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Week 3 in the SEC produced the Game of the Year so far, with Florida beating Tennessee on the final play. It also saw three teams off to unexpected 3-0 starts: Mississippi State, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
Here are some of the more interesting numbers to come out of Week 3 in the SEC.
Missouri: 0 touchdowns
For the first time under head coach Barry Odom, Missouri was held without a touchdown. The last time the Tigers failed to score a TD in a game was the final game of the 2015 season, which was the final game for Gary Pinkel at Missouri.
By the way, since scoring 72 points in its opener against Missouri State, Missouri has scored 16 points over its last two games.
Auburn: 5 turnovers
Despite a 300-yard passer and a 100-yard rusher, Auburn’s offense in Saturday’s win over Mercer had to be frustrating for Tigers fans. The reason being turnovers. Five of them.
Auburn became the first SEC team since South Carolina in 2014 to turn the ball over five or more times in a game and still win. It was the most turnovers by the Tigers since 2012 vs. Arkansas, when they also had five.
Florida/Tennessee: 96 fourth-quarter points
These two teams can sure put on a show when they meet. Unfortunately, fans must wait awhile for the scoring burst to actually happen.
Over the last four years, Florida and Tennessee have combined to score 96 points in the fourth quarters. That’s more than the points scored by the two teams in the first three quarters (90).
That trend remained true to form Saturday, as Florida outscored Tennessee in the fourth quarter 20-17.
Mississippi St/Vanderbilt/Kentucky: All 3-0
If anyone says they saw these three teams combining to start 9-0, feel free to say they are full of it.
Back in July, when the SEC media voted their preseason order of finish, the Wildcats and Commodores were picked 5th and 6th in the SEC East, while the Bulldogs were picked to finish 6th in the West.
Three weeks into this season, however, all three teams are off to 3-0 starts. Why is this such a big deal? Because the last time Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Kentucky all started 3-0 in the same season was 1911.
Texas A&M: Three 100-yard rushers
In Saturday’s 45-21 win over Louisiana Lafayette, freshman Jacob Kibodi became the third different Aggie to have a 100-yard rushing game this season. Kibodi (101 yards) joined Trayveon Williams and Keith Ford as A&M players to have 100 yards in a game this season.
The last time the Aggies had three different 100-yard rushers in the first four games of a season was 10 years ago (2007), when Stephen McGee, Mike Goodson and Jorvorskie Lane all topped the 100-yard mark.
Texas A&M was very close to having four 100-yard rushers this season, as sophomore Kendall Bussey ran for 97 yards against Nicholls State.
Shea Patterson: 1,281 passing yards
Despite the Rebels’ loss at California on Saturday, Shea Patterson continues to put up impressive numbers.
Patterson threw for 363 yards against the Golden Bears, his third straight 300-yard passing game. He is the first Ole Miss QB since Bo Wallace in 2014 to open a season with three straight 300-yard games.
Patterson also raised his season total to 1,281 passing yards. He is the 12th FBS player since 2000 (and the second this season, alongside UCLA’s Josh Rosen) to have at least 1,270 passing yards through three games.
What is interesting about this list is that eight of the 12 players come from three schools: Texas Tech, California and Washington State.
Jalen Hurts: 200-100 game
In Saturday’s win over Colorado State, Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts had his best game of the season, with 248 yards passing and 103 yards rushing. It was just his second career game with at least 200 yards passing and 100 rushing, the other time coming last November against Mississippi State.
Hurts also was responsible for three touchdowns (2 pass, 1 rush), each 25 yards or longer. In Alabama’s first two games, Hurts had two TDs of 25+ yards.
Kyle Shurmur: Another 200-yard game
In Vanderbilt’s 14-7 victory over Kansas State Saturday, quarterback Kyle Shurmur threw for 205 yards and a touchdown. Shurmur has thrown for 200 or more yards in all three games this season for the Commodores, and dating to last season, he has a streak of seven straight regular-season games with at least 200 yards passing.
The last Vanderbilt QB to have such a streak was Jay Cutler, who also had seven straight regular-season games with 200 yards passing in 2004-05.
Nick Fitzgerald: 4 TDs responsible for
In a game in which the Mississippi State defense dominated LSU, the Bulldogs’ star quarterback showed why he might be the best QB in the SEC.
Nick Fitzgerald threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more in the 37-7 victory over the Tigers. The four TDs responsible for by Fitzgerald were double his total from last season in three games vs. ranked opponents.
Fitzgerald also ran for 88 yards on just 14 carries. Last year in three games against ranked opponents, Fitzgerald had 89 rushing yards on 41 carries.
Kentucky: 57 rushing YPG allowed
Kentucky has the best rush defense in the SEC, and third-best in the FBS. Let that sink in for a second.
Yes, I know, the season is only three games old. And the Wildcats haven’t exactly played the nation’s elite so far. But two of the wins in their 3-0 start have come on the road, including Saturday’s 23-13 victory at South Carolina.
The Wildcats are holding opponents to 57.0 rushing yards per game. Nationally, only Duke and Utah have done better. Kentucky has also held each of its three opponents under 70 yards on the ground. The last time they did that was 2008.
And we’re also talking about a team that, in each of the previous four seasons, has finished exactly 12th in the SEC in rushing defense.
Michael covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.
