Insert a “this is when the men separate themselves from the boys” line.

That’s what guys like Joe Burrow and Jarrett Guarantano did this weekend. They led their teams against elite defenses and played fearlessly.

As a result, they’re on the move in this week’s SEC Quarterback Rankings.

They weren’t the only SEC signal-callers on the rise:

14. Terry Wilson, Kentucky

Wilson was idle in Week 7, so he couldn’t move out from the bottom spot. While Wilson’s rushing abilities have been key for the Kentucky offense in that 5-1 start, we’re still talking about someone with 3 touchdown passes who has yet to rack up 170 passing yards in a game. The Cats will need more from Wilson to shock the world and win the SEC East.

13. Jake Bentley, South Carolina

Well, the third quarter was solid. But in his first game back from injury, Bentley didn’t exactly make Will Muschamp look like a genius. The Gamecocks were stuck on 16 points until a late touchdown. Part of that was on South Carolina receivers, who had a case of the drops. Still, though. Bentley is coming off consecutive starts in which he lost and he failed to complete 50 percent of his passes. He has an interception in all 4 starts vs. Power 5 teams this year, and that’s behind an offensive line that’s been much better in pass protection than in past years. Michael Scarnecchia fans are going to continue to be vocal if Bentley continues to struggle.

12. Kyle Shurmur, Vanderbilt

Shurmur got off to a nice start Saturday. He took advantage of some great field position and had the Commodores out to a stunning 21-3 lead on Florida in the first half. After that, though, here’s how each drive ended the rest of the game:

  • Punt
  • Missed field goal
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Field goal
  • Field goal
  • Interception

Those drives gained a total of 141 yards. That’s not how you beat a ranked team. Losing Ke’Shawn Vaughn was a death sentence to the Vandy offense, which struggled to sustain drives the entire second half. Shurmur has yet to complete more than 50 percent of his throws in an SEC game, and he’s averaging just 5.7 yards per attempt in conference play. That must improve.

11. Ty Storey, Arkansas

I’m becoming more of a Storey fan by the week, so you can imagine how frustrating it was to see him go down late against Ole Miss. I think Arkansas wins that game if he’s able to finish it. What I like about Storey is that his completion percentage has improved in every SEC game this year, and he’s getting more comfortable using his legs. He’s someone that Arkansas can rally around if he’s healthy.

10. Feleipe Franks, Florida

If Jim McElwain is at the controls for that second half, I think Franks falls apart and it’s a disastrous showing on the road. But with Dan Mullen pushing the buttons, Franks helped lead the Gators to their biggest road comeback in program history. Want a crazy Franks stat? That was the first time he ever completed 65 percent of his passes and threw for multiple touchdowns in the same game against a Power 5 team.

9. Jarrett Stidham, Auburn

Regression, regression, regression. Stidham might have thrown for more yards than he has all year, but his decision-making was awful. Just awful. It’s hard to survive with a poor offensive line and some bizarre play-calling, but you can’t make this throw. Ever:

I went from thinking Stidham was the No. 1 SEC quarterback to wondering if he’s going to get benched in about a month’s time. That’s crazy. But that’s what happens when you turn the ball over 3 times and lose at home as a 16-point favorite to a team that hadn’t won an SEC game in over a year.

8. Jarrett Guarantano, Tennessee

Speaking of that SEC team that hadn’t won a conference game in over a year, Guarantano was ridiculously good Saturday. We knew the guy could take a hit, but to take the hits he did and still get off some of those throws was impressive. He and Tyson Helton looked like they were on the same page all afternoon and against one of the nation’s better defenses, Guarantano balled out.

He had a career-high 328 yards — his season-high before Saturday was 172 yards — and had his second consecutive game with multiple touchdown passes and zero interceptions. After that disastrous Florida game, all Guarantano did was go on the road and put up 4 touchdown passes, 471 yards and complete 64 percent of his passes against Georgia and Auburn. Not bad at all.

7. Nick Fitzgerald, Mississippi State

A bye week for Fitzgerald allowed us to take a break from dissecting his passing numbers, but the guy is still looking for his first passing touchdown against an SEC team this year. He is coming off a dominant rushing performance against that Auburn defense, though he’ll be facing a different kind of challenge in Baton Rouge this weekend. Something tells me Fitzgerald will need to be more than a 1-dimensional quarterback on the road against a top-5 team.

6. Jordan Ta’amu, Ole Miss

A round of applause is needed for Ta’amu, who put up over 500 yards of offense and led the Rebels to their first SEC victory of the year. It was the highest single-game output by an Ole Miss quarterback since Archie Manning. That’ll go high on Ta’amu’s résumé. You know what else will? The fact that he’s thrown for at least 350 yards and rushed for 60-plus in each of his past 2 games. The only thing holding Ta’amu back from elite status is performing against a legitimate defense. He struggled against Alabama and LSU. He can address that on Saturday against Auburn.

5. Kellen Mond, Texas A&M

Go figure that Mond and Jace Sternberger have developed into one of the nation’s top connections. Sternberger racked up a career-high 145 yards and a score, which A&M needed every bit of to win on the road. Mond hit the 350-yard mark for the second time this year, and he was north of 62 percent completion percentage in the third consecutive SEC game. Mond only had that high of a completion percentage against 2 SEC foes all of last year. The sophomore is still taking too many sacks — 22 in 7 games is incredibly high — but he’s playing at a high level. It’s not a surprise that the Aggies have won 3 consecutive SEC games.

4. Drew Lock, Mizzou

Man oh man does this guy miss Emanuel Hall. Lock simply is not the same player when he doesn’t have his go-to deep threat. He did make this incredible throw for Mizzou’s first and only touchdown of the game.

Give Lock time and he’s as good as there is. But put pressure on Lock and suddenly you’ll wonder if he’s ever going to survive in the NFL. He struggled again with the heat the Tide brought, and Mizzou suffered its third consecutive SEC loss. By the way, that was Lock’s first and only touchdown pass in 110 attempts vs. SEC competition this year. It’s safe to say he’s not coming anywhere near last year’s record-setting mark.

3. Joe Burrow, LSU

Other than Urban Meyer, what coach in America wouldn’t want Burrow leading their team? Whether he’s plunging forward to pick up fourth downs or making big-time third-down conversions, Burrow just does things to win games. He bounced back from his disappointing finish at Florida and delivered the biggest win of his young career. Throwing for 200 yards and rushing for a pair of scores against that Georgia defense was no small feat.

Burrow’s intangibles are good enough to overshadow the fact that he only has 6 touchdown passes in 7 games, and that he’s stuck on 53 percent accuracy. He can hit the deep ball, he can scramble away from pressure while still making good decisions and he’s clutch. That’s the ideal trio for a quarterback.

2. Jake Fromm, Georgia

Saturday will not be a game that Fromm looks back on proudly. Obviously. It was, in my opinion, his worst career start. He looked flustered all afternoon, which I sort of expected because LSU played at a different speed than any defense Fromm and the Dawgs saw all year. Fromm had a streak of 11 consecutive starts of completing at least 50 percent of his passes dating to that Auburn loss last year. He’ll bounce back after the bye week. And if he doesn’t, well, we know the Justin Fields crowd will be out in full force.

1. Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama

Tagovailoa did the unthinkable on Saturday; he threw 6 incompletions in the first quarter. Stunning, I know. That was almost as stunned as the Alabama crowd was when Tagovailoa aggravated his knee injury in the second half. The Tide still rolled and Tagovailoa could have returned — at least that’s what Nick Saban said — but it was amazing how quickly all of our minds went to the doomsday scenario. That is, what if Tagovailoa’s injury was serious?

He didn’t quite look like himself early on, though he still managed 265 passing yards and 3 touchdowns. And yeah, the 21-0 touchdown-interception ratio is impressive, but I don’t think Tagovailoa gets enough credit for taking just 3 sacks all year. With all due respect to Jalen Hurts, who again showed passing improvement, but take away Tagovailoa from Alabama and that team is not the same unstoppable offensive force. Here’s hoping Tagovailoa’s knee injury doesn’t linger.