Hello. It's the off-season here at Glory Glory, and that means the pickins is slim for content to put forth into the world. Try as I might, I couldn't glean any crazy insight from G-Day, save only for the fact that Justin Fields looks like he has a bright future in front of him.
But please, pardon my hot take.
Many of you who read this blog likely come here for the stats and other trivia tidbits that I attempt to spin into a fun piece during football season, and for that reason, I figured I'd expand my horizons a bit (but only a bit) and cobble together some random entertainment from around the SEC.
And here they are. Enjoy.
1) Tennessee has lost its most recent meeting with every team in the SEC.
Yes, every. Single. One. I'm not entirely sure who noticed this stat first, but I'll admit it wasn't me. I did double-check it though, and it still makes me giggle, because it's absolutely accurate. And after the 2016 Hail Mary, anything that results in misery on Rocky Top is okay in my book.
2) David Greene is the last Georgia QB to start multiple games against Vanderbilt without a loss.
Since his last victory in 2004, Bulldog signal-callers have either A) only started one game against the 'Dores, or B) started mutliple times and lost. Matt Stafford and Aaron Murray are the only players to slide in Column B, as of this writing.
3) Half the teams who lost to Missouri in 2017 fired their coaches.
Looking at you Tennessee, Florida and Arkansas. Oh, and another one (Idaho) dropped down to FCS. Sooooooo, don't lose to Missouri. Bad things happen.
4) There are only two SEC East teams that have won the division less recently than Tennessee.
It's Kentucky and Vandy, neither of which has graced Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. The Vols' last division crown came in 2007. Since then, Georgia, Florida, Missouri and South Carolina have all played for a conference title.
5) Since 2012, every school in the SEC not named Alabama has changed coaches.
Hard to believe that just six short years ago, we had a whopping 13 different head coaches across the conference. With the exception of Nick Saban's coach-till-you-die position at Bama, every school has changed coaches at least once. Some, like Tennessee and Arkansas, have already changed coaches twice since then. Speaking of Saban...
6) Saban has never beaten an Auburn team that won 9 games or more.
Since everyone's most hated short guy took over in Tuscaloosa in 2007, the Tigers have won 9 or more games in 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2017, all of which featured a win over Alabama in the Iron Bowl. Heck, even when he was at LSU (2000-04), Saban lost to Auburn three times. His only two wins came against Tiger teams that went 7-5 and 8-4.
7) UL Monroe has beaten Alabama more recently than half the SEC.
The Warhawks stunned the Crimson Tide in 2007, Saban's first year, 21-14 in Tuscaloosa. Since that November afternoon, only six conference schools have ever notched a win against Alabama. Auburn has done it four times, LSU and Ole Miss twice, and Florida, South Carolina and Texas A&M once. The rest of the SEC gets nada.
8) 40-percent of the active head coaches with SEC Championships don't coach in the SEC.
There are only five active head coaches who've won the SEC, and two of them, Mark Richt at Miami and Urban Meyer at Ohio State, aren't in the conference anymore. The only active SEC head coaches with an SEC Title on their resume are Gus Malzahn (2013), Kirby Smart (2017) and Saban (the rest of them).
9) Kentucky hasn't won four football games in a row since 2008.
All four of those wins came at the front end of a 7-6 season, against Louisville, Norfolk State, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky. None of those teams finished with a winning record. And good thing, too, because it let the Wildcats tank just in time for basketball season.
10) The longest pass play of the 2017 SEC football season was completed by ... Danny Etling.
The LSU signal caller completed an 87-yard bomb to Drake Davis in the Tigers' 35-26 win over ACC Champion Syracuse, listed as the longest pass play in the SEC in 2017, according to stats compiled by ESPN.
11) South Carolina has won six games since 2015 while scoring 20 points or less.
That's good for No. 1 in the conference over that span. Next in line are Georgia and Florida at five apiece, then Vanderbilt with four. The only two teams in the SEC who don't qualify for this list are Ole Miss and Arkansas.
12) Vanderbilt hasn't lost in overtime since 2011.
The Commodores have only played in overtime once since their defeat at the hands of Derek Dooley and Tennessee in '11: a 31-30 victory of Western Kentucky in 2015. But, hey, they're undefeated since then in something.
13) Last year, Arkansas managed to lose by 32 points in consecutive weeks, then win by one point in consecutive weeks.
A banner year 2017 was not for the Razorbacks, who finished 4-8 and fired Bret Bielema, but there were some oddities nonetheless. In late October, Arkansas got drilled in back-to-back weeks by Alabama (41-9) and Auburn (52-20), then turned around and eked out wins against Ole Miss (38-37) and Coastal Carolina (39-38).
14) LSU and Alabama are the only fan bases who've experienced both an SEC Championship Game victory, and a loss to a Sun Belt team.
The Bayou Bengals obtained this dubious honor in 2017, losing to Troy 24-21 on homecoming night. Until that point, only the Crimson Tide fell into this category, thanks to the aforementioned loss to UL Monroe in 2007. If you're wondering, four other SEC schools — Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt — have ever lost to a Sun Belt team. The SEC is 143-9 against the Sun Belt all time.
15) Florida was three points away from bowl eligibility last year.
The 2017 Gators finished 4-7 (with one game canceled due to a hurricane), and two of those losses came by a combined three points, in consecutive weeks. Florida lost to LSU 17-16 via a missed PAT, and then to Texas A&M 19-17 via a last-minute field goal by the Aggies. Switch the results of those two kicks, and the Gators may well have finished 6-5 and brought a wild and crazy crowd to the Independence Bowl.
16) Vanderbilt has accomplished something that it hasn't done in 90 years.
The 'Dores have beaten Tennessee four times in six years, a feat that hadn't been reached since 1928. Vandy knocked off the Vols in 2012-13 and 2016-17. #BrickByBrick
17) The most common first name on the Georgia football team is "D'Andre."
This is, of course, if we are lumping alternate spellings together. There are three players on the team with this name, all of whom figure to play a big role in 2018: CB DeAndre Baker, RB D'Andre Swift and LB D'Andre Walker.
18) Texas A&M has a -49 point differential across its last 10 games against Power 5 opponents.
This encompasses the entirety of the 2017 season, which included a handful of close wins and several blowout losses. The Aggies were 4-6 against the Power 5, but all four wins came by seven points or less. Meanwhile, three of the losses were by 15, 21 and 24. In fact, if you factor in FCS and Group of 5 opponents from the scheudle, A&M only outscored its opponents by an aggregate of 16 points in 2017. We'll miss you, Kevin Sumlin.
19) Missouri could've skipped its last five games and still finished with more total yards on the 2017 season than Tennessee and Florida.
The Vols finished with a paltry 3,493 total yards on the season (291.1 per game) and the Gators with 3,695 (335.9), while Drew Locke and the high flying Tiger offense finished with 6,138 (511.5), good for No. 1 in the conference. Had Missouri skipped its match-ups with Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Texas in the bowl game...it still would've finished with 3,712 total yards, good for 12th overall.
20) There is only one active SEC head coach who has ever beaten Alabama. (Not counting prior stints as assistant coachs, a la Dan Mullen.)
And it's the #GusBus at Auburn.
