You know the saying: “Respect your elders.”

It seems like every year, underclassmen are becoming more and more prominent in the college game. In recent years, we’ve seen the younger crowd take home prestigious awards that had always been held down by juniors and seniors.

Here at Saturday Down South, we don’t overlook the old men of the college game. Let’s run down five of the best seniors from this past week.

Justin Worley, Tennessee

No, Worley didn’t lead the Volunteers to a signature road win over Georgia, but if he hadn’t gotten knocked out of the game for a stretch Tennessee might have pulled out the win. Instead, the young Vols settled for another near-win and moral victory despite one of the gustiest performances of Worley’s career. After leaving the game with an elbow injury, Worley returned to lead a 7-play, 58-yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Marquez North and one of the ugliest 2-point conversions throws you’ll ever see to get the Volunteers within 35-32. The comeback fell short when Georgia ran out the clock, but the effort didn’t go unnoticed. Worley finished with 264 yards on 23-of-35 passing and 3 TDs on the day.

Deshazor Everett, Texas A&M

Everett was a defensive lynchpin for the Aggies in their come-from-behind win over Arkansas on Saturday. He played a key role in slowing down the Razorbacks running game, recording 16 total tackles (7 solo, 9 assists), including 1.5 tackles for loss. The senior safety has been very solid all season, but hadn’t posted a standout effort like the one he put out in Jerry World.

Trey Flowers, Arkansas

Flowers was a disruptive force last Saturday, helping to derail Texas A&M’s vaunted offensive attack for much of the game. He only finished with 4 total tackles, none for a loss, but he kept pressure in Kenny Hill’s face all day. Flowers got his hands up to deflect two passes on the afternoon, a key part of knocking Hill off his rhythm. Flowers’ performance shows that a defensive lineman doesn’t need to put up huge sack totals to make an impact on the game.

Marcus Murphy, Missouri

Missouri didn’t do much against South Carolina until the very end of the game, but Murphy was one of the guys who powered them to victory in the waning moments. He started out the Tigers’ game-winning drive by returning a punt 22 yards out to the Missouri 49-yard line, then broke off a 22-yard run to get them down to the goal line. Murphy finished with 98 yards on the ground, 22 yards through the air and 46 yards on punt returns in the comeback win.

A.J. Johnson, Tennessee

Tennessee did all they could to bottle up Todd Gurley, and they did an alright job up until the Heisman candidate ran wild in the fourth quarter. Johnson deserves much of the credit for slowing Gurley down early. The middle linebacker racked up a massive total of 17 tackles (9 solo, 0.5 for loss) and was constantly around the ball. He also wasn’t the man that Gurley hurdled late in the game, another positive on the ledger.