14 biggest takeaways from the SEC's Separation Saturday

While everyone expected it to be Separation Saturday, it was more like Mayhem Saturday. Three of the top four teams in the country — four of the top six — lost this week. The SEC remains in great position to land two teams in the College Football Playoff, and both teams from the state of Mississippi are in beautiful position to make a serious run in 2014.

Here are the Week 6 biggest takeaways:

Mississippi is still partying: How about Mississippi State and Ole Miss? We knew going into this year both teams would be good, but did you expect both to be ranked in the top 10 after Week 6? Perhaps even more impressive, College GameDay guest picker Katy Perry picked both games right. Has the state of Mississippi taken over the state of Alabama this season in football prowess? The country questioned both Mississippi schools, but both delivered unforgettable wins on the country’s biggest stage. This sums it up best.

College football trio: The SEC has the three best players in college football in 2014. Georgia’s Todd Gurley, Alabama’s Amari Cooper and Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott could all three be sitting in New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Of course, Oregon’s Marcus Mariota, Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon and Nebraska’s Ameer Abdullah, among others, are all in the conversation, but all three SEC players are elite and can put the team on their backs. Prescott finished with 336 total yards and five touchdowns against Texas A&M, and Gurley finished with 163 rushing yards and two touchdowns against Vanderbilt, including a 50-yard pass completion. Cooper finished with nine catches for 91 yards in the loss to Ole Miss.

A real contender: Mississippi State is a real College Football Playoff contender, and Dak Prescott again delivered on the national stage. Prescott is like Tim Tebow, but he’s better. He’s a better thrower, and he doesn’t have as much talent around him as Tebow. Yeah, I said it. Josh Robinson added another 100-yard performance, including two touchdowns, and De’Runnya Wilson is blowing into a top five SEC receiver and reminds me of Alshon Jeffery. How about Richie Brown? Brown added three interceptions and seemed to know exactly where Kenny Hill would throw it before Hill did. Could MSU have the National Offensive Player of the Week and the National Defensive Player of the Week? There’s a real shot. MSU is for real!

Two for the show: Ole Miss has the SEC’s best defense — and maybe the country’s best defense, and when Bo Wallace plays like that, the Rebels can beat anyone. Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, Tim Tebow, Trevor Knight, Nick Marshall and Stephen Garcia. Those are the quarterbacks to have beaten Alabama in recent years, and Wallace added his name to the list. Wallace’s 251 yard, three-touchdown performance will make Ole Miss fans remember him forever. Hell, in 9 months, we could see the baby name “Bo” skyrocket. Dr. Bo was surgical, and it was a beautiful thing to watch. Despite managing just 72 rushing yards, the Rebels were the better overall team on the field. Remember, Ole Miss’ defense allowed just one touchdown drive, as the other Alabama touchdown came on a fumble recovery and return.

Real question: Will the Egg Bowl (Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State) be a College Football Playoff elimination game?

No. 1 team in the country? After making a statement against LSU, should Auburn be the No. 1 team in the country? The Tigers’ offense has been lethargic through five weeks, and then bang, last night happened. LSU didn’t know what hit them, and the game was over at halftime at 31-7. It took Auburn a few games into the 2013 season to get hot, and 2014 has been a similar route. Nick Marshall combined for 326 yards and four touchdowns in the blowout, and Sammie Coates reminded us why he’s high on draft boards with 144 receiving yards and one touchdown after a quiet start. The Tigers’ defense held LSU to 0-13 on third down.

A new era in Gainesville? Hard-headed Will Muschamp finally pulled Jeff Driskel after he threw three INTs, but the fact that it took Muschamp that long nearly cost him his job. Driskel is 20 of 51 for 157 yards, one touchdown and five INTs in the last two games. But there’s a new cat in Gainesville named Treon Harris, and Harris led the Gators’ offense on two scoring drives in the fourth quarter to grab the comeback victory 10-9. The Gators recorded six sacks, and pushed around the youngins on Tennessee’s O-line. Florida held the Vols to 28 rushing yards. Despite two weeks of lackluster offense, perhaps Harris gives the Gators new life at quarterback, and UF sits 3-1 and still in the SEC East race.

Ahead of schedule: What can you say about Kentucky? Had the Wildcats not lost to Florida in OT, we’re looking at a 5-0 team that could be ranked in the top 15. Just when you thought South Carolina would put the game away, the resilient Cats believed when no one else did. UK scored three unanswered touchdowns to close out the incredible 45-38 win. Kentucky is the new Vanderbilt, and they’re going to make a bowl game this season and actually contend for the division. Mark Stoops is well ahead of schedule, and Kentucky’s toughest job may be keeping him in Lexington.

The frontrunner: With Oregon’s Marcus Mariota losing Thursday night, Georgia’s Todd Gurley has to be the country’s frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy. Gurley put together another 25-carry, 163-yard and two-touchdown performance. He now has the Bulldogs’ longest pass completion of the season of 50 yards. What can’t he do? Give him the Heisman; he’s the best player in college football…and it’s not even close. Gurley has 94 carries for 773 yards and eight touchdowns in 2014.

Getting over the hump: If you’re Tennessee, you’re excited about the future. But when is this team going to turn the page and win a football game? Two weeks in a row Tennessee has let teams off the hook: Georgia and Florida. The Vols are more athletic than in recent memory — and certainly have better skill position play, but the last two weeks have been extremely disappointing coming up short in two winnable games. Now, instead of sitting 3-2 and poised for a bowl game, the Vols sit 2-3 before facing the meat of their schedule.

Ran into a buzzsaw: It wasn’t Texas A&M’s best day. Kenny Hill struggled and was very erratic, throwing three INTs, and the wide receivers didn’t help him at all. Numerous drops helped slow down the Aggies’ high-octane offense, and Dak Prescott exposed the Texas A&M defense. We saw glimpses of it against Rice, but the Aggies really struggle against zone-read offenses where the quarterback is a real threat to run it. The Aggies could realistically lose three games in a row, with Ole Miss and Alabama up next. A once-playoff contender could have three losses after eight weeks, but this is still a good football team.

Not Special Teams: It continues to hamper Alabama. The Crimson Tide missed two field goals, botched the opening kickoff, had a fumble on one kick return and a block in the back on another. Special teams still can’t get out of their own way. And how do you not continually target Amari Cooper on the final drive? Instead Blake Sims threw it to OJ Howard, who only has a handful of catches on the year, when Cooper is the guy you have to get the football to. Christion Jones’ fumble on the kickoff was a killer, and after having an explosive offense to start the season, the Crimson Tide was held to just one offensive touchdown on the day.

Worst team in the West? When was the last time LSU was completely and utterly destroyed in a football game? LSU could very well finish seventh in the SEC West behind Arkansas. That’s amazing, but it’s the reality of just how brutal the division is. Many thought LSU was catching Auburn at the right time (guilty as charged), but the Plains’ Tigers decided to raise their level of play and proceeded to torch LSU, who finished 0-13 on third downs. There’s no time to panic, and the future is very bright. But the young Tigers are going to take their licks in 2014.

Huge collapse: Once South Carolina took the 38-24 fourth quarter lead, everyone thought it was over. A couple Kentucky touchdowns later, it was like Steve Spurrier completely forgot his team had piled up 282 rushing yards on Kentucky’s defense. It was as if Spurrier erased the dominant running game from his memory, and he turned to Dylan Thompson to make the plays through the air down the stretch. And he didn’t even have to. Spurrier rarely shoulders the blame, but he totally panicked once the game got tight in the fourth quarter. How many wins can USC manage to get in 2014?