SEC Football by the Numbers: Top 10 from Week 13
During the 13th week of the SEC’s 2023 season, Ole Miss defeated Mississippi State 17-7 on Thursday, Missouri defeated Arkansas 48-14 on Friday and Alabama defeated Auburn 27-24, LSU defeated Texas A&M 42-30 and Tennessee defeated Vanderbilt 48-24 on Saturday in conference contests, and Georgia defeated Georgia Tech 31-23, Florida lost to Florida State 24-15, Kentucky defeated Louisville 38-31 and South Carolina lost to Clemson 16-7 on Saturday in non-conference games. Here are 10 numbers about the SEC’s Week 13 games:
2 Alabama players have produced at least 250 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in the same game, with QB Jalen Milroe joining the list by completing 16-of-24 passes for 259 yards with two TDs and no interceptions and running for 107 yards on 18 carries in a 27-24 victory over Auburn on Saturday. Alabama QB Jalen Hurts had 347 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in a 51-3 victory over Mississippi State on Nov. 12, 2016.
2 SEC players have rushed for at least 1,000 yards and 15 TDs as freshmen and as sophomores, with Ole Miss RB Quinshon Judkins joining the list by running for 119 yards and one TD on 28 carries in a 17-7 victory over Mississippi State on Thursday. Judkins has 1,052 rushing yards and 15 rushing TDs in 2023 after running for 1,567 yards and 16 TDs in 2022. Georgia RB Herschel Walker ran for 1,616 yards and 15 TDs in 1980 and 1,891 yards and 18 TDs in 1981.
4 Sacks, two incompletions and one interception on the final seven snaps for Florida’s offense in a 24-15 loss to Florida State on Saturday. The Seminoles had the football for 10:40 in the fourth quarter, when they outscored the Gators 10-0. Regular QB Graham Mertz could not play because of an injury, and Max Brown made his first start for Florida on Saturday. Brown completed 9-of-16 passes for 86 yards with no TDs and one interception and was sacked six times.
5 Consecutive 100-yard rushing games for Missouri RB Cody Schrader after he had 217 yards and one TD on 27 carries in a 48-14 victory over Arkansas on Friday. Schrader ran for 159 yards in a 34-12 victory over South Carolina on Oct. 21, 112 yards in a 30-21 loss to Georgia on Nov. 4, 205 yards in a 36-7 victory over Tennessee on Nov. 11 and 148 yards in a 33-31 victory over Florida on Nov. 18. Schrader leads the SEC with 1,499 rushing yards and eight 100-yard games this season. Schrader has two of the four 200-yard rushing games by an SEC player this season.
5 Fumbles were lost by Arkansas in the Razorbacks’ 48-14 loss to Missouri on Friday. Missouri DL Jayden Jernigan returned one of the fumbles 10 yards for a TD. Before Jernigan’s score, the Tigers totaled 17 points after starting possessions on the Arkansas 47-, 38- and 11-yard lines following Razorbacks’ fumbles. Arkansas also lost a fumble on the next-to-last snap of the game.
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21 Tackles were recorded by Mississippi State LB Nathaniel Watson in each of the Bulldogs’ past two games – a 41-20 victory over Southern Miss on Nov. 18 and a 17-7 loss to Ole Miss on Thursday. Nationally, there have been six games this season in which one player recorded more than 19 tackles. Eastern Michigan LB Chase Kline also has two of those games.
29 Consecutive victories for Georgia, the longest winning streak in SEC history. The Bulldogs took sole possession of the record by defeating Georgia Tech 31-23 on Saturday. Georgia’s most recent loss was a 41-24 setback against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 4, 2021. The former league record of 28 wins in a row was established by Alabama during the 1978, 1979 and 1980 seasons and equaled by the Crimson Tide during the 1991, 1992 and 1993 seasons. The 29-game winning streak is tied for 12th-longest in major-college football history. Saturday’s win also was Georgia’s 39th consecutive regular-season victory, tied for the second-longest such streak in major-college football history. The Bulldogs haven’t lost in the regular season since a 44-28 setback against Florida on Nov. 7, 2020. The longest regular-season winning streak in major-college football history is 45 games by Oklahoma between a 7-7 tie with Pittsburgh on Oct. 3, 1953, and a 7-0 setback against Notre Dame on Nov. 16, 1957. The only other regular-season winning streak as long as Georgia’s is a 39-game run by Miami (Fla.) from 2000 into 2003.
32 Seconds remained when Alabama QB Jalen Milroe connected with WR Isaiah Bond for a 31-yard TD pass that lifted the Crimson Tide to a 27-24 victory over Auburn on Saturday. The completion was the latest touchdown scored by Alabama while trailing to win a non-overtime game since QB John Parker Wilson threw 4 yards to WR Matt Caddell with eight seconds left in a 41-38 victory over Arkansas on Sept. 15, 2007. The Tide has had later touchdowns, but Jalen Hurts’ 26-yard pass to DeVonta Smith with 25 seconds left broke a tie in a 31-24 victory over Mississippi State in 2017 and Bryce Young’s 28-yard pass to Ja’Corey Brooks with 24 seconds left tied the game against Auburn before Alabama won 24-22 in four overtimes in 2021. The Milroe-to-Bond pass came on a fourth-and-goal snap after the Tide had converted on fourth-and-1 in the series. That gave Alabama two fourth-down conversions in a span of five snaps after they had only one in the previous 11 games this season. In a 34-24 loss to Texas on Sept. 9, Milroe had a 6-yard completion on a fourth-and-3 snap at the Longhorns 42-yard line in the first quarter. Only one team in the nation has fewer fourth-down conversions than Alabama in 2023. Kentucky is 2-of-10 when going for it on fourth down this season.
37 Yards on a TD run by Kentucky RB Ray Davis with 1:02 to play to lift the Wildcats to a 38-31 victory over Louisville on Saturday. The play not only provided Kentucky’s winning points, it also made Davis the first player in school history to score 20 TDs in a season. Davis also caught a pair of 20-yard TD passes in the second half against Louisville to lift his output in 2023 to 13 rushing and seven receiving TDs. He surpassed the Kentucky single-season record of 19 TDs established by RB Benny Snell Jr. in 2017. Davis also surpassed Snell’s single-season record of 116 points by reaching 120 in 2023.
41 Yards had been the longest field goal in Clemson K Jonathan Weitz’s college career before Saturday. In the Tigers’ 16-7 victory over South Carolina, Weitz connected for field goals of 50, 49 and 42 yards for the final nine points of the game as Clemson defeated the Gamecocks without scoring an offensive TD. The Tigers scored on a 42-yard fumble return by S Khalil Barnes on the second snap of the game. Saturday’s game was the first in which Clemson’s offense failed to reach the end zone against South Carolina since the Gamecocks’ 13-9 victory in 1979.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.