As we spend the week looking back and appreciating the history of SEC football, SDS honored the best player, coach, individual team and program from each decade since the SEC was formed in December of 1932. Take a look at our selections:

NOTE: The current decade (2010-present) is not listed as it is only halfway completed to this point.

1930s

Best player: Don Hutson, Alabama — No stats available, 1934 consensus All-American. Hutson is regarded as the first modern receiver in organized football, and he is credited with creating many of the routes on the modern route tree. He’s now a member of the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
Best coach: Frank Thomas, Alabama —No, this is not the former Chicago White Sox Hall of Fame first baseman (he actually went to Auburn, so it’s hard to imagine Alabama likes him much), but this coach was just as successful as Thomas the player would be 50 years later. He led Alabama to a perfect 10-0 season in 1934, claiming the national championship and a Rose Bowl victory. His teams also won three SEC championships during the decade, including the first two SEC titles ever awarded in 1933 and 1934.
Best team: 1938 Tennessee Volunteers — Tennessee held its opponents to a combined 16 points that season and boasted eight shutouts in 11 games, never allowing more than seven points in any one game all year. The Vols beat a top-five Oklahoma team in the Orange Bowl to seal the title run and one of the most incredible seasons of defense ever recorded.
Best program: Alabama — 3 SEC championships from 1933-39. Tennessee, LSU and Tulane (which is no longer in the conference) each won at least a share of two SEC titles in that span.

1940s

Best player: Charley Trippi, Georgia — No stats available. Trippi had the benefit of playing alongside 1942 Heisman winner Frank Sinkwich during his first year of eligibility in ’42, and the Dawgs won the Rose Bowl and claimed their first national title after completing an 11-1 season. Trippi was the MVP of the 1943 Rose Bowl to close the ’42 season, and after fighting in World War II he returned to Georgia for the 1945-46 seasons, winning the 1946 Maxwell Award as the best player in college football.
Best coach: Robert Neyland, Tennessee — Many consider Neyland the second-greatest coach in SEC history behind Paul “Bear” Bryant, and he won one of his four national titles and two of his five SEC titles during this decade (his numbers are limited due to his hiatus from coaching to serve in World War II). His teams only lost more than two games in a season twice during the decade, maintaining a level of consistent success that helped build UT into the football power it is today.
Best team: 1942 Georgia Bulldogs — Other SEC teams to win national championships in the ’40s completed undefeated seasons while the ’42 Dawgs lost in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry to Auburn, but this team was still the one SEC champion regarded as the national champion by the most organizations. It beat a pair of top 5 teams along the way and won six of 12 games by at least 33 points.
Best program: Georgia — 3 SEC championships. Tennessee and Georgia Tech (which is now in the ACC) each won at least a share of two SEC titles.

1950s

Best player: Billy Cannon, LSU — 2,389 yards from scrimmage, 21 touchdowns, 12 of 26 passing for 118 yards, 1959 Heisman winner. Cannon was ironically the only player on any team in the nation other than Kentucky of all schools to claim consensus All-America honors twice. He played primarily halfback but also played some quarterback when called upon. His numbers may seem pedestrian by today’s standards but they were immaculate at the time. 
Best coach: Johnny Vaught, Ole Miss — Vaught represents half the namesake of Ole Miss’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, and he didn’t land that honor because he was just mediocre. The Rebels claim a national championship in 1959 and two SEC titles during that decade, not to mention Vaught was honored twice as SEC Coach of the Year. His career spans well beyond just that 10-year period, but he was as successful in the ’50s as he was during the rest of his illustrious career.
Best team: 1958 LSU Tigers — LSU capped an 11-0 season by shutting out Clemson in the Sugar Bowl, and it was regarded as the national champion by the two most credible sets of rankings during that time: the Associated Press and the United Press. LSU held every opponent but one to seven points or fewer, and it beat three ranked teams along the way to prove its worth.
Best program: Tennessee — 2 SEC championships. Ole Miss and Georgia Tech each won two SEC crowns of their own during the ’50s, but Tennessee earns the tiebreaker by claiming two national titles from that decade while both Ole Miss and Georgia Tech can each claim only one.

1960s

Best player: Steve Kiner, Tennessee — Stats unavailable, 1967 and 1969 SEC champion, consensus All-American 1968-69, SEC Defensive Player of the Year 1969. Kiner was the most dominant linebacker in the SEC during his career, inspiring Bryant to call him the best to play the position since Lee Roy Jordan played for Bryant and the Tide. He went on to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.
Best coach: Paul “Bear” Bryant, Alabama — Bryant’s legend shouldn’t need explaining, but for those wondering what qualifies him as the best coach of the 1960s, it’s his four SEC titles and three national championships during the decade. He also earned SEC Coach of the Year honor three times during the decade. No program in America, no less the SEC, was more accomplished during the ’60s than Alabama with Bryant at the helm.
Best team: 1961 Alabama Crimson Tide — This was the first of Bryant’s six national title teams, and it achieved the feat in resounding fashion with an 11-0 mark. It was deemed the champion by the AP and the United Press, and like LSU in 1958 never allowed an opponent to score more than seven points in any game. Alabama won more than half its games by at least 24 points and won every game but the Sugar Bowl (against No. 9 Arkansas) by two scores or more.
Best program: Alabama — 4 SEC championships. Ole Miss won an impressive three SEC titles in a four-year span from 1960-63 with Vaught at the helm, but Alabama won a share of the ’61 crown before running off three straight conference titles from 1964-66.

1970s

Best player: John Hannah, Alabama — Offensive linemen don’t accumulate stats, but Alabama won the 1971, ’72 and ’73 SEC championships, as well as the 1973 national championship, with Hannah anchoring the offensive line. Bryant called Hannah the best offensive lineman he ever coached, and Hannah went on to earn All-America honors twice in addition to reaching the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
Best coach: Paul “Bear” Bryant, Alabama — Same explanation as above. Once again, Bryant won three national championships in the span of a decade, and this time his teams won eight SEC titles, not just four. Bryant and Alabama were actually more dominant in the ’70s than the ’60s, which is remarkable. Oh, and he won another six SEC Coach of the Year awards in the ’70s, just for safe measure.
Best team: 1979 Alabama Crimson Tide — For the second straight decade, a Bryant-coached Alabama team claims the Team of the Decade honor. The Tide steamrolled opponents, only failing to score at least 24 points once in a 12-game undefeated season. Alabama took down three ranked opponents that year, including No. 6 Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl by a 15-point margin.
Best program: Alabama — 8 SEC championships. To this point in SEC history this was the easiest Program of the Decade to determine. Alabama won eight of 10 conference crowns, including five in a row from 1971-75 and three more in succession from 1977-79. Bryant, of course, had plenty to do with this dominance.

1980s

Best player: Herschel Walker, Georgia — 5,259 yards, 49 touchdowns in 33 games, 1980 national champion, 1982 Heisman Trophy winner. Auburn’s Bo Jackson was the other Heisman-winning tailback who was considered here, but the SDS readers spoke last week and determined Walker to be the conference’s biggest star of all-time, and that is tough to argue against, so we went with Walker.
Best coach: Pat Dye, Auburn — Dye’s Auburn teams competed against Vince Dooley’s Georgia teams and Johnny Majors’ Tennessee teams, so it’s not as though he had no competition in the ’80s. He did have Bo Jackson, but he actually won three of his four SEC titles during that decade without Bo, and earned two of his three SEC Coach of the Year honors without Bo on his team. He never won a national title, but he elevated Auburn to new heights, shedding its reputation as Alabama’s little brother and establishing it as a legitimate title threat on a yearly basis.
Best team: 1980 Georgia Bulldogs — Led by freshman Herschel Walker (see above) the Bulldogs ran off a perfect 12-0 season to win their second-ever national title and the first of Dooley’s career. Georgia allowed fewer than 12 points per game that season while scoring more than 27 points per game on offense. The Dawgs weren’t just winning; they were winning with conviction. Dooley had a number of good teams, but this was his best by far.
Best program: Auburn — 4 SEC championships. With Bryant out of the way at Alabama as of 1982, it was the Tide’s biggest rival that took advantage, winning at least a share of three straight SEC crowns from 1987-89. Ironically, Auburn won more SEC titles without Bo Jackson in the ’80s than it did with Bo in the backfield.

1990s

Best player: Peyton Manning, Tennessee — 11,201 yards passing, 89 touchdowns, 1997 consensus All-American and Maxwell Award winner, SEC champion. Perhaps it’s Manning’s pro career that gave him an edge over the other stars of this decade, as Manning never won the Heisman or a national title (in fact, Tennessee won it all a year after Manning left for the NFL), but no quarterback during that decade stepped in and maintained consistent success the way he did. Manning was already one of the best signal callers in the nation his freshman season, this in a decade in which quarterbacks became more vital than ever.
Best coach: Steve Spurrier, Florida — Spurrier won five SEC titles during the ’90s, including four in a row, and he won a national championship in 1996, the only one of his career. The 1990s were when Spurrier went from former Heisman winner to Hall of Fame coach.
Best team: 1998 Tennessee Volunteers — The ’92 Alabama Crimson Tide and ’96 Florida Gators won’t like this choice, but Tennessee was the most impressive of the SEC’s three national champions during this decade. The Vols beat five ranked teams on their way to a 13-0 record, including four ranked in the top 10, and they won the first-ever BCS championship at season’s end. Tennessee wasn’t just undefeated, but it was undefeated with a difficult schedule and a new starting quarterback (Tee Martin) in the first year of a new era of college football. That’s pretty darn impressive.
Best program: Florida — 5 SEC championships. This decade belonged to three teams from the SEC — Florida, Alabama (2 SEC titles) and Tennessee (3 SEC crowns) — but none more than the Gators and Spurrier, who ran off four straight SEC championships from 1993-96, when Spurrier won his only national title.

2000s

Best player: Tim Tebow, Florida — 9,285 yards passing, 88 touchdowns, 2,947 yards rushing, 57 touchdowns, 2008 and 2008 national champion, 2007 Heisman trophy winner. This honestly wasn’t even close. No SEC player dominated during the 2000s more than Tebow, who remains an iconic athlete despite not playing at any level since 2011, and no team had a four-year run of success from 2006-09 that matched Florida’s run with Tebow and Meyer leading the way.
Best coach: Tie between Nick Saban and Meyer — Both took over historically good programs — Alabama and Florida, respectively — at low points in their recent histories  and both turned their programs into national champions by decade’s end. And while Meyer had two at Florida and Saban only had one at Alabama, Saban also won one at LSU in 2003, although Meyer turned Utah into the first non-BCS school to reach a BCS bowl game in 2004. Both remain inarguably the two best coaches in America today.
Best team: 2008 Florida Gators — The 2009 Alabama Crimson Tide and a couple of LSU teams were in the running, but these Gators were easily the most talented group of players in the SEC during this decade. And it wasn’t just Tim Tebow; this team had future NFL stars at nearly every position and the best coach in the country at the time leading the way. And of course when your offense is led by the best college player in recent memory, that helps a tremendous amount. Florida lost one game to Ole Miss, and Tebow made his famous promise in his postgame media availability after that loss. However, despite the one blemish Florida went on to steamroll every other team in its path. It won its 13 games by an average score of 45-12, and it scored at least 30 points in 12 of 14 games including a streak of seven games with at least 40 points or more.
Best program: LSU — 3 SEC championships. The SEC continued to rise to prominence after the turn of the millennium, and both LSU and Florida locked down three SEC championships and two national titles during the decade. What ultimately gave LSU the edge was its ability to win those titles under two different head coaches, Saban and Les Miles. Florida had a brilliant five-year run under Meyer, but also struggled for three years under Ron Zook earlier in the decade.