Plenty of playoff contenders suddenly find themselves dealing with major injuries to notable players as the college football season reaches its halfway point.

Oklahoma's Jackson Arnold and Tennessee's Nico Iamaleava are the Southeastern Conference's wild-card quarterbacks.

No. 14 Tennessee visits No. 16 Missouri on Saturday for the first meeting between the SEC schools when both were ranked in the Top 25.

Trevor Etienne ran for a career-high 172 yards and a touchdown, Montrell Johnson scored twice and Florida upset No. 11 Tennessee 29-16 on Saturday night to extend the Volunteers’ losing streak in Gainesville to 10.

Tennessee has given coach Josh Heupel a big raise that puts him among the highest-paid coaches in college football.

Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker will miss the rest of the season after injuring his left knee in the fourth quarter of the ninth-ranked Volunteers loss to South Carolina.

Jalin Hyatt caught five passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns to lead No. 3 Tennessee to a 44-6 victory over No. 19 Kentucky.

The Tennessee Volunteers are proving just how quickly a traditional powerhouse can rebound despite seeming lost for well over a decade.

Chase McGrath made a 40-yard field goal as time expired to give No. 6 Tennessee a 52-49 victory over No. 3 Alabama on Saturday.

It could well be among the marquee quarterback matchups of the season: Alabama’s Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young versus Tennessee’s rising star Hendon Hooker.

The Southeastern Conference was perhaps one blocked kick away from perfection on opening weekend, with a few impressive nonconference wins and some no-brainers.

Georgia moved up to No. 2 in the first Associated Press college football poll of the regular season.

The Atlantic Coast and Southeastern Conferences are welcoming plenty of transfers bouncing between throughout their Southern-footprint leagues.

Mitchell Fineran kicked a 39-yard field goal in overtime and Purdue finished off its best season since 2003 by overcoming a 14-point deficit and beating Tennessee 48-45 on Thursday in a record-setting Music City Bowl.

Stetson Bennett ran for a touchdown and threw for another as top-ranked Georgia remained perfect, wrapping up its Southeastern Conference schedule by routing Tennessee 41-17.

Top-ranked Georgia and No. 3 Alabama appear headed for a showdown in the Southeastern Conference championship game.

Bryce Young passed for 371 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two more scores, carrying No. 4 Alabama to a 52-24 victory over traditional rival Tennessee.

Emory Jones had two touchdown passes to go along with a career-high 144 yards rushing, leading No. 11 Florida to a 38-14 victory over Tennessee on Saturday night and extending nearly two decades of dominance in the series.

Southeastern Conference officials are trying to get back to normal on football game days, with stadiums filled with fans and grills being fired up outside, even in a portion of the country where the states have among the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates.

The rich got even richer in the Southeastern Conference when the transfer floodgates opened wide.

Kansas defeated Oklahoma 69-62. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:___Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger announced Wednesday that guard De’Vion Harmon will miss the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament after testing positive for COVID-19. Kruger said Harmon is the only Oklahoma player to test positive or be in contact tracing. The Volunteers have had multiple positive COVID-19 test results among athletes and staff members in recent rounds of testing. AdThe Volunteers are scheduled to start their first spring practice with new coach Josh Heupel on Tuesday.

Nebraska’s search for an identity in a changing college football landscape. On the latest AP Top 25 College Football Podcast, Steven Godfrey of Banner Society joins the AP’s Ralph Russo to take on the task of finding each conference’s most egregious underachiever. And how USC being unable to maximize its potential hurts all of college football. Plus, new Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea joins the show and shares his vision for transforming the Commodores. ___Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at https://westwoodonepodcasts.com/pods/ap-top-25-college-football-podcast/Ad___More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

FILE - Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn argues a call during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Alabama in Auburn, Ala., in this Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019, file photo. Central Florida hired Gus Malzahn as its football coach Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, a little more than two months after he was fired by Auburn. “I truly believe that this is a program of the future in college football,” Malzahn said. Arkansas State won a conference title that season before Malzahn returned to Auburn as head coach. Ad“This is one of the top 25 coaching jobs in all of college football,” Malzahn said.

New Tennessee NCAA college football head coach Josh Heupel, left, shakes hands with University of Tennessee athletics director Danny White after being presented a jersey speaks during an introductory press conference at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. (Caitie McLekin/Knoxville News Sentinel via AP, Pool)Josh Heupel believes he can win quickly at Tennessee and position the football program for long-term success. Heupel was introduced Wednesday as the program's 27th head coach and fifth, not counting interim or acting coaches, since the end of the 2008 season. New athletic director Danny White said Tennessee ran an “exhaustive nationwide search” led by the same search firm that helped land White. White was hired last week to replace the retiring Phillip Fulmer and hiring a new coach was his first task.

(AP Photo/George Frey, Pool)Preparing for the Boca Raton Bowl proved a bit of a slippery slope for the Central Florida Knights. All part of Heupel’s plan to bring a dose of fun to the bowl game with some of the customary pageantry halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “A really good football team,” Heupel said. “Kind of reminds me of why you don’t play football in Provo in December,” Sitake joked. They're 0-3 in Florida bowl games, including losses in the 1976 Tangerine Bowl, 1985 Florida Citrus Bowl and 2014 Miami Beach Bowl.