This time last week, Florida quarterback Will Grier was traveling to Missouri, Georgia tailback Nick Chubb was headed to Tennessee, and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was taking his team to LSU.
Chubb is now out for the season with ligament damage in his left knee, Grier has been suspended a full year after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, and Spurrier abruptly resigned Monday, midway through his 11th season with the Gamecocks and his 23rd in the Southeastern Conference.
If the West is best within the SEC, the East is certainly leading the way in the "next player up" mentality. Or "next coach up," for that matter.
"There are a lot of things happening," Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said this week. "For the first time in the 39 years I've ever coached, we're playing with a true freshman quarterback, so there are a lot of things going on. It's interesting, but everybody's got good depth and will make adjustments and go."
Pinkel suspended redshirt junior quarterback Maty Mauk late last month for violating team rules and has since suspended him indefinitely. Last Saturday, Mauk "favorited" multiple tweets that referenced freshman teammate Drew Lock struggling behind center during the Tigers' 21-3 home loss to the Gators.
Grier was the winning quarterback in that game, but by Monday afternoon he was standing alongside coach Jim McElwain and apologizing for taking a substance without the knowledge of Florida's training staff.
"It's amazing how fast things can change, whether through suspension or injury or whatever it may be - retirement of a coach - things do change," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "The whole thing is that it's changing for everybody. Everybody has injuries or guys banged up, or they've got somebody who has an issue off the field.
"So now you have to manage it and try to find a way to keep everybody focused on the job at hand, and most every coach and player, to a certain degree, finds comfort in the grind of it and in the routine of it."
Georgia losing a key player at Tennessee has become routine. Bulldogs receiver Malcolm Mitchell pulled a hamstring at Knoxville in 2011; during the 2013 game tailback Keith Marshall and receiver Justin Scott-Wesley suffered torn ACLs, while receiver Michael Bennett tore a meniscus.
Chubb did not tear his ACL but may not be a certainty for the start of next season, not only causing nausea for Richt but even his competitors.
"When these things happen, you feel bad for the players and the teams that are affected in that process, because they've worked hard," Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason said. "Nick Chubb is a phenomenal running back. Having played against him early in the season, I thought he was well on his way towards a Heisman campaign."
Said Kentucky's Mark Stoops: "I just have tremendous respect for him as a football player. Everything you see and read, it seems like he's a great young man, and when you see that injury, you just feel for him, because that was a devastating injury."
Vanderbilt experienced its own wave of significant injuries in August, when receiver C.J. Duncan and left tackle Andrew Jelks were lost for the season. They were expected to be two of the bigger offensive components for the Commodores, but there was at least a little consolation that Mason and his staff had time to adjust.
Adjusting was more difficult for Georgia, which lost Chubb on the first play from scrimmage last week, and it was difficult for Tennessee last month when fifth-year senior defensive end/outside linebacker Curt Maggitt suffered a hip injury during a spiraling fourth quarter against Oklahoma.
Maggitt has been shelved by injury two of his five seasons in Knoxville.
"We have responded, but you never replace an individual like Curt Maggitt," Tennessee coach Butch Jones said. "Curt means so much to our football program. On the playing field, he has developed himself into one of the elite defensive football players in this great conference, and taking that productivity off the field meant a lot because he elevated the play and the mindset of everyone around him.
"Off the field, he brings a leadership value of holding everyone accountable, so you just don't replace him."
And if having to replace a player like Chubb or Maggitt is taxing, what about having to replace a coach like Spurrier? That's what offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator Shawn Elliott has been doing since the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
Spurrier bolted with the most wins of any head coach in South Carolina history after going 86-49 with the Gamecocks, and he left Florida in 2001 as that program's wins leader after going 122-27-1 with the Gators.
"It's a whirlwind right now," Elliott said. "In time it will settle down, and it's got to. What I'm trying to do to the best of my ability right now is to manage a football team and get our focus and energy on the Vanderbilt Commodores."
McElwain is not using Grier's departure as any excuse this week as his Gators visit LSU in a showdown of undefeated teams. Tennessee and Vanderbilt had to move on from their notable setbacks weeks ago, and Sony Michel is hoping to notch his second consecutive 100-yard game after replacing Chubb last week and rushing for 145.
It's the year of adversity in the SEC East, and sympathy cards aren't welcome.
"I always say we live in a week-to-week season," Jones said, "and that every week is basically a new life and a new road on our journey."
Contact David Paschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.