In what has to be some kind of SEC record, two Purdue transfers -- Austin Appleby and Danny Etling -- will start at quarterback for Florida and LSU on Saturday.
"Really?" Florida Coach Jim McElwain said Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference. "That's really good trivia.
"I love useless information. I'm going to log that one."
Appleby, a graduate transfer who played at Purdue from 2013-15, will start for No. 19 Florida at No. 14 Tennessee in place of Luke Del Rio, who is expected to be sidelined two to four weeks because of a knee injury he suffered against North Texas last week.
Etling, a junior who played at Purdue in 2013 and 2014, will start for No. 18 LSU at Auburn after making his first start last week in the Tigers' 23-20 victory over Mississippi State when he replaced the struggling Brandon Harris.
"That's an unusual set of circumstances, certainly," LSU Coach Les Miles said Wednesday of two former Boilermakers starting for SEC teams. "We're kind of glad we have our Purdue guy."
Purdue Coach Darrell Hazell didn't express any bitterness about the transfers of Appleby and Etling to SEC teams when asked about them this week on the Big Ten coaches teleconference.
"I'm happy for those two guys," Hazell said. "I hope they do well down there."
Tough spot
Auburn, which is 2-10 in its past 12 SEC games under Coach Gus Malzahn, hopes to avoid starting 1-3 at home when the Tigers play LSU on Saturday night.
Malzahn, a longtime Arkansas high school coach, a former Arkansas State coach and a former Razorbacks offensive coordinator, has a 28-15 record in his fourth season at Auburn. He also helped the Tigers win the 2010 national title during his three-year stint as their offensive coordinator.
"I've been at Auburn for seven years now, experienced some very good times, a few rough times," Malzahn said at his weekly news conference "The last two losses have probably hurt me worse than any of the others."
Auburn had losses to Clemson and Texas A&M sandwiched around a victory over Arkansas State.
"I fully understand our fan base is disappointed, and they should be," Malzhan said. "The bottom line is we've got to coach our players better, and that starts with me."
Malzahn led Auburn to a 12-2 record and a spot in the national title game in his first season in 2013, which ended with a 34-31 loss to Florida State. The Tigers fell to 8-5 and 7-6 the next two seasons.
"The fact is, we're close," Malzahn said. "As a matter of fact, we're real close to being a good team, and we're going to get this thing turned around."
Hurts bounces back
Jalen Hurts, Alabama's true freshman starting quarterback, rallied the Crimson Tide to a 48-43 victory at Ole Miss after his fumble on a big hit by Marquis Daniels resulted in a scoop and score touchdown return that put the Rebels ahead 24-3 in the second quarter.
Hurts finished with 18 carries for 146 yards and completed 19 of 31 passes for 156 yards to earn SEC offensive player of the week honors.
"He was just like, 'I still got y'all's back. Y'all got mine. Let's keep rolling,' " Alabama center Bradley Bozeman told AL.com of Hurts' response after his fumble. "He didn't let it affect him at all.
"He got back in the game and kept playing. Lot of maturity out of Jalen."
Smart-alecky
Georgia Coach Kirby Smart showed some frustration with the Bulldogs' offensive line when asked about some blocking struggles during his weekly news conference.
The Bulldogs have allowed nine sacks in three games and rank 57th nationally in rushing offense, averaging 186.7 yards per game.
Those stats prompted a reporter to ask whether a change in offensive line coaches -- with former Arkansas assistant Sam Pittman taking over -- was contributing to poor blocking while the Bulldogs adjust to a new scheme.
"What went on last year?" Smart responded, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The reporter said the blocking probably didn't go as well as the previous staff would have liked, either.
"Same way we feel," Smart said. "So I mean, to me that's the biggest difference, is they've changed the coaches, but a lot of the personnel's the same on the offensive line.
"And you've got to do a great job of getting those guys better, and you've got to get them stronger in the year. We've got to become a physical football team that runs the ball."
Another reporter asked Smart whether he had thought about shuffling some linemen.
"Because we didn't practice that in camp, and try that already," Smart said sarcastically. "You know, we've looked at every combination we can, and we'll continue to do that."
Confident Gator
Florida cornerback Quincy Wilson guaranteed the Gators will win at Tennessee when he spoke to reporters Tuesday.
"We have a message from DBU to Tennessee," Wilson said, according to the Gainesville Sun. "Ducks don't pull trucks. How do you like that?"
What?
Wilson explained that the Gators are the truck and the Vols the ducks.
"Nobody has ever seen a duck pull a truck," Wilson added. "The Florida Gators are going to win, it's as simple as that."
Wilson didn't hesitate when asked whether he was guaranteeing the Gators' 12th consecutive victory over Tennessee.
"Yeah, we're going to go out there and play Gator football and win," he said. "I know what type of players we have on our team. I know what everybody can do with what we show at practice, how hard we go.
"I know that we can't be stopped."
Up in smoke
This week's Auburn-LSU game at Jordan-Hare Stadium marks the 20th anniversary of the teams' 1996 matchup when LSU won 19-15 on a bizarre night when a building next to the stadium caught on fire.
"It was a tough loss for us against LSU, but it was an interesting night," Terry Bowden, Auburn's coach at the time, told AL.com. "It's one you never forget for weird reasons."
Fans at the game and watching ESPN's telecast saw smoke, then flames, blowing near the stadium.
The fire was eventually put out and didn't affect the game. There was no mass exodus of the fans.
Bowden told AL.com that given the changing times, a similar fire near a stadium during a game might cause widespread panic.
"We didn't have the terrorism fears we have today, and I know that's not an easy topic to bring up, but we didn't fear things like that," Bowden said. "I imagine it would cause total panic if something like that happened today under these times that we're in."
Miserable week
Alabama's victory at Ole Miss and LSU's victory over Mississippi State were part of an 0-10 record last week for the four-year colleges in the state.
Other teams losing last week were Southern Mississippi, Mississippi VAlley, Jackson State, Alcorn State, Delta State, Belhaven, Millsaps and Mississippi College.
Two-minute drill
• The 104 points scored in Kentucky's 62-42 victory over New Mexico State is the third-highest scoring regulation game involving an SEC team, surpassed only by Texas A&M's 59-57 victory over Louisiana Tech in 2012 and Auburn's 65-43 victory over Arkansas in 2010.
• Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn said quarterback Sean White -- who was replaced by John Franklin in the second half against Texas A&M -- will remain the starter against LSU.
• Tennessee will be without cornerback Cameron Sutton and middle linebacker Darren Kirkland for Saturday's SEC East showdown against Florida because of ankle injuries, Vols Coach Butch Jones said.
• South Carolina was outgained by East Carolina 519 to 312 yards, but the Gamecocks won 20-15 thanks to three takeaways inside their 10-yard line.
• Kirby Smart is the first Georgia coach to win his first three games since 1938, when the Bulldogs started 4-0 under Coach Joel Hunt. Georgia finished 5-4-1 in what turned out to be Hunt's only season as the Bulldogs' coach.
Player to watch
Leonard Fournette, TB, LSU
Fournette may not be fully recovered from a high ankle sprain he suffered in preseason practice, but he’s still good enough to rush 51 times for 285 yards — a 5.6-yard average — against Wisconsin and Mississippi State while sitting out against Jacksonville (Ala.) State. LSU will look for another strong performance from Fournette when the Tigers play at Auburn on Saturday night. Auburn’s defense couldn’t slow down Fournette last season, when he rushed 19 times for 228 yards and 3 touchdowns in LSU’s 45-21 victory.
Game of the week
No. 19 Florida at No. 14 Tennessee
2:30 p.m. Saturday (CBS)
RECORDS Florida 3-0, Tennessee 3-0 LINE Tennessee by 6½ It’s been so long since Tennessee beat Florida that Ron Zook was the Gators’ coach the last time it happened. That was in 2004, when the Vols won 30-28 in Knoxville. Since then, the Gators have won 11 consecutive games in the series with Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain as coaches. Florida has lost starting quarterback Jack Del Rio to a knee injury, but it will rely on a defense that leads the nation in fewest yards allowed per game at 129.7.
Saturday’s other games
Kent State at No. 1 Alabama
WHEN 11 a.m. RECORDS Kent State 1-2; Alabama 3-0 TV SEC Network LINE Alabama by 44
No. 12 Georgia at No. 23 Ole Miss
WHEN 11 a.m. RECORDS Georgia 3-0, 1-0 SEC; Ole Miss 1-2, 0-1 SEC TV ESPN LINE Ole Miss by 7
Mississippi State vs. UMass
WHERE Foxborough, Mass. WHEN 2:30 p.m. RECORDS Mississippi State 1-2; UMass 1-2 TV None LINE Mississippi State by 21 ½
Delaware State at Missouri
WHEN 3 p.m. RECORDS Delaware State 0-2; Missouri 1-2 TV SEC Network LINE None
Vanderbilt at Western Kentucky
WHEN 3:30 p.m. RECORDS Vanderbilt 1-2; Western Kentucky 2-1 TV CBS Sports Network LINE Western Kentucky by 7 ½
No. 18 LSU at Auburn
WHEN 5 p.m. RECORDS LSU 2-1, 1-0 SEC; Auburn 1-2, 0-1 TV ESPN LINE LSU by 3
South Carolina at Kentucky
WHEN 6:30 p.m. RECORDS South Carolina 2-1, 1-1 SEC; Kentucky 1-2, 0-1 TV SEC Network LINE Kentucky by 2
No. 17 Arkansas vs. No. 10 Texas A&M
WHERE at Arlington, Texas WHEN 8 p.m. RECORDS Arkansas 3-0, 0-0 SEC; Texas A&M 3-0, 1-0 TV ESPN LINE Texas A&M by 6 ½
By the numbers
6 Consecutive home losses for Auburn against teams from Power Five conferences, including Clemson and Texas A&M this season.
57,098 Attendance for the Georgia-Missouri game at Faurot Field, the smallest home crowd for the Tigers in an SEC game since joining the conference for the 2012 season.
53 Yards in total offense gained by North Texas against Florida. It’s the fewest yards the Gators have given up in a game, surpassing the 59 they held Western Carolina to in 2006.
“Overheard”
“Homeland Security has told me it’s not a thing I can do.”
— LSU Coach Les Miles, declining to talk about player injuries at his weekly news conference
Sports on 09/22/2016