The Florida offense was a major story in its 38-10 win over Ole Miss last week, but a closer look inside the numbers suggests that the Gators defense deserves plenty of credit for the team’s hot start in 2015.

Florida leads the SEC in turnover margin at +6 and is tied for the league lead in takeaways with 11. LSU is second with a +5. The Tigers have 5 fewer takeaways but only one turnover on the season.

Alabama also has 11 takeaways but has been careless with the football with 10 turnovers. Mississippi is third in the takeaway standings with 10, but its 10 giveaways create a turnover margin of zero.

Vanderbilt remains in the cellar at -6, while Mississippi State is 13th at -4. The Bulldogs reside near the bottom of the rankings in large part because they have forced a league-low 3 turnovers on the season. The Commodores have been hindered by a league-high 11 giveaways.

Here’s a look at the SEC’s turnover scoreboard through Week 5:

Rank Name Turn. Margin Fum. Rec. Int. Total Lost
1 Florida 6 6 5 5
2 LSU 5 1 5 1
3 Tennessee 4 3 4 3
4 Missouri 3 2 7 6
5 Texas A&M 2 5 3 6
6 Alabama 1 4 7 10
6 South Carolina 1 1 6 6
6 Arkansas 1 3 3 5
9 Mississippi 0 3 7 10
9 Kentucky 0 3 4 7
9 Georgia 0 2 5 7
12 Auburn -1 4 4 9
13 Mississippi State -4 0 3 7
14 Vanderbilt -6 3 2 11

Florida also tops the fumble recovery charts through Week 5 with 6 fumble recoveries. The Gators’ recovery rate is also near the top of the SEC at 54.6 percent.

Texas A&M is next with 5 fumble recoveries, while Auburn and Alabama are tied at 4.

Mississippi State is now the only SEC school that has yet to recover a fumble this season in five chances.

Georgia had a rough day against Alabama last week, but the Bulldogs did manage to recover their first two fumbles of the season.

Something tells me that doesn’t provide much comfort.

Mississippi State, South Carolina, LSU, Georgia and Missouri are all recovering fumbles at a rate of 25 percent or less on the season. It’s reasonable to expect those numbers to climb in the coming weeks as the normal recovery rate is around 50 percent.

Here’s a look at the fumble scoreboard through three weeks, indicating a team’s fumble recoveries, its own fumbles, its opponents’ fumbles and the rate for recovering those opponent fumbles so far this season:

Rank School Fumbles Rec. Opp. Fum. Fum. Lost Rec. %
1 Florida 6 11 5 54.55
2 Texas A&M 5 9 6 55.56
3 Auburn 4 11 2 36.36
3 Alabama 4 8 4 50
5 Mississippi 3 9 5 33.33
5 Vanderbilt 3 9 3 33.33
5 Kentucky 3 7 1 42.86
5 Arkansas 3 6 2 50
5 Tennessee 3 6 2 50
10 Georgia 2 9 4 22.22
10 Missouri 2 8 1 25
12 South Carolina 1 6 1 16.67
12 LSU 1 5 1 20
14 Mississippi State 0 5 7 0