Has anyone else noticed the lack of RBs and WRs who are the faces of SEC programs in 2025?
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During the 4 days that I spent in Atlanta, wherein 48 SEC players were present for Media Days, Ole Miss standout Cayden Lee was the only running back or receiver that I talked to.
There were a total of 3 receivers and 0 running backs who were in attendance, but I had other interview obligations that conflicted with chatting with the likes of Chris Hilton Jr. (LSU) and Brenen Thompson (Mississippi State). In fact, I talked with 3 former running backs from SEC teams (Jacob Hester, Jamaal Charles and Damien Harris), which was 3 more than the number of current SEC running backs who were in attendance.
Isn’t that … significant?
To be fair, preseason first-team All-SEC receivers Ryan Williams and Cam Coleman are both 18 years old, and 2 of the 6 preseason All-SEC running backs (Caden Durham and Nate Frazier) were also true sophomores. But it’s telling.
It’s telling that there’s only 1 1,000-yard rusher/receiver returning in the SEC, and it’s Texas‘s Tre Wisner, who might not even be the best returning player in his own backfield if CJ Baxter makes a full recovery from a torn ACL. Of course, preseason first-team All-SEC selection Le’Veon Moss would’ve been in that camp for Texas A&M had he not torn his ACL in the South Carolina game while Oklahoma‘s Jaydn Ott was a 1,000-yard rusher at Cal a couple years ago, but you don’t usually see post-spring transfers as SEC player representatives at Media Days.
Still, though. That’s a lack of mainstay running backs and receivers in the SEC right now.
I blame the transfer portal
Kidding. Kind of, but not really.
The offensive skill positions have had more offensive turnovers than other areas. Look at the SEC’s 10 leading receivers from last year:
- Andrew Armstrong, former transfer
- Tre Harris, former transfer
- Matthew Golden, former transfer
- KeAndre Lambert-Smith, former transfer
- Kevin Coleman Jr., former transfer
- Jordan Watkins, former transfer
- Aaron Anderson, former transfer
- Theo Wease, former transfer
- Cayden Lee
- Kyren Lacy, former transfer
That’s right. The lone top-10 returning receiver from last year who wasn’t a former transfer was Lee, AKA 1 of the 3 receivers who was present at SEC Media Days. That’s wild when you consider that as recently as 2019, none of the top 10 receivers in the conference were transfers. Five of those guys became first-round NFL receivers, too. The SEC’s top 4 leading receivers from 2024 were drafted, and only 3 of the top 10 are back (Coleman, Anderson and Lee). If we exclude Coleman, who transferred from Mississippi State to Mizzou, Anderson and Lee are the only top-10 SEC receivers who returned to their respective SEC schools.
That’s more of the issue at running back. It’s not just that Wisner is the SEC’s lone returning 1,000-yard rusher, which is the sign of a 2-year drought with elite SEC returners. It’s that among the conference’s top-10 leaders in rushing yards in 2024 (running backs only), only 4 of them are back. Wisner is the lone player in that group who rushed for 800 yards a year ago. Among the SEC’s top-10 leaders in rushing yards in 2019, 6 of them returned to their same school in 2020.
Times have changed. Maybe the portal is indeed the biggest culprit. At the same time, is it possible that this is cyclical? For sure. It could turn as soon as next year.
Williams might not have gotten the SEC Media Days nod as one of the “faces of Alabama,” but he got the EA Sports College Football ’26 video game cover nod as one of the faces of college football. Odds are that Williams will be at SEC Media Days in 2026, as well as Coleman. Ryan Wingo is another second-year receiver who earned preseason All-SEC honors, and he could be a national household name who represents Texas by this time next year. Guys like Lee and Anderson will still have eligibility after 2025, as will decorated transfers like Zachariah Branch (Georgia) and Nic Anderson (LSU).
As long as the non-draft eligible running backs like Nate Frazier, Caden Durham, Jadan Baugh and Ahmad Hardy don’t pull a Quinshon Judkins and bolt after Year 2, they could represent their respective SEC teams in 2026.
Would I bet on that, though? No way.
A year ago, Montrell Johnson Jr. (Florida) was the lone running back at SEC Media Days. To recap, of the 96 combined SEC Media Days representatives in 2024-25, only 1 of them was a running back. Compare that to 2015-19 when at least 3 running backs attended SEC Media Days on an annual basis. That speaks to the fluidity and lack of continuity at the position in the portal era.
It’s a much different story than quarterback, which had 11 players at the position who were at SEC Media Days. In the portal era, teams need to have their answer at the position — either internal or external — by the time the post-regular season window opens up. At receiver and running back, that’s not proven to be the case. Post-spring receiver transfers like Jordan Addison and Jameson Williams proved that, and post-spring running back transfers like Bucky Irving and most recently, Ott, were coveted at the position.
More likely is that a portal-heavy approach will continue to lead to a lack of offensive skill-players who are considered team representatives. Even in the NIL/revenue sharing era with the ability to financially incentivize upperclassmen from leaving for the NFL, I’d still bet on plenty of running backs and receivers operating on 1-year contracts.
What I wouldn’t bet on is there being a noticeable drop-off in SEC talent at running back and receiver. It just might take a bit longer for it to emerge, just as we saw last year with guys like Golden and Dylan Sampson who became integral pieces of Playoff teams.
But take note of how those positions are being viewed in the SEC. It certainly felt noteworthy in Atlanta.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
