SEC storyline catch-up: Georgia wins instant classic over Tennessee while Florida continues to struggle

Texas A&M football stole the show Saturday night in its thrilling 41-40 victory at Notre Dame, but it wasn't the only massive outcome for a team in the Southeastern Conference. Let's catch you up on everything happening around the league:

Georgia tops Tennessee in an instant classic game

Kirby Smart found himself in a very similar position as Mike Elko this past weekend: playing against a top-25 team in an incredibly hostile environment, while also needing his unproven but optimistic offense to prove its worth on the biggest stage. Like Elko, Smart got everything he needed.

Georgia pulled out an emphatic 44-41 victory over the Volunteers, pulling itself out of an early 21-7 deficit, tying the game up with just over two minutes to play, before an overtime touchdown from Josh McCray sent the Dawgs home with a win.

While it's a massive win for Georgia, it was also a really impressive showing from Tennessee — putting up 41 points against a talented program despite fresh faces at just about every offensive position. It's early in the season and these two teams could go on a wide variety of paths, but both need to be taken very seriously in the conference title race after what we saw this weekend.

LSU forces five turnovers in 20-10 victory over Florida

In one of the more clunky games we've seen this season Brian Kelly's LSU Tigers emerged victorious over the Gators despite being out-gained by 50 yards, out-possessed by 15 minutes and putting up just one offensive touchdown.

The reason they were able to overcome those metrics was by winning the turnover battle 5-1 — with DJ Lagway tossing the Tigers defense five picks in the game. It was easily the worst game of his young career, and put massive doubts in the minds of Florida fans as to what the future of this program may look like. Billy Napier was able to save his job last season by winning 5 of their final 7 games, but he'll have his work cut out for him this time around with three straight games against Miami, Texas and Texas A&M on the horizon.

Back to the Tigers, I'm not totally bought in on this team just yet. While they're being widely considered a top 3-5 team in the country, I don't know if averaging 20 points per game against Clemson, Louisiana Tech and Florida is all that impressive. Their defense has been great and is something that may be able to carry them close enough to conference title contention, but I'm curious to see how this offense can keep pace with some of the better offensive units in the SEC.

Ole Miss holds off Arkansas at the buzzer

Sam Pittman and Taylen Green always have a handful of frisky games in their back pockets and it was on full display this past weekend in their eventual loss at Ole Miss by a final score of 41 to 35.

Now the Razorbacks did enter this game with a significant advantage at the quarterback position — with the Rebels needing to start Trinidad Chambliss, formerly of Ferris State, since Austin Simmons was out with injury — but Lane Kiffin proved again why it doesn't always matter who's under center for his offense. Chambliss was more than impressive, completing 21 of his 29 pass attempts for 353 yards and a score, while adding 62 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

The Ole Miss defense wasn't as effective but made stands when it mattered most, forcing a fumble with under two minutes to play that put the game on ice. This unit has struggled so far this season, having to replace almost all starters from last season, but the offense should always be able to keep this team afloat in conference play.

On a smaller note ...

• Texas took down UTEP for its second straight win of the season, but the offensive struggles have still persisted for this group. Arch Manning completed 11 of his 25 passes for just 114 yards and, while Steve Sarkisian has claimed everything is fine, many are starting to speculate that Manning is playing through some type of injury that's affecting his play.

• Vanderbilt took it South Carolina last weekend, winning by a score of 31-7, and knocked Gamecock quarterback Lanorris Sellers in the process with a concussion. The Gamecocks had enough offensive struggles as it is so hopefully this group can get its best player back sooner than later, meanwhile the Commodores prove yet again they need to be taken seriously as a feisty and competitive team in this conference.