It was a thin slate, but don’t get it twisted. Week 8 had plenty of noteworthy developments in the SEC.

We had a battle of SEC teams trying to avoid that dreaded second loss, we had a battle of SEC teams trying to get that all-important first conference win, we had a battle of SEC teams with coaches in reunion games of sorts and we had a battle of SEC teams with a somewhat baffling winning streak on the line.

Oh, and then we had LSU hosting Army in October because why not?

Intrigue? Yep.

Here’s what I learned from each of the 9 SEC teams in action:

Alabama — There are comebacks, and then there’s that

Down 20-7 at the half, Alabama was tasked with doing something that it hadn’t done since the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship against Georgia. That is, overcoming a multi-score halftime deficit. The Tide did that … and then some. A 27-0 second half looked like a vintage Alabama run. Never mind the fact that it allowed Joe Milton to look like Joe Burrow in that first half. The Tide flipped it into overdrive in all 3 phases.

Jalen Milroe stopped turning the ball over and he led a pair of 3rd quarter touchdown drives. The Alabama defense held the conference’s top rushing attack to 14 carries for 33 yards in the second half and Chris Braswell set up the dagger score by sacking Milton to lead to a Jihaad Campbell scooop-and-score. Shoot, even Will Reichard drilled a 50-yard field goal. It was total domination after the break. That’s a credit to a team that’s played in 4 games this season in which it trailed at halftime, which is the most of any Nick Saban team at Alabama. Delivering a second half like that to keep Playoff hopes alive — and doing so to avenge last year’s loss in Knoxville — was the answer to a whole lot of halftime prayers.

Arkansas — Rock bottom for this offense hadn’t been reached until Saturday

Woof. Barf. Yuck.

Pick any word you want. All you need to know about this game is the Razorback faithful — one of the most loyal fanbases in the country — was filing out of the stadium in a 4-point game when a game-winning drive was still (theoretically) on the table. Zero touchdown drives. One scoring drive and it came via a short field thanks to an interception on Mississippi State’s first pass attempt of the game with a backup quarterback. The Hogs finished with 97 passing yards on 31 attempts against a Mississippi State pass defense that allowed an average of 290 passing yards against Power 5 competition.

KJ Jefferson was horrendous, and not that his offensive line or offensive coordinator did him any favors, but there was zero confidence in anything the Razorbacks did. Any hope that an offense that fought back against Alabama would show up on Saturday was out the window by halftime. Dan Enos picked an awful time to have his worst game as an offensive coordinator. The Enos experiment has “1-and-done” written all over it. Whether Sam Pittman is done remains to be seen.

Auburn — Hugh Freeze still insists on this maddening QB rotation

It was cute in early September, but we’re past that. At least we should be. Even on a night where Robby Ashford got the first reps, Freeze insisted on plenty of Payton Thorne in a 28-21 loss to Ole Miss. Ashford didn’t get consecutive series until the end of the first half. He got 4 series compared to 3 for Thorne in the first half, and with the Tigers trailing Ole Miss late, Freeze opted for his more experienced passer. A full 60 minutes of Ashford just wasn’t in the cards for Auburn, and yet, it didn’t yield anything worth noting in the passing game. Well, Auburn did rack up 77 of its 122 passing yards on its final drive, so at the very least, the Tigers have consecutive games hitting the century mark through the air (that was after 6 consecutive games of failing to do that against Power 5 competition dating to last season).

Here’s what Freeze had to say about the QB rotation afterward:

“Searching” is an understatement. Sitting on 5 first downs in the middle of the 4th quarter is a sign that better days aren’t necessarily ahead for the woeful Auburn passing game.

LSU — Yeah, Garrett Nussmeier can still sling it

You knew that Nussmeier was going to get a chance to uncork a deep ball or 2 on Saturday. No disrespect to Army, but there wasn’t a world in which Jayden Daniels and that passing game would struggle. At least not enough to make it a competitive game into the 4th quarter. That meant we got to see Nussmeier come in and do what he does best — chuck it deep without fear. On the very first drive of the second half, he did just that on a deep ball to Malik Nabers for 6:

Obviously, Nussmeier had 4 consecutive passing attempts on that first drive of the second half. Believe it or not, that pass to Nabers was only Nussmeier’s second completion of 20 yards all season. His first came back in Week 2 against FCS Grambling. He did enter for Daniels while he briefly nursed the rib injury against Mizzou, but hadn’t got to see the LSU signal-caller lead a drive in over a month. LSU’s quarterback of the future finished the night with 90 passing yards on 7-for-12 passing, but his night was more about reminding that fanbase that there’ll still be plenty of excitement for the LSU passing game in a post-Daniels world.

Mississippi State — A peak-Zach Arnett win in SEC play does exist

No Will Rogers and a banged-up Woody Marks didn’t stop Mississippi State’s offense from putting together a winning effort.

OK, just a touch of sarcasm. Bookie Watson and Mississippi State’s defense did all the heavy lifting against an Arkansas offense in total free fall.

Credit Mike Wright for stepping in and at least putting together a somewhat 1-dimensional offense on the road to pick up Mississippi State’s first SEC win of the season. He threw an interception on that opening drive, but after that, he avoided that costly turnover. Well, he did have that botched snap that Arkansas returned for a touchdown, but his receiver wasn’t set so it was wiped off the board. Still, though. Wright (mostly) did what Zach Arnett could’ve hoped. He made a huge third-down conversion on a ball he threw up to Justin Robinson that prevented the Bulldogs from punting out of their end zone. He also had the only rushing play of the entire game that went for more than 13 yards. If Wright had been careless with the football, Mississippi State would’ve coughed up a game that Arkansas had no business winning.

Mizzou — Luther Burden III is just fine

By my count, we’ve seen Burden leave a game banged up at least 4 times this year. It comes with the territory for a slot receiver who entered the weekend leading Power 5 in receptions. That included last week against Kentucky when he entered as the nation’s leading receiver, but was held to just 2 catches for 15 yards. Well, he had more than double that with 1 highlight-reel touchdown grab in the middle of the first quarter on Saturday:

Not too shabby. On Saturday, he took a hard fall on his shoulder and appeared hobbled. That didn’t appear to matter, though. He still went for a game-high 90 receiving yards on 4 grabs. Burden will now get a much-needed bye week to get healthy before the Georgia showdown. With Brock Bowers out with his ankle injury, Burden has a strong case to be considered “best player on the field” for that all-important game in Athens. If that’s true by day’s end, Burden will enter a different stratosphere of “superstar.”

Ole Miss — History finally didn’t get the last laugh

Lane Kiffin said it best. Weird things happen at Jordan-Hare Stadium. He was well aware of the fact that his team hadn’t beaten Auburn in consecutive meetings in 71 years. Go figure that the last Ole Miss coach to win at Jordan-Hare was Hugh Freeze in 2015. Well, that’s before Kiffin put an end to that against a limited Auburn team, which couldn’t muster much of anything against Pete Golding’s defense for most of the night. Just like last year in Oxford, Ole Miss took advantage of a 1-dimensional Auburn offense. And to be fair, Ole Miss was 1-dimensional itself. Quinshon Judkins accounted for 124 of 223 rushing yards against a solid Auburn defense.

Jordan-Hare Stadium was plenty engaged in a game that was tied until the last play of the 3rd quarter. Considering how tough of a game Auburn gave Georgia, it was by no means a given that a B+ effort would be good enough for Ole Miss to take care of business. Kiffin, after last year’s storyline of him potentially leaving Ole Miss for Auburn, had to take some extra satisfaction with holding on Saturday to keep those slim SEC West hopes alive.

South Carolina — Move over, pass defense woes. Defending the run is the new top issue.

In a stunning turn of events, South Carolina didn’t get gashed in the passing game. At least not after that 42-yard TD to a double-covered Luther Burden III to kick off the scoring. That pass-defense improvement didn’t slow down Mizzou’s offense, though. Cody Schrader still went off for 159 rushing yards and a pair of scores for a Tigers offense that somewhat quietly racked up 220 rushing yards on 41 carries. Even Brady Cook, who had been limited to 70 rushing yards this season because of a knee injury, got loose for a season-high 64 rushing yards.

That was a frustrating development for a team that entered the week ranked in the top 1/2 of FBS (No. 54) against the run, and was a week removed from holding a solid Florida rushing attack to 71 yards. It’s been the story of the season. Fix one issue and another pops up. Saturday was about South Carolina’s inability to get off blocks on defense and its propensity to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns.

Oh, and just to make matters worse, the Gamecocks offense that’s holding on for dear life watched star receiver Xavier Legette leave the game with an upper-body injury. Yikes.

Tennessee — Playing complete games on the road is still a major issue

If you could combine Tennessee’s first half against Alabama with the second half against Florida, you’d have a top-10 team. Unfortunately for the Vols, that’s not how football works. Even when you go into Tuscaloosa and hand the Tide their biggest halftime deficit at home since 2019 LSU, you still have to play 60 minutes to take down Nick Saban. That didn’t happen. What instead happened was the Vols had 33 second-half rushing yards, Joe Milton coughed the ball up on a scoop-and-score and Tennessee stopped consistently pressuring Jalen Milroe. That’s how you get outscored 27-0 in the second half.

In Tennessee’s 2 road games, it’s been a tale of 2 halves. Hence, the 2 losses in games that felt winnable at different points. What does that mean moving forward? It means that games at Kentucky and Mizzou are by no means a cakewalk. Whatever the case, the Vols’ division title hopes stayed in the locker room at Bryant-Denny Stadium.