It was a rough first season in the SEC for the Oklahoma Sooners, but Brent Venables at least kept OU from the bottom and has the program trending in the right direction.
As every outlet tries to predict which teams could be good enough to make a run for a conference title or to the College Football Playoff, this is a different ook at what teams in the SEC have no chance at all even before the season kicks off.
And to make things easier on Sooner Nation to read on, the Sooners are at least not included with these bottom dwellers, who were all among the bottom four of our recent SEC power rankings.
Oklahoma Sooners at least not near bottom of SEC, but who is?
Kentucky Wildcats
The best thing going for Mark Stoops is that he probably won't have to endure the entire miserable season that's ahead for the Kentucky Wildcats, because he'll likely get fired before the season is even over. The Wildcats were second-to-last in the SEC last year while going 4-8 overall and will still have an offensive line that will get manhandled throughout SEC play.
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Another former OU coach whose life has been harder since leaving Norman, Jeff Lebby's program went 2-10 and didn't win a single conference game in his first season as head coach. Needing to rebuild, the Bulldogs then lost 32 players to the transfer portal, more than any other SEC program this offseason.
Vanderbilt Commodores
No matter what Vanderbilt accomplished last season, the bottom is home for the Commodores. It will take a lot more than one upset over Alabama for anyone to start believing Vanderbilt has any chance to compete for any sort of title in 2025 or beyond.
Auburn Tigers
The Auburn Tigers went 5-7 last season and 2-6 in SEC play, including a home loss to the Sooners, who had a freshman quarterback making his first career start. To improve from that, Hugh Freeze went and got quarterback Jackson Arnold, who was on the bench behind that freshman for OU during that loss for Auburn. They say if you can't beat them to join them, but Arnold also couldn't beat out the guy in front of him.
Of the bottom dwellers on this list, Auburn is the only one the Sooners get the pleasure of playing this season in their SEC home opener.
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