volunteers are by far the best team in the SEC at this time. But he also believes his Auburn team can be better than the one that finished 26-8 and won the school’s third-ever SEC regular season championship.
“I think the image is every time I watch film of last year is I realize that we have a chance to be a better team than we were last year,” Pearl said. “Now, our record probably won’t be the same because the league is better and even more competitive. We’ve got a chance to be better, we do. That said, we could lose every game we play the rest of the way, we can win them all, I don’t know where it’s going to go, that’s why you kind of play them out.”
The Tigers began conference play with a loss at Ole Miss before beating Georgia at home and Texas A&M on the road. Saturday’s loss to Kentucky was just the second home defeat in the last two seasons.
“I give my team credit for being able to bounce back after a loss to Ole Miss. Now we’re faced with trying to bounce back with two road games,” Pearl said. “We open up with four out of the six games on the road, and one of the home games is Kentucky.
“It’s a challenging schedule, but I think if you look at the league and you look at six teams, now, ranked in the Top 25 in the country, I think it just speaks volumes about the grind and how important it is to keep your locker room.”
The Gamecocks were 5-7 in non-conference play before starting 4-0 in the conference with wins over Florida, MSU, Missouri and Vanderbilt. South Carolina lost at LSU Saturday.
Mississippi State started SEC play with losses to South Carolina and Ole Miss before reeling off two-straight wins against Florida and Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs play at Kentucky Tuesday night.
Tip-off at Colonial Life Arena is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network. Saturday’s game against MSU will be 7:30 p.m. on SEC Network.
