Week 13 might have been light on competitive games, but plenty transpired on Saturday. We took a look around the conference at who’s hot and who’s ice cold heading into rivalry week.

HOT

  • Arkansas’ defense. Two straight games against ranked opponents, two straight shutout victories for the Razorbacks. Arkansas has quietly had one of the best defensive lines in the conference all season, and that group is allowing the rest of the defense to shine just as brightly. The Razorbacks forced Ole Miss into 3 turnovers, sacked Bo Wallace twice and limited the Rebels to 316 total yards.
  • Missouri’s second-half execution. Last week, Russell Hansbrough went crazy on Texas A&M in the third quarter to drive the Tigers to victory. Against Tennessee, Maty Mauk went off in the fourth to lead Mizzou to victory. Mauk tossed 2 TD in the fourth and had more yards in the final frame than he did in the first three. Missouri keeps finding ways to win, and they’re a game away from clinching another divisional title.
  • Georgia’s running game. There really is no stopping the Bulldogs. Nick Chubb rang up 113 yards on 9 carries, but Georgia still went for 5.6 yards per carry on runs by everyone else outside of their star freshman. The Bulldogs offensive line deserves all the praise in the world for clearing running lanes for the litany of running backs who have logged carries this year.

NOT

  • The referees. Each and every week, SEC officials seem to make one baffling call after another. This week, there were at least two botched calls in the Alabama game that impacted the final score, a bizarre kickoff sequence in the Missouri-Tennessee contest and a handful of pass interference calls around the conference that had coaches up in arms. The SEC might have the best group of teams in the country, but the officials lag behind.
  • Alabama opening quarters. Both Alabama and Auburn got off to shaky starts against FCS competition on Saturday. The Crimson Tide led 10-7 after one quarter after allowing Western Carolina to march down the field on its opening drive, while Auburn was held scoreless until midway through the second quarter and trailed 7-0 for a time. If these two teams want to impress voters, they’ll have to come out with a little more fire when they face off in the Iron Bowl.
  • Soft schedule critics. Western Carolina and Samford gave Alabama and Auburn serious challenges early on, respectively, while South Carolina was locked in a battle with South Alabama, a Sun Belt team, for most of the afternoon. Every conference schedules its share of pushover games, but for some reason the SEC takes the most heat for it.