SEC Football by the Numbers: Top 10 for Week 11

The 11th week of the SEC’s 2018 football season features seven league games on Saturday — Mississippi State at Alabama, LSU at Arkansas, Auburn at Georgia, South Carolina at Florida, Kentucky at Tennessee, Vanderbilt at Missouri and Ole Miss at Texas A&M. Ten numbers, along with the schedule, to get ready for Week 11:

0 Alabama punts have been returned this season, making the Crimson Tide the only team in the nation that has not yielded at least three punt returns in 2018. However, even at zero, Alabama hasn’t given up the fewest punt-return yards in the nation. Arkansas State’s opponents have netted minus-15 yards on six punt returns against the Red Wolves this season. Mississippi State, which plays Alabama on Saturday, has returned 15 punts for a 7.73-yard average in 2018.

1 Team in the nation has players ranked in the top 20 in pbading, rushing and receiving yards in 2018 — Ole Miss. Nationally, Rebels RB Scottie Phillips ranks 20th with an average of 102.6 rushing yards per game, QB Jordan Ta’amu ranks third with an average of 333.4 pbading yards per game and WR AJ Brown ranks 10th with an average of 102.2 receiving yards per game.

1 Major-college football rivalry will have been contested more than Auburn and Georgia after the Tigers and Bulldogs square off on Saturday for the 123rd time. Minnesota and Wisconsin have faced off 127 times (with No. 128 set for Nov. 24). The Miami (Ohio)-Cincinnati and North Carolina-Virginia rivalries also reached 123 games during the 2018 regular season. Georgia leads the series with Auburn 58-56-8, exhibiting the competitiveness of most-played rivalries. Wisconsin leads Minnesota 60-59-8, and Miami leads Cincinnati 59-57-7. The North Carolina-Virginia series has the biggest difference, with the Tar Heels leading the Cavaliers 64-55-4.

4 Victories without a loss for Missouri this season when WR Emanuel Hall catches a pbad and a 1-4 record when he doesn’t. Hall left the Tigers’ third game of the season on Sept. 15 with a groin injury. He tried to play the next week and then missed four games, returning to the field last week in Missouri’s victory over Florida. In the four games with Hall, Missouri QB Drew Lock threw 14 TD pbades and one interception. In the other five games, Lock had five TD pbades and five interceptions.

9 Consecutive Mississippi State coaches have lost their first meeting with Alabama. The most recent Bulldogs coach to defeat the Crimson Tide in his first season is Darrell Royal, who guided MSU to a 12-7 victory on Oct. 23, 1954, in Tuscaloosa. Joe Moorhead will lead Mississippi State against Alabama for the first time on Saturday. Between Royal and Moorhead, Wade Walker in 1956, Paul Davis in 1962, Charles Shira in 1967, Bob Tyler in 1973, Emory Bellard in 1979, Rockey Felker in 1986, Jackie Sherrill in 1991, Sylvester Croom in 2004 and Dan Mullen in 2009 lost their first meeting with the Tide. Alabama outscored Mississippi State 217-46 in the nine games.

SEC Football by the Numbers: Top 10 from Week 10

9 Consecutive Auburn-Georgia games have been won by the team with the most rushing attempts. In 2008, the Tigers had 36 rushing attempts, but lost 17-13 to the Bulldogs, who had 33. In Georgia’s 31-24 victory in 2009, each team had 38 rushing attempts. In the nine games since, the team with the most rushing attempts has won. This season, Georgia has averaged 40.6 rushing attempts per game and Auburn has averaged 37.3.

41 Years since Kentucky played Tennessee while ranked in the AP poll. The Wildcats are No. 12 in this week’s poll as they visit Neyland Stadium on Saturday. In 1977, No. 7 Kentucky defeated the Volunteers 21-17. That also was the most recent time that the Wildcats defeated Tennessee in consecutive seasons, which they could do again on Saturday. Kentucky won last year’s game 29-26. Kentucky also was ranked when it played Tennessee in 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1953. The Vols won three of those games.

62 TDs have been scored by Alabama this season, the most in the nation. Mississippi State has given up nine TDs this season, the fewest in the nation. Alabama and Mississippi State square off on Saturday in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide leads the nation with a scoring average of 51.3 points per game while the Bulldogs are No. 2 in the nation in scoring defense (behind UAB), yielding an average of 12.3 points per game.

175 Pounds will be lifted in celebration by the winning team after Saturday’s game between Arkansas and LSU. That’s the weight of the Golden Boot, the name of the trophy awarded to the winner of the Razorbacks-Tigers game annually since 1996. LSU has a 14-8 advantage over Arkansas in Golden Boot games.

198 More snaps have been made by the Texas A&M offense than have been faced by the Aggies defense this season, the largest margin in the nation. Texas A&M has gotten off 683 plays on offense and been on the field for 485 on defense. The Aggies rank second in the nation in average time of possession at 36:17. The team ahead of Texas A&M in time of possession, Army at 39:46, is second on the offense/defense-difference list at 196 — fifty-three more than third-place East Carolina. Ole Miss’ offense has made 43 fewer snaps than its defense has faced in 2018. The Rebels have an average time of possession of 27:40.

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

Saturday

· Ole Miss (5-4, 1-4) at Texas A&M (5-4, 3-3), 11 a.m. at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas (CBS) Line: Texas A&M by 13

· South Carolina (5-3, 4-3) at No. 15 Florida (6-3, 4-3), 11 a.m. at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida (ESPN) Line: Florida by 6

· Vanderbilt (4-5, 1-4) at Missouri (5-4, 1-4), 11 a.m. at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri (SEC Network) Line: Missouri by 17

· No. 11 Kentucky (7-2, 5-2) at Tennessee (4-5, 1-4), 2:30 p.m. at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee (SEC Network) Line: Kentucky by 5.5

· No. 16 Mississippi State (6-2, 2-3) at No. 1 Alabama (9-0, 6-0), 2:30 p.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (CBS) Line: Alabama by 23.5

· No. 24 Auburn (6-3, 3-3) at No. 5 Georgia (8-1, 6-1), 6 p.m. at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia (ESPN) Line: Georgia by 14

· No. 7 LSU (7-2, 4-2) at Arkansas (2-7, 0-5), 6:30 p.m. at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas (SEC Network) Line: LSU by 13

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