We remember the names and the places during a college football season. We also remember the numbers.
Numbers never lie.
Here are some of the figures from this season that we won’t soon forget. They tell the story of the entire season.
0.143 – Winning percentage for the SEC East teams against the SEC West. The East won only two of 14 games this season, with the only wins being Georgia over Auburn and Florida over Ole Miss. Tennessee, South Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky and Vanderbilt all went winless against the West.
1 – Wins by Missouri in conference play in 2015. It was the first time a division champion the previous year finished the following year with only one conference win since the SEC switched to two divisions in 1992. The previous record was two wins by Alabama in 1997 after winning the SEC West in 1996. Missouri was the two-time defending SEC East champion.
2 – Wins by Auburn in the conference after being ranked No. 6 in the country in the preseason. It was the first time since the division play started that an SEC team ranked so high did so poorly in conference play.
3 – Consecutive 1,000-yard seasons by Arkansas RB Alex Collins. How rare is that? Very. It’s only happened two other times in SEC history. The only others were Georgia’s Herschel Walker and Arkansas legend Darren McFadden. Will Collins come back and try for four?
4 – Number of field goals missed by Alabama’s Adam Griffith to start the season. He shook it off quick and made 22 of 26 the rest of the way. Nice bounce-back.
5 – Numbers of turnovers for Alabama against Ole Miss in a 43-37 loss in mid-September. It was Alabama’s highest total of the year, by far. They’ve cleaned up their mess in dramatic fashion. It their last eight games, they turned the ball over a total of five times. That’s impressive.
6– Number of interceptions by Georgia’s Dominick Sanders. The safety was the league’s biggest thief in 2015, because his six picks led the league.
7 – Number of consecutive games with 150 yards or more to start the season for LSU’s Leonard Fournette. That was one impressive start.
8 – Number of bowl wins by SEC teams this season, the first time in bowl history that one conference won so many games. The league was 8-2, with Florida and Texas A&M the only losers.
8.12 – That’s the yards per carry for Georgia’s Nick Chubb this year before being lost for the season with a knee injury. It ended what might have been a spectacular year. His average was even higher than Derrick Henry (5.74) and LSU’s Leonard Fournette (6.51).
9 – The number of defensive players who had more than 100 tackles this year. Missouri’s Kendall Beckwith led the league with 152 tackles.
10 – The number of wins for the Florida Gators this season under Jim McElwain. Picked to finish fifth in the bad SEC East in the preseason, that’s an impressive total of wins, especially when you consider they lost their final three games.
11 – The number of rushing touchdowns for Tennessee QB Joshua Dobbs. That led the SEC, surprisingly, ahead of Dak Prescott and Chad Kelly.
13 – Number of interceptions thrown by Ole Miss QB Chad Kelly. He was the only SEC quarterback with a winning record to have double-digit interception totals. He was much better with the ball down the stretch, throwing only one pick in their final four games, all wins.
13 – Can’t go without mentioning Texas A&M DE Myles Garrett, who lead the league with 13 sacks.
18 – Touchdown catches by the best pair of receivers in the SEC, Ole Miss’ Laquon Treadwell (11) and Quincy Adeboyejo (7). Treadwell led the league and Adeboyejo tied for fourth.
25 – Rushing TDs from Alabama’s Derrick Henry, a new SEC record. He’s not done yet, either, hoping to add to that total in Monday night’s national championship game against Clemson.
31 – Passing touchdowns for Ole Miss’ Chad Kelly, which led the SEC. He beat out Arkansas QB Brandon Allen by one.
44 – Number of carries by Alabama’s Derrick Henry, the highest total of the season until …
46 – The very next week, when Henry carried it 46 times against Florida in the SEC Championship Game.
76 – The highest point total of the year, coming from Ole Miss against Tennessee-Martin in the season opener, a 76-3 rout. The 73-point margin of victory was the largest of the year as well, of course.
96 – Passing percentage by Georgia’s Greyson Lambert in a win over South Carolina. Lambert was 24 of 25 passing, setting an NCAA record.
154 – Margin of victory in the SEC Championship Game by teams from the SEC West while winning the game for seven years in a row. Alabama beat Florida 29-15 this year. The SEC East hasn’t won the title game since 2008.
200 – Leonard Fournette became the first back in SEC history to run for more than 200 yards in three consecutive games. He did it against Auburn (228), Syracuse (244) and Eastern Michigan (233).
210 > 31: Those were the yardage totals when Alabama’s Derrick Henry and LSU’s Leonard Fournette met in a head-to-head showdown. Henry won in a rout on Nov. 7, and the Heisman Trophy race switched in an instant.
442 – Passing yards for Arkansas QB Brandon Allen against Ole Miss on Nov. 7. It was his highest total of the year, but not by much. He also threw for more than 400 yards against Toledo and Mississippi State
564 – The number of college football wins for Steve Spurrier, Mark Richt and Gary Pinkel, three great coaches who left the SEC this year after great careers.
1,153 – Total number of receiving yards for Ole Miss’s Laquon Treadwell, which led the league. He was one of just four guys over 1,000. Calvin Ridley (Alabama), Christian Kirk (Texas A&M) and Fred Ross (Mississippi State) were the others.
2,061 – Rushing yards for Henry, also an SEC record. More to come on Monday night.
4,042 – Total passing yards by Ole Miss QB Chad Kelly, which was tops in the SEC. He was the only QB to throw for more than 4,000 yards in the league this season.
Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist and author who is covering SEC football for Saturday Down South.
