SEC Football by the Numbers: Top 10 for Week 5

SEC Football by the Numbers: Top 10 for Week 5

The fifth Saturday of the SEC’s 91st season features seven conference contests with every team engaged in league play. Here are 10 numbers, along with the schedule, TV and betting lines, to get ready for Week 5:

1 Major-college football rivalry will have been contested more than Auburn and Georgia after the Tigers and Bulldogs square off on Saturday for the 128th time. Minnesota and Wisconsin have met 132 times. North Carolina and Virginia will square off for the 128th time on Oct. 21. Georgia leads the series with Auburn 63-56-8 and has an 18-12-2 record in Auburn.

1 Touchdown is needed for Arkansas QB KJ Jefferson to become the Razorbacks’ sole record-holder for touchdown responsibility. Jefferson has 57 passing TDs and 20 rushing TDs, tying the school record of 77 TDs established by QB Matt Jones with 53 passing TDs and 24 rushing TDs from 2001 through 2004.

4 Consecutive games against Georgia have included fewer than 100 rushing yards for Auburn. The Tigers had 84 rushing yards in a 21-14 loss in 2019, 39 in a 27-6 loss in 2020, 46 in a 34-10 loss in 2021 and 93 in a 42-10 loss in 2022. No other opponent has held the Tigers to fewer than 100 rushing yards in four consecutive games in this century. Auburn has an 0-8 record since 2000 against Georgia when it fails to reach 100 rushing yards.

11 Consecutive Mississippi State coaches have lost in their first meeting with Alabama. Zach Arnett will lead Mississippi State against Alabama for the first time on Saturday. The most recent MSU coach to win in his initial outing against the Crimson Tide was Darrell Royal in 1954, when the Bulldogs topped Alabama 12-7. In the 11 first-meeting games since, the Bulldogs scored more than seven points only twice, with a high of 14. Six of the new coaches were shut out in their first game against Alabama, including the past two.

12 Years since Vanderbilt has not lost its first two SEC games. In 2011, the Commodores opened their conference campaign by beating Ole Miss 30-7. In every season since, Vanderbilt has lost at least its first two league games. The Commodores opened their 2023 SEC schedule last week with a 45-28 loss to Kentucky and host Missouri on Saturday. The Tigers comes to Nashville trying to break a losing streak of their own. Eight consecutive seasons have included a loss for Missouri in their first SEC road game. The Tigers haven’t won their first SEC road game in a season since 2014, when Missouri won 21-20 at South Carolina.

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15 Consecutive winners of the Auburn-Georgia game have had at least as many rushing attempts as the loser. In 2008, the Tigers had 36 rushing attempts, but lost 17-13 to the Bulldogs, who had 33. In the 15 games since, the winning team has had the most rushing attempts 13 times and the teams had the same number of rushing attempts in the 2009 and 2019 games. This season, Auburn has averaged 41.5 rushing attempts per game and Georgia has averaged 34.5.

16 Sacks have been recorded by the Tennessee defense this season, the most in the SEC. South Carolina has allowed 17 sacks, the most in the SEC. The Volunteers and the Gamecocks play on Saturday.

22 Consecutive Alabama-Mississippi State games have featured points in the second quarter for the Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs haven’t shut out Alabama in the second period since MSU’s 29-7 victory in 2000. Since then, the Tide has outscored the Bulldogs 226-57 in the second quarter.

72 Years since Kentucky won three games in a row against Florida. The Wildcats defeated the Gators 20-13 in 2021 and 26-16 in 2022, and teams square off again on Saturday. Kentucky hasn’t beaten Florida three games in a row since it posted a four-game winning streak in the series from 1948 through 1951. But the Wildcats did lose 31 games in a row to the Gators from 1987 through 2017.

75 Years since a non-interim Auburn coach lost his first two conference games. In 1948, Earl Brown’s Tigers lost to Florida 16-9 on Oct. 9 in Tampa and 27-0 to Georgia Tech on Oct. 16 in Atlanta in the coach’s first two conference contests. Auburn enters its Saturday game against Georgia with an 0-1 SEC record in 2023, its first season under Hugh Freeze, after falling to Texas A&M 27-10 last week. Between Brown and Freeze, Ralph “Shug” Jordan, Doug Barfield, Pat Dye, Terry Bowden, Tommy Tuberville, Gene Chizik, Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin each won at last one of his first two league games at Auburn.

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This week’s SEC schedule includes (all times are CDT with point spreads from Catena):

Saturday

· No. 22 Florida (3-1, 1-0) at Kentucky (4-0, 1-0), 11 a.m. at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky (ESPN). Line: Kentucky by 1.

· Texas A&M (3-1, 1-0) vs. Arkansas (2-2, 0-1), 11 a.m. at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (SEC Network). Line: Texas A&M by 6.

· No. 1 Georgia (4-0, 1-0) at Auburn (3-1, 0-1), 2:30 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn (CBS). Line: Georgia by 14.5.

· No. 23 Missouri (4-0, 0-0) at Vanderbilt (2-3, 0-1), 3 p.m. at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee (SEC Network). Line: Missouri by 13.5.

· No. 13 LSU (3-1, 2-0) at No. 20 Ole Miss (3-1, 0-1), 5 p.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi (ESPN). Line: LSU by 2.5.

· South Carolina (2-2, 1-1) at No. 21 Tennessee (3-1, 0-1), 6:30 p.m. at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee (SEC Network). Line: Tennessee by 11.5.

· No. 12 Alabama (3-1, 1-0) at Mississippi State (2-2, 0-2), 8 p.m. at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi (ESPN). Line: Alabama by 14.5.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.