Blown calls, water bottles, lots of points. Just another wild SEC football Saturday.
Quick roundup of notes and links form Saturday’s crazy SEC football games:
Alabama 63, Ole Miss 48: The two teams combined for a stunning 1,370 yards of total offense. Alabama gained 723 yards. Ole Miss gained 647 yards. Nick Saban’s defense couldn’t stop Lane Kiffin’s offense. Lane Kiffin’s defense couldn’t top Nick Saban’s offense. The final score read like a basketball score.
Alabama improved to 3-0 as quarterback Mac Jones completed 28 of 32 passes for 417 yards and two touchdowns. Najee Harris rushed for 203 yards and five — count ‘em, five — scores. Bama wideout DeVonta Smith caught 13 balls for 164 yards. Over on the Ole Miss side, quarterback Matt Corral hit on 21 of 28 passes for 365 yards and two touchdowns. The Rebels, now 1-2, had two backs rush for over 100 yards — Snoop Conner with 127, Jerrion Ealy with 120. And still lost.
“It seemed like everything we did though they had an answer for,” Saban said afterward. “I don’t know if they had our signals or what. That’s not anything unusual. It seemed like every time we called something, they had the best play that they could have against it.”
Georgia 44, Tennessee 21: The Bulldogs trailed 21-17 at the half before blitzing the Vols 27-0 over the final two quarters in Athens. Not even Coach Jeremy Pruitt’s upside-down face covering could save the Vols, who rushed for a net -1 yards on 27 carries. Meanwhile, Georgia rushed for 193 yards on 50 attempts.
Quarterback Stetson Bennett was steady as she goes for the Dawgs, now 3-0. Bennett hit on 16 of 27 passes for 237 yards and two scores. With no running game to speak of, UT quarterback Jarrett Guarantano completed 23 of 36 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.
One incident in the victory did not sit well with Georgia Coach Kirby Smart. While standing on the sideline, Georgia wide receiver George Pickens squirted water from his water bottle at Guarantano when the Vols signal-caller tumbled out of bounds on the UGA sidelines.
“When somebody comes out of bounds and you squirt water at them, what are we? Are we 7 and 8 years old?” Smart said. “I mean come on, let’s play football. Let’s don’t be silly.”
This Saturday brings us the Georgia-Alabama showdown in Tuscaloosa. It will be an 8 p.m. kickoff on CBS between the conference’s two remaining unbeaten teams.
Missouri 45, LSU 41: One thing we have learned through three weeks of this SEC football season is that LSU cannot stop anybody besides Vanderbilt. The Tigers allowed 44 points to Mississippi State — MSU has scored 16 points in two games since — while losing their season opener, then surrendered 45 points to Missouri on Saturday in Columbia, in a game that was supposed to be played in Baton Rouge before the site was flipped because of Hurricane Delta.
Bo Pelini’s LSU defense gave up 586 yards Saturday and made Missouri quarterback Connor Bazelak look like a Heisman Trophy contender. The freshman completed 29 of 34 passes for 406 yards and four touchdowns without an interception as Eli Drinkwitz registered his first victory as Mizzou’s head coach.
Larry Rountree rushed for 109 yards for Missouri’s Tigers, now 1-2. LSU’s Tigers, also 1-2, saw Terrace Marshall catch 11 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns and still lose.
“It showed today that our guys play with unbelievable effort,” Drinkwitz said. “We just needed a few breaks. And you know what? We didn’t get that many breaks today. But we made our own breaks when we needed it. Proud of our football team.”
Texas A&M 41, Florida 38: Jimbo Fisher finally earned that first big win Aggies fans have been looking for since the head coach was hired away from Florida State. Seth Small’s 26-yard field goal on the final play won it for A&M, which capitalized on a Malik Davis fumble with 3:40 remaining to improve to 2-1. Florida fell to 2-1.
Aggies quarterback Kellen Mond was 25-of-35 for 338 passing yards and three touchdowns. Isaiah Spiller rushed for 174 yards on 27 carries for the winners. Florida quarterback Kyle Trask threw for 312 yards and four scores, completing 23 of 32 passes, but the Gators were let down by their struggling defense.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, the 100 points allowed by Florida in its first three games is the most in a three-game span since 1917.
Kentucky 24, Mississippi State 2: After a spectacular start, Mike Leach has found that life isn’t that easy in the SEC, after all. His Mississippi State Bulldogs upset LSU 44-34 in Baton Rouge on the opening Saturday, but the “Air Raid” offense has generated little since, losing 21-14 at home to Arkansas and then on the road at Kentucky on Saturday. Leach’s quarterbacks threw six interceptions in Lexington. It was also the first time Leach has been held without a touchdown as a head coach.
Kentucky’s defense rebounded nicely after giving up 35 points in regulation and 42 overall in last Saturday’s loss to Ole Miss. Defensive lineman Josh Paschal returned an interception 76 yards to set up one score on Saturday. Linebacker Jordan Wright returned another pick 8 yards for a score as UK improved to 1-2.
“I think we’re going to have to check some of our group and figure out who really wants to play here,” Leach said afterward. “Any malcontents, we’re going to have to purge a couple of those.”
Sounds like the head pirate is ready to toss some Bulldogs overboard.
[Kentucky dedicates first win to Chris Oats]
Auburn 30, Arkansas 28: A late-game officiating error allowed the Tigers to beat the Razorbacks in the rain in Auburn. On third-and-1 at the Arkansas 19-yard line with 20 seconds left, Auburn quarterback Bo Nix spiked the ball to set up a go-ahead field goal try. But after having trouble taking the snap, Nix spiked the ball facing backward. Instead of a fumble, the official review ruled the play an intentional grounding penalty allowing Auburn to keep possession. The Tigers’ Anders Carlson kicked a 39-yard field goal for the victory.
“They just said it was a fumble, a backward pass, but they blew the whistle before we recovered the ball so they couldn’t review it, I guess,” said Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman, after his team fell to 1-2. “That’s the explanation I got.”
Actually, the play was reviewed. But according to the SEC, because there was no clear recovery, the fumble could not be awarded to Arkansas.
Now 2-1, Auburn got a huge game from freshman running back Tank Bigsby, who rushed for 146 yards on 20 carries. Arkansas quarterback Feleipe Franks threw for four touchdowns, completing 22 of 30 passes for 318 yards.
South Carolina 41, Vanderbilt 7: Feeling down and out in the SEC? Vanderbilt will fix whatever ails you. South Carolina picked up its first victory of the season by running all over the poor Commodores in rainy Nashville. Will Muschamp’s team rushed for 289 yards, with Kevin Harris leading the way thanks to 171 yards on 21 carries.
Vanderbilt managed just 249 yards of total offense in dropping to 0-3. It was the second straight 41-7 loss for the ‘Dores, who lost to LSU by the same score a week ago. Positive COVID-19 tests have put a huge dent in Coach Derek Mason’s roster. He had just 56 scholarship players available Saturday.
“It’s along the lines of injuries. We all know what happens with contact tracing, we all understand what happens with COVID,” Mason said. “It’s everything above. We’re playing football in a pandemic.”
Saturday’s SEC football schedule
- 12:00 - Auburn at South Carolina (ESPN)
- 12:00 - Kentucky at Tennessee (SEC)
- 3:30 - LSU at Florida (ESPN)
- 3:30 - Ole Miss at Arkansas (ESPN2)
- 4:00 - Texas A&M at Mississippi State (SEC)
- 7:30 - Vanderbilt at Missouri (SEC)
- 8:00 - Georgia at Alabama (CBS)
This story was originally published October 11, 2020 at 11:08 AM.
