I’ll be honest. It wasn’t a typical Saturday.

More times than not, I spend my Saturday’s watching 16 hours of college football. I flip back and forth between a bunch of games and I usually don’t miss much of anything. Or if I’m covering a game from the press box — something I do a handful of times each season — I can at least tune into other games and follow all the updates on social media.

Saturday wasn’t that. At all.

I was fortunate enough to experience Tiger Stadium as a fan for the first time. It was, dare I say, unbelievable. The hospitality we were shown in Baton Rouge was second to none. I want to plan my next trip back immediately.

What that meant, however, was that I caught snippets of most of the action. We tailgated — because duh — which meant that the only real updates I was getting without much of a signal came via whatever TV was on at our tailgate. Checking in on scores and tweets in Tiger Stadium was a mixed bag to say the least.

Fear not, though. Sunday was my catchup day. I read up on everything I missed.

And yes, I still learned plenty about SEC teams in Week 9:

Alabama: Terrell Lewis is officially a force to be reckoned with

Wait … why wasn’t he a force each of the past 2 weeks when he had multiple sacks in those matchups? Well, he was. But Saturday night against Arkansas, he took over a game without lighting up the sexy pass-rusher stats. He had 6 quarterback hurries … in the first half. One of those resulted in a Trevon Diggs pick-6. He told the Alabama defensive backs that they owe him a thank-you letter. Consider Saturday night a warning letter to the SEC — as long as Lewis is healthy, he’s capable of being one of the most dominant defensive players in America.

Arkansas: John Stephens Jones might be the answer … ?

After a horrendous start from Nick Starkel and Ben Hicks sidelined with an injury, Chad Morris put the ball in the hands of Jerry Jones’ grandson for the first time this season. And … it could have been much worse. Jones completed 6-of-7 passes with a touchdown to Cheyenne O’Grady to avoid the shutout and as Morris said, “he provided a spark.” So yeah, in other words, we could see the 6th starting quarterback since Morris took over. If it’s not Starkel, Hicks or Jones, perhaps Morris would consider true freshman KJ Jefferson, who could still preserve his redshirt by starting. Whatever the case, it’s a mess in Fayetteville.

Auburn: Boobie Whitlow is playing???

I thought Whitlow was going to be out until possibly the Georgia game following knee surgery for the injury he suffered against Florida. Needless to say, I was stunned to see him suit up, much less running the Wildcat on Saturday. He didn’t look like he was at full speed, but the fact that he progressed so quickly and was able to contribute in some way is huge for Auburn. The Tigers need him to be at full strength with the likes of Georgia and Alabama still left on the schedule. D.J. Williams looked the part, but Whitlow is who Gus Malzahn trusts to be the true workhorse back.

Kentucky: This Lynn Bowden thing is far from over

Just when you thought that the Bowden thing was going to fade following the shutout loss to Georgia, Bowden lit up Mizzou even worse than he lit up Arkansas 2 weeks earlier. He ran for 204 yards and a couple scores in a blowout win, and showed everyone that this isn’t just some fun story. He can play and move the ball against a solid Power 5 defense. The interesting thing is that Sawyer Smith actually played (he completed 1 pass for 9 yards). Kentucky, with a favorable schedule to end the year, looks like it has something special going with Bowden. It seems like it’d be foolish to bail on someone who’s quickly becoming one of the most unique stories in college football.

LSU: The Tigers can be contained offensively, and still win ugly

If you told Auburn that LSU was going to be held to 23 points, it would have been thrilled. The Tigers were held under 36 points for the first time all year. A combination of failed 4th-down conversions, uncharacteristic turnovers, penalties and Auburn’s elite defense contributed to that. Joe Burrow was significantly less efficient than normal, yet LSU still found a way to grind out a 3rd win against a top 10 team. Clyde Edwards-Helaire was the man in the second half. It felt a bit like the LSU of old at times in that game. But heading into the home stretch, perhaps it was good for the defense to feel like it flexed its muscles in picking up a key win against another quality opponent.

Heading into the Alabama game, there shouldn’t be any overconfidence from the Tiger offense, which might have shown vulnerability at the best time.

Mississippi State: The defense still hasn’t turned the corner

Eeeeeek. That was a favorable matchup, despite the pregame suspension announcements. The Aggies have been a mess running the ball, and MSU didn’t seem to have much of an answer. Turnovers hurt, yes, but the Bulldogs have to be better on the road to not put a true freshman quarterback in an early hole like that (part of that was his doing). MSU looked like it had shown some progress by keeping the LSU offense somewhat contained. The Bulldogs have yet to hold consecutive Power 5 teams to under 30 points, which is completely the opposite of last year’s elite group. Saturday was another reminder of that.

Mizzou: The wheels have fallen off completely

Is Mizzou a vastly different team without Cale Garrett? Yes. Is there any excuse for the Tigers looking this bad without him? Absolutely not. That’s on Barry Odom, who lost his 2nd consecutive game — and 3rd this season — as a double-digit favorite. Against a completely 1-dimensional offense, the Tigers again fell apart on the road. A lot of that is on the defense, but what in the world happened to the Mizzou offense? Kelly Bryant has been a disaster the past couple of weeks, and the offensive line that looked so good a couple of weeks ago can’t create any running lanes. Rainy conditions or not, that cannot happen. Mizzou has played itself out of the division race and out of consideration for some November relevance.

South Carolina: The most unpredictable team in the SEC is coached by Will Muschamp

Well, either South Carolina or Mizzou owns that title. I’ll make the case for South Carolina. Coming off consecutive 4th-quarter leads against top 10 teams, the Gamecocks had an ideal start against Tennessee with a long touchdown to Shi Smith on the first play from scrimmage. And then … the wheels came off. Completely. The fact that Muschamp’s team surrendered a 24-0 run against a Vols team that was decimated at quarterback is, um, troubling. I can’t seem to figure out this team, which seems to have an extremely talented defensive line that can push around Georgia, yet it can’t slow anything down in the 2nd half against Tennessee. I give up trying to figure out South Carolina.

Tennessee: Maybe it doesn’t matter who plays quarterback?

The Vols didn’t have Brian Maurer available, Jarrett Guarantano went down and the Vols still won by 20 points as an underdog. Go figure. Credit Guarantano and J.T. Shrout for both showing the signs of life that we’ve been waiting to see from Jim Chaney’s offense. Both are probably grateful as ever that Jauan Jennings is still on this team, which has looked much more competent the past 3 weeks than it did all of September. Who knows the plan at quarterback will be moving forward with Maurer dealing with those concussions and Guarantano recovering from the broken bone in his non-throwing hand. But if the Vols continue to play with that kind of speed on defense — unlike earlier in the season — they’re going to be a far different team down the stretch than they were a month ago.

Texas A&M: The running game has life!

Hey now! The ground game that I thought was dead actually looked pretty decent against MSU. Isaiah Spiller exceeded 80 rushing yards against a Power 5 team for the first time this year. A&M benefitted from those MSU suspensions, sure, but it was a nice change of pace to see the Aggies rack up more than 200 yards on the ground against an SEC team. Kellen Mond seems to have become more comfortable using his legs to move the chains, even though Jimbo Fisher didn’t draw up his offense to look quite like this when the season began. Whatever the case, an 8-win season is still very much on the table, especially if the Aggies can run the ball like that.