On the quietest of SEC Saturdays — with one game wiped off the original six-game slate, for now at least, and one game pushed to an oddball Sunday kickoff by the effects of Hurricane Matthew — two of the four games resonated loudly in setting up Week 7 and, possibly, the rest of the fall.

Tennessee ran out of good karma and insane ways to stay unbeaten, at last, but not before another near-magical comeback in College Station that went the distance and then some.

Then Alabama went into Fayetteville and reminded Arkansas how far it still has to go to be elite.

Now Bama and Texas A&M are the league’s only unbeatens, putting us right in the middle of a round-robin of sorts among arguably the three elite teams in the SEC. The Aggies will happily take the week off after being pushed to the limit before facing the Tide in two weeks in a potential battle of undefeated teams in Tuscaloosa.

And all that stands in the way of that in Week 8 is the marquee matchup of Week 7 in Knoxville between surging Alabama and a Tennessee team that’s got to be running on fumes at this point. Well, at least we’ll find out on Saturday.

So let this revealing round-robin of SEC football continue as we cruise into mid-October:

Mississippi State at BYU, 10:15 p.m. (ET) Friday: No sugar-coating it — the Bulldogs embarrassed themselves last week at home against Auburn with a shot to go back over .500 in the SEC, and the boo birds were out in Starkville before the first half ended.

Now the beleaguered Bulldogs have to travel all the way to Provo, Utah, on a short week no less, to play a BYU team that is sky-high coming off a thorough victory at Michigan State. Were the reeling Spartans overrated? Probably.

But it was still extremely impressive, and if BYU can rush for 260 yards on the road against Michigan State, what are they going to do at home against the weary Bulldogs, who allowed Auburn to rush for 228 yards?

The Friday night game will be all about the mental stamina of Dan Mullen’s team — as in, how much does Mississippi State have left?

Vanderbilt at Georgia, noon (ET) Saturday: Because of Hurricane Matthew, the Bulldogs got to experience Williams-Brice Stadium on a Sunday, and they enjoyed themselves like it was a regular old Saturday. More important, a healthy, revitalized Nick Chubb re-emerged, ripping off 121 yards and two touchdowns.

It gets better. Chubb’s running mate, Sony Michel, also got rolling, rushing for 133 yards as the Bulldogs regained their moxie and recaptured their identity in time for a possible run at the SEC East title in the second half of the season.

“Georgia football, we’re going to run the football,” Michel told reporters afterward.

Poor Vandy looks to be catching Georgia at the wrong time, as the Bulldogs go home now and focus on improving on the season-high 326 yards rushing they rolled up on a decent Gamecocks defense. Tennessee’s loss to Texas A&M brought Georgia right back into the SEC East race, and the Bulldogs discovered the way to win is to pound the rock and take the pressure off freshman Jacob Eason. Sticking to that physical formula this week will produce a lopsided win over a Vanderbilt team that just allowed 258 yards rushing to mediocre Kentucky.

Alabama at Tennessee, 3:30 p.m. (ET) Saturday: The Vols ran out of miracles last week and got what they deserved. Their troubling trend of starting slow also continued, and if that happens yet again Alabama won’t let them back in like Virginia Tech, Florida, Georgia and Texas A&M all did.

This will be Tennessee’s greatest challenge, not just because it’s big, bad Bama, but because it’ll be the Vols’ fourth consecutive week in the prime SEC showdown slot. You would think the first three drama-filled games have taken a ton out of Tennessee, and now the adrenaline that comes from being undefeated is gone, too. Meanwhile, the Tide looked fresh and right at home on the road against Arkansas last week, and it can smell that clash of unbeatens with idle Texas A&M next week in Tuscaloosa.

This is the fork in the road for Tennessee’s season, with its grip on the SEC East at stake and a bye week and a slew of soft games the rest of the way on its possible path to Atlanta.

Missouri at Florida, 4 p.m. (ET) Saturday: Life is about timing, as is college football. And this might be the worst possible time to be getting the Gators, and in Gainesville. Florida is coming off that unintended bye week caused by Hurricane Matthew, and the Gators were widely criticized for not figuring out a way to play that game last week against LSU, or at least reschedule it for later this fall.

The latter will probably happen eventually. For now, the Gators are coming off a weekend of serious cabin fever and also are finally getting Luke Del Rio back under center after he missed two games with a sprained left knee.

So into The Swamp comes a Missouri team coming off a scheduled bye after being shredded for 42 points by the same LSU team that was supposed to be in Gainesville last week. The inconsistent Drew Lock couldn’t do much of anything against the Bayou Bengals defense, and it’s hard to see things going much differently against a strong Gators defense that is rested and ready to hit someone else.

Oh, and things are looking up suddenly for UF in the SEC East, with Tennessee finally losing last week and facing Alabama on Saturday. The Gators aren’t about to spoil their newfound title hopes.

Ole Miss at Arkansas, 7 p.m. (ET) Saturday: The red-hot Chad Kelly had an interesting bye week back in Buffalo at his brother’s high school football game. Kelly can channel that adrenaline in a better way Saturday against a Razorbacks defense that’s gotten burned against SEC powers Texas A&M and Alabama.

Now, Kelly and that explosive Rebels offense get their crack at Arkansas, which allowed 517 total yards against Bama. And while the Hogs had 473 total yards, only 73 came on the ground behind an offensive line in shambles, and failure to possess the ball and keep Kelly off the field could be their undoing in another showdown, national TV game at home.

Southern Mississippi at LSU, 7:30 p.m. (ET) Saturday: The Ed Orgeron Feel Good Train was sidetracked by Hurricane Matthew.

But the Tigers are, amazingly, still very much in the SEC West hunt, they’re fresh now after an off week, and look for them to roll up some big numbers, whether Leonard Fournette is back or not, against a Southern Miss team that just gave up 55 points to Texas San Antonio.