SEC Nuggets to Know for Week 12: Stats and historical context

Here’s a look at some eye-popping stats and historical context entering Week 12 for select games. This week, we focus on the three matchups involving ranked SEC teams.

CHARLESTON SOUTHERN at No. 3 ALABAMA

Simply put, Alabama RB Derrick Henry is on pace to have the best season of any Tide running back in history. He has more rushing yards through 10 games than anybody to suit up for the school, and he’s on pace to break Trent Richardson’s single-season rushing mark of 1,679 in 2011.

Here’s a list of Alabama’s all-time leaders in rushing yards through 10 games of a season, and Henry easily tops it.

Henry’s on pace to have the best season of any Bama back in multiple ways. He’s also on pace to finish with the most rushing TDs in a single season. He only needs 3 more to break Richardson’s record of 21 in 2011.

How has Henry enjoyed this production? Well, the 6-foot-3, 242-pounder can obviously deal with contact. Amazingly, the junior has registered 70 percent of his rushing yards this season after first contact. He enters the Charleston Southern game with 1,016 of his 1,458 yards coming after contact, and he has 100 YAC in each of the last four games. Meanwhile, he’s set new season-bests in each of the last two weeks by getting 82 percent of his output from YAC against LSU before getting 89 percent of it against Mississippi State.

FLORIDA ATLANTIC at No. 8 FLORIDA

Florida redshirt freshman QB Will Grier lost the appeal for his year-long suspension on Friday. Here’s a comparison between Grier and sophomore Treon Harris in games they started. I counted the season-opener against New Mexico State as a start for both quarterbacks since they both split opportunities so evenly in that game: Grier was 15-for-17, 164 passing yards, 2 TDs. Harris was 14-for-19, 215 yards, 2 TDs.

Grier shined in his efficiency, completing his passes at a rate that was a little more than 10 percent better than Harris. When looking at the passing yardage, keep in mind Grier had thrown for 200 yards in each of his last three games. Harris has done so in two of the last four games along with that season-opening performance.

Jim McElwain is now just one win away from surpassing Urban Meyer (2005), Steve Spurrier (1990), Galen Hall (1985) and Ray Graves (1960) for the most wins in a first season as Florida’s head coach. McElwain is already the first head coach in Gators history to debut with seven SEC victories.

Please note for Galen Hall’s 1985 campaign, that was his first full season as the Gators’ coach.

No. 17 LSU at No. 25 OLE MISS

The bad news for LSU? It’s coming off back-to-back losses. The good news? The Tigers have never lost three straight since Les Miles took over as coach in 2005, the only SEC team to not endure a three-game losing streak over that span. In fact, this is only the third time that LSU had even lost consecutive games.

Leonard Fournette was on pace for just about every record in the book until his recent dip in production over the last two games. However, Fournette is still well within reach of the school’s single-season rushing mark held by Charles Alexander in 1977. Fournette is 213 yards away from passing Alexander entering this week’s matchup with the Rebels, who are 6th in the SEC in rush defense, allowing 125.7 yards per game.

It’s time to start paying some attention to LSU junior kicker Trent Domingue, who’s been named as a semifinalist for the prestigious Lou Groza Award that goes to the nation’s top kicker. Domingue is a perfect 10-for-10 on the season, the only kicker perfect on field goal tries left this season. Domingue is trying to become just the 6th qualifying kicker over the last 10 years to finish the season perfect on field goal attempts. To qualify, a kicker must play in 75 percent of his team’s games. Here’s a look at the only perfect kickers over the last 10 seasons.

I included Domingue on this list just to show his standing although he has a few games to go before he can officially join this list.

Talal Elmasry

Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.