SEC Football by the Numbers: Top 10 for Week 10 - AL.com

The 10th week of the SEC’s 89th season features six conference contests and one non-conference game. Here are 10 numbers, along with the schedule, TV and betting lines, to get ready for the SEC’s 10th football Saturday of 2021:

0 Interceptions have been thrown by Auburn in its nine SEC games against Texas A&M. The Tigers have intercepted seven Aggies’ passes in those games. Auburn is tied for the national lead this season with only two interceptions thrown heading into Saturday’s game against Texas A&M. Since the Aggies joined the SEC, Auburn has five victories and Texas A&M four in their annual series.

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1 Coach with at least five seasons in the SEC has a better winning percentage in conference regular-season games than Kirby Smart, who is in his sixth season as Georgia’s coach. The Bulldogs’ 34-7 victory over Florida last week improved Smart’s record in league play to 38-9 – a winning percentage of .809 – which lifted him past former Alabama coach Gene Stallings, who had a 43-10-1 on-the-field record in conference regular-season games – an .806 winning percentage. The only coach with a better rate of winning in SEC league games than Smart is Nick Saban. Entering Alabama’s game against LSU on Saturday, Saban owns a 131-28 on-the-field record in conference regular-season games as the coach of LSU and the Crimson Tide -- an .824 winning percentage. Saban’s official record does not include three conference wins vacated from the 2007 season. Even based on the official record, though, Saban has the SEC’s best career winning percentage in conference regular-season games at .821. A Georgia victory on Saturday against Missouri would lift Smart into second place behind Saban in winning percentage in all games among SEC coaches, too. If the Bulldogs beat Missouri, Smart would have a 61-14 overall record – a winning percentage of .8133, which would give him the edge on Urban Meyer, who had a 65-15 record at Florida from 2005 through 2010 – a winning percentage of .8125.

3 Teams have beaten three opponents who are bowl-eligible this season, including Mississippi State. The Bulldogs own victories over bowl-bound Kentucky, North Carolina State and Texas A&M. Mississippi State is not bowl-eligible yet, though, but the winner of the Bulldogs’ game against Arkansas on Saturday will be. The other teams that have beaten three bowl-eligible opponents in 2021 are Boise State and Miami (Fla.). The Broncos have beaten BYU, Utah State and UTEP. The Hurricanes have beaten Appalachian State, North Carolina State and Pittsburgh.

4 Consecutive losses for Florida to South Carolina when the Gators play the Gamecocks without being ranked in the AP Poll, which will be the circumstance for the teams’ game on Saturday. South Carolina defeated unranked Florida teams in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2017. Since its most recent victory over South Carolina when unranked in 2004, Florida has played the Gamecocks when ranked 12 times and won 10 of those games.

5 Seasons were spent as Ole Miss’ coach by Hugh Freeze, who returns to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday as the coach of Liberty. Freeze is in his third season guiding the Flames, and he has a 25-8 record at Liberty. Freeze coached Ole Miss from 2012 through 2016. Freeze had a 39-25 on-the-field record with the Rebels, although the official mark is 12-25 after NCAA vacated 27 of his victories for rules violations. The sanctions, which also covered infractions from before Freeze’s time at Ole Miss, included a two-year bowl ban for Ole Miss.

7 Consecutive games have featured at least 30 points for Georgia, tied for the longest streak in school history. The Bulldogs have had two previous streaks of seven 30-point games, which occurred in the 2010 and 2014 seasons. Georgia has scored at least 30 points in every game since a 10-3 season-opening victory over Clemson. Missouri, Georgia’s opponent on Saturday, has given up at least 28 points in each of its past seven games, the longest such streak in school history. Last week’s 37-28 victory over Vanderbilt pushed the Tigers past the previous six-game streak of the 2017 season. Missouri’s most recent opponent that didn’t score at least 28 points was Central Michigan, which lost to the Tigers 34-24 on Sept. 4.

9 Teams in the nation have two players with at least 530 rushing yards apiece this season, including two in the SEC – Saturday opponents Auburn and Texas A&M. Tank Bigsby has run for 666 yards and seven TDs on 125 carries and Jarquez Hunter has run for 530 yards and three TDs on 69 carries for Auburn. Isaiah Spiller has run for 761 yards and five TDs on 123 carries and Devon Achane has run for 608 yards and five TDs on 86 carries for Texas A&M. The other teams with two players with at least 530 rushing yards are Air Force, Baylor, Michigan, North Carolina, Syracuse, UCLA and Wisconsin.

14 Consecutive victories have been tallied by Georgia in the game after its annual contest against Florida in Jacksonville. Since Kentucky beat the Bulldogs 24-20 after the Florida game in 2006, Georgia has defeated Kentucky five times, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss and South Carolina once apiece and five non-conference opponents in the game after playing the Gators. Saturday’s game against Missouri will be Georgia’s first since its 34-7 victory over Florida on Oct. 30. During Georgia’s 14-year winning streak, Florida, which plays South Carolina on Saturday, has a 10-4 record in the game after playing the Bulldogs.

34 Consecutive Alabama games have featured at least 20 points for the Crimson Tide – one game short of the SEC record for consecutive games with 20 or more points. The most recent game in which Alabama failed to score at least 20 points was the Tide’s 44-16 loss to Clemson in the CFP championship game on Jan. 7, 2019. The SEC record of 35 consecutive games with at least 20 points was established by Alabama between a 9-6 loss to LSU on Nov. 5, 2011, and a 23-17 loss to Ole Miss on Oct. 4, 2014.

44 Years since Tennessee lost consecutive games to Kentucky. The Wildcats beat the Volunteers 7-0 in 1976 and 21-17 in 1977. Since the 1977 game, Tennessee has a 38-5 record against Kentucky, but the Wildcats won last year’s game 34-7, and the teams square off again on Saturday.

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

Saturday

· Liberty (7-2) at No. 16 Ole Miss (6-2), 11 a.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi (SEC Network). Line: Ole Miss by 9.5.

· Missouri (4-4, 1-3) at No. 1 Georgia (8-0, 6-0), 11 a.m. at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia (ESPN). Line: Georgia by 39.5.

· No. 13 Auburn (6-2, 3-1) at No. 14 Texas A&M (6-2, 3-2), 2:30 p.m. at College Stadium, Texas (CBS). Line: Texas A&M by 4.5.

· No. 17 Mississippi State (5-3, 3-2) at Arkansas (5-3, 1-3), 3 p.m. at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas (SEC Network). Line: Arkansas by 5.

· LSU (4-4, 2-3) at No. 2 Alabama (7-1, 4-1), 6 p.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa (ESPN). Line: Alabama by 28.5.

· Tennessee (4-4, 2-3) at No. 18 Kentucky (6-2, 4-2), 6 p.m. at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky (ESPN2). Line: Tennessee by 1.

· Florida (4-4, 2-4) at South Carolina (4-4, 1-4), 6:30 p.m. at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina (SEC Network). Line: Florida by 20.5.

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

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