Some facts that you might not have known about the SEC here in Week 3:
Thursday marked the 105th meeting between LSU and Mississippi State, but it was the first time ever that both teams played each other while being ranked. LSU entered as the No. 3 team in the nation, while Mississippi State was ranked 25th.
After the first two weeks of the season, SEC teams are scoring more rushing touchdowns than any other FBS conference. SEC teams are averaging 2.63 rushing touchdowns per game, which tops second-place Big Ten with 2.48. The SEC also leads all conferences in total touchdowns per game with 5.08.
Heading into Thursday, SEC teams are averaging 38.5 rushing plays per game compared to 27.9 passing plays. The 10.6 gap is tied for the third largest among FBS conferences. Only three conferences average more pass plays than rush plays -- WAC (35.1 rush/35.7 pass), Pac-12 (33.6 rush/35.4 pass) and Conference USA (33.0 rush/36.3 pass).
After the first two weeks, the SEC had six of the top 25 teams in the nation in pass efficiency defense, led by Alabama, which is third. Kentucky (10th), Vanderbilt (12th), Florida (18th), LSU (20th) and Arkansas (25th) round out the SEC teams in the top 25.
The SEC also had six of the top 30 teams in pass defense. Alabama leads the SEC and is 11th nationally at 121.5 yards allowed per game. Florida is 12th (124.0), Arkansas 18th (140.5), Mississippi State 26th (160.0), LSU 28th (169.5) and Vanderbilt 30th (172.0).
Kentucky has not allowed a touchdown in the red zone in four opportunities. Florida (none in 2) and Arkansas (none in 1) are the only teams not to allow a red zone touchdown this year in the SEC.
LSU’s 15 play, 8:13 drive against Northwestern State is the longest in the SEC this year. The 68-yard drive ended in a touchdown. Mississippi State’s 98-yard scoring drive against Memphis in Week 1 is the longest by yards in the SEC.
Nine of the 12 SEC teams have scored a non-offensive TD this season. Only Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky have not scored a non-offensive TD this season.
Eighteen of Georgia’s 30 losses since 2003 have been decided by seven points or less. Georgia’s 60 percent is the highest percentage of close losses in the SEC. Alabama is second with 20 of its 35 losses (57.1 percent) by seven points or less.
Vanderbilt linebacker Chris Marve is tied for fourth and Arkansas linebacker Jerry Franklin is ninth among active leaders in total tackles. Marve has 325 stops, while Franklin has 289 tackles.
Four SEC schools are among the national leaders in road/neutral winning percentage since 2003. The national leader is USC at 83.6 percent (46-9). LSU is fourth at 37-13 (.740) while Florida is seventh at 36-16 (.692), Auburn eighth at 29-14 (.674) and Georgia ninth at 35-19 (.648).
Arkansas has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 19 straight games, the longest active streak in the SEC and the sixth-longest active streak in the NCAA. Texas Tech has the nation’s longest at 63.
Georgia’s Brandon Boykin has moved into eighth on the SEC career kickoff return yardage list with 2,107 yards. He needs 59 yards to move to seventh (Javier Arenas, Alabama, 2006-09, 2,166 yards).
For just the third time in the last two seasons in FBS, Tennessee had a game with a 400-yard passer (Tyler Bray 405 yards), 100 yard rusher (Tauren Poole 101 yards) and two 100 yard receivers (Justin Hunter 156 yards, Da'Rick Rogers 100 yards) against Cincinnati last week. Other times were Baylor vs. Kansas State (Oct. 23, 2010) and Texas A&M vs. Texas Tech (Oct. 30, 2010). The last time that happened in the SEC was Kentucky against Vanderbilt on Nov. 11, 2006 (Andre Woodson 450 yard passing, Rafael Little 132 yards rushing, Keenan Burton 171 yards receiving and Rafael Little 114 yards receiving).
After two weeks, the SEC is 18-2 (.900) against non-conference competition. The SEC went 8-0 last weekend against non-conference foes. It is the first time since Sept. 11, 1999 that the SEC went undefeated against non-conference competition in at least eight games.
After two weeks of games, 16 SEC games have had a total of 1,179,298 fans, an average of 73,706 fans per game. The games have a 95.6 percentage of capacity so far this season.
Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt has moved into a tie for 17th for wins as an SEC head coach with 98. He ties Harry Mehre, who had 98 wins during his tenure as head coach at Georgia (1928-37) and Ole Miss (1938-45).
Since 2000, the Georgia-South Carolina game has been decided by nine points or less eight times. The average scoring margin of the 12 games since 2000 is 8.25, which is the most competitive of any SEC series. The second most competitive by scoring margin is South Carolina-Tennessee at 9.00 per game (11 games).
Florida’s defense recorded the SEC’s first shutout of the year in a 39-0 win against UAB. It was the Gators’ first defensive shutout since a 62-0 win against Western Carolina on Nov. 18, 2006.
Arkansas has scored 103 points in the first two games of the season, which is the second most in school history and the most in the first two games of a season since the 1911 team scored 165.