I’m gonna let you in on a little secret here. Not every great player plays for a great team. In fact, some players are great on bad teams and are preventing their teams from being complete dumpster fires. It could prevent them from getting All-SEC recognition at season’s end, too.
That’s why for the 4th consecutive year, I gave them the recognition they deserve. The SEC “Dudes Who Deserve Better” Team is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case you need a rundown, here ya go. You’re only eligible for this if your team has lost at least 3 games (out of the SEC/Playoff picture). The 10 players selected here have been in tough situations that are (mostly) out of their control.
These are the guys that I wish I could just grab with a crane and drop them into a different situation. Like, I wish I could pluck LaNorris Sellers down as he’s running for his life and drop him into the Texas A&M offense with that elite offensive line.
Whoops. Spoiled a member of the team. You get it.
This is the 2025 SEC “Dudes Who Deserve Better” Team:
LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina QB
He’s the captain. He’s the face of the team. He’s the reason this team exists. This (via Cole Cubelic) is the most “dudes who deserve better” stat in human history:
That’s comical. So are his 393 yards after first contact and 37 missed tackles forced, both of which are easily No. 1 among Power Conference quarterbacks. Sellers has also been pressured on 46.2% of his drop-backs. Not only is that the highest rate in the SEC, but it’s the highest rate of any Power Conference quarterback (min. 20 pressured drop-backs).
That’s the byproduct of an underwhelming South Carolina offensive line — Sellers suffered a concussion against Vanderbilt on a hit from a free rusher — as well as an offensive coordinator hire that hasn’t worked out at all. Mike Shula’s promotion from analyst to OC was met with skepticism, and it’s looking like the 2025 version of what Oklahoma endured last year when it promoted Seth Littrell to OC from analyst. On top of that, he’s not getting much help at all from the skill positions. The rushing attack ranks last in the SEC in yards/carry and there’s not a South Carolina receiver who ranks in the top 25 in the SEC in either catches or receiving yards. Oh, and Sellers has had 6 passes dropped while under pressure, which is 2nd-most among Power Conference quarterbacks.
One of the most decorated quarterbacks entering the season is now in position where NFL scouts just want to see him get to the pre-draft process in 1 piece. That’ll be easier said than done.
Dylan Stewart, South Carolina DE
Stewart was on the preseason “Dudes Who Deserve Better” Watch List for obvious reasons. South Carolina lost a ton of defensive talent to the NFL, and Stewart was the best bet of anyone to be the Will Smith meme of him standing in an empty living room. Unfortunately for Stewart, that’s played out. He’s still every bit the superstar that he was as a true freshman last year, yet he’s playing for a defense with too many run-game issues that can’t seem to get off the field. You could argue that Stewart should be doing more to help that cause, but he’s got 10 tackles for loss, only 3.5 of which are sacks. He’s only got 5 missed tackles this year, all of which happened in the first 4 weeks.
Because of the hip injury that limited him to 6 snaps vs. Oklahoma, he’s played in 7-plus games this year, and he still No. 3 in the SEC with 22 hurries, and he’s No. 4 in pressures (29). All of his plays still feel so disruptive, even if the sack numbers don’t suggest he’s having a sensational season.
You could argue that the well-paid Stewart is doing just fine for himself and that he’s going to have even more millions of dollars coming his way once he’s eligible to declare for the 2027 NFL Draft. Still, though. He got a taste of playing in some ideal surroundings when he burst onto the scene for a Playoff-hopeful South Carolina team last year. This year, he’s been put in some tougher spots and will likely have some questioning his abilities because of that. That’d be a mistake.
Mansoor Delane, LSU CB
Say what you want about this catastrophe of a season in Baton Rouge, but don’t direct that criticism at the money spent on Delane. The Virginia Tech transfer has done everything in his power to bring the “DBU” moniker back to the Bayou.
This year, he’s allowed just 8 catches on 25 targets. He’s got 7 pass breakups and quarterbacks have a 28.2 QB rating when targeting him. Just for a little perspective on that, a QB who spiked the ball on every play would have a QB rating of 39.6. Teams have basically decided that’s a better option than targeting Delane. After his dazzling LSU debut in the Clemson win wherein the Tigers targeted him 8 times, he’s been targeted just 17 times in 7 games. Since that game, he’s only allowed 79 yards in coverage and 42 yards after catch (YAC). He surrendered just 2 catches of 20 yards all season for an LSU defense that showed promise, but ultimately fell off the rails the last few weeks.
LSU’s offseason spending will forever be part of the Brian Kelly obituary, and understandably so. Just don’t convince yourself that the dude who has been dominant in his 380 snaps at outside corner was money wasted.
Auburn’s defensive front 7
I’m including the non-secondary pieces of the Auburn defense here because the nation’s No. 93 pass defense probably doesn’t deserve better, although Rayshawn Pleasant has been fantastic in the defensive backfield after transferring from Tulane. That 1-4 SEC record doesn’t reflect how good that defensive front has been for the majority of the season. Auburn hasn’t allowed more than 24 points in a game yet, thanks in large part to that group.
Keldric Faulk was a household name coming into the year, but it’s been more than him. Xavier Atkins leads the SEC with 13 tackles for loss, Keyron Crawford has 8 TFLs and 5 sacks at the BUCK position, Bobby Jamison-Travis has been an outstanding run-stuffer at nose tackle and Robert Woodyard Jr. has 7 TFLs. That group surrendered 3.5 yards per carry once this year, and it was on the road against undefeated Texas A&M, who was held to a season-low 16 points that day. Arkansas is far from undefeated, but it’s the No. 4 unit in FBS in yards/carry, yet it was held to 23 carries for 63 yards against that Auburn defensive front, which was nearly 100 yards less than its previous season-low total of 158 yards.
Hugh Freeze‘s best accomplishment as Auburn’s coach is rebuilding a defensive front and not just getting it to an SEC level, but getting it to an elite level. If only he had an offense that could pull its weight and convert better than 36% of its 3rd-down attempts.
Cam Coleman, Auburn WR
There might not be a player in college football who ranks outside the top 10 in his conference in receiving and who has a louder presence than Coleman. Every week, you see him make some ridiculous grab and then you see the final stat line that reads “3 catches for 49 yards.” He’s been held to 3 or fewer catches in half of Auburn’s games this year, which feels like the byproduct of a maddening passing attack and not an indictment of his NFL-level abilities. The sophomore got banged up against Arkansas, but before that, he delivered the exact type of grab that we’ve come to expect from him in his young career.
Now imagine only targeting that guy an average of 6 times per game. In 8 games, Coleman has just 13 targets on passes that traveled 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. That cannot happen for someone who has 5 contested catches on 20-yard throws (No. 2 in SEC and No. 4 among Power Conference receivers). Just for a little perspective, Tennessee has 2 receivers with more 20-yard targets than Coleman. One of them, Chris Brazzell, is having the type of season that Coleman should be having. He’s leading the SEC with 740 receiving yards and 8 receiving touchdowns while Coleman is No. 16 in the conference with 440 yards and just 3 receiving touchdowns.
Perhaps a change in quarterback will give us the full version of Coleman. To this point in his career, his ridiculous talents have been held back by quarterback play.
Taylen Green, Arkansas QB
This is a tricky one because I have to acknowledge that Green has 5 interceptions in the 4th quarter alone this season. For a team that can’t seem to win close games, it’s hard to ignore that stat when he’s got more late-game picks than anybody in America. That needs to be addressed.
But the flip side is that Arkansas is only in those positions because Green is carrying it there. That’s behind an offensive line that has struggled in pass protection — his 373 scramble yards rank No. 1 among Power Conference quarterbacks — and has forced him to spin out of designed plays before they even begin far too often. Green still has led Arkansas to the No. 3 offense in yards/play with a group that’s averaging 205 rushing yards per contest. That’s not easy for a team that’s often trailing. On top of that, he ranks No. 1 in FBS with 347.6 scrimmage yards/game and he’s No. 2 among Power Conference quarterbacks behind the aforementioned Sellers with 346 yards after contact.
There’s a chance that Green ends the season with some of the most prolific numbers that you’ll ever see from an SEC team who fails to win a conference game. Perhaps the only thing that worked in his favor this year was that Bobby Petrino got the interim job after Sam Pittman was fired. Other than that, though, a guy who has lost while hitting 31 points in 4 losses deserves better.
Jadan Baugh, Florida RB
OK, so some might disagree with this one because Baugh finally started getting the rock in the final 3 games of the Billy Napier era. He averaged 26 scrimmage touches in those contests after averaging 15 in the 1-3 start. That’s all well and good. He also just lost his play caller and his now at the mercy of first-time play-caller Ryan O’Hara, AKA Florida‘s quarterbacks coach. He’s also been operating alongside a hobbled DJ Lagway, who has been one missed assignment away from getting ripped to pieces, yet Baugh has allowed just 1 pressure on 36 snaps in pass protection.
In ideal world, Baugh’s body of work would speak for itself. He’s No. 5 among Power Conference players with 40 missed tackles forced, which is even more impressive for someone who has yet to fumble on 117 carries. Tell me how this guy only ranks No. 17 in the SEC with 16 red-zone rushing attempts.
He and Jeremiah Cobb are the lone SEC running backs with 110 carries and 0 fumbles this season. He’s also No. 1 among SEC running backs with 19 catches (on 21 targets), and he doesn’t have a drop this season. When Baugh is inevitably snubbed from All-SEC honors, it’ll be more confirmation that he deserved to be playing on a team in Playoff contention and not for a team that fired its play-calling head coach midseason.
Brylan Lanier, Mississippi State DB
I’m not sure if a whole lot of SEC fans outside of Alabama or Mississippi know Lanier’s name. The Tuscaloosa native started his college career locally at Alabama, but then transferred to Indiana and played as a reserve during his redshirt freshman season. In Year 3, he transferred again and got regular snaps at East Mississippi Community College (the original “Last Chance U”), where he blossomed into one of the top JUCO corners in the country. After earning a starting job in Coleman Hutzler’s defense at Mississippi State in 2024, he’s turned into an All-SEC player in 2025.
Will he get that type of love? Probably not if the Bulldogs are stuck on 4 wins. But Lanier did what he could to change that, not only by picking off DJ Lagway twice but also by delivering a crucial 3rd-down sack against Florida. Lanier is tied for the SEC lead with 3 interceptions, which is why Mississippi State leads the conference with 11 picks. Lanier hasn’t allowed a touchdown in coverage against SEC competition, and quarterbacks have a 67.5 QB rating when targeting him. After being in a mostly traditional corner role last year, he now plays over the formation this year and has plugged multiple holes for a unit that had massive questions entering the season.
He’s a major reason why, despite that winless record in SEC play, Mississippi State is much more competitive than it was in Year 1 under Jeff Lebby.
Brenen Thompson, Mississippi State WR
Let’s continue the Mississippi State trend with the man who delivered arguably the biggest moment of the post-Dan Mullen era in Starkville:
Electric. How Thompson was ever “covered” like that with the game on the line is still baffling. He’s as fast and as lethal downfield as anyone in the SEC, yet for someone who has been at 3 SEC schools, he’s still not a household name in the conference. Shoot, the place where he came from, Oklahoma, viewed him as part of the problem. Considering what Thompson does well (catch downfield passes) and what Jackson Arnold doesn’t do well (unleash downfield passes), it’s not a surprise to see why it didn’t work out.
Reuniting with Lebby, who watched Thompson average 34 yards per catch with Dillon Gabriel at Oklahoma in 2023, has been the best thing for his skill set. He’s No. 6 in the SEC with 609 receiving yards and he’s No. 1 with 17 targets on passes that traveled 20 yards. Thompson has as many downfield catches (7) as the aforementioned Coleman and Williams, yet he’s hardly a household name like they are. Mind you, that’s for a 5-9 receiver who has played 91.7% of his snaps on the outside. Someone like Thompson who has a 132.4 QB rating when targeted could probably benefit from more consistent quarterback play.
At the very least, he deserves to be part of an SEC win.
Cutter Boley, Kentucky QB
For those who don’t know Boley’s story, here it is. He transferred to play his high school ball at Lexington Christian Academy, where he starred for 2 years and reclassified from 2025 to 2024. He announced his commitment to the Cats while Liam Coen was the OC in 2023. Boley signed his letter of intent with Kentucky as a 4-star recruit with plenty of options, and did so under the premise that Coen would be his first OC. Then Coen went back to the NFL 6 weeks later, and Boley stayed with the program after it scrambled to hire Bush Hamdan. After showing signs of promise late in his true freshman year in place of the ineffective Brock Vandagriff, not only did Mark Stoops elect to keep Hamdan after he led the nation’s No. 119 scoring offense, but he brought in the well-traveled Zach Calzada to compete for the starting job.
Spoiler alert: Calzada didn’t work out. The guy who lost his job at 2 different SEC schools started 2 games and lost his job again.
So instead of having Boley get first-team reps throughout the offseason and into fall camp, Stoops created an even steeper learning curve for his redshirt freshman quarterback. In the last few games, Boley has started to look like the blue-chip recruit he was billed as, albeit with pretty limited options at receiver. Unfortunately, it’s for a Kentucky team that already watched its season collapse, in part because Stoops insisted on bringing in Calzada and keeping an OC who didn’t lead the offense to a single game with 21 points vs. Power Conference competition in 2024.
Boley deserves better. It’s just a matter of whether he’s got any chance of getting it if he stays in Lexington.
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.
