SEC top 10 from Week 8: Texas’ largest crowd witnesses coaching history

For the second time in three weeks, an SEC team holding the No. 1 spot in The Associated Press Poll lost on Saturday. In the marquee game on the SEC’s Week 8 schedule, No. 5 Georgia knocked off No. 1 Texas 30-15. The Longhorns had ascended to No. 1 after Vanderbilt knocked Alabama out of the top spot with a 40-35 upset on Oct. 5. While the Week 8 slate included seven conference games, Vanderbilt’s 24-14 victory over Ball State lifted the league’s mark against outside teams to 44-8 in 2024. Here are 10 stats from SEC Football by the Numbers about Week 8:

3 Consecutive games for Tennessee without any first-half points for the Volunteers. Tennessee trailed Alabama 7-0 at halftime before rallying for a 24-17 victory as RB Dylan Sampson ran for 104 yards and two TDs on 18 carries in the final two quarters. The Vols trailed Arkansas 3-0 at halftime in a 19-14 loss on Oct. 5 and Florida 3-0 at halftime before winning 23-17 in overtime on Oct. 12. After the Arkansas game, Tennessee had a 1-12 record under coach Josh Heupel when trailing at halftime.

5 Rushing TDS for Florida RB Jadan Baugh in a 48-20 victory over Kentucky to tie the school single-game record. Baugh had never scored a college touchdown before Saturday, but he tied the school mark established by Tim Tebow in a 51-31 victory over South Carolina on Nov. 10, 2007, and equaled by Trey Burton in a 48-14 victory over Kentucky on Sept. 25, 2010. Baugh ran for 106 yards on 22 carries in his first college start. The freshman entered the game with 153 yards on 47 carries this season.

5 Kickoffs have been returned for touchdowns by Kentucky WR Barion Brown, who broke the SEC career record with a 99-yard return in a 48-20 loss to Florida on Saturday. Seven other SEC players have had four kickoff-return TDs – Tennessee’s Willie Gault, Arkansas’ Felix Jones, Georgia’s Brandon Boykin, Florida’s Andre Debose, Missouri’s Marcus Murphy, Tennessee’s Evan Berry and South Carolina’s Deebo Samuel. Brown became the third Kentucky player to return a kickoff for a TD at Florida, following Craig Yeast in 1998 and Derek Abney in 2002.

7 Years since Vanderbilt’s previous three-game winning streak. The Commodores defeated Ball State 24-14 on Saturday after defeating Alabama 40-35 on Oct. 5 and Kentucky 20-13 on Oct. 12 for Vanderbilt’s first three-game, single-season winning streak since it opened the 2017 season by downing Middle Tennessee State 28-6, Alabama A&M 42-0 and Kansas State 14-7. In the 85 games since that winning streak, the Commodores posted back-to-back victories seven times but had not come up with the third victory until Saturday.

9 Sacks were recorded by nine different players in South Carolina’s 35-9 victory over Oklahoma. Since sacks became an official NCAA statistic in 2000, South Carolina’s total is the most given up by Oklahoma in one game. The Sooners outgained the Gamecocks 291-254 in yardage despite losing 77 yards on the sacks. Oklahoma lost two of its six fumbles in the game, with South Carolina DL Tonka Hemingway returning one 36 yards for a TD with 11:21 left in the first half. On Oklahoma’s next possession, Gamecocks CB Nick Emmanwori returned the first of his two interceptions 63 yards for a touchdown to give South Carolina a 21-0 lead 21-0 lead with 9:40 left in the first quarter. Coupled with Oklahoma’s 34-3 loss to Texas on Oct. 12, the Sooners posted their first back-to-back games with single-digit scoring totals since 1998, when Oklahoma lost to Texas 34-3 on Oct. 10 and 20-6 to Missouri on Oct. 17.

26 Rushing yards by Texas in the Longhorns’ 30-15 loss to Georgia on Saturday. The Bulldogs totaled seven sacks, with LB Jalon Walker recording three, that took 59 yards off Texas’ rushing total. Texas failed to reach 100 rushing yards in a game for the first time since the Longhorns had 51 in a 27-20 loss to Washington in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29, 2022. Saturday’s rushing total was Texas’ lowest since TCU recorded seven sacks and held the Longhorns to 9 rushing yards in a 24-7 victory on Nov. 4, 2017.

35 Of Missouri’s offensive snaps were missed by QB Brady Cook, who left Saturday’s game against Auburn with an ankle injury on the 10th snap of the game and returned to the field with 31 seconds left in the third quarter. Missouri finished Cook’s opening series with a field goal two snaps after he left the game to take a 3-0 lead. When the quarterback re-entered the contest, the Tigers trailed Auburn 17-6. On the final play of the third quarter, Cook had a 78-yard completion – equaling the yardage that his replacement Drew Pyne had managed on 21 passes while Cook was out of the game – and went the rest of the way to rally Missouri to a 21-17 victory. The game featured Missouri’s biggest fourth-quarter comeback since the Tigers rallied from 14 points down to defeat Texas Tech 31-27 on Nov. 19, 2011.

37 Yards per completion was averaged by Florida QB DJ Lagway in a 48-20 victory over Kentucky on Saturday. In his first SEC start, the freshman completed 7-of-14 passes, but that produced 259 yards. Gators WR Elijhah Badger gained 148 yards on three receptions that gained 40, 50 and 58 yards.

100 Victories in 117 games at Georgia for Kirby Smart after the Bulldogs beat Texas 30-15 Saturday. This is fewest games needed to reach 100 victories for a major-college coach since the NCAA established unlimited substitution in 1964. Smart surpassed Urban Meyer, who got to 100 victories in 118 games at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida. The previous SEC mark for the fewest games to reach 100 victories was 120 by Steve Spurrier, who was 100-19-1 to open his tenure at Florida. (Nick Saban got to 100 victories in 118 games Alabama, but he previously had coached at SEC member LSU and reached his 100th victory in his 128th game as an SEC coach.) In major-college history, Smart is tied with Knute Rockne and Chris Petersen at 117 games for 100 victories behind Gil Dobie’s 108 games, Duke Woodruff’s 109 games, Bud Wilkinson’s 111 games and Fielding Yost’s 114 games. The NCAA record is 106 games, established by Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Lance Leipold in 2014.

105,215 Was the announced attendance for Saturday’s Georgia-Texas game, the largest in the history of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin. The crowd broke the record of 105,213 set for a game against Alabama on Sept. 10, 2022. The Longhorns lost both games – falling to the Crimson Tide 20-19 in 2022 and losing to Georgia 30-15 on Saturday.

The SEC scoreboard for Week 8 included:

· No. 11 Tennessee 24, No. 7 Alabama 17

· No. 8 LSU 34, Arkansas 10

· No. 19 Missouri 21, Auburn 17

· Florida 48, Kentucky 20

· No. 5 Georgia 30, No. 1 Texas 15

· No. 14 Texas A&M 34, Mississippi State 24

· South Carolina 35, Oklahoma 9

· Vanderbilt 24, Ball State 14