Robert Nkemdiche was once the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2013. Nowadays he’s a sophomore starring along the defensive line for the Ole Miss Rebels, serving as the anchor of the SEC’s best scoring defense.

Most of Nkemdiche’s work in the trenches goes unnoticed, but don’t let that fool you — he’s the most disruptive defensive tackle in the SEC, maybe in the nation. And although no one is talking about it now, he still has a great chance to earn a trip to New York as a Heisman finalist this December.

Before justifying that statement, allow me to clarify one thing: I do not expect Nkemdiche to win this year’s Heisman Trophy. Only one defensive player has ever won the award (Michigan’s Charles Woodson, who also built hype as a kick returner), and if the Rebels’ 6-foot-4, 290-pound force was going to become the second, he’d already be on most experts’ radars.

Nkemdiche has flown under the radar so far this season, and while he probably won’t win college football’s greatest individual honor, he has a chance to join the discussion in the second half of the season.

The sophomore is having as impressive a year as any other lineman in the SEC. His numbers don’t indicate it — 14 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 1 sack, 1 quarterback hurry and 1 pass breakup in six games — but Nkemdiche has been the best player on arguably the best defense in the country. He’s played his defensive tackle role perfectly, and his disruptive play up the middle has allowed his teammates to make huge plays all season.

Here’s a perfect example of that from last week’s Ole Miss victory over Texas A&M: midway through the second quarter, Nkemdiche beat Aggies offensive tackle (and projected 2015 NFL first round pick) Cedric Ogbuehi off the line and pressured A&M quarterback Kenny Hill, forcing him to get rid of the ball quicker than he’d have liked. Hill’s rushed throw ended up in the hands of Ole Miss All-American safety Cody Prewitt, who returned the interception 75 yards for a touchdown to extend the Rebels’ lead to 21 points at the time.

Statistically speaking, Nkemdiche was irrelevant on the play. But that’s obviously not true, as the pressure he put on Hill forced the A&M quarterback to make a costly mistake. Nkemdiche is a part of plays like this each and every week, regularly making a much greater impact than his numbers lead on.

The clip below is another example of Nkemdiche’s disruptive nature. The play occurred in the Rebels’ thrilling win over Alabama two weeks ago, and although the Tide complete the pass on the play, Nkemdiche still makes a statement with a physical bull rush up the middle. This clip has circulated around the Internet in the weeks since that game, but you can never see it too many times.

Nkemdiche is barely 20 years old, and the man he bowls over like a stuffed animal weighs at least 300 pounds. Kids his age aren’t supposed to be capable of things like that. And most aren’t, which is why Nkemdiche deserves some Heisman consideration despite his pedestrian numbers.

Ole Miss defensive line coach Chris Kiffin told Fox Sports the video above was “the most violent thing I’ve ever seen on a play.” And Kiffin knows a thing or two about violent defensive tackles.

His dad, Monte, was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defensive coordinator when Warren Sapp was the team’s star defensive tackle, and Chris was able to rub elbows with Sapp a few times as the team’s ball boy growing up. Kiffin worked as an assistant at Ole Miss when Greg Hardy starred for the Rebels, and he worked as an assistant at Nebraska when Ndamukong Suh was leading the Cornhuskers defense.

Needless to say, when Kiffin talks about the qualities of a star defensive tackle, he knows what he’s talking about. And Kiffin considers Nkemdiche to be a star.

The Rebels’ D-line coach praised Nkemdiche’s work ethic, explaining the sophomore often puts in extra work on his own time to improve his craft. Kiffin told Fox the Rebels’ training and conditioning staff has “never seen anything like (Nkemdiche’s workouts) because he brings so much force and energy.” Those workouts have drawn comparisons to Suh’s career at Nebraska, and for good reason.

Nkemdiche and Suh — the only defensive player invited to the Heisman ceremonies in New York since Woodson won the award 20 years ago — actually have a lot in common beyond their mutual connection to Kiffin and their shared use of a silent “N” in their names. Both players are workout warriors and both play with an aggression unmatched by the average collegiate starter.

Suh’s numbers, even in his freshman and sophomore campaigns, were more impressive than the numbers Nkemdiche has posted thus far in his career. However, the impact made by both players has been about the same. The difference between the two was Suh’s ability to finish plays himself (which led to his impressive numbers). Nkemdiche does more to fill his specific role, allowing the many talented players around him to make plays as designed by the coaching staff.

That selflessness is what has held Nkemdiche’s Heisman campaign back to this point in the season. Suh made plays himself because he had to. He didn’t have the supporting cast Nkemdiche has at Ole Miss, and his Nebraska teams were never as good as this year’s Ole Miss squad. Nkemdiche has done everything asked of him for the greater good of the team (another undervalued characteristic of every Heisman winner), even though it has limited him statistically.

But even if his individual numbers don’t show it, the work Nkemdiche has put in is paying off, as evidenced by his team’s defensive numbers this season. Ole Miss has held its opponents to just 3.25 yards per rush and an SEC-best 4.3 yards per play on the season. And although the numbers don’t show it, Nkemdiche is the biggest reason for the Rebels’ success in the front seven.

What about the Heisman value of Nkemdiche’s teammates on defense like Prewitt and Senquez Golson, you ask? Great question.

Yes, both players have put up big numbers in the Ole Miss secondary, but do we all really believe they’d be putting up those numbers without a disruptive front seven in front of them? Probably not. Football continues to favor the offense more and more each year, and if asked to make plays in vanilla coverages, even supreme talents like Golson and Prewitt would get burned more often than not.

It’s the Rebels’ front seven that has made the defense’s success possible, specifically the play of Nkemdiche at the heart of it all. He’s been the one who collapses pockets. He’s been the one to occupy multiple blockers to free up teammates. He’s been the one physically wearing down linemen each week to help his team close games with emphasis. None of those traits are quantifiable, but trust me, Nkemdiche is the man who makes everything possible for the rest of the defense.

The sophomore has done everything necessary to earn Heisman consideration, and he already has the name recognition that comes with being a former No. 1 recruit. All he needs is one or two statistically dominant games to get the rest of the nation to take notice of his brilliance. That is easier said than done, especially as Nkemdiche continues to take a team-first approach this season, but even one multi-sack game could launch a Heisman campaign.

Ole Miss has just two games remaining against ranked opponents, giving Nkemdiche the perfect mix of high-profile games to gain national exposure and low-profile games against inferior opponents who could let the sophomore pad his stats for the Heisman committee’s benefit. The Rebels’ showdown with Tennessee this weekend appears to be Nkemdiche’s best chance at a breakout game statistically, as UT has allowed the most opponent sacks of any team in the conference (and by a wide margin, too).

There’s still plenty of time between now and the end of the season, leaving the SEC’s biggest Heisman sleeper (literally and figuratively) plenty of time to awaken the country. Don’t count out the conference’s most dominant force just yet.