Week 1 is in the books with very few surprises regarding wins and losses. As a whole, the conference went 12-1 with all teams able to take care of business except the Vanderbilt Commodores (lost to Western Kentucky) and the LSU Tigers (McNeese State game canceled due to weather). The Texas A&M Aggies’ 38-17 victory over No. 15 Arizona State was an upset according to the polls, but the Aggies were actually the betting favorite in the game.

There were some surprises this week as to how teams arrived at victory and who attended the games:

5. Jim McElwain actually used Vernon Hargreaves III on offense in a game: In a recently published interview with Sports Illustrated, Florida coach Jim McElwain teased a package of plays on offense for preseason All-SEC CB Vernon Hargreaves III. It probably reminded Florida fans of the time Urban Meyer talked about using former CB Joe Haden as a wildcat quarterback, or Will Muschamp’s abandoned attempt to get CB Louchiez Pourifoy the ball. McElwain’s interview nugget came out of left field, and the increased injury risk for UF’s marquee defender raised a few eyebrows. Low and behold, on Saturday night, Hargreaves made his way into the offensive box score, recording a 6-yard reception against New Mexico State.

4. SEC neutral-site games struggled to fill seats: Neutral-site games, often matching up two Power 5 teams, have become a big part of college football’s opening weekend. The trend has grown from one or two games to seemingly half the primetime lineup. Unfortunately for the SEC, many of these games featured visibly empty seats.

Apparently, not enough South Carolina or North Carolina fans felt Thursday night’s game was worth a trip to Charlotte, as nearly 23,000 tickets went unsold or unused at Bank of America Stadium. Alabama and Wisconsin supporters left more than 15,000 seats vacant at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The biggest head-scratcher might be that even same-state venues for two SEC schools still failed to sell out. The official attendance (61,323) for the Tennessee-Bowling Green game was well under capacity (69,798) at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Texas A&M and Arizona State fans came slightly closer to the mark, with 64,279 fans attending the game in Houston at NRG Stadium which seats 71,795.

The Auburn faithful were most willing to travel (and had the shortest trip), with the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game against Louisville in Atlanta registering an attendance (73,297) higher than the official seating capacity (71,250) due to media credentials.

3. Willie Martinez suspension announced moments before game: This item has two surprises in one — an actual suspension of a college football assistant coach and Tennessee’s handling of the situation.

College coach suspensions are relatively rare. High school coaches occasionally make headlines for inappropriate behavior and poor sportsmanship, but the majority of college coaches manage to avoid the kind of misconduct that warrants suspension without termination.

Some schools would probably quietly announce a coach’s suspension in a Friday afternoon news dump, but UT opted to disclose Martinez’s absence roughly one hour before kickoff of the game with Bowling Green.

2. Kentucky almost choked against ULL: If an SEC team is going to get upset by a weaker opponent at home, it’s almost always expected to come in the form of a hot start by the underdog and lazy mistakes by an unfocused favorite.

The University of Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns almost flipped that script. The Wildcats led ULL 33-10 entering the fourth quarter, when suddenly UK forgot how to close out a game. The Ragin’ Cajuns rallied with 23 unanswered points to tie the game at 33 with 7:36 remaining in the game. UK went up 40-33 in the final minute and held on to claim an opening-week victory with unnecessary drama.

1. Ole Miss exploded for 76 points: After three stressful seasons of worrying about which version of former Rebels QB Bo Wallace — Good Bo or Bad Bo — would show up on Saturday, Mississippi fans got to see Clemson transfer QB Chad Kelly guide his new team to a 76-3 win over UT Martin, its biggest display of offense in 80 years (92-0 against Memphis in 1935).

That’s right — even with Eli Manning as signal caller from 2000-2003, the Rebels never scored 76 points (or cracked the 60s for that matter).