On the final Saturday before Halloween, did you know that the largest pumpkin ever weighed 836 pounds?

Or that people didn’t start trick-or-treating in North America until a Canadian person did it in 1927?

OK. You learned a couple things.

Now here’s one thing that I learned about every SEC team in Week 9:

Alabama: Jalen Hurts might not be available for LSU

So lost in the shuffle of Butch Jones puffing a victory cigar was the fact that the Alabama quarterback (backup quarterback) suffered a high ankle sprain. He had what Nick Saban called “minor surgery” to speed up the recovery process. Even though Saban said that Hurts will miss a week, one can’t help but wonder what his status for the LSU game will be. Surely Alabama fans would have no problems seeing Mac Jones if it meant a comfortable victory in Baton Rouge.

Arkansas: Ty Storey’s return wasn’t the only thing the Hogs needed

Defense was what Arkansas needed to win as favorable of a home game as Chad Morris could have asked for. Instead, he watched Vanderbilt run all over the place. Ke’Shawn Vaughn did a lot of the heavy lifting — more on him later — against an Arkansas defense that struggled to avoid the big plays. It’s probably not the best sign when your defense allows a 40-yard touchdown catch to a tight end. John Chavis didn’t want to see that a week after Arkansas had its first shutout in 4 years.

Auburn: Gus Malzahn is apparently smiling now?

With the Tigers on bye, we got to see Malzahn on the CBS pregame show as an analyst. I’m sure plenty of Auburn fans thought “great, he’s interviewing for his next job.”

I mean, he did say…

So Malzahn hasn’t been smiling very much during his 5-3 start? That’s probably fair. I can’t imagine being asked about getting fired a year into a 7-year contract is a joyful subject for Malzahn. Who knows how much Malzahn will be smiling when his team faces Alabama and Georgia.

Florida: The defense has a breaking point

Brutal, man. I thought after the Gators delivered one of the better goal-line stands I’d ever seen that the defense was going to get a huge lift. Instead, it was a huge letdown. Georgia took over late and one of the best defenses in the country allowed a season-worst 36 points. That’s too bad considering how well that group played for most of the day. The difference in that game was Jake Fromm responding to “Third and Grantham” time and time again.

Georgia: All that Justin Fields talk was just that … talk

I kept hearing about how the true freshman was going to see significant work in this game. Yeah, about that. Don’t get me wrong. Fields’ progression is going to be exciting to watch, but dismissing someone as good as Jake Fromm was premature. The sophomore had a bad game against LSU, and then he reminded everyone why he’s the unquestioned starter of this team. That was as impressive of a performance as you’ll see from Fromm, which means we should quiet the Fields hype for the rest of 2018.

Kentucky: Terry Wilson has the clutch gene!

OK, a little sarcasm there. The Kentucky quarterback did come up with the clutch drive down the stretch for the improbable win. But let’s not forget that the Kentucky starter was benched and without a touchdown drive all day until then. To say that he quieted Kentucky fans’ concerns about the passing game would be false, but at the very least, he showed that he can keep his head in the game and come up big when he had to. Just imagine if he had done that against Texas A&M …

LSU: #FreeDevinWhite knows no limits

We knew that the bye week was going to give LSU fans a chance to make their voices heard on the #FreeDevinWhite campaign. We saw billboards in Birmingham by the SEC offices, urging the conference to rethink the targeting call that suspended the Tigers’ star linebacker for the first half of the Alabama game. And what did we see on Saturday? An aerial message, of course:

It doesn’t sound like all the money LSU fans are spending will result in White being able to play the full game, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.

Mississippi State: Nick Fitzgerald is alive

I’ll say this: For someone who has been through a lot this year, that was awesome to see him get to run in a long touchdown like that. But amazingly, it wasn’t the rushing the sparked Fitzgerald’s day. After coming in without a touchdown pass in SEC play, he had 2 (and he probably should have had 3). You could see how much that meant for Fitzgerald to have a game like that against a ranked opponent. He put all the Keytaon Thompson talk on the back burner and delivered one of the best games of his career.

Mizzou: The defense just can’t buy a win

Trivia question. Before Saturday, when was the last time that Mizzou allowed 15 or fewer points to an SEC opponent during the Barry Odom era? Trick question! The answer is “never.” All day felt like a huge victory for Odom and the defense that’s been subject to plenty of criticism the last couple years. Obviously the special teams score wasn’t on that group, but to allow the SEC’s worst passing quarterback, Terry Wilson, to march down the field and lead a game-leading drive? That’s a new low. That was a deflating ending for a group that finally put it all together.

Ole Miss: A head-scratching stat about Ole Miss’ passing game

Let me preface this by saying that I think DaMarkus Lodge is a worthy member of N.W.O. and that he’s an explosive part of Ole Miss’ offense (I’m still amazed he pulled off that hurdle against Kent State). But during the bye week, I thought this was an interesting stat on his inefficiency in the deep passing game:

With D.K. Metcalf out for the year and A.J. Brown used as more of a move-the-chains receiver, the likelihood of Lodge still being used in the deep passing game seems high. Perhaps the bye week will give he and Jordan Ta’amu a chance to get on the same page before the home stretch.

South Carolina: Jake Bentley isn’t giving in

I’ve never questioned Bentley’s toughness, but I’ll be honest, I’ve questioned his skill and whether he’s capable of leading the South Carolina offense to new heights. I’m sure plenty of people were doing the same when he was down 21-9 at home to a very beatable Tennessee team. It wasn’t all Bentley doing the heavy lifting. He had plenty of help from the Gamecock running game, which got rolling late. Still, converting that 2-point conversion to tie the game and leading a go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter was a good reminder that Bentley isn’t a bad guy to have in winning time. In a redemption week for a handful of SEC signal-callers, Bentley was certainly at the center of that.

Tennessee: The Vols are still learning how to win

And speaking of Tennessee, good teams hold leads on the road. The Vols aren’t at that level yet. At least not consistently (yes, I remember the Auburn game). Coming up short on a pair of late fourth downs on potential go-ahead drives was certainly a frustrating end to a night that started with such promise. Certainly Jeremy Pruitt wasn’t pleased that his team allowed 220 rushing yards to one of the league’s quietest ground games. Tennessee wasn’t good enough in the trenches in the second half to win that game. Not having Trey Smith was evident, too.

Texas A&M: Mike Elko’s defense has an obvious weakness that needs fixing

I came into the week praising how Elko’s defense was dominant against the run, which didn’t bode well for a 1-dimensional Mississippi State offense. Well, I might’ve overlooked A&M’s passing issues. Th Bulldogs had wide-open receivers — they did make some big-time plays — for the SEC’s least-accurate quarterback in Fitzgerald. A quarterback without a touchdown pass in conference play tore up the Aggies through the air (that 3rd and 21 conversion was a back-breaker). With matchups against Jarrett Stidham and Jordan Ta’amu coming up, those passing game defense issues need to be nixed in a hurry.

Vanderbilt: A pretty amazing Ke’Shawn Vaughn stat

So yeah, definitely didn’t realize this.

That stat, that is.

Vaughn has been the home run threat in this offense. We saw that with his 172-yard performance to lock up Vanderbilt’s first SEC win of 2018. It’s too bad he couldn’t have been out there for the second half against Florida or last week against Kentucky. The Illinois transfer is a difference-maker, and he’s exactly the type of player Vanderbilt needs to stay competitive down the stretch.