Before all eyes turned to Baton Rouge for Saturday night’s SEC headliner, the rest of the conference had plenty to say. Alabama and South Carolina rolled, Auburn survived a thriller and Kentucky made a statement. Here’s what you need to know from a busy afternoon around the SEC.
East Carolina at Alabama
The Score
Alabama 48, East Carolina 10
The Story
It wasn’t pretty at first, and there were still plenty of miscues. Alabama struggled to provide a clean pocket for Keelon Russell, especially early on. They also had four penalties in the first two drives of the game. There was also the issue of Ryan Coleman-Williams and his drops that plagued him a season ago. He had two early and a fumble to start the third quarter.
Still, Alabama looked dominant outside of those miscues, and to have that many miscues early on and still win by 38 was very impressive. Russell looked impressive, finishing the day completing 60% of his passes and racking up 342 yards of total offense. His legs were the real story of the afternoon. He finished without a passing touchdown, but did have 86 yards rushing and utilized his legs all afternoon to buy time for his receivers to get open.
The Stats
227 – Alabama had 227 yards rushing on the day. That’s more than double what they averaged a season ago when they had their worst rushing attack in school history.
5 – Alabama added five rushing touchdowns on the ground.
94 – Alabama’s defense gave up 162 yards of offense on the day, but 68 of that came on one play. Alabama’s defense allowed only 94 yards on 40 plays outside of that.
Kent State at South Carolina
The Score
South Carolina 57, Kent State 0
The Story
South Carolina’s first possession resulted in a punt, a sack, and multiple negative plays. After that the similarities from last season’s offense came to an end quickly. The South Carolina offense and the Kendal Briles era got off to an incredible start in the 2026 season. The offense didn’t punt on their next eight drives. They did everything well. They ran the ball at will, averaging over seven yards per carry. The defense was solid as always, and they rotated a ton of players all afternoon.
It felt like the benchmark for this team was going to be scoring 40 points and 500 yards of offense. They put up 57 points and over 600 yards of offense. That included over 500 at the halfway point of the third quarter. It was a perfect first game for South Carolina in a pivotal season for Shane Beamer.
The Stats
82.6 – LaNorris Sellers completed 82.6% of his passes.
645 – South Carolina had 645 yards of offense. That’s the most of any game in the Shane Beamer era.
1 – South Carolina allowed just one sack all game. Granted the competition wasn’t good, but considering they’ve allowed 84 in the last two seasons combined that was refreshing.
Baylor vs Auburn
The Score
Auburn 17, Baylor 16
The Story
The best game of the day was in Atlanta. It wasn’t pretty. But, a win is a win for Alex Golesh in game one of his Auburn tenure. The offense struggled all afternoon, and the kicking game doesn’t seem to be fixed. The good news is retaining DJ Durkin as the defensive coordinator was indeed one of the best moves Golesh could have made in his first year as a head coach.
There are glaring issues with Auburn offensively, and paying over $4 million for Byrum Brown may have been the biggest. But, they also made plays when they had to. Until the final drive. Both offenses struggled all afternoon to sustain drives and find consistent success. However, in the final minutes of the fourth quarter both were able to go the length of the field for crucial scores. Baylor came very close to walking away with a win after scoring a touchdown with :09 seconds left in the game. Dave Aranda elected to go for two and the Bears were stopped short inside the 1 yard line.
The Stats
3 – Auburn QB Byrum Brown threw three interceptions in his first start for the Tigers.
3.2 – Auburn’s offense averaged just 3.2 yards per rush.
1 – Baylor scored a touchdown to cut the score to 17-16 with :09 seconds to play. They elected to go for two instead of kick the extra point. They were stopped inside the 1 yard line.
Biggest statement
Let’s go a little outside the box here, but the answer is Kentucky.
The Wildcats were one of three teams in the conference that saw their betting line go in the opposite direction towards their opponent. The Wildcats were facing FCS Youngstown State and still saw the point spread moved from 24.5 down to 21.5 before kickoff. None of that seemed to matter, and Kentucky had a great opening win for the start of the Will Stein era. The final score was 45-13 and Notre Dame transfer Kenny Minchey was fantastic. He finished with four touchdowns and over 300 yards passing.
The Wildcats will host Alabama next week.
Other Saturday Scores
Arkansas 31 North Alabama 14
Tennessee 56 Furman 9
Georgia 63 Tennessee State 3
Texas 59 Texas State 7
