SitRep: Alabama's Colorado State Flop, the Dak Prescott Era in Mississippi State and More

Because there's only so much we can cover on even a less-than-hectic Saturday, here are a few quick thoughts on each SEC team.

Alabama, def. Colorado State, 31-6. There's not a lot more that can be said about this game that hasn't already been said. The Tide simply did not play well. They did allow just six points, and all of those in the third quarter, but here's the most jaw dropping stat of the night: 66 yards rushing on 21 carries. That was Alabama's total, not Colorado State's. And 38 of those yards came on one run by T.J. Yeldon.That means that on all other plays, the Tide averaged 1.4 yards per carry. And A.J. McCarron was only sacked twice for a loss of 15 yards. You take those out, and it's still only about 2.4 yards per carry. Was Jim McElwain's former job as Alabama's offensive coordinator enough to give the Rams an edge that they might not otherwise have had? I don't know, but it's hard to say that it should have made that much of a difference. [SB Nation blog: Roll Bama Roll]

Arkansas, lost to Rutgers, 28-24. Arkansas fans would probably say the less said about this game, the better. Alex Collins had his first sub-100-yard rushing game, carrying the ball 16 times for 63 yards -- but he's still off to a pretty good start for a freshman. It will be interesting to see what he does as the Hogs get into the SEC part of their schedule. [Arkansas Fight]

Auburn, lost to LSU, 35-21. Tre Mason had arguably his best game of the year, running for 132 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. But that was about the closest Auburn came to a bright spot in this game. Sure, they gained almost as much yardage as LSU did, but on 19 more snaps. And some of their three turnovers were absolutely devastating early in the game. Despite all that, it's hard to feel worse about these Tigers right now than I felt at the beginning of the season. [College and Magnolia]

Florida, def. Tennessee, 31-17. Yeah, yeah, I know about Tyler Murphy. But turning the ball over three times to some of the teams Florida is going to face over the next two months is going to put the Gators far out of the running for the SEC East. The fact remains that Florida has lost nine turnovers in three games. And my guess is that teams like Georgia, LSU and South Carolina are not going to be as generous when they get the ball as Tennessee was this week. [Alligator Army]

Georgia, def. North Texas, 45-21. Statistically, this game might not even be as close as the score suggests. Georgia outgained the Mean Green 641-245, and limited them to seven yards rushing on 25 carries. That's not a typo. North Texas' longest run of the day was actually longer than that -- two of them went for eight yards. Meanwhile, 13 different Dawgs had runs or catches of at least 11 yards. Thirteen. And Reggie Davis caught the longest pass in the history of the program. So don't let North Texas' opportunism fool you: This is still a very dangerous team that's in the thick of the conference title race. [Dawg Sports]

Kentucky, bye. Saturday night's home game against Florida is probably going to get pretty ugly -- in fact, based on Florida's previous outings, it will be ugly, one way or another. But it will still serve as the first useful benchmark in an SEC season full of them. We still don't yet know exactly how far away from being a competitive SEC team (as opposed to being a competitive Sun Belt or American team) this team is under Mark Stoops. We'll know soon. [A Sea of Blue]

LSU, def. Auburn, 35-21. It's easy now to see why Les Miles the team, in a totally democratic vote for which Les Miles could not possibly predict the outcome, wanted to reinstate Jeremy Hill to the team. Hill ran for 183 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries, averaging 7.3 yards a carry and running for a long of 54 yards. If Hill can run that well every game and Zach Mettenberger can play the way he's played this year, LSU's offense will be very difficult to stop this year -- regardless of what you think of some of its members' off-field conduct. [And the Valley Shook]

Mississippi State, def. Troy, 62-7. I think you got 'em, Dan Mullen. Keep an eye on Dak Prescott. He's ringing up impressive passing numbers against the lower-tier teams on the Bulldogs' schedule. He wasn't that great through the air against Auburn, but he did run for 133 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. If Prescott can keep improving through the year, and especially if he doesn't have to learn a new system next year, he could be a star for Mississippi State in 2014. [For Whom the Cowbell Tolls]

Missouri, def. Indiana, 45-28. Blame the somewhat unimpressive non-conference schedule, which still has another week on it, but the Tigers have been one of the quietest SEC teams this year. They just unloaded on the Hoosiers in this one, churning out 623 yards of total offense. But James Franklin needs to cut back on the turnovers: In his two games against FBS competition, he's thrown three touchdowns and three picks. [Rock M Nation]

Ole Miss, bye. Were I not headed to see the Gamecocks play at Central Florida this weekend, the Rebels' game against the Tide would actually be the one I would most look forward to. Yes, more than LSU vs. Georgia. Nick Saban vs. this offense will tell us a lot about the questions we have about Alabama and give us our best measuring stick yet to look at how far Hugh Freeze's offense has come since last year. Probably not far enough, if you're wondering. [Red Cup Rebellion]

South Carolina, bye. This is a frightening game for me as a South Carolina fan, particularly since I'm going to see it in person. The Golden Knights won at Penn State a couple of weeks ago and had their own bye this week. Combine that with a noon kickoff and South Carolina's uneven play in its first three games, and you have the recipe for a trap game against a very good team. Fortunately, the next game on schedule is Kentucky, so it's unlikely South Carolina will look ahead. [Garnet and Black Attack]

Tennessee, lost to Florida, 31-17. Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic about the Vols here, but I'm not sure where Tennessee goes from here. Neither of their quarterbacks looked impressive Saturday -- each of them threw two interceptions. The team didn't find much room passing or running the ball, though Florida's defense likely had something to do with that. (The six turnovers might have had even more to do with it.) After this week's game against South Alabama, the Vols are likely to lose at least the next three games (Georgia, South Carolina, at Alabama.) [Rocky Top Talk]

Texas A&M, def. SMU, 42-13. The two teams combined for 29 penalties for 225 yards. This might have led to an unfortunate, ahem, "accident" for one of the officials. Between the blizzard of flags, the defense gave up 434 yards of total offense to SMU -- though, this being a June Jones team, the vast majority of those yards came through the air. Sam Houston State's 390 yards of total offense remain the fewest that Texas A&M has given up to any offense, and the only time opponents haven't generated more than 400 yards. [Good Bull Hunting]

Vanderbilt, def. UMass, 24-7. There are worse things in life than not pulling away from a MAC team late on the road. For example, you could actually go ahead and lose to a MAC team on the road. And the Commodores actually substantially outgained the MInutemen, 406-248. If they can easily beat UAB in Nashville this weekend, the changes of Vanderbilt making a bowl are still probably pretty good. But another lackluster effort would raise questions about whether they can win the swing game they'll likely need to get to the postseason. [Anchor of Gold]