Ole Miss and Texas A&M certainly don’t have embarrassing pasts when it comes to college football.
It’s just that they prefer living in the present.
Mike Elko’s Aggies and Lane Kiffin’s Rebels on Saturday removed some negative perceptions that had stemmed from recent seasons, with Texas A&M hammering LSU 49-25 in Baton Rouge and with Ole Miss turning back Oklahoma 34-26 in Norman.
Texas A&M had not won in Baton Rouge since joining the Southeastern Conference, but the Aggies went on a 35-0 run to turn an 18-14 halftime deficit into a 49-18 lead. The Aggies improved to 8-0 overall and to 5-0 in league play, winning their first eight games in a season for the first time since 1992.
“It’s not about the past,” Texas A&M second-year coach Mike Elko said afterward in a news conference. “We’ve got to stop worrying about the past, thinking about the past and talking about the past. I’m excited for what this team is doing right now. This team is doing some really special things, and I think we should enjoy it and stop focusing on last year.
“I got asked three questions on last Wednesday’s SEC media call about last year, and I just don’t understand why we can’t just enjoy what’s happening. We’re an 8-0 football team.”
The Aggies lost their first six games against LSU following their 2012 SEC arrival but finally have back-to-back victories over the Tigers. Texas A&M still needs to shake its reputation of collapsing in November, having gone 1-3 in that month last year and 7-9 in the last four.
While Texas A&M and Alabama remain the only SEC teams undefeated in league play, there may not be a conference member set up better in the College Football Playoff picture than Ole Miss. The Rebels are 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the conference, and they don’t have to leave the Magnolia State the rest of the way after trips the past two weeks to Georgia and Oklahoma.
“Obviously we would like to be undefeated,” Kiffin said, “but I think if people at the beginning of the year had said we would win all of the ones at home and split these two we just played, we would be feeling all right. I’m proud of our guys, because we just played an elite defense.
“They were giving up nine points a game.”
Ole Miss had not defeated a ranked SEC foe on the road since Kiffin took over in Oxford in 2020, and he insists the playoff picture is not being discussed. None of the four remaining opponents for the Rebels — South Carolina, The Citadel, Florida and Mississippi State — currently possesses a winning record.
“That’s not even our language, whether that’s right or wrong,” Kiffin said. “I don’t talk to them about that — playoffs and where you’re ranked. I just don’t. I used to, but this is about staying in the process. That’s probably because I coached for those three years under Coach (Nick) Saban.
“You can get caught up in all that noise, or rat poison as he says, and none of that matters.”
The third SEC coaching casualty of the season occurred Sunday night, when LSU announced that it had parted ways with Brian Kelly.
Kelly, who was in his fourth year with the Tigers and had a 10-year contract, finished with a 34-14 overall record at LSU, having lost at least three games every season. This year’s team is 5-3 and has yet to score more than 25 points against a power conference foe.
Tennessee graduate transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar not only leads the SEC with 293.0 passing yards per game, his efficiency rating of 162.82 edges out the 162.63 of Alabama’s Ty Simpson for tops in the league.
Aguilar’s 396 aerial yards in Saturday night’s 56-34 trampling of Kentucky at Kroger Field set a new high for the Josh Heupel era in Knoxville, and it was barely six months after Aguilar committed to the Volunteers following Nico Iamaleava’s abrupt departure.
“You watch the video and you talk to him, and you feel like he’s made up of the right things,” Heupel said late Saturday night, “but you still don’t know what you’ve got until the lights come on. He’s super composed. He’s never too high or too low. He’s a fierce competitor who’s tough physically and mentally.
“Those are winning traits.”
Some Tennessee tidbits: The Vols rank second nationally in scoring offense (45.6 points per game) and 112th in scoring defense (allowing 30.9 points per contest). … Right tackle David Sanders Jr. became the first true freshman to start on Tennessee’s offensive line since left tackle Wanya Morris in the Gator Bowl after the 2019 season. … The Vols lead the nation with 13 forced fumbles. … In terms of wins that one SEC team has against another league member, Tennessee’s 86 triumphs over Kentucky rank second behind Alabama’s 88 over Mississippi State. … Wildcats coach Mark Stoops on the troubling night against the Vols: “They can score and make a lot of people look that way.”
The first Associated Press college football poll came out in 1936.
In 1937, Vanderbilt climbed to No. 7 in the rankings after a 5-0 start before losing 14-0 to Georgia Tech at Grant Field. On Sunday, the Commodores moved up a spot to No. 9, their highest ranking since.
Coach Clark Lea described Saturday’s 17-10 topping of Missouri as “ugly,” with the Commodores prevailing despite producing only 13 first downs and 265 total yards. Lea also said that ugly wins count as wins, too, for a roster that he continues to appreciate more and more each week.
“We call ourselves misfits,” Lea said. “All of us have scuff marks. There isn’t one of us who was wanted anywhere else. It’s just who we are.
“It’s the chip on our shoulder, and I feel so lucky to be around a group that embraces that.”
Vanderbilt was the only home team to win Saturday among the SEC’s seven head-to-head matchups.
After going 1-for-4 on field-goal attempts in the 23-17 overtime loss to Missouri, Auburn kicker Alex McPherson made all six of his tries during Saturday’s 33-24 victory at Arkansas.
The 5-foot-9, 160-pound redshirt junior from Fort Payne was a Lou Groza Award semifinalist in 2023 but has battled gastrointestinal issues, which knocked him out of all of last year except for the win at Kentucky. His six made field goals tied an Auburn record set by Al Del Greco in 1982 and matched by Daniel Carlson in 2016, and he would be 31-of-33 on career field-goal attempts were it not for the loss to Mizzou.
“He was the first one in my office Monday to say, ‘I’m sorry, Coach. I lost that game for you,'” Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said in Fayetteville. “I said, ‘Dude, I believe in you. You’ll make the next one.’ Then he ties the school record today with six.
“What a redemption story that is, and I’m thrilled for him.”
Jeremiah Cobb pounded out 28 carries for 153 yards for the Tigers, who experienced a change at quarterback from Jackson Arnold to Ashton Daniels. Freeze did not say that change was permanent and that he would know more about the plan moving forward on Monday.
Arkansas fell to 2-6 with its loss to Auburn, which includes an 0-3 mark under interim coach Bobby Petrino.
Petrino’s chances of earning the job on a permanent basis appear to have evaporated, and now it’s a matter of keeping things together.
“When you lose, it always challenges your attitude and your work ethic and how you’re going to respond,” Petrino said. “Everybody in that room is still working hard to make their brand better, and I expect them to continue to come out and continue to work hard at that.”
Razorbacks quarterback Taylen Green had rushed for at least 60 yards in five of his first seven games this season — including 151 against Arkansas State and 115 versus Ole Miss — but carried seven times for 14 yards against Auburn. Green also threw three interceptions against the Tigers.
Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State and South Carolina are a combined 1-18 in SEC play, with the only win South Carolina’s 35-13 thumping of Kentucky.
And yet Mississippi State and South Carolina were within a whisker of field-stormings Saturday.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.