SEC Football by the Numbers: Top 10 for Week 1
The first full week of the SEC’s 91st season features 14 non-conference contests. Florida and Missouri got an early start on Thursday night, with the Gators losing to Utah 24-11 and the Tigers topping South Dakota 35-10. Here are 10 numbers, along with the schedule, TV and betting lines, to get ready for the SEC’s first full weekend of 2023:
0 Victories in 61 games against NCAA FBS opponents for Western Carolina since Division I football divided into I-A and I-AA after the 1977 season. The Catamounts play Arkansas on Saturday. NCAA FCS teams have scored six victories in 280 games against SEC opponents since the split. The FCS winners have been The Citadel, which beat Arkansas in 1992 and South Carolina in 2015; Maine, which beat Mississippi State in 2004; Jacksonville State, which beat Ole Miss in 2010; Georgia Southern, which beat Florida in 2013; and East Tennessee State, which beat Vanderbilt in 2021. Four other SEC teams are playing NCAA FCS opponents on Saturday, with UT Martin at Georgia, Mercer at Ole Miss, Southeastern Louisiana at Mississippi State and Alabama A&M at Vanderbilt.
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2 Games in a row at Camping World Stadium for LSU and Florida State, which square off there on Sunday night. LSU ended the 2022 season with a 63-7 victory over Purdue in the Citrus Bowl and Florida State closed the 2022 campaign with a 35-32 victory over Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl. The games were played in Camping World Stadium four days apart.
4 NCAA FBS head coaches have been at their jobs longer than Alabama’s Nick Saban, including Middle Tennessee’s Rick Stockstill, who is beginning his 18th season guiding the Blue Raiders. Saban and Stockstill will be on opposite sidelines on Saturday when Middle Tennessee visits Alabama. Kirk Ferentz is in his 25th season at Iowa, Kyle Whittingham his 19th at Utah and Mike Gundy his 19th at Oklahoma State. This is Saban’s 17th season with the Crimson Tide.
4 Active NCAA FBS players have at least 5,500 passing yards and 1,700 rushing yards in their careers, including LSU QB Jayden Daniels and Florida State QB Jordan Travis. The Tigers and Seminoles meet on Sunday night. Daniels has 8,938 passing yards and 2,173 rushing yards. Travis has 5,959 passing yards and 1,774 rushing yards. The other players are UTSA QB Frank Harris, who has 9,356 passing yards and 1,822 rushing yards, and Ole Miss QB Spencer Sanders, who had 9,553 passing yards and 1,956 rushing yards over the previous four seasons at Oklahoma State.
6 Consecutive Auburn coaches have won their first season-opening game with the Tigers. Hugh Freeze will try to continue that streak on Saturday against Massachusetts. The most recent Auburn coach to lose in his first season-opening game was Doug Barfield, whose Tigers lost at Arizona 31-19 on Sept. 11, 1976. The intervening six Auburn full-time coaches began their tenures with victories. Pat Dye defeated TCU 24-16 in his first game in 1981, Terry Bowden defeated Ole Miss 16-12 in 1993, Tommy Tuberville defeated Appalachian State 22-15 in 1999, Gene Chizik defeated Louisiana Tech 37-13 in 2009, Gus Malzahn defeated Washington State 31-24 in 2013 and Bryan Harsin defeated Akron 60-10 in 2021.
10 Non-conference games, including two bowls, for Tennessee under coach Josh Heupel. The Volunteers won all of them and scored at least 31 points in each. Tennessee kicks off the 2023 season against Virginia on Saturday.
42 Consecutive non-conference opponents have been defeated by Alabama in Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Crimson Tide’s most recent loss to a non-conference opponent at home is a 21-14 defeat by Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 17, 2007. Alabama has the nation’s longest such active streak, with Oregon next at 30 in a row. Alabama’s home winning streak against non-conference opponents is the third-longest in SEC history. LSU won 49 in a row between a 13-10 loss to UAB on Sept. 23, 2000, and a 24-21 loss to Troy on Sept. 30, 2017. Tennessee won 44 in a row between a 14-6 loss to Chattanooga on Nov. 8, 1958, and a 17-17 tie with UCLA on Sept. 7, 1974. Alabama will seek to extend its streak on Saturday against Middle Tennessee.
99 Victories for Mack Brown at North Carolina heading into the Tar Heels’ game against South Carolina on Saturday. Another victory will make Brown the first coach with at least 100 victories at two major-college programs. Entering his 15th season at UNC, Brown has a 99-68-1 record with the Tar Heels. He posted a 158-48 record at Texas from 1998 through 2013. Brown coached North Carolina in the 10 seasons before going to Texas, and he returned to the Tar Heels in 2019 after five seasons out of coaching.
112 Years since Ole Miss and Mercer squared off in football, which they will do again on Saturday. The Rebels beat the Bears 34-0 on Nov. 4, 1911, in Macon, Georgia, in their previous meeting. Mercer already had played future SEC members Auburn, Georgia Tech and Georgia in 1911 by the time Ole Miss appeared on the schedule. Saturday’s game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford will be Mercer’s first in Mississippi since the Bears lost 27-19 at Mississippi College on Nov. 8, 1941.
250 September games for Auburn when the Tigers take the field against Massachusetts on Saturday. Auburn has a 184-60-5 record in the ninth month. The Tigers are 118-23-1 at home in September.
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This week’s SEC schedule includes (all times are CDT with point spreads from Catena):
Thursday
· Utah 24, Florida 11
· Missouri 35, South Dakota 10
Saturday
· Virginia at No. 12 Tennessee, 11 a.m. at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee (ABC). Line: Tennessee by 28.
· Ball State at Kentucky, 11 a.m. at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky (SEC Network). Line: Kentucky by 26.5.
· Western Carolina at Arkansas, Noon at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas (ESPN+). Line: Arkansas by 34.5.
· Mercer at No. 22 Ole Miss, 1 p.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi (ESPN+). Line: None.
· Massachusetts at Auburn, 2:30 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn (ESPN). Line: Auburn by 35.
· Southeastern Louisiana at Mississippi State, 3 p.m. at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi (SEC Network). Line: None.
· UT Martin at No. 1 Georgia, 5 p.m. at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia (ESPN+). Line: None.
· New Mexico at No. 23 Texas A&M, 6 p.m. at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas (ESPN). Line: Texas A&M by 39.
· Alabama A&M at Vanderbilt, 6 p.m. at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee (ESPN+). Line: None.
· Middle Tennessee at Alabama, 6:30 p.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa (SEC Network). Line: Alabama by 39.
· No. 21 North Carolina vs. South Carolina, 6:30 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina (ABC). Line: North Carolina by 2.5.
Sunday
· No. 5 LSU vs. No. 8 Florida State, 6:30 p.m. at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida (ABC). Line: LSU by 2.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.