With the final week of the regular season officially in the books, let’s take a look at the best performances of Week 14 in this week’s All-SEC Team.
OFFENSE
QB Nick Marshall: Auburn’s senior signal caller had perhaps the best game of his collegiate career in Saturday’s Iron Bowl, completing more than 62 percent of his passes for 456 yards and three touchdowns in a losing effort. Marshall has long been considered an athlete playing quarterback in Gus Malzahn’s spread rushing attack, but he torched a very capable Alabama defense through the air in the game of the year in the SEC, proving his worth as a passer in his final regular season game.
RB Nick Chubb: Georgia’s freshman tailback extended his streak of 100-yard performances to seven games in a row with his 129-yard outing in Saturday’s loss to Georgia Tech. Once again, Chubb carried a heavy load out of the backfield with 25 carries, but he averaged better than five yards per carry as the workhorse leading the Georgia offense. He also added a touchdown in Saturday’s loss, bringing his season total to 14, including 11 in his last seven games.
RB Leonard Fournette: Fournette, another stud freshman ball-carrier in the SEC, had a monster game in LSU’s win over Texas A&M on Thanksgiving night. He ran for 146 yards and an epic touchdown in which he simply ran over an A&M defender, and he averaged a whopping 7.7 yards per carry on his 19 carries for the game. Fournette has gotten better each week this season, and the scary thing is he still has two full years between him and draft eligibility.
WR Amari Cooper: The man most consider to be the best wideout in college football lived up to the hype in Saturday’s Iron Bowl, catching 13 passes for 224 yards and three touchdowns in Alabama’s 55-44 win over Auburn. The Tigers could not cover Cooper all night, and he made them pay time and time again as the Tide maintained its lead for much of the second half. Cooper accounted for 65 percent of Blake Sims’ completions, nearly 72 percent of his yards through the air and all three of his touchdowns. He was the star of an offense that scored 55 points and improved his Heisman stock tremendously in the process.
WR Sammie Coates: Had Cooper not gone bananas on Saturday night, we’d all be talking about Coates’ dynamic performance in Auburn’s Iron Bowl loss. The Tigers wideout only caught five passes, but those passes went for 206 yards (an average of 41.2 yards per reception) and a pair of touchdowns. Coates was quiet for the first two-thirds of the season but he erupted down the stretch, culminating with Saturday’s huge performance in Auburn’s biggest game of the season.
TE: Evan Engram: Ole Miss entered Saturday’s Egg Bowl without No. 1 wideout Laquon Treadwell, and it lost No. 2 wideout Vince Sanders early in the game. No matter, Engram stepped up as a primary target in the Ole Miss passing game, catching five balls for 176 yards in the Rebels’ win over Mississippi State. He set season highs for yards and yards per catch (35.2) and routinely extended drives and helped move Ole Miss into scoring position as it battled injuries and poor field position for most of the game. He may not have found the end zone, but he was one of the Rebels’ most valuable weapons on Saturday night.
DEFENSE
DL Bud Dupree: Kentucky’s senior linebacker ended his collegiate career with a bang in Saturday’s loss to Louisville. Dupree recorded three tackles for loss, a sack and two forced fumbles against the Cardinals, contributing to a defense that scored two touchdowns in a four-point loss to UL. Kentucky won’t go bowling this season and Dupree will now begin preparing for April’s NFL Draft, but he was as impactful as any defensive player in the SEC in Week 14.
DL Markus Golden: Missouri’s senior defensive end put forth another dominant performance in the Tigers’ Senior Day win over Arkansas on Friday afternoon. Golden recorded two tackles for loss, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and two quarterback hurries in the win over the Hogs, helping Missouri lock down its second straight SEC East title. The senior has now registered multiple tackles for loss in three straight games, and he’s in the midst of a monster second half of the season to complement SEC sacks leader Shane Ray on the other side of the Tigers’ line.
LB Stephen Weatherly: Vanderbilt’s sophomore linebacker has flown under the radar for much of the season, but he made his presence felt in the Commodores’ season finale against Tennessee. Weatherly recorded seven tackles in the loss to UT, five of which came behind the line of scrimmage in addition to a sack of Vols quarterback Joshua Dobbs. He was virtually unblockable in Saturday’s showdown, and helped limit UT to just 92 yards passing and just 262 total yards of offense for the game.
LB Ramik Wilson/Amarlo Herrera: This pair of Georgia linebackers was as sound as any group in the SEC in Week 14, combining to make a remarkable 38 tackles to go along with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in the Dawgs overtime loss to Georgia Tech. Yes, both linebackers were given plenty of opportunities to make tackles against the Yellow Jackets’ run-heavy triple-option attack, but both players remained sound tacklers and rarely let decent runs turn into big gains. Georgia Tech ran for 399 yards as a team, but it also fell short of its yards per carry average this season, thanks to Wilson and Herrera.
LB/DB: Tony Conner: Ole Miss’ versatile linebacker/defensive back hybrid made plays all over the field in the Rebels’ Egg Bowl win on Saturday. He recorded seven tackles in the win, including a sack and three tackles for loss, and added a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry to his already impressive stat line. Conner’s versatility allowed Ole Miss to mix up its looks on defense, keeping Dak Prescott and the Mississippi State offense guessing in one of their worst offensive performances of the season.
DB Brian Poole: Florida’s junior defensive back pulled in two of Jameis Winston’s four interceptions in Saturday’s game in Tallahassee, nearly lifting UF to victory despite an anemic performance on offense. Poole made plays all throughout the back-end of the defense, leading to Winston’s worst game of the season. The Gators fell short and finished the season a modest 6-6, but Poole gave a winning performance against FSU on Saturday afternoon.
DB Jalen Collins: LSU’s junior cornerback was sensational in the Tigers’ 23-17 win over Texas A&M on Thursday night, helping to stifle one of the SEC’s most productive passing offenses on its home field in College Station. Collins recorded a tackle for loss and an SEC-leading two pass breakups against the Aggies, and added his first interception of the season in LSU’s regular season finale. As a result, A&M was limited to just 144 yards through the air, falling well short of its season averages for yards and points on offense.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
