SEC top 10 from Week 5: 4 fourth-quarter comebacks

In Week 5 of the SEC’s 2024 football season on Saturday, Texas won its first conference contest as a member of the league. In the other four conference games, the winner trailed in the fourth quarter. LSU had the only non-conference game of Week 5, and the Tigers’ victory over South Alabama lifted the league’s mark against outside teams to 41-8 in 2024. Here are 10 stats from SEC Football by the Numbers about Week 5:

0 SEC team ranked higher in The Associated Press Poll than Ole Miss was on Saturday had ever lost to Kentucky in its campus stadium. The No. 6 Rebels fell to Kentucky 20-17 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford. Before Saturday, the Wildcats’ biggest road upset of an SEC rival at its campus stadium had been a 14-0 victory over No. 10 Vanderbilt at Dudley Field in Nashville on Oct. 18, 1947. Kentucky defeated No. 1 Ole Miss 27-21 on the road on Sept. 26, 1964, but that game was played at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson and not Hemingway Stadium in Oxford. After the Wildcats’ upset of the No. 1 Rebels, Kentucky lost its next 43 road games against SEC opponents ranked in the top 10 before scoring a TD with 2:25 to play to beat Ole Miss on Saturday.

1 True freshman quarterback has made his first start for Oklahoma in a road victory. In the Sooners’ 27-21 victory at Auburn on Saturday, Michael Hawkins Jr. completed 10-of-15 passes for 161 yards with no TDs and no interceptions and ran for 69 yards and one TD on 14 carries in his first start for Oklahoma. Hawkins got 100 of his passing yards on three completions in the fourth quarter, when the Sooners rallied from a 21-10 deficit. Hawkins was the seventh true freshman to start at quarterback for Oklahoma, and the second to make his debut in a road game. The first was Troy Aikman in a 28-11 loss to Kansas on Oct. 27, 1984.

1 More punt for Ole Miss in Saturday’s 20-17 loss to Kentucky than the Rebels had in their first four games combined. Ole Miss punter Fraser Masin entered Saturday’s contest with a 38.5-yard average on four punts in the 2024 season. Against Kentucky, Masin punted five times for a 45.8-yard average. Ole Miss led the nation in scoring, scoring margin, total offense, passing offense, yards per play and first downs through the first four weeks of the season. But Kentucky held the Rebels to 353 yards – 317 fewer than Ole Miss’ average output in the first four games of the season.

3 Games with at least 176 receiving yards for Ole Miss WR Tre Harris this season after there had been 15 such performances in school history before 2024. Harris had 11 receptions for 176 yards and one TD in the Rebels’ 20-17 loss to Kentucky on Saturday. That’s 3 more yards than the Wildcats had allowed any team to pass for in the 2024 season. Harris opened the season with eight receptions for 179 yards and two TDs in a 76-0 victory over Furman on Aug. 31 and had 11 receptions for 225 yards and two TDs in a 52-13 victory over Georgia Southern on Sept. 21. With 804 yards and five TDs on 49 receptions, Harris has 157 more receiving yards than any other player in the nation this season.

7 Arkansas possessions started at the Razorbacks 15-yard line or worse following Texas A&M punts during a 21-17 loss to the Aggies on Saturday. Texas A&M’s Tyler White averaged 43.1 yards on nine punts in the game. Arkansas took possession after punts at its 8-yard line in the first quarter, 9, 15 and 7 in the second quarter, 10 and 15 in the third quarter and 10 for its final possession of the game. The field position paid off for the Aggies in the second quarter, when an Arkansas fumble set up Texas A&M at the Razorbacks 10-yard line, and a TD two snaps later tied the game at 14-14. Arkansas lost even though it had an edge in yardage of 379 to 297. Texas A&M’s average starting field position was its 33-yard line, although the Aggies had to move 75 yards for the go-ahead TD with 9:00 left to play.

13 Seconds between lead-changing TDs in the fourth quarter of the Georgia-Alabama game on Saturday night. Georgia QB Carson Beck threw a 67-yard TD pass to wide receiver Dillon Bell to give the Bulldogs a 34-33 lead with 2:31 to play. Georgia scored three fourth-quarter TDs to overcome an 18-point Alabama lead, with Beck passing for 259 yards in the final period. But Crimson Tide QB Jalen Milroe came back with a 75-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Ryan Williams with 2:18 remaining as the Crimson Tide regained the lead for a 41-34 victory. The TD was the fifth of the game for Alabama after Georgia entered the contest as the only team in the nation that had not allowed any in the 2024 season.

63 Yards on an interception return by Oklahoma LB Kip Lewis against Auburn on Saturday. Lewis picked off a third-and-4 pass by Tigers QB Payton Thorne and returned it for a TD as the Sooners took a 24-21 lead with 4:06 to play. Oklahoma entered the fourth quarter trailing 21-10 but came away with a 27-21 victory even though each team’s offense gained 119 yards in the final period and Auburn had a 4:42 advantage in time of possession in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma needed half as many plays as Auburn to gain its fourth-quarter yardage (12 for the Sooners, 24 for the Tigers) as it picked up 100 yards on its three completions in the final period.

157 Yards were gained by RB Caden Durham on the LSU offense’s first two snaps in Saturday night’s 42-10 victory over South Alabama. Durham took a screen pass 71 yards for a touchdown on the first snap of the game, then ran 86 yards to the South Alabama 1-yard line on the first snap of LSU’s second possession. The freshman entered the game with 116 rushing yards and 41 receiving yards in his college career. Against USA, Durham had 128 yards and one TD on seven carries and 89 yards and one TD on three receptions.

491 Yards of offense for Alabama QB Jalen Milroe in the Crimson Tide’s 41-34 victory over Georgia on Saturday, the second-most for a player in school history. Milroe had 374 passing yards and 117 rushing yards against the Bulldogs for an output that’s been exceeded only once in a game by an Alabama player. QB Bryce Young had 548 yards – 559 passing and minus-11 rushing – in a 42-35 victory over Arkansas on Nov. 20, 2021. Milroe had 100 more passing yards against Georgia on Saturday than the Bulldogs had yielded in their first three games combined, and he became the first Alabama player with at least 350 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in the same game. Milroe completed 27-of-33 passes with two TDs and one interception and had two TDs among his 16 rushing attempts.

1,420 Days between regular-season losses for Georgia. The Bulldogs’ 41-34 defeat by Alabama on Saturday was the first loss in a regular-season game for Georgia since Nov. 7, 2020, when Florida downed the Bulldogs 44-28. Georgia won 42 regular-season games between the losses, including an SEC-record 28 consecutive league games. Georgia lost two postseason games during its regular-season winning streak, with those defeats inflicted in the SEC Championship Game by Alabama in 2021 and 2023.

The SEC scoreboard for Week 5 included:

· No. 4 Alabama 41, No. 2 Georgia 34

· No. 24 Texas A&M 21, Arkansas 17

· Oklahoma 27, Auburn 21

· Kentucky 20, No. 6 Ole Miss 17

· No. 14 LSU 42, South Alabama 10

· No. 1 Texas 35, Mississippi State 13