ATLANTA — I just closed my eyes and threw darts.
No, that’s not really how I filled out my preseason All-SEC ballot, but it’d be an entertaining way to try it one year. Fortunately for the people who take this stuff seriously, I didn’t do that. I instead watched football to make my decisions.
I know. What a crazy concept.
And to be clear, that meant watching all 16 teams play football, not just the contenders. For my money, that’s the best way to fill out a preseason All-SEC ballot. I’m doing it based on who they are if they stepped on the field tomorrow, which is heavily based on what I’ve seen from them on fall Saturdays.
OK, I’ve got a confession. It’s something that I hope won’t be held against my credibility, but I just need to get it off my chest. If you want to treat it as a sign that I’m not a true ball-knower, I suppose that’s your prerogative.
I didn’t do film breakdown to settle on my top 3 SEC long-snappers.
I know, I know. I’m doing a disservice to those fine individuals. Would it make it any better if I told you that I’m currently researching the skill heavily so that I can teach my daughter how to do it and get an FBS scholarship? No? OK. Fair enough.
Here’s how I filled out my 2025 preseason All-SEC ballot (in the positions you actually care about):
QB
- Garrett Nussmeier, LSU
- LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina
- DJ Lagway, Florida
My debate really wasn’t at 1-2. There’s nothing wrong with Sellers at first-team, and if you’re in the “he’s overrated” crowd, you’re telling on yourself that you haven’t watched him play after he was masterful in the latter half of the season. But I went with Nussmeier because of how well he worked through that midseason lull in Year 1 as a starter. If I’m starting a team, he’s the guy that will have the best chance of maximizing the offense’s ability.
The bigger question for me was what to do with that No. 3 spot. Diego Pavia was an All-SEC quarterback at season’s end. That’s why he’s got every right to feel like he deserves one of those preseason spots. On another note, my Saturday Down South Podcast co-host brought up an interesting question that I have yet to find an answer to. Has there ever been an All-SEC quarterback who returned and didn’t earn preseason All-SEC honors the following season? My guess is that Pavia will be the first.
I gave Lagway the nod because, while there are questions about his shoulder, the guy was masterful once he took over the starting job. He was 6-0 in games that he started and finished, but his ability to make every throw on the field was evident, even as he wore an apparatus to protect his injured hamstring after he hurt it against Georgia. That’s a large enough sample size there to make me feel like he’s worthy of such a preseason honor, which is a different story than Arch Manning. You can love Manning’s potential and acknowledge that a guy with 2 career starts isn’t worthy of all that praise. Shoot, Manning himself admitted that.
John Mateer would also probably tell you he still needs to prove it against SEC competition, and while I love the potential of someone like Austin Simmons to finish as an All-SEC quarterback, I’ll take those 3 guys over the field in the preseason.
RB
- Tre Wisner, Texas
- Le’Veon Moss, Texas A&M
- Caden Durham, LSU
- Jadan Baugh, Florida
- Nate Frazier, Georgia
- Ahmad Hardy, Mizzou
I mostly stuck with my post-spring running back rankings with this, but I deviated in a couple of spots. Wisner stayed in my top spot because while he could be in a true timeshare with CJ Baxter if he makes a full return after the torn ACL, Wisner is the SEC’s lone returning 1,000-yard rusher. That has to matter.
Moss was the toughest rank in this group because he’s dealing with on- and off-field issues. You could argue that should matter. With a preseason All-SEC honor, I’ll instead put more weight on the fact that he was one of the conference’s top backs before he tore his ACL, and if he’s indeed at full speed as Mike Elko said, he’s perhaps the SEC’s top back. I don’t want to ignore his arrest, so I acknowledge that will likely prevent him from being in good standing to start the season. But from purely a football standpoint, Moss is exceptional.
Durham, Baugh and Frazier are all in that same group of guys who’ll be tasked to be featured backs in Year 2. I gave Durham the highest slot because he joined Quinshon Judkins and Tank Bigsby among true freshmen who finished in the top 10 in the SEC in rushing in the 2020s. He was also more reliable with ball security than someone like Frazier, who had fumbling issues in a promising, but incomplete true freshman season.
And Hardy got that last spot instead of Jaydn Ott because while he didn’t necessarily showcase his skills against elite competition at Louisiana-Monroe, he was still a 1,300-yard rusher as a true freshman.
WR
- Ryan Williams, Alabama
- Aaron Anderson, LSU
- Cam Coleman, Auburn
- Cayden Lee, Ole Miss
- Kevin Coleman, Jr., Mizzou
- Tre Wilson, Florida
Williams was obvious at No. 1, but it’s worth noting that Kevin Coleman is actually the SEC’s leading returning receiver. Granted, he did his damage for a 2-10 Mississippi State squad and he’s now at Mizzou. Still, though. He’s worthy of a preseason honor, even if his upside might be a touch limited with his scheme change.
Anderson is the guy that deserves to be a first-team All-SEC guy as much as anyone, which is why I gave him the slight nod over Cam Coleman, who was one of the best receivers in America in November of his true freshman season. Anderson had at least 60 receiving yards in 9 games last year, and pound for pound, he’s as tough as any player in the SEC with 20 missed tackles forced (4th among SEC WRs).
Lee morphed into a No. 1 receiver once Tre Harris went down and Wilson is coming off a lost season due to injuries, but when he was healthy as a true freshman in 2023, he was even better than Ricky Pearsall for a significant chunk of that season.
TE
- Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt
- Miles Kitselman, Tennessee
- Brett Norfleet, Mizzou
Stowers is probably the most obvious preseason first-team guy in the entire conference. He’s the best returning player at his position, and it certainly helps that the former Texas A&M quarterback has his quarterback, Pavia, back. Stowers had twice as many receiving yards as any returning SEC tight end.
Georgia fans might’ve pushed for Oscar Delp or Lawson Luckie, but Kitselman is the most proven offensive player returning on a Playoff team. That has to matter for something. Not only is he going to be a key glue piece for a new-look Tennessee passing game, but he’s been a key part of the run-blocking, too. Norfleet might not have gaudy career numbers (44 catches, 432 yards, 5 TDs) during his first 2 seasons, has the most potential among those veterans with that 6-7 frame. If he ends up putting it all together in Year 3 in that offense, nobody should be surprised.
OG/OT
- Austin Barber, Florida
- Kadyn Proctor, Alabama
- Ar’maj Reed-Adams, Texas A&M
- Cayden Green, Mizzou
- Joshua Braun, Kentucky
- Damieon George, Florida
- Trevor Goosby, Texas
- Jaeden Roberts, Alabama
Let’s be honest. You’re just wondering why I didn’t put Proctor at No. 1 instead of Barber. So much of the conversation with Proctor seems to be centered around potential instead of the player he currently is with his massive size (he’s even bigger in person). I gave the nod to Barber because he’s a 3-year starter who allowed just 8 career sacks on 1,071 career pass-blocking snaps. Proctor allowed 15 in 1 less season, and while he cut that number down from 12 to 3 last year, he allowed 9 pressures and 5 hurries during that troubling 3-game stretch to end the season. Barber is the better player right now.
C
- Jake Slaughter, Florida
- Connor Tollison, Mizzou
- Connor Lew, Auburn
Slaughter is the best returning center in America, and well, a couple of guys named Connor have already done enough in my totally unbiased opinion (I swear that’s just a coincidence and I would’ve still slotted them there if their names were “Keith”).
DL
- Dylan Stewart, South Carolina
- Colin Simmons, Texas
- R Mason Thomas, Oklahoma
- Keldric Faulk, Auburn
- Tyreak Sapp, Florida
- LT Overton, Alabama
- Tim Keenan III, Alabama
- Caleb Banks, Florida
Let’s just point out how incredible it is that the top 2 guys were both freshmen last year, and honestly, you can’t go wrong with either of them. But beyond that, this group is headlined by guys like Thomas, Sapp, Overton and Banks, all of whom made crucial decisions to return for another season when they could’ve likely been early-to-mid-round NFL Draft picks.
LB
- Anthony Hill Jr., Texas
- Suntarine Perkins, Ole Miss
- Whit Weeks, LSU
- Deontae Lawson, Alabama
- Taurean York, Texas A&M
- CJ Allen, Georgia
Do people realize that Perkins had as many sacks and tackles for loss as anyone on Ole Miss’s No. 2 scoring defense in America? Like, a unit that had 5 players selected in the NFL Draft watched a true sophomore stuff the stat sheet more than anyone else. Do people also realize that it’s perfectly fair to leave Harold Perkins Jr. off the preseason All-SEC team until we see him actually look like an All-SEC player that he was as a true freshman in 2022?
DB
- Jermod McCoy, Tennessee
- Michael Taaffe, Texas
- Malik Muhammad, Texas
- Bray Hubbard, Alabama
- Eli Bowen, Oklahoma
- Jay Crawford, Auburn
- Daylen Everette, Georgia
- KJ Bolden, Georgia
This is basically just a list of my All-Bang The Drum Team with Hubbard, Bowen and Crawford all here. All of those guys became surprising essentially pieces of solid defenses in 2024. I wouldn’t expect that to change. McCoy is still worthy of the top spot even though he’s working off a torn ACL. No returning SEC corner was on his level last year after he transferred from Oregon State. Don’t let the Jeremiah Smith performance against him overshadow a breakout season.
Placekicker
- Peyton Woodring, Georgia
- Trey Smack, Florida
- Randy Bond, Texas A&M
Punter
- Brett Thorson, Georgia
- Aidan Laros, Kentucky
- Devin Bale, Arkansas
Return Specialist
- Barion Brown, LSU
- Zachariah Branch, Georgia
- Zavion Thomas, LSU
Predicted order of finish
- LSU
- Georgia
- Texas
- Alabama
- Ole Miss
- Texas A&M
- Florida
- South Carolina
- Mizzou
- Tennessee
- Oklahoma
- Vanderbilt
- Auburn
- Arkansas
- Kentucky
- Mississippi State
SEC Championship
- LSU beats Georgia
It’s worth noting that when I do my Crystal Ball Series in August, I’ll have a more in-depth breakdown of why I believe each team will finish where, so don’t consider this the last time that I’ll be addressing this. South Carolina, Florida and Oklahoma have a ruthless schedule that is less favorable than teams like Ole Miss and A&M, which could easily make a difference there.
If this plays out this way, I think a few things would happen. Hugh Freeze, Sam Pittman and Mark Stoops would all be out of a job and Brent Venables would be sweating bullets. We’d also probably have moved past that question about Brian Kelly’s ability to win the big one if he takes home an SEC title as I’ve projected. There are a ton of takeaways with that alone.
But above all else, know this. I’m indeed all in on LSU. How all in? This all in.
Surely that won’t come back to bite me.
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.
