Editor’s note: SDS is ranking the 25 best SEC players — at any position — of the last decade. South Carolina pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney is the 11th member of a 25-part daily series.

15.) SOUTH CAROLINA DE JADEVEON CLOWNEY (2011-13)

One of the highest-rated defensive prospects in prep football history and South Carolina’s most hyped recruit ever, Jadeveon Clowney was everything the Gamecocks expected him to be when he arrived on campus as a true freshman fall 2011. The freakish defensive end with wide receiver speed and a running back’s burst was a headache to game plan against and constantly fought off double teams to make plays throughout his brief three-year career — the winningest stretch in South Carolina football history (33-6).

After earning SEC freshman of the year, Clowney became the nation’s most feared defensive player as a sophomore in 2012, setting single-season program records for sacks (13.0) and tackles for loss (23.5) on his way to consensus All-American and SEC defensive player of the year honors.

Clowney’s monstrous, helmet-jarring tackle of Michigan’s Vincent Smith in the Outback Bowl to conclude that stellar campaign kickstarted a 2013 Heisman campaign that virtually ended before it began in the following season opener. Expectations were lofty and questions of whether the star pass rusher should play his final season or sit out were persistent.

Everyone’s projected No. 1 pick, Clowney was selected first overall in the 2014 NFL Draft as a franchise-changing defensive end to be paired with J.J. Watt in Houston . He missed most of his rookie season with a knee injury.

Career numbers: 130 tackles, 47 TFL, 24 sacks, 9 forced fumbles
Individual superlatives: Unanimous All-American (2012); Hendricks Award (2012); SEC Def. POTY (2012); All-SEC (2011-13)
NFL Draft: No. 1 overall in 2014
Defining moment: Clowney had several memorable sacks that changed games including his rag-doll sling of Georgia’s Aaron Murray in Athens and a fourth-quarter strip of Tennessee’s Tyler Bray in Columbia, but his Outback Bowl explosion is a play that will define his career and be shown on highlight films until the end of time.