Last Saturday was a pretty good reminder that college football does not care what we think we know.

Auburn walked into Athens as an unranked team and beat No. 1 Georgia 27-24, handing the Bulldogs their first loss and pulling off only the second win in program history by an unranked Auburn team against a No. 1 Georgia squad. Florida went into Austin and knocked off Texas 27-24. Ole Miss took our Game of the Week and turned it into a 31-3 demolition of Missouri. Kentucky kept rolling with a 21-13 road win at Oklahoma, while LSU shut Mississippi State out 31-0 in Baton Rouge.

Then there was Alabama.

After the officiating circus against Georgia had everyone in the Halls ready to start throwing furniture, the Tide went to Knoxville and produced the kind of performance that leaves considerably less room to blame anybody wearing stripes. Tennessee beat Alabama 26-10, dropping the Tide to 5-2 and suddenly turning Saturday’s Homecoming matchup against Texas A&M into something Alabama badly needs to use as a reset.

So this week we have a smaller SEC slate—just six games—but I’m perfectly fine with that. LSU and Auburn renew a rivalry that disappeared from the schedule for a couple of years, Ole Miss heads to Austin for a ranked night game against Texas, Alabama tries to pull itself together, and Auburn gets its first chance to prove that beating No. 1 Georgia was not merely one magical Saturday.

No Sleeper Game of the Week this time.

With only six games, we aren’t forcing one.

But we do have two games worth clearing the television for.

No. 18 LSU at Auburn

11:00 AM CT — ABC — Jordan-Hare Stadium

Well, Auburn, you have my attention.

A week ago, the Tigers were sitting there unranked, heading into Athens against the No. 1 team in the country, and looking like exactly the sort of opponent Georgia was supposed to dispose of before moving on with its season.

Instead, Auburn won 27-24.

Alex McPherson kicked the deciding field goal, the Tigers snapped an eight-game losing streak against ranked opponents, and Auburn became only the second unranked team in school history to beat a No. 1 Georgia team. The first time happened in 1942.

That is a hell of a way to change the mood around a season.

Now comes the part I’m even more interested in. Can they do it again?

Not necessarily beat another No. 1 team, obviously. LSU is ranked No. 18. But can Auburn follow the emotional high of beating Georgia by coming home and playing good football again seven days later?

That is often harder than the upset itself.

LSU arrives in a completely different emotional state. The Tigers just handled Mississippi State 31-0, pitching a shutout against a team that was ranked only a couple of weeks ago and reminding everybody that LSU can still make things miserable when the defense is locked in. LSU is 5-2 now, while Auburn enters at 4-2, and this is the first meeting between the programs in three years after they played every season from 1992 through 2023.

I am glad this series is back.

There are SEC matchups that just feel wrong when they disappear from the schedule, and LSU-Auburn is one of them. Weird things happen in this game. Close games happen in this game. Six of the last eight meetings have been decided by five points or fewer, and Auburn actually leads the series 13-9 in games played on the Plains despite LSU holding the overall advantage.

That history feels particularly relevant this week because I don’t think Auburn’s win at Georgia was some fluke where everything bounced perfectly and the Tigers stumbled into a victory. They went into Athens and earned it.

But LSU presents a different problem.

Georgia entered last week carrying the pressure of No. 1 beside its name and coming off that emotional win over Alabama. LSU arrives knowing exactly what Auburn just did and having absolutely no reason to overlook anybody. There will be no surprise factor Saturday morning.

Auburn has also gone from playing with house money to having expectations again. That may sound ridiculous after one win, but that is how college football works. Beat No. 1 Georgia, and suddenly nobody wants to hear that you are rebuilding when LSU comes to town the following week.

The atmosphere at Jordan-Hare should be ridiculous, especially after what happened in Athens, and that gives Auburn a legitimate chance to make this another ugly, uncomfortable SEC game. If the Tigers can stay balanced offensively and avoid giving LSU short fields, I think they hang around well into the second half.

But I keep coming back to LSU’s defense.

Holding Mississippi State scoreless got my attention, though yes, they didn’t have their star QB, and Auburn is going to have a harder time generating those momentum-changing drives if LSU controls the line of scrimmage.

I think Auburn proves Georgia was not a mirage. I just don’t think they win two of these in a row.

Gary’s Pick: LSU

No. 7 Ole Miss at No. 19 Texas

6:30 PM CT — Austin, Texas

Two weeks ago, Texas was No. 1 in the country. Now the Longhorns are No. 19.

College football moves quickly.

Oklahoma knocked Texas off 27-24 in the Red River Rivalry, then Florida went into Austin last Saturday and beat the Longhorns by the exact same score. Texas has suddenly lost two straight games by three points after beginning the year with legitimate national championship expectations.

And now Ole Miss is coming to town. That isn’t exactly the opponent you choose when you are trying to quietly get your season back under control.

The Rebels are ranked No. 7 and just absolutely destroyed Missouri in our Game of the Week, winning 31-3 against a Tigers team that had entered ranked No. 13. That came one week after Ole Miss hammered Vanderbilt 52-17, which means the Rebels have responded to the ugly Florida loss by outscoring their next two SEC opponents 83-20.

That is a pretty convincing response.

Texas still has talent everywhere, and playing in Austin at night is enough to keep this from feeling comfortable for Ole Miss. The Longhorns also lead the all-time series 6-2, although the most recent meeting belongs to the Rebels. Ole Miss went into Austin in 2013 and won 44-23.

I doubt anybody in either locker room cares much about what happened thirteen years ago, but the larger point is that Ole Miss has no reason to walk into this game intimidated.

The pressure belongs almost entirely to Texas.

At 4-2, the Longhorns are not eliminated from having a very good season, but three consecutive losses would completely transform the conversation around this team. It would take Texas from national championship contender to spending the rest of the fall trying to figure out how everything unraveled so quickly.

Ole Miss, meanwhile, has recovered beautifully from its one bad afternoon in Gainesville and still has everything in front of it.

That difference matters.

Teams playing desperate football can be dangerous, especially at home, but desperation also creates mistakes. If Ole Miss can get Texas chasing points or force the Longhorns into another fourth-quarter coin flip, I trust the Rebels a little more right now.

Ole Miss looks like a team that got punched once and learned something from it.

Texas looks like a team that has been punched twice and is still trying to remember where it left its mouthpiece.

Give me the Rebels.

Gary’s Pick: Ole Miss

Texas A&M at No. 13 Alabama

2:30 PM CT — ABC — Tuscaloosa, Alabama

There is no way around it: Alabama looked bad last Saturday.

The Tide went into Knoxville after the frustrating Georgia loss and never really looked right, falling 26-10 to Tennessee and dropping to 5-2 overall. Keelon Russell and the offense had been one of the SEC’s most productive units earlier in the season, but Alabama has now scored only 27 total points across back-to-back losses to Georgia and Tennessee.

Texas A&M arrives at a pretty convenient time. The Aggies are 3-3 and have struggled badly in conference play, while Alabama gets to return home for Homecoming in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama is 89-14-1 all-time on Homecoming and has won 22 of its last 25 Homecoming games.

Still, A&M has made this series uncomfortable before. The last three meetings have all been decided by one score, including the Aggies’ famous 41-38 upset in 2021 and Alabama’s 24-20 win the last time A&M visited Tuscaloosa.

The Tide needs more than a win here. Alabama needs to look like Alabama again.

I think they do.

Pick: Alabama

No. 11 Tennessee at South Carolina

2:30 PM CT — ESPN — Columbia, South Carolina

Tennessee couldn’t have asked for a much better last two weeks.

The Volunteers went to Arkansas and won, then returned home and beat Alabama 26-10 to improve to 6-1. Now they head into Columbia on a four-game winning streak against South Carolina, with a rushing attack that continues to be one of the strengths of the team.

South Carolina is coming off a bye, which at least gives the Gamecocks extra time to prepare, and Williams-Brice has produced enough strange nights over the years that Tennessee should not arrive assuming this takes care of itself.

But there is a pretty significant difference between these teams right now.

Tennessee looks like it knows exactly what it wants to be. South Carolina has spent most of the season trying to figure that out, though they did beat down Florida in the last game they played.

I think this one could be closer than people think, especially if Tennessee is a little hungover after the win over Alabama.

Pick: Tennessee

Vanderbilt at No. 12 Kentucky

6:30 PM CT — SEC Network — Lexington, Kentucky

Kentucky continues to be one of the most quietly impressive teams in the SEC.

The Wildcats are 6-1 overall and 4-1 in conference play after going into Norman last week and beating Oklahoma 21-13. They have won at Texas A&M, erased a 17-point deficit at South Carolina, survived LSU in overtime and now added another road conference win against the Sooners.

At some point, we probably need to stop treating Kentucky like the plucky team that keeps finding a way and simply acknowledge that this is a good football team. Having said that, they could very easily have lost their last three games instead. At some point, you’d like to see them win without it being a could’ve gone either way affair.

Vanderbilt is 3-4 and still searching for its first SEC win after losing 31-21 to Arkansas last weekend. The Commodores can be annoying, and this series has occasionally produced some strange results, but Kentucky has earned enough trust from me that I am not going hunting for an upset here.

The Wildcats are at home, they are playing with confidence, and they have become remarkably comfortable in the fourth quarter.

Pick: Kentucky

Oklahoma at Mississippi State

2:30 PM CT — SEC Network

This is the least glamorous matchup on the slate, but it might be one of the more important for both teams.

Oklahoma is coming off consecutive losses to Texas and Kentucky, while Mississippi State has gone from one of September’s best SEC stories to a team trying to stop a very ugly slide. The Bulldogs were 4-0 and ranked before running into Alabama, then followed that loss by getting shut out 31-0 at LSU last Saturday while dealing with several key injuries.

Now State finally gets back home. That should help, but I am not sure it fixes the larger problem.

The Bulldogs looked explosive early in the year, but SEC defenses have increasingly forced them into longer, more difficult possessions. Oklahoma has plenty of problems of its own, but the Sooners have enough defensively to keep Mississippi State from rediscovering that September rhythm easily.

This feels like a game where whichever offense makes fewer mistakes probably wins something in the neighborhood of 24-17.

I’m taking Oklahoma.

Pick: Oklahoma

SATURDAY’S PICKS

I have LSU over Auburn in the Game of the Week, Ole Miss over Texas in our second Game 2 Watch, Alabama over Texas A&M, Tennessee over South Carolina, Kentucky over Vanderbilt and Oklahoma over Mississippi State.

No Sleeper Game this week.

We only have six SEC games, and I would rather let the format breathe than slap a special label on something just because we usually do. Besides, Auburn already used up its sleeper privileges by beating No. 1 Georgia last Saturday.

The schedule is smaller, but I’m actually pretty excited about the way Saturday lays out.

LSU-Auburn starts the day at 11, and after what Auburn just did in Athens, there is no chance I’m treating that like background noise. Alabama gets Texas A&M at 2:30 while Tennessee goes to South Carolina and Oklahoma heads to Starkville. Kentucky-Vanderbilt owns the early part of the night before Ole Miss-Texas closes the SEC slate at 6:30. The SEC has LSU-Auburn in the noon Eastern window, Alabama-Texas A&M and Tennessee-South Carolina in the afternoon, and Kentucky-Vanderbilt and Ole Miss-Texas at night.

And there are questions everywhere.

Was Auburn beating Georgia the beginning of something, or the greatest Saturday of its season?

Can Alabama shake off two straight losses and start looking dangerous again?

Is Kentucky actually one of the best teams in this conference?

And what exactly happens to Texas if Ole Miss walks into Austin and hands the Longhorns a third straight loss?

That last one could get very interesting.

But we start on the Plains.

No. 18 LSU at Auburn is the Titanquisitor Game of the Week.

No. 7 Ole Miss at No. 19 Texas gets the second television.

Six games. No filler designation. Still plenty of SEC nonsense to keep us occupied all Saturday.