With SEC football just days away, I wanted to spill just a little ink on the unheralded guys who turn good seasons into great ones.
Every college football season has these players. They aren’t “X Factors.” They aren’t always unproven, unrecruited, or undiscussed, either.
But they are essential. They are names that you need to know ahead of SEC football this autumn. And once you know these names, you’ll look good at the family tailgate. Trust.
Call them: “The Underdogs.”
The roster- and data-cruncher fans will insist they saw it coming or they knew it “back when.”
Coaches will give you high level coach speak on how you could see it in the way “they prepare.”
Teammates will talk about how these players “love ball.”
No matter how it gets buttoned up, these are the guys every team needs. Maybe they are household names and breakout stars come November. Maybe (more likely?) they are team leaders you simply can’t win without, even if the public glory is garnered elsewhere.
This isn’t “The List,” a celebration of the 10 best football players in America’s best football conference. That “List,” which I’m told is gospel in Waffle Houses and Harris Teeters across the southeast, returns in one week. I can’t wait. I promise y’all I’m profoundly aware of how easy it is to choose only 10 players from the mighty SEC and rank them. I know you all could do better than me.
But for now, let’s set aside petty differences and bickering and discuss 10 players whose work wasn’t at the center of every offseason awards conversation but who, when toe finally meets leather this week, will help tell the story of SEC football in 2025. And, yes, if your favorite undiscussed, underrated, future breakout star isn’t on this list… it’s obviously because I don’t like that player or haven’t heard of them, and not because I could only choose 10 players from a 16-team league that has dominated the sport for most the century.
Here are 10 Underdogs who will help define SEC football in 2025.
10. Sedrick Alexander, RB (Vanderbilt)
There’s real energy around Clark Lea’s program and for good reason. The Commodores finished with a winning record for the first time this decade a season ago, defeating both Alabama and Auburn in the process. That hadn’t happened in the same season since before integration. Now, star quarterback Diego Pavia returns along with 17 starters, giving Lea one of the most experienced football teams in the SEC. Pavia led Vanderbilt in rushing in 2024, but Alexander added 586 yards and 6 touchdowns, and Lea expects him to shoulder a larger load in 2025, running behind a retooled offensive line Lea says will be the best he’s had in Nashville. Alexander was the leading freshman rusher in the SEC in 2023, and his blend of speed and power suggests a breakout season is just around the bend. We are betting it happens this autumn as Vanderbilt heads to a bowl game for the second-consecutive season.
9. Nyck Harbor, WR (South Carolina)
Harbor is a guy who would make my “guys who look the part getting off the bus” list, too, if such a list existed. He’s 6-5 and 235 pounds with track star speed. Think… Megatron? It’s not an overreaction. Getting off the bus, Harbor “looks” like Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson. The rumblings out of Columbia are that this is the season Harbor cashes in on that talent on the football field. It isn’t that the first 2 seasons were bad. He caught 38 passes and started 13 games. It’s just that there’s more in the talent tank. He knew it, too, which is why he quit track to focus on football, shining throughout the spring. With LaNorris Sellers back to throw him the ball, Harbor has the feel of a guy who takes South Carolina from 7-to-8-win territory to College Football Playoff contender.
8. Keon Sabb, S (Alabama)
Finally healthy, Sabb should anchor an Alabama pass defense that ranked in the top 20 nationally a season ago but was 7.5% better in success rate pass defense with Sabb than without him. A former top-100 recruit and impactful member of Michigan’s 2023 national championship team, Sabb was a prize portal get for Kalen DeBoer in his first season on the Capstone and he delivered last autumn when he was able to play. A full season of Sabb should elevate a deep Crimson Tide secondary to a top 10 group nationally. If that happens, this could be the best defense in the SEC.
7. Trevor Goosby, OT (Texas)
Texas cannot win the national championship if Trevor Goosby doesn’t make good on his immense talent. There’s just too much quantifiable data to the contrary, namely in the form of over 10,000 career snaps departed from the Texas offensive line, which loses All-American Kelvin Banks Jr. and 3 other starters from last year’s national semifinalist. Goosby showed flashes in 2024, but a PFF run blocking grade of just 61.3 ranks among the worst (14th) in the SEC among projected starting left tackles. The pass blocking grade (above 80) is among the top 5, though, and protecting Arch Manning is where Goosby will make his name and money. It’s also probably the story that defines Hook Em’s season.
6. Aaron Gates, DB (Florida)
If you ask people inside Florida’s football building who the best football player in the program is, at least 5 out of 10 will answer: Aaron Gates. The juice the Florida defense got when Gates arrived at camp ready to play at full speed only 9 months removed from an ACL injury, was palpable. Gates was absolutely dominant at times last season, including the Georgia game, where he registered an interception, 3 tackles for loss, and a pass break up…all on 2 consecutive possessions.
Billy Napier loves his flexibility, in addition to his “relentless effort.”
“He can play anywhere in the secondary for us, probably corner if we needed him, too.”
Teammates talk about his consistency and leadership.
“AG is the first one in the building. He is the last one to leave. It’s not a cliché. It’s a guy who loves football and who will do anything to win,” Florida safety Jordan Castell said of his teammate.
Florida has not finished in the top 50 nationally in total defense this decade.
“Yeah, I think that we are on a mission here to play championship-caliber defense. That’s what I would say. We are on an absolute mission to play defense at a high level. It’s one of the things that we have failed to establish here since I’ve been the head coach, to be blunt.”
That could change this season if Gates makes the leap he’s capable of making for the Gators.
5. Eric Singleton Jr., WR (Auburn)
Singleton Jr., who brings over 100 career receptions and 1,400 career receiving yards to the Plains from Georgia Tech, is hardly unproven. One of the top-ranked receivers in the transfer portal, he isn’t unheralded, either. At most places, he’d be one of the most discussed players in “talking season.” At Auburn? He’s the “other receiver” — the one that isn’t All-American Cam Coleman. Whoever calls plays or plays quarterback at Auburn, Coleman is going to get his against every defense Auburn faces. Singleton Jr. is the guy that raises Coleman’s level from All-American candidate to Biletnikoff finalist good. He’s the guy who makes Auburn fans tell lies about things other than winning 9 national titles. He’s been, according to Auburn staff, “unguardable” in camp.
You can’t key on Cam when Singleton Jr. can beat you on any given snap. You can’t key on Singleton because you have Cam Coleman. It’s a certified problem, and if Auburn finally turns the corner under Hugh Freeze, Singleton Jr. will be a huge part of the story.
4. Connor Tollison, C (Missouri)
Look, I understand that the SEC has a First-Team All-American center (Jake Slaughter of Florida) and Second-Team All-American center (Parker Brailsford (Alabama). Those 2 deserve every accolade that comes their way. What I don’t understand, though, is how Connor Tollison, who grades out higher than any SEC center but Slaughter in the past 2 years, per PFF, is left off the preseason All-SEC team. Another classic case of Missouri disrespect? Perhaps, but Tollison probably won’t care if Mizzou, which as a program has as many or more wins during the past 2 seasons as every SEC school save Texas and Georgia, keeps winning. To do that, they’ll need Tollison calling out the defenses for a new quarterback and continuing to improve as a run blocker for a new look Missouri running back room. The accolades Tollison deserves may — or may not — follow.
3. Patrick Payton, DE (LSU)
Payton is a strange player to land on an “Underdogs” list. He’s more of a “Redemption” candidate. In 2022, he was named the ACC Defensive Freshman of the Year. In 2023, he garnered All-ACC honors on a Florida State team that went 13-0 and won the ACC Championship Game before not being invited to the College Football Playoff and promptly throwing in the towel in righteous disgust at the Orange Bowl (a 63-3 FSU loss to Georgia). A season ago, like everyone else on his 2-10 FSU team, Payton underperformed. He registered a career low in tackles, pressures, and sacks and hit the portal after FSU’s season-ending loss to Florida. Given a second life at LSU, Payton has looked splendid since arriving in Baton Rouge, earning praise for his motor and approach from Brian Kelly himself. If Payton reclaims the form that made him an anchor of one of the nation’s most fearsome defenses at FSU in 2023, the entire conversation around LSU starts to trend away from Playoff good to Championship good.
2. Elo Modozie, Edge (Georgia)
Before you yell “Boring!” at the lack of imagination in picking an edge defender from a program that churns out dominant front 7 players as efficiently as the Chick-Fil-A drive through, take a step back and acquaint yourself with Modozie’s story. A tremendous student, Modozie had 1 FBS offer out of his Jacksonville area high school (Bartram Trail near St. Augustine) — the United States Military Academy, to play wide receiver. Jeff Monken and his defensive coordinator Nate Woody took a look at him, saw explosive athleticism and toughness, and decided he’d be more impactful for the Black Knights on defense. Instead of pouting, Modozie bought in, learning a new position and eventually blossoming into an All-AAC performer in 2024. On a Kirby Smart defense loaded with talent but lacking in proven pass-rushing experience, Modozie has more career pressures (42) than the rest of the returning Georgia roster (39) combined and nearly as many career sacks (7.5) as all red and black returnees (8). Defenses may key or load up on the big-time talents of Christen Miller, Gabe Harris, or Jordan Hall. That will be a mistake, thanks to Modozie, who has All-SEC and household name written all over him. Not bad for a 0-star recruit.
1. Suntarine Perkins, LB (Ole Miss)
Suntarine Perkins is a second-team preseason All-SEC selection. He’s hardly an unknown or unheralded commodity.
And yet he feels underrated and unappreciated, in some respects, given he’s one of the most dominant returning havoc creators in college football. Pete Golding utilized Perkins all over the field a season ago — Perkins even registered 19 snaps as a slot corner (largely on tight ends, but a wild number nonetheless) due to his coverage skills —but it’s ability to chase the football and pressure the quarterback that makes him a difference maker. Perkins tallied 10.5 sacks and 43 hurries in 2024. Scroll above for perspective: SEC champion Georgia returns fewer sacks and pressures on its entire roster until you add Elo Modozie to the mix. The big question for Perkins is whether he can improve as a run defender. He graded out at just 62.4 against the run last season, and the bulk of the players who helped Ole Miss finish the season with the nation’s No. 2 success rate run defense (Walter Nolen, Princely Umanmielen, JJ Pegues, and Jared Ivey, among others) have all moved on to the NFL.
If Ole Miss is a top 20 defense again, Lane Kiffin has another Playoff contender. If Perkins becomes a star, they might not have to lobby the committee again come early December.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
