The Southeastern Conference once again has five teams ranked in the top-25 polls entering week nine of the college football season. The Rebels joined No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Alabama, No. 9 LSU and No. 22 South Carolina in the BCS standings with a No. 25 ranking, following a 30-17 victory Oct. 24 against Arkansas.  RIVALRY TIMEThe fierce rivalry between Florida and Georgia has come to head recently as the teams swapped wins in Jacksonville, Fla., the last two seasons. The Gators piled on the points last season, winning 49-10, after the Bulldogs fueled the rivalry in 2007 when the whole team ran on the field following Georgia’s first touchdown of the game. Now that Florida (7-0, 5-0) reigns supreme in the SEC East, Georgia (4-3, 3-2) needs to beat the Gators to stay alive in the division race. But Florida’s offense isn’t as explosive as it was last season. The Gators still lead the SEC in scoring offense (35.3 points per game) and total offense (457 yards per game), but Florida has only scored 40 or more points against SEC opponents once this season, compared to the five times the team scored 40 or more points against SEC opponents last season. “Last year, I think teams scored a lot of points,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said in a teleconference. “We scored 611 points in a season, which I’m not sure that’s been done before. This year, obviously that’s not going to happen.”Florida senior quarterback Tim Tebow’s numbers have failed in comparison to the numbers he put up during his sophomore and junior seasons. Tebow ran for 23 touchdowns and threw 32 touchdowns with only six interceptions during his Heisman-winning sophomore season. But this season, Tebow has run for six touchdowns and has thrown eight touchdowns and four interceptions.Georgia coach Mark Richt said Florida is undefeated no matter what statistics its offense has put up, and that is what matters. “I don’t know if they’ve had to feel like they need to take a lot of chances downfield,” Richt said. “Whatever strategy they are using right now is working extremely well.” RISING IN THE EASTAnother pair of SEC East rivals will meet Saturday night when South Carolina travels to Knoxville, Tenn.After last week’s victory against Vanderbilt, South Carolina (6-2, 3-2) is enjoying its best start since 2007 when the Gamecocks started the season 6-1 before losing the last five games to finish with a 6-6 record. Tennessee (3-4, 1-3), on the other hand, is coming off its second close loss on the road to a top-10 SEC opponent. Tennessee junior kicker Daniel Lincoln’s 44-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Alabama senior defensive lineman Terrence Cody as time expired to give Alabama the 12-10 victory last week.But Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin thinks his team, which hasn’t lost a game this season by more than 10 points, has played well in the last few games, especially on defense. “We played Georgia, and we played Alabama and haven’t given up a touchdown,” Kiffin said. “We have only allowed both teams combined to enter the red zone one time.”The Volunteer defense hasn’t allowed a single opponent to score more than 26 points the whole season. Furthermore, Tennessee has only allowed 1888 total yards and seven touchdowns this season, which are both second-best in the SEC behind Florida. “They seem to always be in position,” said South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. “They’re a well-coached bunch of guys that seem to really understand their     assignments very well.”  STAYING ALIVE IN THE WESTWeek nine’s matchup between Ole Miss and Auburn is a must-win game for each team to stay alive in the SEC West race. The Rebels need to slow down Auburn senior running back Ben Tate, who averages 115.4 rushing yards per game. The Tiger offense averages 430.9 yards per game, No. 2 in the SEC. “We know how fast they came out of the gate,” Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said. “We’re going against a good Auburn team.”The Rebels will be led by junior quarterback Jevan Snead, who has thrown for a combined 572 yards and five touchdowns in the last two games. “I really think he’s come on and is really making good decisions for us,” Nutt said. “Early on with a brand new line to break in, I think there were some times where he felt like he had to make a play, and he forced some things, and interceptions mounted up.”—-Contact Jarred LeBlanc at [email protected]