{"id":65893,"date":"2024-10-07T18:30:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T22:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=65893"},"modified":"2025-09-13T16:20:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T20:20:34","slug":"sec-week-6-game-changers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/10\/07\/sec-week-6-game-changers\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Week 6 Game Changers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The story of the SEC this week was upsets with three top-ten teams losing conference matchups. Only one game changer has made the list before and the rest are newcomers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Offensive Game Changers<\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diego Pavia QB, Vanderbilt<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/diego-pavia-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pavia<\/a> led the Commodores to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/10\/06\/top-ranked-alabama-upset-huge-by-vanderbilt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">biggest upset of the year last week knocking off top-ranked Alabama 40-35<\/a>. He set the tone for the whole team leading long drive after long drive. He finished the game 16 for 20 for 252 yards and two touchdowns. The offense had no turnovers. He ran it 20 times for 56 yards which isn\u2019t an impressive yards-per-carry. But his threat of his running kept the Crimson Tide on their heels throughout the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conner Weigman QB \/ Le\u2019Veon Moss RB, Texas A&amp;M<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It wasn\u2019t the biggest upset of the week but the most impressive win might have been Texas A&amp;M destroying ninth-ranked Missouri 41-10. The quarterback controversy has been an issue for the Aggies all season. It was looking like Marcel Reed might have seized the starting job even with some inconsistent play. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/conner-weigman-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Weigman<\/a> got the call this week. He impressed with an efficient 18 for 22 for 276 yards and a 93.7 rating. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/leveon-moss-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Moss<\/a> was a touchdown machine scoring three times including a 75-yard run to start the second half that put the game out of reach.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Carson Beck QB, Georgia<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/carson-beck-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Beck<\/a> had a disastrous first half last week against Alabama and led a huge comeback in the second half, so it was hard to know how he would respond this week. He dazzled as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/10\/06\/auburn-loses-to-georgia-31-13\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Georgia beat up Auburn 31 to 13<\/a>. Beck threw for 240 yards and two touchdowns while completing 79 percent of his passes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Defensive Game Changers<\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TJ Dottery LB, Ole Miss<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coming off a huge upset to Kentucky last week, Ole Miss was out to prove they are still one of the best teams in the country. They did that by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/10\/06\/gamecocks-vs-rebels-takeaways\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">completely shutting down a respectable South Carolina team 27-3<\/a>. The defense was led by Dottery who did a little bit of everything for the Rebels. He filled up the stat sheet with 13 tackles, 11 solo, plus a sack, two tackles-for-loss, and a pass defended.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Defense, Texas A&amp;M<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Aggies defense deserves a lot of credit for halting the Missouri offense. They held a team that was averaging 36.5 points per game to only ten. Missouri quarterback Brady Cook had a miserable day completing only 13 of his 31 attempts and finishing with a 25.6 rating. The Aggies defense sacked him six times. They held the Tigers\u2019 running backs to a combined 68 yards on 30 carries and controlled elite receiver Luther Burden III limiting him to 82 yards and no touchdowns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Negative Game Changers<\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nico Iamaleava QB, Tennessee<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Volunteers were the other top-ten team to get upset last weekend in their 19-14 loss to Arkansas. Heisman candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/nico-iamaleava-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Iamaleava<\/a> couldn\u2019t get much going in this game. He was 17 of 29 for 158 yards, no touchdowns, and a poor 39.5 rating. He couldn\u2019t really chip in on the run game either with 11 carries for only 17 yards. The team was still able to run the ball well overall, but Iamaleava\u2019s performance fell short and so did the Volunteers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65902\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65902\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-65902\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24418911_168400536_lowres-300x236.jpg\" alt=\"SEC game changers\" width=\"300\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24418911_168400536_lowres-300x236.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24418911_168400536_lowres-1024x806.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24418911_168400536_lowres-768x604.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24418911_168400536_lowres-1536x1209.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24418911_168400536_lowres-2048x1612.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65902\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy: Denny Simmons \/ The Tennessean \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The story of the SEC this week was upsets with three top-ten teams losing conference matchups. Only one game changer has made the list before and the rest are newcomers.\u00a0 Offensive Game Changers Diego Pavia QB, Vanderbilt Pavia led the Commodores to the biggest upset of the year last week knocking off top-ranked Alabama 40-35. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5300,"featured_media":65902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35574,35588,35583,35578,35586,35582,3,35587,35575,35580],"tags":[35,314,162,65,383,258,20,59,64,96],"class_list":["post-65893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-alabama-crimson-tide","category-arkansas-razorbacks","category-auburn-tigers","category-georgia-bulldogs","category-missouri-tigers","category-ole-miss-rebels","category-sec","category-tennessee-volunteers","category-texas-am-aggies","category-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-missouri-tigers","tag-ole-miss-rebels","tag-sec","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-am-aggies","tag-vanderbilt-commodores"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77919,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65893\/revisions\/77919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}