SEC top 10 from Week 3: MAC and Sun Belt return to action

Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M opened their league schedules with wins in Week 3 of the 92nd SEC Football Season on Saturday. The SEC improved to 10-2 in non-conference play in Week 3, including a win over ranked Missouri, to give the SEC a 34-8 mark in 2024. Here are 10 stats from SEC Football by the Numbers for Week 3:

0 Offensive TDs have been allowed by Georgia, Ole Miss, and Tennessee defenses during the 2024 season. The Bulldogs defeated Clemson, Tennessee Tech, and Kentucky 95-18 while allowing six field goals. The Rebels defeated Furman, Middle Tennessee, and Wake Forest 168-9 while allowing three field goals. The Volunteers defeated Chattanooga, North Carolina State, and Kent State 191-13 while allowing two field goals. (NC State scored a TD on an 87-yard interception return.) Tennessee’s 178-point lead is the largest through three games in SEC history.

1 Alabama player has passed for at least three touchdowns and run for at least two touchdowns in the same game — QB Jalen Milroe did so for the fourth time in the Crimson Tide’s last 17 games in Saturday’s 42-10 victory over Wisconsin. Milroe had three TD passes and two TD runs against the Badgers, just as he did in the 63-0 season-opening victory over Western Kentucky on Aug. 31 and in the 56-7 victory in the 2023 season opener against Middle Tennessee. In Alabama’s 49-21 victory over Kentucky on Nov. 11, Milroe had three TD passes and three TD runs. Milroe is responsible for more points than any other player in the country this season with 84 with eight TD passes and six TD runs in three games.

1 The opponent has held Georgia to fewer than 24 points in the Bulldogs-Kentucky last 46 games. Georgia beat the Wildcats 13-12 on Saturday, snapping the longest active streak of scoring at least 24 points in 20 games. The Bulldogs last game without scoring at least 24 points was a 16-6 win over Kentucky on Nov. 19, 2022. The 262 yards allowed by the Georgia offense on Saturday were the fewest by the Bulldogs since 260 in a 19-13 victory over Texas A&M on Nov. 23, 2019.

1 The fumble was recovered by Ole Miss during their 40-6 victory over Wake Forest on Sunday. The fumble, which ended the Rebels’ second series of the game, was the first by Ole Miss since the first quarter of the 2023 season opener against Mercer. The Rebels have recovered all 10 of their fumbles between the two games.

4 Auburn QB Hank Brown threw TD passes in the Tigers’ 45-19 victory over New Mexico on Saturday in the first start of his career. The redshirt freshman completed 17 of 25 passes for 235 yards with four TDs and no interceptions, becoming the first Auburn QB with four TD passes in his first start since Jeremy Johnson had four in a 62-3 victory over Western Carolina on Oct. 12, 2013.

5 The TDs were produced by Texas QB Arch Manning in the Longhorns’ 56-7 victory over UTSA on Saturday. As a freshman, Manning became the first Texas freshman with five TDs in a game since Colt McCoy in a 63-31 victory over Baylor on October 14, 2006. Manning entered the game having completed 7 of 11 passes for 125 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions and rushing for 7 yards and one touchdown on six carries. Entering Saturday’s game in the second quarter for starter Quinn Ewers, Manning had completed 9 of 12 passes for 223 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions and ran three times for 53 yards and one touchdown. Manning had TD passes of 19, 51, 75 and 12 yards and ran for 67 yards for a TD.

10 Texas A&M had suffered consecutive home-court losses until Saturday’s 33-20 victory over Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida. The Aggies had not beaten an opponent on the home court since a 35-14 victory over Missouri at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri, on Oct. 16, 2021. In the intervening years, Texas A&M had lost to Ole Miss and LSU twice each, and Mississippi State, Alabama, South Carolina, Auburn, Miami (Florida) and Tennessee once each. In beating Florida, the Aggies had 310 rushing yards, scoring drives of 92 and 99 yards, and a 73-yard touchdown pass from QB Marcel Reed to WR Cyrus Allen.

13 The losses for SEC teams come against opponents from the Mid-American Conference and Sun Belt Conference, with two of those losses coming on Saturday, when Toledo of the MAC beat Mississippi State 41-17 and Georgia State of the Sun Belt beat Vanderbilt 36-32 on a TD with 15 seconds left. It was the first time in conference history that the SEC suffered losses against MAC and Sun Belt opponents in the same season. SEC-vs.-MAC games are 81-13 in favor of the SEC. The SEC is 143-13 when playing Sun Belt opponents. Before Saturday, the Sun Belt’s last win over the SEC came just two seasons ago, when Appalachian State beat Texas A&M 17-14 on Sept. 10, 2022. The MAC’s previous win over the SEC came on Sept. 12, 2015, when Toledo beat Arkansas 16-12. Between Toledo’s victories, the SEC has 24 wins over MAC opponents.

37 Tennessee scored points in the first quarter and 65 points in the first half of Saturday’s 71-0 win over Kent State. Both set SEC-era records for the Volunteers, who scored 35 points in the first quarter of a 63-20 win over Arkansas on Nov. 11, 2000, and 52 points in the first half of a 65-24 win over UT Martin on Oct. 22, 2022, which tied the previous records. The final point total was also the most in the SEC era for Tennessee, surpassing the mark in a 70-3 victory over Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 30, 2000. Against Kent State, the Vols also set the single-game school record for yards of total offense with 740, surpassing the previous record of 724 in a 66-24 victory over Missouri on Nov. 12, 2022. Combined with a 69-3 victory over Chattanooga on Aug. 31 and a 51-10 victory over North Carolina State on Sept. 7, Saturday’s performance made Tennessee the second team in SEC history to open a season with three consecutive 50-point games, joining Alabama’s 2018 squad.

44 Years since the last time South Carolina had two scrimmage runs of at least 66 yards, as the Gamecocks did against LSU on Saturday, when QB LaNorris Sellers had a 75-yard TD run (the longest run by a quarterback in school history) and RB Raheim “Rocket” Sanders had a 66-yard TD run. In South Carolina’s 37-0 victory over Pacific on Sept. 6, 1980, Carl West had an 84-yard run and George Rogers had a 72-yard run. Even though Sellers played only one second-half series due to injury, South Carolina scored its most points against LSU, 33, surpassing the 29 it scored against the Tigers on Oct. 27, 1973. But just like in the 1973 game, which the Gamecocks lost 33-29, South Carolina also lost on Saturday, and LSU rallied to win 36-33. The Tigers overcame a 17-point deficit, tying the second-largest comeback against Baton Rouge in the SEC era. On Oct. 29, 1977, LSU overcame a 21-point deficit to beat Ole Miss 28-21 in Jackson, Mississippi. The Tigers also overcame a 17-point deficit to beat Ole Miss 28-24 in Jackson on Nov. 3, 1979, and Wisconsin 28-24 in Houston on Aug. 30, 2014.