AL.com file

In 85 seasons, some strange and wondrous things have happened in SEC football games -- a few of them never to be repeated.

But why not? Single-game records would appear to be the easiest records to break. After all, if lightning struck once, couldn't it again?

Some of the SEC's single-game records, though, are products of their time -- the extremes from a version of football that no longer exists. When the conditions that produced a record are gone, that mark would seem safe for posterity.

A few other records are such outliers that they look more like tall tales than something that would actually happen -- let alone happen again.

Here are 15 SEC football single-game records that have and likely will stand the test of time:

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AL.com file

Mississippi State's Jack Nix and Auburn's Junior Rosegreen intercepted four passes

This is a record that might be tied, but breaking it is another story. Nix set the SEC mark with four interceptions in the Bulldogs' 19-0 victory over Arkansas on Sept. 30, 1939, in Memphis. That performance stood alone in the SEC record book until Rosegreen came up with four interceptions for Auburn in a 34-10 victory over Tennessee on Oct. 2, 2004. SEC players have intercepted three passes in a game 45 times. Mississippi State's Mark McLaurin did it last season against Louisville in the TaxSlayer Bowl.

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Ole Miss halfback Arnold "Showboat" Boykin scored seven touchdowns

Boykin carried the football only 14 times in Ole Miss' 49-7 victory over Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl on Dec. 1, 1951, but half of his rushing attempts ended in the end zone. Boykin ran for 187 yards and seven touchdowns against the Bulldogs. He's the only SEC player to score seven touchdowns in a game, and only three other SEC players have scored six.

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Courtesy of the University of Florida

Florida quarterback John Reaves threw nine interceptions

When Reaves left Florida, he had the most passing yards in college football history and the most touchdown passes in SEC history. The Associated Press had him on its All-SEC in 1969, when he was a sophomore, and Time magazine chose him as its All-American QB in 1971, when Auburn quarterback Pat Sullivan won the Heisman Trophy and finished ahead of Reaves for All-SEC honors. Between the NFL and USFL, Reaves was a pro from 1972 through 1987. But on Nov. 1, 1969, Reaves threw 66 passes (at the time, the most by a QB in SEC history and still second-best on the league's all-time list), and nine were intercepted by Auburn in the No. 17 Tigers' 38-12 victory over the No. 7 Gators, who suffered their only loss of the season. No other player in SEC history has thrown more than six interceptions in a game, and Reaves also holds the NCAA FBS single-game record. Auburn finished the 1969 season with 34 interceptions, which was the SEC single-season record at the time.

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Mississippi State's A.B. Stubbs returned 17 punts

In the 2017 season, two Alabama players -- Xavian Marks and Trevon Diggs (above) -- returned five punts apiece in a game -- Marks against Tennessee in the regular season and Diggs against Georgia in the CFP Championship Game. No other SEC players had more punt returns in a game last season. On Oct. 24, 1936, Mississippi State's A.B. Stubbs ran back 17 punts for 122 yards in the Bulldogs' 0-0 tie with TCU in Dallas. No SEC player since has returned more than nine punts in a game, barely halfway to the record, and in 2017, only four SEC players returned more than 17 punts in the entire season.

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LSU wide receiver Josh Reed caught 19 passes

Reed's record-setting game, part of quarterback Rohan Davey's outburst of 528 passing yards, lifted LSU to a 35-21 victory over Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 3, 2001. Reed's 19 receptions were two more than any other SEC player had had in a game, and there's been one 16-catch game and one 15-catch game in the 16 seasons since. Reed also set an SEC single-game record with 293 receiving yards in the game, but that mark has been broken. In 2012, Arkansas wide receiver Cobi Hamilton piled up 303 receiving yards on 10 catches against Rutgers.

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Courtesy of the University of Florida

Florida's Bobby Raymond scored 23 kicking points

What makes Raymond's SEC record for the most points scored kicking in a game tough to beat is that there's another record inside of it. When Raymond scored 23 points in the Gators' 53-14 victory over Florida State on Dec. 3, 1983, he became the second SEC player to make six field goals in one game, equaling the mark set by Auburn's Al Del Greco the previous year. It's been done five times since, including another time by Raymond. In addition to getting Raymond in position to kick six field goals, Florida also scored five touchdowns, and Raymond made the PAT after each. The closest any SEC player has come to Raymond's record is 21 points by Ole Miss' Jonathan Nichols, who had six field goals and three PATs against Texas Tech in 2003.

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Courtesy of the University of Mississippi

Ole Miss defense faced 24 plays

When the Rebels beat South Carolina 33-0 on a rainy Oct. 4, 1947, in Memphis, the Ole Miss defense didn't spend much time on the field. In the third game for Johnny Vaught (above) as the Rebels' coach, the Gamecocks' offense snapped the football only 24 times. South Carolina picked up only one first down on its 30 rushing and 8 passing yards. There's never been another game in which an SEC defense faced fewer than 30 plays.

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Kentucky's Bert Johnson punted 30 times

Johnson was a running back who carried the nickname "Man O' War." He played in the NFL for six seasons and punted 15 times -- or half as many punts as he had in Kentucky's 7-0 loss to Washington and Lee on Sept. 29, 1934. On that day, Johnson punted seven more times than any other SEC player has in a game. In 2017, five SEC players punted nine times in a game for the league-high. One of those players was Missouri's Corey Fatony (above), who piled up 434 yards on his nine punts against Purdue on Sept. 16 for the SEC high last season. Johnson had 1,155 punt yards against Washington and Lee, which is the most in SEC history in one game by 251 yards. An additional oddity about Johnson's 30-punt game: He didn't do all the Wildcats punting. Kentucky punted 36 times in the game.

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Ole Miss' Bill Smith launched a punt of 92 yards

Punters don't have much field left to work with to beat Smith's record. He had the longest punt in SEC history during the Rebels' 13-10 loss to Southern Miss on Oct. 20, 1984, in Jackson, Mississippi. Ole Miss hasn't played Southern Miss since. Smith punted from the Rebels' 8-yard line. His punt landed at the Southern Miss 20 and rolled the rest of the way to the end zone. The punt broke the record of 89 yards established by Alabama's Dixie Howell in 1933, the SEC's first season. Only one punt since has come within 10 yards of Smith's record -- an 86-yarder by LSU's Donnie Jones against Kentucky in 2002.

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LSU scored 93 points

When Missouri defeated Delaware State 79-0 in 2016, it echoed the early days of the SEC, when conference teams routinely beat the daylights out of smaller-school opponents. But the Tigers were still two touchdowns from the SEC record for points in a game. On Nov. 21, 1936, LSU posted a 93-0 victory over Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette). That came in the SEC's fourth football season and broke the record of 92 points scored by Ole Miss against West Tennessee Teachers the previous year. Two teams have topped 80 points in the 81 seasons since LSU's 93-point victory. Alabama scored 89 points against Delta State in 1951, and Florida scored 82 points against Central Michigan in 1997. LSU's outburst against Southwestern Louisiana allowed the Tigers to lead the nation in scoring with 281 points in the regular season.

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Kansas State had minus-93 rushing yards against Kentucky

Kansas State had Lynn Dickey (above, with the Green Bay Packers) at quarterback in 1970, when he passed the Wildcats to their only winning record in a span of 15 seasons and led them to their first victory over a top-10 team -- a 21-20 win against No. 8 Colorado. Two weeks before that historic victory, Kansas State lost to Kentucky 16-3 on Sept. 19 in Lexington. The SEC's Wildcats set a conference single-game record for rushing defense because, in college football, yards lost in sacks are counted in the rushing yardage, and Kentucky rang up seven sacks. Kansas State had 307 passing yards and Kentucky had 107 total yards in the game, which was one of its two victories in 1970.

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Florida's Joe Brodsky picked up 162 interception-return yards

One player with two really long interception returns could break this record. But it has hardly been approached since Brodsky set it in Florida's 26-0 victory over Mississippi State on Sept. 22, 1956. Kentucky's Greg Long had 155 interception-return yards against North Texas in 1981. Mississippi State quarterback Bill Stacy threw only seven passes against Florida, but Brodsky caught three of them. The fullback/linebacker had returns of 100 yards for a touchdown, 35 yards for a touchdown and 27 yards. The most interception-return yards in a game by an SEC player in 2017 were 97, which Tennessee's Daniel Bituli (above) got with a pick-6 against Alabama.

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Texas A&M's Dustin Harris piled up 246 punt-return yards

This SEC record has been around only since 2012, so it's hardly stood the test of time. But Harris broke a record that had been around for 64 years, and he broke it by 43 yards -- 22 percent more punt-return yards than the former mark. A cornerback, Harris got his yardage on eight returns in a 70-14 victory over South Carolina State on Sept. 22, 2012. Harris' returns included one for a 2-yard loss and another for a 96-yard touchdown. His other returns went for 35, 35, 33, 25, 19 and 5 yards, and he had two fair catches.

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Kentucky's Moe Williams compiled 429 all-purpose yards

In the Wildcats' 35-30 victory over South Carolina on Sept. 23, 1995, Williams not only ran for 299 yards -- a Kentucky single-game record and the sixth-most in SEC history -- he also had 73 kickoff-return yards and 57 receiving yards against the Gamecocks. Every other game in the top 10 for all-purpose yards in SEC history has occurred since Williams' record-setting day, which would seem to indicate that his mark has been under constant threat. But Williams' record remains 53 more yards -- or 14 percent more -- than the next-best showing in SEC history. The SEC single-game high for all-purpose yards in 2017 was 285 yards -- all but 9 by rushing -- by LSU running back Derrius Guice against Ole Miss.

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Alabama rushed for 748 yards

Alabama's wishbone ran up 748 yards on 63 rushing attempts in a 77-6 victory over Virginia Tech on Oct. 27, 1973. That's 110 more rushing yards than any other SEC team has recorded in one game -- and the second-place total happened way back in 1937. No SEC team has come closer than 183 yards of Alabama's total since the outburst, and last year's high was 496 yards by the Crimson Tide against Vanderbilt. Corky Tharp, Jimmy Taylor, Wilbur Jackson (above) and Richard Todd ran for at least 100 yards apiece for the Crimson Tide. Jackson ran 51 yards for a touchdown on the fifth play of the game, and that turned out to be only Alabama's fourth-longest TD run in the game. Calvin Culliver had an 87-yard TD run, Tharp had an 83-yard TD run and Taylor had an 80-yard TD run. With 85 passing yards, Alabama also set an SEC record with 833 yards of total offense in the game.