Monday, October 27, 2008

SEC NOTEBOOK: Oct. 27

Four Southeastern Conference teams are ranked in all major polls and in the BCS Standings this week.

Here are Sunday SEC notes and poll updates.

Alabama, the only undefeated team in the Southeastern Conference (8-0 overall and 5-0 in conference games) leads four SEC teams that are ranked in this week's three major polls (Associated Press, Coaches USA Today, Harris) and in the BCS Rankings. Bama is ranked second across the board.
Georgia is eighth in the AP and USA Today polls, eighth in the Harris and sixth in BCS.
Florida is ranked fifth in the AP, 7th in USA Today, ninth in Harris and eighth in BCS.
LSU is ranked 15th in AP and USA Today, 16th in Harris, and 19th in BCS.
Texas is number one in all polls and Penn State third.
The big news in the SEC this week is that Florida and Georgia at playing in Jacksonville. The two teams with the winningest records in the SEC since 1998 face each other this Saturday when Georgia (7-1, 4-1 SEC) and Florida (6-1, 4-1) get together. Kickoff is slated for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports.

Georgia has the league's best mark since 1998 at 104-31 (.770) while Florida is second at 99-35 (.739).

Other conference games this Saturday include Tennessee (3-5, 1-4) visiting South Carolina (5-3, 2-3) on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. ET, Ole Miss (4-4, 2-3) hosting Auburn (4-4, 2-3) on Raycom Sports at 11:30 a.m. CT and Mississippi State (3-5, 1-3) hosting Kentucky (5-3, 1-3) at 1:30 p.m. CT. Alabama will host Arkansas State at 2 p.m. CDT Sunday in Bama's homecoming game.

Two other non-conference tilts are also on the schedule for Saturday when Arkansas (3-5, 1-4) hosts Tulsa (7-0 and playing Central Florida Sunday night) at 1 p.m. CT and LSU (5-2, 3-2) hosts Tulane (2-5) at 7 p.m. CT. The SEC continues to lead the nation in non-conference winning percentage at 80.0 percent (28-7).

The SEC has won at least 75 percent of its non-conference games every year since 2005. In 54 home games, SEC stadiums have been filled to 98.59 percent capacity. More than 4.1 million fans have watched SEC football in person this year, an average of 77,430 per home game.
Alabama coach Nick Saban has reached the top 25 in total wins at SEC schools with the Tide's 29-9 win at Tennessee. Saban is 63-22 (74.1 percent) combined during his tenures at Alabama and LSU. His 63 wins ranks 25th all-time. Five current SEC coaches are in the top 25. Another note on Florida-Georgia, the two starting quarterbacks are a combined 40-10 in their careers.
UF's Tim Tebow is 15-5 as a starting quarterback and Georgia's Matthew Stafford is 25-5. Combined in the 40 wins, the two quarterbacks have thrown 68 touchdown passes and 22 interceptions. Combined in the 10 losses, the two signal callers have thrown 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
LSU senior defensive end Kirston Pittman is this week's SEC Community Service Team Player of the Week and will be featured on Raycom Sports' telecast of the Auburn at Ole Miss game.
Florida's streak of 250 consecutive games without being shutout is now the second longest active streak in NCAA FBS behind only Michigan (296). Tennessee is the SEC's second highest active streak at 179 games.

More Georgia-Florida: When these two teams lose, it is usually by a close margin. In Georgia's 15 losses since 2003, 10 have been by a touchdown or less, the highest percentage of close losses in the SEC (66.7) during that time. Florida is second in that category with 12 of 19 losses since 2003 being by a touchdown or less (63.2). The Georgia-Florida rivalry since 2000 is also the sixth closest margin in the SEC during that time. In the eight meetings since 2000, the average winning margin is 8.13 points per game.
LSU's Colt David became his schools' career scoring leader last week against Georgia. The senior has 324 career points which is also eighth in SEC history. He is only two points behind sixth in conference annals. His 180 PATs is second in SEC history, just eight behind Jeff Hall's (Tennessee) 188 career PATs.
Mississippi State's Derek Pegues became the SEC's career kickoff return yardage leader against Middle Tennessee. Pegues has accumulated 2,321 yards on 104 kickoff return yards, surpassing Kentucky's Derek Abney (2,315 yards). Pegues is also fourth in SEC history in combined kickoff/punt return yards with 3,078 yards.

The average SEC game this season is lasting 3:11, which is three minutes below the national average (3:14).
SEC teams saw its offensive numbers surge this past weekend. There were 9.00 average scores in the seven games this past weekend, the second highest number of the season (Week 5 - 9.14).
The top four productive offenses in the SEC by efficiency are ranked in the AP and USA Today Top 25 this week.
In overall drive efficiency (TDs & FGs divided into number of drives), Florida leads the SEC at 51.90 percent (32 TDs, 9 FGs, 79 drives), while Georgia is second at 44.68 (30 TDs, 12 FGs, 94 drives), Alabama third at 40.62 (26 TDs, 13 FGs, 96 drives) and LSU fourth at 39.36 (27 TDs, 10 FGs, 94 drives). Ole Miss is fifth at 36.46 percent (23 TDs, 12 FGs, 96 drives).

Home teams are 16-13 (55.2 percent) in SEC intra-conference games this season. Alabama (3-0), Florida (2-0), Georgia (2-0) remain perfect on the road this season in SEC games.
SEC intra-conference games remain among the most competitive in the nation. In 29 intra-conference games, 19 have been decided by 10 points or less (65.5 percent), the second highest percentage among NCAA FBS conferences in the nation.
The average scoring margin in SEC intra-conference games is 12.17 points per game, third among NCAA FBS conferences.

No comments: