Alabama’s Derrick Henry set an SEC single-season rushing record and won the Heisman Trophy, in part because of his monster performance against Auburn, when he ran for 271 yards and one touchdown. That yardage total was the third-highest in program history.
Ole Miss’ Chad Kelly became just the third SEC quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in a season. He topped 300 yards passing eight times. He threw at least two touchdown passes in 11 games.
Those two were obvious places to look for outstanding offensive performances, and they delivered some of the best the SEC saw in 2015, more than enough to fill this list on their own.
But we like to spread the ball around. As such, here are five other outstanding offensive performances in 2015. We’ll apologize up front to Alex Collins, who ripped off 5 TDs against Tennessee-Martin, but we’re looking at Power 5 accomplishments.
And because who you plays matters, we’ll start in the most logical place: the playoffs.
Alabama’s O.J. Howard vs. Clemson in national championship
Howard entered the game with 33Â catches for 394Â yards and zero touchdowns.
All he did was drop 208 yards and 2 TD receptions on Clemson in the biggest game of his career.
Those were his first two TD receptions of the year and pushed his career total to four. It was also his first 100-yard receiving game, and just the second time in 2015 he had five or more catches.
LSU’s Leonard Fournette vs. Auburn
Fournette had two games with higher rushing totals, but he averaged 12.0 yards per carry against Auburn en route to a 228-yard day, then a career-high. He also scored three touchdowns, matching a season high.
The fact that it came in Week 3 kicked his Heisman hype into sixth gear. Soon after, SEC icon Herschel Walker would tell the nation that Fournette was doing things he didn’t.
https://twitter.com/SheHatesJacoby/status/691461635030953984
https://twitter.com/LSU_Logo/status/669940759752220672
Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott vs. Arkansas
We knew going in the scoreboard operator would be busy. Prescott ensured it by throwing for a career-best 508 yards and five touchdowns, and running for two more scores.
He outlasted Razorbacks QB Brandon Allen, who passed for 406 yards and seven touchdowns. Allen’s performance also was one of the best stat lines of the year, but Prescott gets the edge here because he won.
However, that wasn’t Allen’s only big game …
Arkansas’ Brandon Allen vs Ole Miss
Two weeks before his shootout against Prescott, Allen went throw-for-throw with Kelly.
Allen threw for a career-best 442 yards and six touchdowns. He started the famous 4th-and-25 conversion with a perfect strike to Hunter Henry.
JUST how we drew it up ? pic.twitter.com/NYWi0J8QJF
— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) November 8, 2015
And then he scored the winning points by diving in for the two-point conversion to complete a 53-52 overtime win.
Texas A&M’s Christian Kirk vs. Arkansas
As SEC debuts go, it’s hard to top Kirk’s performance against Arkansas. In just his fourth college game, Kirk caught eight passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns. The second TD was a 20-yarder in overtime to win the game.
Kirk went on to win SEC Freshman of the Year, for good reason. He did things some of the league’s best couldn’t.
Consider:Â Amari Cooper’s best game as a freshman was 162 yards and two touchdowns against Tennessee. A.J. Green’s freshman-best was 159 yards at Arizona State. Julio Jones’ was 128 at LSU.
Managing Editor
A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.
