Some weeks, it feels like we throw a lot of what we learned out the window. Others, it feels like we see trends confirmed and paying attention the previous month was a good idea.

Week 7 fell like more of the latter.

We knew that Auburn was trending in the wrong direction offensively, and it felt like Tennessee was building some confidence. We knew that Florida was gaining confidence to rally and that Vandy was, well, Vandy (sorry Vandy).

Having said that, we still learned plenty of things in Week 7:

Alabama — Alabama is one (Tua) injury from being a very different team

That’s not to say that the Tide couldn’t win with Jalen Hurts. Obviously. They have. A lot. But Alabama is still completely different just in terms of how efficient the offense is when Tua Tagovailoa is out there. We got a good reminder of that Saturday night when Tagovailoa’s knee injury turned the mute button on the entire state of Alabama. Nick Saban said that Tagovailoa could have returned, but still, even with Hurts’ improved passing this group can look much different just like that.

Arkansas — How valuable Ty Storey and Rakeem Boyd are

I would have liked to have seen Storey and Boyd stay healthy for that entire game. The Hogs needed them to close it out. Instead, they couldn’t sustain drives and they let a win slip away. It’s too bad because Boyd and Storey were both in the midst of huge nights before they were unavailable down the stretch. Arkansas has a much better chance of getting Chad Morris’ first FBS win at Arkansas with them out there. Here’s hoping they will be.

Auburn — There was a new low

Woof. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, Auburn lays an egg like that. Gus Malzahn’s offense sputtered yet again and lost at home as a 16-point favorite to a Tennessee team that hadn’t won an SEC game since November 2016. Even worse was the fact that Jarrett Stidham made awful decisions and the Auburn defense was suddenly vulnerable in the passing game against a Tennessee offense that struggled in that department. Can it get much worse for the Tigers?

Florida — The Gators can rally with Dan Mullen

That seemed like a game that the previous coaching staff would have had zero chance to come back in. Instead of panicking and throwing a million times, Mullen trusted his offense to pick up yards with the ground game — it was doing that when the Gators dug themselves an early hole — and put up points. It’s one thing to rally back from down a touchdown. It’s another to rally for the program’s biggest road comeback ever. Kudos.

Georgia — The Dawgs hadn’t been tested and it showed

I make a lot of horrible game picks. Really. It’s not my strength. But I had LSU beating Georgia for months because I hated the way the schedule set up. Nobody that the Dawgs had to play could prepare them for LSU. Nobody. In a hostile environment, Georgia saw an LSU team that was playing its fourth ranked team of the year, including its third top-10 opponent. The Dawgs couldn’t adjust to that kind of speed. Can they later this year? Absolutely, but that was a dose of reality in every way for a young team.

Kentucky — It pays to have a bye week

Go figure that the disrespected Cats would need a bye week to jump up 4 spots in the Associated Press Top 25. It helped that 7 ranked teams fell, including 1-loss teams like Penn State and Washington, both of which should have been ranked behind Kentucky when it was unbeaten. Now, the schedule is setting up well for the No. 14 Cats to get into that Georgia matchup as a borderline top-10 team. Crazy.

LSU — There’s no more battle-tested team in America

So how many teams have played against 4 Top 25 teams, including 3 inside the top 10? LSU. That’s who. Saturday was a good reminder of how battle-tested the Tigers were against a Georgia team that hadn’t played a team that could really expose its mistakes. Credit Ed Orgeron for getting his team mentally prepared to play that game after a devastating loss to Florida last week. And I’m not sure if “Broadway Joe” is available for a nickname for an LSU player, but Joe Burrow is looking like a winner week after week. So are the Tigers.

Mississippi State — That Auburn win won’t be quite top-10 worthy

I think MSU fans knew this last week — everyone should have — but Auburn wasn’t exactly elite as its No. 8 ranking indicated when the Tigers and Bulldogs faced off 9 days ago. The Tigers losing to Tennessee in that fashion doesn’t change the fact that the Bulldogs got their running game going against a stout defense the last time we saw them. But anyone holding on to hope that the Auburn win was going to hold up for an entire season was disappointed with Saturday’s developments.

Mizzou — The defensive progress is evident

I don’t think the Tigers are by any means a dominant defense yet, but I do believe this unit is better than it was last year. Significantly. After that long touchdown pass on the first series, Mizzou actually held its own defensively. That’s an Alabama team that led the nation in scoring, and even before Tua Tagovailoa went down, it wasn’t imposing its will in the same fashion it usually does. On a night that the Tigers lost Terez Hall to a targeting call, that was an encouraging sight in the midst of a 3-game SEC losing streak. And, um, you be the judge if Hall deserved to get tossed.

Ole Miss — The Rebels can handle a little adversity

I know Storey and Boyd were injured, but Jordan Ta’amu pulled off a road SEC comeback after trailing by 3 scores. Those aren’t easy, no matter the opponent. There aren’t many quarterbacks who could pull that off and put up over 500 yards of offense in the process. In fact, only Archie Manning had more yards in a game of any Ole Miss quarterback ever. For a team that isn’t playing for a postseason berth, it’s impressive to see a group show resolve like that when it could have thrown in the towel in crappy conditions on the road.

South Carolina — Fan patience is running thin with Jake Bentley

In Bentley’s defense, his receivers didn’t help him very much Saturday. There were drops galore, but there were still too many inaccurate throws for the home crowd’s liking. The home crowd brought out the boo birds early for an offense that needed a late touchdown just to get past the 20-point mark. Bentley did have a huge third quarter and he handled the boo birds well, but still. After Michael Scarnecchia delivered a comeback win against Mizzou a couple weeks ago, the quarterback controversy isn’t going anywhere.

Tennessee — The Vols can put together 60 minutes against an SEC team

I don’t think anybody was expecting Tennessee to sink Auburn to a new low. That’s exactly what the Vols did. For the first time in the Jeremy Pruitt era, they played a complete game. Jarrett Guarantano played out of his mind, as did those Vols receivers. The downfield passing game never looked better, which Tyson Helton deserves plenty of credit for. And obviously, Pruitt gets credit for making some key adjustments during the bye week and getting pressure on a struggling offense. The Vols aren’t the doormat they were last year.

Texas A&M — Braden Mann for Heisman?

We knew that Mann could punt the ball a mile. The guy came into the weekend with the FBS lead in yards per punt. He boomed another 67-yarder on Saturday. What else did he do? He forced a fumble.

The punter forced a fumble:

Move over, Tua. Here’s your Heisman, America.

Vanderbilt — Derek Mason can get down

By “get down,” I mean that Mason isn’t taking anything from anybody. We’ve seen him fire up his team before. Shoot, I’m pretty sure the guy can fire up the media. But getting in a shouting match with Dan Mullen and Todd Grantham was a different level of intense. Even though both coaches made nice, Mason showed everyone that he’s not afraid to stand up for his players when he feels they’ve been wronged.

By the way, I’m definitely taking Mason to win a cage fight.