24 things you need to know from SEC’s Week 13

Can you believe 13 weeks are already in the books and only rivalry week remains in the regular season? I can’t either.

Week 14 will be a massive week for the SEC, College Football Playoff and college football. The SEC East and West are still up for grabs, and it’s all coming down to the final week of the season.

Here are the SEC’s biggest takeaways from Week 13:

Main SEC takeaways

11: Florida, South Carolina and Arkansas all became bowl eligible Saturday with wins. Now, the SEC has 11 teams that are bowl eligible, and all seven SEC West teams are heading to bowls. That’s a remarkable feat. Now, Tennessee and Kentucky remain as the SEC’s last chance to make it 13 against Vanderbilt and Louisville Saturday, respectively.

Missouri still in control: Against all doubters, Missouri continues winning. The Tigers have won 10 straight road games dating back over the last two seasons, and they remain in control of the East over Georgia. Missouri has to beat Arkansas to make it back-to-back years to Atlanta, but the Hogs are red hot…Georgia has one more shot for Mizzou to fall.

186-33: That’s how bad four SEC schools hammered FCS schools Saturday. Kirk Herbstreit had some tough words for SEC schools playing FCS schools this morning, and Western Carolina’s head coach slammed Herbstreit for his comments. It made for a pretty entertaining Saturday. Florida beat Eastern Kentucky 52-3. Georgia hammered Charleston Southern 55-9. Auburn beat Samford 31-7, and Alabama beat Western Carolina 48-14.

Alabama 48, Western Carolina 14

Banged up: Alabama suffered several injuries Saturday ahead of this week’s Iron Bowl. Amari Cooper went down with a knee injury, and Brian Vogler and ArDarius Stewart both suffered injuries. Here’s an update on the Crimson Tide’s injuries after the game. Alabama is a banged up bunch heading into Saturday’s game against Auburn.

Started slow: Western Carolina went up 7-0 and cut Alabama’s lead to 17-14 in the second quarter. It wasn’t a quick start to the game for the Tide’s offense, and Alabama has to start much quicker against Auburn, a team that likes to keep its foot on the pedal. It’s concerning that Western Carolina threw for 221 yards and two touchdowns against the Tide’s secondary.

Arkansas 30, Ole Miss 0

Bowl eligible: Not only did Arkansas gain bowl eligibility, but the Hogs put a beatdown on No. 8 Ole Miss. Who saw that one coming? Sure you did. After starting 0-13 in SEC play, Bret Bielema has everyone believing he’s building something. You saw the tears before the game on Senior Day hugging Trey Flowers. Arkansas’ players and fans are buying in, and once he has his players in Fayetteville, the Hogs could be very dangerous. Now, they get a shot to knock off another ranked opponent in Missouri and ruin the Tigers’ SEC East title hopes.

History: Saturday marked the first time in Arkansas’ football history the Hogs blanked back-to-back SEC opponents. And they did it to get bowl eligible. The Hogs are the first unranked team to shutout two ranked opponents since 1942.

No playmakers: Ole Miss has a nasty defense, but the Rebels have no playmakers on offense. Obviously, when Bo Wallace turns the ball over four times, the Rebels won’t many games at all, but since Laquon Treadwell went down, it exposed the Rebels’ offense for the lack of playmakers. There’s no running game. There’s nobody who scares opponents on offense. The threat was eliminated once Treadwell went down.

Missouri 29, Tennessee 21

Too much to handle: Josh Dobbs will be sore Sunday. Missouri’s defensive line ate up Tennessee. The Tigers had six sacks and kept the Vols’ offense out of the end zone until the final two minutes of the game. How’s that for a statement?

Finding a way: It’s rarely pretty with Missouri, but the Tigers have won 10 straight road games over the last two seasons. It usually takes all four quarters — South Carolina, Texas A&M and Tennessee — to find a way to win, but Mizzou just keeps getting it done. The Tigers closed it out with two fourth-quarter touchdowns and some lucky breaks on the two onside kick attempts.

Tennessee will go bowling: The Vols will be the SEC’s next team to punch their ticket to a bowl game this Saturday against Vanderbilt, who was throttled by Mississippi State Saturday. Tennessee’s O-line was just manhandled by the Tigers, the story of the season thus far. Finishing the regular season 3-1 and winning a bowl game will be nice momentum. This isn’t really a setback.

Georgia 55, Charleston Southern 9

Red hot: Is Georgia the SEC’s hottest team? If I’m Alabama or Mississippi State, I don’t want to play the Bulldogs and their nasty running game in Atlanta, and Georgia could be the SEC’s biggest wrecking ball with respect to the College Football Playoff. The Bulldogs have outscored opponents 152-47 since the loss to Florida.

Dynamic Duo: Hutson Mason and Nick Chubb are turning into quite the duo. Mason threw for three touchdowns, and Chubb rushed for 113 yards and two touchdowns on just nine carries.

Scoring machine: The Bulldogs’ offense is a well-oiled machine. Aside from the Florida game, Georgia has scored 34 points or more in every game.

Auburn 31, Samford 7

Offense needs a jumpstart: Auburn needs to start fast Saturday against Alabama, the direct opposite of what happened against lowly Samford. They’re sluggish, and they’re just not clicking. Last season, it took the offense halfway through the year to get firing on all cylinders. Tre Mason and the O-line was a massive part of that, but the offense just hasn’t starting looking like the offense we all thought prior to the season.

Rushing towards history: Cameron Artis-Payne became the fifth Auburn player to rush for over 1,400 yards in one season. He finished with 129 yards and one touchdown against Samford, and he’s the SEC’s leading rusher heading into rivalry week.

South Carolina 37, South Alabama 12

Bowl eligible: With South Carolina’s win over South Alabama, the Gamecocks became bowl eligible.

Forget about the struggles: Should South Carolina finish 7-5 with a win over Clemson Saturday, will Steve Spurrier forget about this year’s struggles? A win over Georgia, Florida and Clemson in the same year would make Spurrier’s season. Would Spurrier call it a career? I’m kidding, kind of.

Too many fumbles: Mike Davis turned into TJ Yeldon this week and fumbled twice. That isn’t exactly a great look when Davis has pretty much stated he’s heading to the NFL. The Gamecocks and Jaguars combined for 10 turnovers. Ugly.

Florida 52, Eastern Kentucky 3

Bowl eligible: Florida will play in a bowl game this year after notching its sixth win of the season, and defensive coordinator DJ Durkin will coach the team, as Will Muschamp’s last game will be against Florida State.

Best game of his career? Treon Harris started and didn’t look great, but Jeff Driskel played one of the best games of his career. Driskel finished 9 of 11 for 164 yards and four total touchdowns. Harris will start against FSU, but the last quarterback to beat FSU was Driskel…in Doak Campbell Stadium.

One-game season: Florida fans may forgive Will Muschamp’s underwhelming career if the Gators beat Florida State Saturday.

Mississippi State 51, Vanderbilt 0

Back on track: We knew this would be a lopsided game, but MSU has much more momentum heading into the Egg Bowl than Ole Miss. But throw all of that out in a rivalry game.

Redemption: Vanderbilt is one of the country’s worst teams, but redemption can be had by the Commodores should they upset Tennessee Saturday and knock the Vols out of bowl contention.