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Countdown to 2017 Kickoff: SEC's Best by Uniform Number

Started by jbcarol, May 29, 2017, 05:52:03 am

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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/886168150437507072

QuoteWillis is on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2018.

Willis played for Ole Miss from 2003 through 2006. The most recent SEC member of the College Football Hall of Fame to play in the league is Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, whose final season with the Volunteers came in 1997 [or Danny Wuerfful.]

SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award for the 2006 season, Willis also received the Butkus Award as the nation's best linebacker and merited consensus All-American recognition as an Ole Miss senior.

Willis led the SEC in tackles as a junior and as a senior.
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/886530263077068803

QuoteTennessee halfback was the SEC's first Player of the Year and the conference's first consensus All-American. The first Heisman Trophy wasn't awarded until two years after Feathers' senior season. Often, "retro" Heisman Trophy picks have Feathers as the 1933 winner had the award been around at the time.

Feathers scored 32 touchdowns in his 30 games at Tennessee. The Volunteers had a 25-3-2 record in those games. He also held the school record for career rushing yards for 37 years.

In 1955, Feathers became the fourth SEC player enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame, following Alabama's Don Hutson, Ole Miss' Bruiser Kinard and Georgia's Frank Sinkwich.

With the Chicago Bears, he became the first NFL player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season, and he still holds the league single-season record for the highest yards-per-carry average for a player with at least 100 rushing attempts.
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/886892069951877121

QuotePollack won the first SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award presented by the conference in 2002, and he won it again in 2004. He's the only player to win it twice.

In 2004, Pollack received the Bednarik Award as the nation's best defensive player, the Lombardi Award as the nation's best lineman or linebacker and the Lott IMPACT Trophy, which considers personal character and athletic excellence to determine the nation's top defensive player. He also won the Hendricks Award as the nation's best defensive end in 2003 and 2004.

Pollack earned first-team All-SEC recognition in 2002, 2003 and 2004. He was a consensus All-American in 2002 and 2004. In between, the American Football Coaches Association named him a first-team All-American in 2003.
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/887253104047124480

QuoteSEC was very good in the BCS, with a team from the conference winning the big game nine times, including the first one, when Tennessee defeated Florida State 23-16 in the Fiesta Bowl to cap an undefeated season.

Raynoch Thompson was the leading tackler and an All-SEC linebacker for those 13-0 Volunteers.

The next season, Thompson was All-SEC again. In 1999, Thompson also was a first-team All-American selection by The Associated Press and the American Football Coaches Association.

Then Thompson left Tennessee for the NFL with a season of eligibility remaining. He started every game in his three collegiate seasons, with the Volunteers compiling a 21-3 league record and a 33-5 overall mark and winning the SEC championships for the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Tennessee finished in the top nine nationally in rushing defense and scoring defense in 1998 and 1999.
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/887629031193096192

QuoteSEC football fans remember Johnny Majors as the Tennessee coach who had heart surgery and lost his job to Phillip Fulmer.

But before that, Majors had one of the best careers in SEC history as the last of the conference's great single-wing tailbacks.

A true triple threat, Majors led the SEC in total offense in 1955 and 1956 - with his yardage almost evenly divided between rushing and passing - and finished third in the nation in punting average in 1956.

Majors won the SEC Player of the Year Award in 1955 and 1956.

Tennessee won the SEC championship and posted a 10-0 regular-season record in 1956.

That season, Majors earned unanimous All-American recognition and was edged out for the Heisman Trophy by Notre Dame's Paul Hornung, even though the Fighting Irish posted a 2-8 record in 1956.

Majors joined the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987. He's one of the three SEC players who wore No. 45 in the football shrine, along with Florida split end Carlos Alvarez and Tulane halfback Eddie Price.
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/887978931386802177

QuoteDespite being the SEC's most famous No. 44, Forrest Gump, a fictional Alabama All-American, will not be the choice of the Countdown today.



Instead, the Countdown keeps it all in the family: No. 44 is the brother of No. 45. And if one-platoon football and the single wing had still been in vogue when Bobby Majors played at Tennessee, it seems likely he would have been a triple-threat tailback as his brother Johnny Majors had been for the Volunteers.

But in 1969, when Bobby Majors reached the Volunteers' varsity, those things had receded into the game's past. Instead, Majors played safety for the Volunteers. But he got his hands on the ball as a punt and kickoff returner, and, in his final two seasons, he did the punting for Tennessee, too.

In 1970, Majors became the fourth SEC player to intercept 10 passes in a season.

In 1970 and 1971, Majors earned All-SEC honors. In 1971, he was a unanimous All-American selection.

During Majors' three seasons, Tennessee posted a combined SEC record of 13-4 and an overall mark of 30-5. 



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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/888343595979354112

QuoteBama won the first SEC Championship Game 28-21 over Florida in 1992 when cornerback Antonio Langham intercepted a pass by quarterback Shane Matthews and returned it 27 yards for the game-deciding touchdown with 3:16 left to play.

That sent the undefeated Crimson Tide on to a showdown with top-ranked Miami (Fla.) in the Sugar Bowl, where Alabama defeated the Hurricanes 34-13 to claim its first national championship since 1979.

Langham earned All-SEC honors in 1992. The next season, his recognition rose to unanimous All-American, and the former Hazlewood High standout also became the first of seven SEC players to win the Thorpe Award, presented annually to the nation's best defensive back.

Langham tied for the conference lead in interceptions in 1992 and 1993, and his career total of 19 ranks tied for third in the SEC all-time...
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/888704118809874433

QuoteBob Suffridge's coach at Tennessee, Gen. Robert Neyland, called the guard "the greatest lineman I ever saw."

As a pulling guard in the Volunteers' single-wing attack, Suffridge cleared the way for two SEC Player of the Year award winners - George Cafego in 1938 and Bob Foxx in 1939.

On defense, Suffridge played for a unit that gave up 75 points in 33 games.

Suffridge earned All-SEC recognition in all three of his varsity seasons and was a first-team All-American each year, too. As a sophomore, Suffridge was on United Press' All-American team. As a junior, he narrowly missed consensus recognition as he was a first-team selection for four of the nine organizations used by the NCAA at the time to compile the consensus All-American squad. In 1940, Suffridge was a unanimous All-American - a first-team choice of all nine consensus selectors.

As a senior, Suffridge also received the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy...
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/889068178957099008

QuoteThree SEC No. 41's are in the College Football Hall of Fame. Mississippi State's Tom "Shorty" McWilliams isn't one of them.

But the MSU No. 41 did a couple of things that eluded the collegiate careers of the three Hall of Famers - Ole Miss fullback Charlie Flowers and tailback Parker Hall and Alabama center Vaughn "Cisco" Mancha.

McWilliams earned first-team All-SEC recognition after all four of his seasons at Mississippi State, and he was the SEC Player of the Year, receiving the award as a freshman in 1944.

What McWilliams' resume lacks that the other three No. 41's have, in addition to College Football Hall of Fame membership, is first-team All-American recognition - at least while playing in the SEC.

Flowers was a unanimous All-American in 1959, when he led the SEC in rushing and scoring, even though LSU's Billy Cannon won the Heisman Trophy that season. Hall was a consensus All-American in 1938, when he had one of the great seasons recorded by an SEC player - leading the nation in return yards, points and yards per carry, placing second in interceptions and finishing third in rushing yards. Mancha was a consensus All-America as a sophomore in 1945, when the Crimson Tide capped an undefeated season with a Rose Bowl victory.

War time All-Americans
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/889427133566767105

QuoteGeorgia running back Herschel Walker has been the SEC's career rushing leader for 35 years. That's the longest any player has held that record, and it's such a span that football fans today might have a difficult time naming any of the ball-carriers that were No. 1 in rushing yards in the SEC's history before Walker.

The player who held the conference's top spot for career rushing the longest before Walker was Tulane's Eddie Price, the only player to reach 3,000 rushing yards in the SEC's first 42 seasons.

The second to do so - and the player who replaced Price in the No. 1 spot - was Kentucky's Sonny Collins.

Collins compiled 3,835 rushing yards for the Wildcats to surpass Price by 720 yards.

Collins started his record-setting career with 502 rushing yards as a freshman. Then came three seasons as a first-team All-SEC running back.

In 1973, Collins led the SEC with 1,213 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns to earn the SEC Player of the Year Award. He was the first African-American player to receive that honor as he became Kentucky's first 1,000-yard rusher.

Last year Sonny Collins ran the 100 meters in 12.89 to break his age group's state record by 2.37 seconds.  He was 65.  His 28.7 200 took that record down by 3.34 seconds. He also won the 400 in 1:10.08.

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jbcarol

Curated SEC Infotainment and aggregated college sports updates where it just means more on Hogville.net

jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/890156461564858368

QuoteTennessee set an SEC single-season record for rushing yards per game in 1951 of 306.8, a mark that stood until the wishbone era and still ranks seventh in conference history.

Hank Lauricella was the star back for the Volunteers and finished second in the Heisman Trophy balloting in 1951. But the pulling guard played a key role in the single-wing attack of coach Robert Neyland, and that's where John Michels came in.

Playing on Neyland's final three Tennessee teams, Michels helped the Volunteers roll up a 14-1-1 SEC record and a 29-3-1 overall mark from 1950 through 1952.

The 1951 Volunteers became the first SEC team to top the final Associated Press and coaches polls of the season.

That was in the days when the final polls came out at the end of the regular season and before the "extra-curricular" bowls. Tennessee had a 10-0 regular-season record in 1951, but lost to undefeated and third-ranked Maryland 28-13 in the Sugar Bowl...

Michels was an All-SEC selection in 1951. In 1952, he repeated that honor, won the Jacobs Trophy as the conference's best blocker and earned consensus All-American recognition.

In 1996, Michels was tabbed for the College Football Hall of Fame. In 2009, he was joined there by another SEC No. 38 - Auburn fullback Ed Dyas, who also had been a record-setting place-kicker.
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/890516972902985734

QuoteNo. 37 hasn't been worn by a parade of All-Americans from the SEC, as some jersey numbers have. But what 37 may lack in quantity, it makes up for in quality. The SEC's No. 37's include:

    Three College Football Hall of Fame members: LSU's Tommy Casanova, Vanderbilt's Carl Hinkle and Tennessee's Bowden Wyatt (who also is enshrined as a coach).
    Two three-time first-team All-SEC selections: Casanova and Alabama's Bobby Johns.
    Two SEC Players of the Year: Hinkle and Alabama's Shaun Alexander.
    Three consensus All-Americans: Casanova, Johns and Wyatt.

One of the players was a consensus All-American twice. Casanova earned that recognition for the 1970 and 1971 seasons after receiving first-team All-American recognition by The Football News in 1969.

When the 1971 season arrived, Sports Illustrated declared Casanova as the "best player in the nation." It didn't work out that way...
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/890877284772700160

QuoteRobert Neyland coached 11 future College Football Hall of Fame players at Tennessee. Four of them were guards, including Ed Molinski.

It was the Volunteers' good fortune that they had Molinski and Bob Suffridge as their guards from 1938 through 1940. During those seasons, Tennessee went 18-0 in SEC play, won all 30 of its regular-season games and produced two SEC Players of the Year - George Cafego in 1938 and Bob Foxx in 1939.

Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1961, Suffridge received first-team All-SEC recognition in all three of his seasons, and first-team All-American recognition in each year, too, earning consensus All-American status in 1940.

Robert Neyland coached 11 future College Football Hall of Fame players at Tennessee. Four of them were guards, including Ed Molinski.

It was the Volunteers' good fortune that they had Molinski and Bob Suffridge as their guards from 1938 through 1940. During those seasons, Tennessee went 18-0 in SEC play, won all 30 of its regular-season games and produced two SEC Players of the Year - George Cafego in 1938 and Bob Foxx in 1939.

Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1961, Suffridge received first-team All-SEC recognition in all three of his seasons, and first-team All-American recognition in each year, too, earning consensus All-American status in 1940.

Molinski didn't get into the College Football Hall of Fame until 1990, but he did beat Suffridge to consensus All-American recognition. Molinski earned that accolade in 1939, when Tennessee didn't give up a point in 10 regular-season games. This was in the days of one-platoon football, with Molinski manning one of the inside line positions in the Volunteers' 6-2-2-1 defense.

In his other two seasons, Molinski was a second-team All-SEC choice, but was still a first-team All-American selection by The Sporting News in 1940.
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/891239646675521536

QuoteThree fullbacks who wore No. 35 have led the SEC in rushing - Auburn's Joe Childress in 1954, Florida's Larry Dupree in 1962 and Florida's Jimmy DuBose in 1975. Childress was a first-team All-American selection for the Football Writers Association of America, Dupree was a first-team All-American selection for the American Football Coaches Association and DuBose was the SEC Player of the Year.

But they never had to carry the ball against a defense anchored by another No. 35 - Alabama's DeMeco Ryans.

In 2005, Ryans won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award as the Crimson Tide led the nation in scoring defense and ranked second in total defense.

That season, the former Jess Lanier standout earned unanimous All-American recognition and received the Lott IMPACT Trophy. IMPACT is an acronym for integrity, maturity, performance, academics, community and tenacity...
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/891600590484250625

QuoteGeorgia running back Herschel Walker is the only three-time winner of the SEC Player of the Year Award. He's also the only SEC player to be a consensus All-American three times - and he was a unanimous choice each season.

Walker didn't so much win the Heisman Trophy in 1982 as he ascended to it after finishing third in the voting for the award in 1980 and second in the balloting for the 1981 Heisman. In 1982, Walker also won the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Award to sweep the major national player of the year honors for the season.

The Georgia workhorse holds the SEC record for career rushing yards with 5,259 gained on a league-record 994 carries. His career average of 159.4 rushing yards per game is 32.7 more than any other player in SEC history.

Walker was a member of the Walter Camp All-Century Team and a first-team choice on the FWAA's 75th anniversary All-American selections.

Auburn running back Bo Jackson also had a fabulous collegiate career.

On the UPI's All-SEC first team for the 1982 season, Jackson and Walker were the running backs. Both are now in the College Football Hall of Fame.
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jbcarol

Curated SEC Infotainment and aggregated college sports updates where it just means more on Hogville.net

jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/892326013715263488

QuoteBama linebackers Cornelius Bennett, Keith McCants, Derrick Thomas and Lee Roy Jordan already have appeared in the Countdown. None was a consensus All-American twice.

C.J. Mosley was.

Mosley was a consensus All-American linebacker for the Crimson Tide in 2012 and earned unanimous All-American recognition in 2013, when he received the SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award and the Butkus Award as the nation's best linebacker.

During Mosley's four seasons at Alabama, the Tide led the SEC in scoring defense and total defense each year. In two of those years, Alabama also led the nation in scoring defense, total defense and rushing defense - resulting in BCS national championships in 2011 and 2012.

An All-State player at Theodore, Mosley has been a Pro Bowler for the Baltimore Ravens in two of his three NFL seasons...
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/892688898597552130

QuoteIn his second game after joining Georgia from Fullerton College, Jeff Sanchez picked off BYU quarterback Steve Young. Sanchez's interception off the future Hall of Fame QB was one of nine for the junior safety in 1982, and he had another in the Bulldogs' 19-14 victory over Auburn on Nov. 13.

But Sanchez was involved in more famous play in that game (not counting getting turned around and falling down trying to cut off Auburn's Lionel "Little Train" James on his 87-yard touchdown run). Sanchez and cornerback Ronnie Harris broke up a fourth-down throw into the end zone by Auburn quarterback Randy Campbell in the final minute of play to preserve Georgia's perfect season and send the Bulldogs to the Sugar Bowl as the SEC's champions for the third straight year. It led to Georgia radio announcer Larry Munson's noted call as the Bulldogs ran out the clock: "Look at the sugar falling out of the sky."

The Sugar Bowl didn't work out as well for Georgia...

Sanchez came back in 1984 to receive even more recognition as he became the only SEC No. 31 to earn consensus All-American status.

Runner-up at No. 31: Tennessee fullback Curt Watson...
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jbcarol

The Countdown to Kickoff: The SEC's best No. 30

QuoteLaRon Landry broke in at LSU on top in 2003 -

Landry was an All-SEC second-team selection that season as well as the next, before moving up to the all-conference first team in 2005 and 2006.

He played in 52 games at LSU, and the Tigers won 44 of them.

In his senior season, Landry also was a consensus All-American selection.

Landry became the second LSU player to lead the Tigers in tackles in three seasons. When he left school, Landry ranked second in passes defended, third in interceptions and seventh in tackles on the Tigers' career lists.

The Washington Redskins selected Landry with the sixth choice in the 2007 NFL Draft, the quickest an LSU defensive player had come off the board in the common-draft era.

Runner-up at No. 30: Alabama linebacker Dont'a Hightower
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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/893413617919553536

QuoteJones went from Carver High School in Columbus, Georgia, to Southern Cal to play college football. But a neck injury suffered during a game against Oregon on Oct. 31, 2009, led to a diagnosis of spinal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the spinal column. It was thought to be a mild case, but USC's medical staff determined Jones should give up football. He didn't think so. Neither did the medical staff at Georgia.

After sitting out a transfer season, Jones led the SEC in sacks in 2011 and 2012, earning consensus All-American honors in 2011 and unanimous All-American recognition in 2012. Jones is one of five Georgia players who have been consensus All-Americans twice.

Georgia won the SEC East in both of Jones' seasons, and he capped his career by being named the SEC Defensive Player of the Year for 2012. 

Runner-up at No. 29: LSU cornerback Mike Williams
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jbcarol

 AL.com sports‏Verified account @aldotcomSports 2h2 hours ago

The Countdown to Kickoff: The SEC's best No. 28 https://t.co/Acfdy6fQ9V



QuoteJavier Arenas was such a dynamic punt returner for Alabama, it's easy to overlook that he also earned consensus All-American recognition as a cornerback...

In the 2009 season, Alabama won its first BCS national-championship under coach Nick Saban with Arenas as an All-American cornerback and an All-SEC selection at two spots - cornerback and return specialist. The Tide finished in the top 10 nationally in scoring defense, rushing defense, passing defense and total defense that season.

Arenas is the SEC's all-time leader in punt-return touchdowns with seven, and his career total of 1,752 punt-return yards broke the 60-year-old conference record of Vanderbilt's Lee Nalley.

Arenas ranks ninth in SEC history in career kickoff-return yards.

Runner-up at No. 28: Auburn cornerback Larry Willingham
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jbcarol

There are 27 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 27 is Tennessee tailback Hank Lauricella.

QuoteWhen Hank Lauricella died in 2014, his obituary in the New York Times called him "the last of the great football single-wing tailbacks and all-around players."

In his final two seasons at Tennessee, Lauricella was the Volunteers' leading rusher, passer and punter. He also returned punts and kickoffs and called plays for the Tennessee offense.

During the 1950 and 1951 seasons, the Vols posted a 21-2 record, outscored their opponents 781-187 and became the first SEC team to win a wire-service national championship.

In 1951, Lauricella was a unanimous All-American, earning first-team recognition from all eight of the selectors used by the NCAA to determine the consensus All-American squad that season.

Lauricella also finished as the runner-up to Princeton's Dick Kazmaier in the balloting for the 1951 Heisman Trophy.

Lauricella is a member of the College  Football Hall of Fame. 

Runner-up at No. 27: Auburn safety Buddy McClinton
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jbcarol

There are 26 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 26 is Alabama running back Bobby Humphrey.



QuoteBobby Humphrey is one of those football players who's the subject of the what-if game, except it's not speculating how great he would have been had he not gotten injured, but wondering how much greater his career would have been if he'd never gotten hurt.

Humphrey broke his foot in the second game of his senior season and never played again for Alabama.

Given the track of his career and the accolades he'd already received, it's not unreasonable to think he would have been in the running for SEC Player of the Year, consensus All-American and the Heisman Trophy in 1988 - the kind of honors that lead to the College Football Hall of Fame. Humphrey has been on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame, but has yet to be selected for enshrinement.

As it was, Humphrey was an All-SEC selection in 1986 and 1987, earned second-team All-American recognition from The Associated Press as a sophomore and was a first-team All-American pick by the Walter Camp Football Foundation and The Sporting News as a junior. He finished 10th in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1987.

Humphrey left Alabama as the school's all-time rushing leader and ranked No. 7 on the SEC's career list for rushing yards. He's now third in Tide history and No. 14 on the SEC list. Had he had a senior season that duplicated his junior campaign, Humphrey would have gone to the NFL behind only Herschel Walker in the conference record book and be No. 4 today.

Had two sons play in the SEC.
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jbcarol



There are 25 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 25 is LSU wide receiver Josh Reed.


QuoteJosh Reed is unique in SEC history. He's the only player from the conference who has led the nation in receiving yards per game.

That happened in 2001, when Reed helped LSU win the SEC championship by catching 94 passes for 1,740 yards -- an average of 145 receiving yards per game.

Those figures do not include Reed's 14 receptions for 239 yards in LSU's victory over Illinois in the season-ending Sugar Bowl. Bowl statistics did not count in official NCAA records at the time. If they had, Reed's 2001 total of 1,979 receiving yards would be ranked as the third-highest single-season total in NCAA FBS history.

Reed's 2001 stats do include a 19-catch, 293-yard performance against Alabama. Both numbers were SEC single-game records at the time. The catch record still stands; the yardage mark has been bettered once.

Reed's 2001 record for single-season receiving yards (the official one of 1,740 yards) remains in the books, too. He was the first SEC player to reach 3,000 receiving yards in his career, doing so almost entirely in his final two seasons after starting his collegiate career as a running back.

Reed is one of the two SEC players who have won the Biletnikoff Award.

Runner-up at No. 25: Alabama running back Rolando McClain
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jbcarol



AL.com is counting down to the 2017 SEC football season on Sept. 2 by presenting the No. 1 player to wear each number 1 through 99 in the conference's history. There are 24 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 24 is Auburn running back Carnell Williams.


QuoteAfter a stellar prep career at Etowah High School, Carnell Williams showed promise of greatness at Auburn, too, in his first two seasons, but he got hurt before he could really get rolling - a broken collarbone in 2001 and a broken leg in 2002.

Williams stayed on the field during his final two seasons on the Plains and led the SEC in touchdowns in 2003 and 2004. With 45 rushing touchdowns in his career, Williams ranks fourth in SEC history.

Williams reached his career high with 1,307 rushing yards in 2003, when he tied the Auburn single-season touchdown record by scoring 17 times. In 2004, Williams' stats dropped to 1,165 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns. But with Williams and running back Ronnie Brown at full capacity, the Tigers posted an undefeated season.

Williams was an All-SEC running back in both those seasons, and, in 2004, he was all-conference twice because he also was the All-SEC return specialist. Williams won the SEC Special Teams Player of the Year Award in 2004, and his ability in the return game helped him reach the No. 2 spot (behind James Brooks) on Auburn's career list for all-purpose yards.

Cadillac in the seasons before a Mercedes was about to arrive.
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jbcarol

There are 23 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 23 is Auburn running back Ronnie Brown.



QuoteTerry Henley, Kenny Irons and Fob James - all Auburn running backs who wore No. 23 - led the SEC in rushing, with James doing it in 1955, Henley in 1972 and Irons in 2005.

Another Auburn No. 23 running back didn't accomplish that achievement, but Ronnie Brown did pile up more rushing yards and touchdowns than any of the league-leading trio and, with Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, formed one of the SEC's most potent backfields for the Tigers' 2004 undefeated team.

Brown was supposed to be Williams' caddie in 2002. But when Williams suffered a broken leg, Brown stepped up with a 1,000-yard season and led the SEC with 13 rushing touchdowns.

The next season, Brown wasn't healthy. But in 2004, Auburn had both its star backs at full capacity, and Brown did his part -

Brown embarked on a 10-year pro career as the second player picked in the 2005 NFL Draft.

Runner-up at No. 23: Alabama center Cary Cox
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jbcarol



QuoteFour No. 22's have been the SEC's Player of Year:

    Mississippi State halfback Art Davis earned the SEC Player of the Year Award in 1954
    Alabama running back Mark Ingram earned the SEC Offensive Player of the Year Award in 2009, when he helped the Crimson Tide win the SEC championship and the BCS national title. Ingram became Alabama's first Heisman Trophy winner that season, when he led the SEC in rushing yards and received unanimous All-American recognition.
    Alabama running back Johnny Musso earned the SEC Player of the Year Award in 1971, even though Auburn quarterback Pat Sullivan won the Heisman Trophy that season. Musso led the SEC in rushing yards in 1971, as he had in 1970. He was all-conference both seasons. In 1970, the Walter Camp Football Foundation named Musso an All-American. In 1971, he was a consensus All-American, earning first-team recognition from three of the five selectors used by the NCAA to compile the consensus squad that season. Musso finished fourth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy in 1971, when Alabama won the SEC championship. Musso joined the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
    Florida running back Emmitt Smith earned the SEC Player of the Year Award in 1989, the last of his three seasons as an All-SEC selection. Smith led the SEC in rushing yards that season, as he had in 1987, and was a unanimous All-American selection. He finished seventh in the voting for the 1989 Heisman Trophy. Smith joined the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

So why make Ingram the No. 1 at No. 22?

Ingram won the Heisman Trophy
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jbcarol


No. 1 21 is Georgia tailback Frank Sinkwich


QuoteSinkwich became the first SEC player to win the Heisman Trophy in 1942.

The previous year, he'd finished fourth in the Heisman voting. Sinkwich led the nation in rushing that year and ended the season with an astonishing, for the time, performance in Georgia's first bowl. In the Bulldogs' 40-26 victory over TCU in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1942, Sinkwich completed 9-of-13 passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 139 yards and a touchdown.

Despite all that production, when Charley Trippi joined Georgia's backfield in 1942, Sinkwich moved to fullback. He still earned All-SEC recognition for the third straight year and received the league's Player of the Year Award. Sinkwich had the second-most passing yards and the eighth-most rushing yards in the nation for Georgia's Rose Bowl-winning team.

A consensus All-American in 1941, Sinkwich upgraded to unanimous All-American in 1942.

In 1954, Sinkwich became the third SEC player inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
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There are 20 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 20 is LSU halfback Billy Cannon.

Billy Cannon's tackle-breaking 89-yard punt return late in the fourth quarter of LSU's 7-3 victory over Ole Miss on Halloween night in 1959 is one of the SEC's legendary plays. It extended to 19 games the winning streak for the defending national-champion Tigers and pinned the only loss of the season on the Rebels.




QuoteHe won the 1959 Heisman Trophy in a landslide after finishing third in the balloting the previous year.

Cannon also was the SEC Player of the Year in 1958 and 1959 and a unanimous All-American selection in both of those seasons.

Those honors led to a place in the College Football Hall of Fame for Cannon.

Cannon is one of the two SEC No. 20's in the Hall of Fame. Auburn's Tucker Frederickson is the other.

Cannon is one of the five No. 20's to win the SEC Player of the Year Award, along with Mississippi State's Buddy Elrod in 1940, Frederickson in 1964, Auburn's Joe Cribbs in 1979 and Kentucky's Artose Pinner in 2002. Pinner was the SEC Offensive Player of the Year.

Runner-up at No. 20: Auburn back Tucker Frederickson [he started ahead of Brian Piccolo in high school per James Caan in "Brian's Song".]

After going to prison and being released in 1986, Cannon became the prison dentist.  LSU announced this summer that they have approved a statue in his honor.
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There are 19 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 19 is Georgia cornerback Scott Woerner.


UGa

QuoteWhen Georgia won the national championship with a 12-0 record in 1980, Vince Dooley was in his 17th season as the Bulldogs' coach. Freshman workhorse Herschel Walker carried the Georgia offense that season. And another freshman, seldom used Terry Hoage, came through with a blocked field goal in the Bulldogs' 17-10 victory over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl to complete the undefeated season.

All three men are in the College Football Hall of Fame. So is Georgia's senior leader from that season - cornerback Scott Woerner.

"On our undefeated national-championship team of 1980, he was to our defense and kicking game what Herschel Walker was to our offense that year," Dooley said. "Scott was one of the most versatile players I ever coached. His secondary play in the national-championship game against Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl was one of the greatest performances I have ever seen."

Woerner led the nation in punt-return yards and punt-return average as a senior.

Runner-up at No. 19: Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland
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 AL.com sports‏Verified account @aldotcomSports 3m3 minutes ago

The Countdown to Kickoff: The SEC's best No. 18



There are 18 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 18 is Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning.

QuoteArchie Manning's career total-offense figure of 5,576 yards seems too small for the quarterback picked as the best in the first 50 years of SEC football, considering the current record for one season is 5,116 yards.

But consider after Manning played his final game for Ole Miss on Jan. 2, 1971, against Auburn in the Gator Bowl (which didn't count in his official stats, by the way), he held the SEC career record for yards of total offense, which is the combined total of a player's passing and rushing yards.

It's possible to rattle off other superlative statistics about Manning. For instance, his total of 540 yards - 436 passing and 104 rushing - against Alabama in 1969 in the first college football game televised in prime time remained unsurpassed as the SEC's single-game record for 43 years.

But stats aren't the point with Manning: He was more than a football player; he was a folk hero, at least in Mississippi. When Tennessee fans wore "Archie Who?" buttons to the game against the Rebels and watched the Volunteers get beat 38-0, a postman took the tune from Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and transformed it into "The Ballad of Archie Who," and it became a regional hit. And that wasn't the only song written about "Archie Super-Manning," "the best dad-burned quarterback to ever play the game."
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There are 17 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 17 is Alabama quarterback Riley Smith.



QuoteThe biggest game that Smith played in at Alabama was the Tide's 29-13 victory over Stanford in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1935. It capped an undefeated season for one of the pre-poll national-championship teams recognized by the university. In that team's photo, Smith is wearing No. 17. (He's also wearing No. 17 in the photo that accompanies his biography for the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame.)

Smith was the consensus All-American quarterback for the 1935 season - ahead of TCU's Slingin' Sammy Baugh.

Smith also won the Jacobs Trophy as the SEC's best blocker that year, played safety and excelled as Alabama's place-kicker and punter.

Smith was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985.

Smith was the second player picked in the inaugural NFL Draft in 1936, and he was the highest-drafted player from that first event to play in the NFL, because Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger of Chicago, the first No. 1 pick, chose not to pursue a pro career.

Sports Illustrated picked Smith as the greatest No. 26 in college football history. But the Alabama record book, in its rundown of Tide All-Americans, shows Smith's number as 25.
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There are 16 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 16 is Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning.



QuoteTennessee quarterback Peyton Manning became eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame with the Class of 2017. He'll be inducted with the rest of that class on Dec. 5 at the National Football Foundation's annual awards dinner in New York.

As a first-ballot selection, Manning became the second SEC player who was on the field in the 1990s to reach the College Football Hall of Fame, joining Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel.

Manning was the SEC Player of the Year in 1997, when he led the Volunteers to the conference championship.

Manning also won the Maxwell Award as college football's best all-around player and the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award as the nation's top QB, received unanimous All-American recognition, earned the Campbell Trophy as college football's top scholar-athlete and finished as the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy that season.

When Manning left Tennessee as the first player picked in the 1998 NFL Draft, he held the SEC single-season record for most yards of total offense and conference career records for completions, passing yards and total offense.

Runner-up at No. 16: Georgia safety Lynn Hughes
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There are 15 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 15 is Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.



QuoteIn 2007, Tebow was the consensus All-American quarterback and the Maxwell Award winner. His record-breaking campaign included conference single-season marks for total offense, touchdown responsibility and rushing TDs.

Over the next two years, Tebow earned All-SEC recognition two more times and won the SEC Offensive Player of the Year Award twice. In 2008, became the second player to win the Maxwell Award twice.

Tebow left Florida as one of the most celebrated players in the SEC's history as well as the conference's career leader in total offense, touchdown responsibility, passing-efficiency rating and rushing TDs.

Runner-up at No. 15: Alabama safety Tommy Wilcox
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There are 14 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 14 is Tennessee safety Eric Berry.


QuoteNo. 14 has been worn by a wealth of talented SEC football players, including one of the most celebrated of all-time - Don Hutson. There are two more No. 14's from the SEC's history who are in the College Football Hall of Fame, and they were consensus All-Americans twice - Georgia safety Terry Hoage and LSU end Gaynell Tinsley.

And another No. 14 was a unanimous All-American twice - Tennessee safety Eric Berry.

After taking a spot on the All-SEC second team as a freshman, Berry earned first-team all-conference recognition the next two years - and first-team All-American recognition from every consensus selector in those seasons, too.

Berry received the SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2008 and the Thorpe Award in 2009.

Berry's accolades came on defense, but he turned into an offensive player when he intercepted a pass. On his 14 career interceptions, Berry compiled an SEC-record 494 return yards. He also holds the conference record for yards per interception return with an average of 35.3.
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There are 13 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 13 is Georgia safety Jake Scott.



QuoteGeorgia safety Jake Scott became the first defensive player to receive the SEC Player of the Year Award in 1968.

Previous winners had played defense, of course, during the era of one-platoon football, but Scott was the first to win the conference's annual honor without playing on offense.

In his award-winning campaign, Scott became the third SEC player to intercept 10 passes in one season. He also finished second in the nation with 440 punt-return yards in 1968.

Georgia led the nation in scoring defense, placed third in total defense and won the SEC championship that season.

Scott spent what would have been his senior season playing for the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League. But in his two seasons with the Bulldogs, he intercepted 16 passes. Only six players in SEC history have more interceptions.

Scott turned three of his interceptions into touchdowns, and when he left Georgia, he had the second-most interception-return yards in SEC history. He's still fifth on the list. Scott's average of 19.7 yards per interception return remains the best in SEC history for any player with at least 15 interceptions.

All-SEC selection in both of his seasons with the Bulldogs, Scott was a consensus All-American choice in 1968 and is now enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Runner-up at No. 13: LSU QB Tommy Hodson

5x Pro-Bowler and safety on Dolphins' undefeated Super Bowl champ.
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There are 12 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 12 is Mississippi State quarterback Jackie Parker.


QuoteState's Jackie Parker became the first two-time winner of the SEC Player of the Year Award in 1953, repeating the honor he'd received the previous year.

In 1952, Parker took the controls of Mississippi State's split-T offense and produced a record-breaking season.

His 16 rushing touchdowns stood for 25 years as the SEC single-season record and 58 years as the Mississippi State mark.

Parker also kicked 24 extra points, giving him 120 points for the season - the most in the nation. That total wasn't surpassed for 40 years in the SEC, and it remains Mississippi State's single-season scoring record.

Parker also threw eight touchdown passes in 1952. His touchdown-responsibility total of 24 was MSU's single-season mark for 60 years.

In 1953, Parker also was a Football Writers Association of America first-team All-American selection.

Parker joined the College Football Hall of Fame in 1976. The SEC's other No. 12 in the Hall of Fame is Ole Miss' Jake Gibbs.

Parker and Gibbs are among the number's SEC Player of the Year winners, along with Vanderbilt's Bill Wade, who received the award in 1951; Alabama's Pat Trammel, 1961, Auburn's Jimmy Sidle, 1963, and Florida's Kerwin Bell in 1984. Gibbs received the award in 1960.
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There are 11 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 11 is Florida quarterback Steve Spurrier.


QuoteSpurrier's ascension to the conference top's quarterback of his day was delayed by a knee injury in 1964 before his sophomore season. But in 1965, he was the All-SEC quarterback, the Football Writers Association of America's All-American QB and the ninth-place finisher in the Heisman Trophy balloting.

Spurrier broke the SEC single-season record for passing yards in 1965. The next year, he broke his own record.

In 1966, Spurrier became the third SEC player to win the Heisman Trophy. He also received the SEC Player of the Year Award and earned unanimous All-American recognition.

Enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986 for his playing prowess, Spurrier was a member of the Hall of Fame's Class of 2017 for his coaching record. He joined Bobby Dodd, Amos Alonzo Stagg and Bowden Wyatt as the men who have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as players and as coaches.

Runner-up at No. 11: Auburn quarterback Travis Tidwell
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There are 10 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 10 is Kentucky quarterback Babe Parilli.



Quote"Bear" Bryant won his first SEC championship as a coach with Kentucky in 1950, when the Wildcats went 5-1 in league play, posted an 11-1 overall record and beat previously undefeated Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, ending the Sooners' 31-game winning streak.

Babe Parilli played quarterback for Bryant's Kentucky championship team. He earned the SEC Player of the Year Award in 1950, when he broke the conference's single-season record for passing yards, earned consensus All-American honors and finished fourth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.

Parilli is the only player who has led the SEC in passing for three straight seasons, and when he left Kentucky, he was the NCAA's career leader for passing yards and touchdown passes.

Parilli, who died on July 15, entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982.

Runner-up at No. 10: Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron
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There are nine days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 9 is Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper.


QuoteAmari Cooper became the fourth Alabama player with 1,000 receiving yards in a season as a freshman for the Crimson Tide's BCS national-championship team of 2012. But his best season was ahead of him.

In 2014, Cooper set an SEC single-season record with 124 receptions - 12 more than any other player in the conference has caught in one campaign. He also had the most receptions in the nation that season. Cooper's 1,727 receiving yards rank second on the conference's single-season list and his 16 touchdown receptions are No. 3 in SEC history. Cooper wound up with unanimous All-American recognition, the SEC Offensive Player of the Year Award and the Biletnikoff Award, which is presented annually to the nation's best receiver.

Cooper finished third in the balloting for the 2014 Heisman Trophy, the best showing ever for an SEC wide receiver.

Runner-up at No. 9: Florida quarterback Shane Matthews
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There are eight days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 8 is Florida quarterback Rex Grossman.


QuoteA year after helping coach Steve Spurrier win the last of his six SEC championships at Florida as a freshman, quarterback Rex Grossman turned in one of the best seasons in league history.

With 3,896 passing yards - at the time the second-most in one season in SEC history and still No. 4 on the league list - and 8 rushing yards on 395 passes and 34 rushing attempts, Grossman averaged 9.10 yards per play for the 2001 season. That shattered the 31-year-old SEC single-season record of 8.57 yards per play established by Auburn quarterback Pat Sullivan in 1970. Grossman's performance remains the standard in the SEC - one-half yard per play better than anyone else has done.

For the 2001 season, Grossman was the SEC Player of the Year, The Associated Press College Football Player of the Year, a consensus All-American and the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.

Spurrier left Florida for the NFL after the 2001 season, and Grossman threw for 594 fewer yards and his TD passes dropped from 34 to 22 in 2002, when he wasn't the SEC's top-rated passer for the first time in his career. Then Grossman followed Spurrier into the NFL.
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There are seven days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 7 is Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel.


QuoteTwo of the most venerated quarterbacks in the history of the SEC starred in the No. 7 jersey - Heisman Trophy winners and College Football Hall of Fame members Pat Sullivan of Auburn and Danny Wuerffel of Florida.

Sullivan won the 1971 Heisman Trophy, and Wuerffel earned the award in 1996. But that was just one of their many accolades.

Both were the SEC Player of the Year, consensus All-Americans (with Sullivan a unanimous selection) and Walter Camp Award recipients. The Camp Award is presented annually to college football's player of the year as determined by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.

Wuerffel, though, wasn't just the SEC Player of the Year once, he won the award twice. And in addition to receiving the Heisman and Camp in 1996, he also won the Maxwell Trophy to become the second SEC player to sweep the three major Player of the Year awards.

Wuerffel played for four SEC championship teams. After throwing the game-winning touchdown pass in the fourth quarter of the 1994 SEC Championship Game, he was the MVP of the next two conference title contests. The 1996 Gators went on to be crowned the national champions.

Wuerffel is currently the only SEC player since Arkansas joined the league to be inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame. His rival Peyton Manning is to be inducted in the next class.
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There are six days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 6 is Vanderbilt quarterback Jay Cutler.


QuoteCommodores produced two of the first five SEC Player of the Year Award winners with end Willie Geny in 1935 and center Carl Hinkle. In 1941, Vanderbilt fullback Jack Jenkins won the award.

Then came a 10-year wait for quarterback Bill Wade in 1951, and another 16 years before Vanderbilt end Bob Goodridge won the SEC Player of the Year Award as the conference's first 1,000-yard receiver in 1967.

Then nothing for almost half a century, until 2005 when Cutler won the SEC Offensive Player of the Year Award as the Vanderbilt QB.

The conference award capped Cutler's career with the Commodores, during which he started every game. Cutler's productivity peppered his name across the Vanderbilt record book. For instance, Cutler produced 31 percent more yards of total offense during his career than any other player in Vanderbilt history.

The final pass of Cutler's career might have been his most memorable to Vanderbilt fans. On Nov. 19, 2005, the Commodores got the ball with 1:40 to play trailing Tennessee 24-21. On the next four snaps, Cutler completed passes to wide receiver Earl Bennett good for 15, 31 and 6 yards, with the final throw coming after a Tennessee pass-interference penalty and getting Vandy in the end zone. The Commodores' 28-24 victory broke a 22-game losing streak to their in-state rival and was Vanderbilt's first victory in Knoxville since 1975.

Cutler and Vandy also had Florida on the ropes in Gainesville but were jobbed by a mysterious celebration penalty on a game-tying touchdown pass.
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There are five days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 5 is Arkansas running back Darren McFadden.


QuoteNorth Carolina tailback Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck and Arkansas running back Darren McFadden are the answers to a trivia question. They're the players who have finished as the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy twice without winning the award.

But McFadden's trophy case isn't empty after he finished behind Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith in 2006 and Florida quarterback Tim Tebow in 2007 in the Heisman voting.

McFadden earned the SEC Offensive Player of the Year Award in 2006 and 2007, beating out Tebow for the second award despite the Heisman result.

The three-time All-SEC selection was a unanimous All-American in 2006 and 2007, won the Doak Walker Award as the nation's best running back both those seasons and received the Walter Camp Award as the nation's player of the year in 2007.

McFadden left Arkansas for the NFL with a season of eligibility remaining. In SEC history, only Georgia's Herschel Walker has more rushing yards than McFadden, whose 321 rushing yards against South Carolina in 2007 is tied for the conference's single-game record.

Lined up in the wildcat, McFadden also threw seven touchdown passes

Runner-up at No. 5: Georgia running back Garrison Hearst
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There are four days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 4 is LSU running back Charles Alexander.


QuoteCharles Alexander earned the SEC Player of the Year Award in 1977 by obliterating the conference's single-season record for rushing yards.

Alexander's official total of 1,686 yards, which did not include his 197-yard performance against Stanford in the Sun Bowl, exceeded the SEC record held by Florida's Jimmy DuBose by 379 yards and eclipsed the LSU school record by 569 yards. Alexander's 1977 performance remained the Tigers' standard for 38 years.

"Alexander the Great" received consensus All-American recognition and finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy balloting that season.

In 1978, Alexander repeated as a consensus All-American, joining Gaynell Tinsley, Billy Cannon and Tommy Casanova as LSU players to earn that honor twice. He also rose to fifth in the Heisman voting.

Alexander became the first SEC player to rush for 4,000 yards and the first to score 40 touchdowns. He was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
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There are three days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 3 is LSU running back Kevin Faulk.


QuoteLSU's Kevin Faulk was an All-SEC running back three times, led the SEC in rushing in the 1997 and 1998 seasons and ranks third in league history in rushing yards.

Faulk has more all-purpose yards than any other player in SEC history - 16 percent (or 952 yards) more. Faulk's 6,833 yards break down into 4,557 rushing, 600 receiving, 844 on kickoff returns and 832 on punt returns.

Faulk turned that production into points, too. He led the SEC in scoring twice, and he left LSU with more touchdowns than any other SEC player had scored. Faulk had 46 touchdown runs, caught four TD passes and returned two punts and one kickoff for scores. (He also threw a touchdown pass.) His total of 53 touchdowns scored still ranks second on the league list.

Runner-up at No. 3: Alabama running back Trent Richardson
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There are two days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 2 is Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.

QuoteNo. 2 jersey has been worn by three Heisman Trophy winners who were the SEC Offensive Player of the Year and a conference record-setter - Alabama running back Derrick Henry, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel and Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.

Newton set SEC single-season records for total offense and rushing yards by a quarterback on his way to the 2010 Heisman Trophy.

Manziel set the SEC single-season record for total offense (breaking Newton's mark) and the SEC single-game record for total offense on his way to the 2012 Heisman.

Henry set SEC single-season records for rushing yards and touchdowns on his way to the 2015 Heisman.
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There is one day until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 1 is Florida wide receiver Percy Harvin.


QuoteIn the previous 23 seasons, five Florida players wearing the No. 1 jersey have earned All-American recognition. So what separates Percy Harvin from his fellow Gators?

First a question on Harvin that illustrates the answer: Was he a running back who could play wide receiver or a wide receiver who could play running back?

In his first two seasons, the Florida roster listed Harvin as a wide receiver. In his final season, Harvin had the designation of RB/WR.

During his career, Harvin gained 1,852 rushing yards by averaging 9.5 yards per carry. He also had 1,929 receiving yards. Between running and receiving, he scored 32 touchdowns.

In recognition of his dual ability, Harvin earned All-SEC recognition twice in the return specialist/all-purpose slot on the conference's annual all-star team. Because he didn't return kicks, Harvin earned the recognition because of his versatility in Florida's offense.

But Harvin also was a first-team All-American selection as a wide receiver for The Sporting News in 2007 and the American Football Coaches Association in 2008.

Harvin helped Florida win the BCS national championship in the 2006 and 2008 seasons.

Runner-up at No. 1: Florida cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III
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The Countdown to Kickoff: Readers' choices for the best SEC player at every uniform number


QuoteAL.com's No. 1 selection for each number and that of the readers differed 44 times.

The winners of the reader polls included 41 players from Alabama, 27 from Auburn, seven from Tennessee, six from Florida, four from Georgia, three apiece from Kentucky and LSU, two each from Arkansas, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt and one apiece from Ole Miss and Texas A&M.


No. 5

AL.com pick: Arkansas running back Darren McFadden

Readers' pick: Arkansas running back Darren McFadden

McFadden was a runaway winner with 75.44 percent of the votes to outdistance Georgia place-kicker Kevin Butler, who at 16.91 percent had the best showing for a specialist in the Countdown.


No. 63

AL.com pick: Arkansas center Jonathan Luigs

Readers' pick: Arkansas center Jonathan Luigs

Luigs' 73.66 percent of the votes left him well ahead of the runner-up, Alabama offensive tackle Jim Bunch at 21.21 percent.
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