I know. You don’t feel bad for anyone playing big-time college football.

NIL money, being the big man on campus, potentially lining up an NFL career … those are all positives. The vast majority of us would trade places with anybody on this list in a heartbeat.

But the “dudes who deserve better” team isn’t really the place for that discussion. It’s the place where I acknowledge that some SEC players are either having great seasons despite limiting circumstances or their limiting circumstances are preventing them from having great seasons. Everyone on this list plays on a team with at least 2 losses.

Confused? Don’t be. These are the 10 SEC players — in no particular order — that I watch on Saturday with the same takeaway, week after week.

Man, that dude deserves better:

Jayden Daniels, LSU QB

It’s not that Daniels deserves better offensive weapons. Unlike some of the quarterbacks on this list, LSU is loaded with those. But Daniels deserves a better defense to complement his New York-worthy season so far. If LSU didn’t suffer that second loss, Daniels might be No. 2 in the Heisman Trophy odds. More importantly, he’d be leading a team with legitimate SEC title hopes. Instead, it feels like anything less than a 40-point effort from Daniels and the LSU offense won’t be good enough.

KJ Jefferson, Arkansas QB

Watch that offensive line and tell me that Jefferson doesn’t deserve better protection. The timing of the new Dan Enos scheme with Arkansas being a total liability at the tackle spots has been a brutal combination. Jefferson has been a sitting duck all season. It didn’t help matters that his partner in crime, Rocket Sanders, has been dealing with injuries most of the season. Even the schedule didn’t do Jefferson any favors. Nobody had a more challenging 4-game stretch in college football than what Arkansas had, and unfortunately, Jefferson has had to take no shortage of punishment. Even his highlights are him taking punishment.

Spencer Rattler, South Carolina QB

Speaking of veteran quarterbacks with new coordinators who have to play behind awful offensive lines … Rattler is having his best college season. Never mind the fact that his preseason All-SEC receiver, Juice Wells, has barely played and South Carolina’s backfield is as thin as there is in the sport. Nope. Rattler just keeps trucking. There’s no denying that he’s making himself some money for the year that he’s had, which is saying a lot for a program that’s never had a quarterback drafted since the format shifted to 8 rounds in 1993. It’s too bad that he’s not been able to earn himself victories. Rattler has been everything that South Carolina fans could’ve hoped. It’s too bad that the Gamecocks have so many other areas of weakness that’ll prevent him from playing in a division title race.

Xavier Legette, South Carolina WR

I almost didn’t include Legette here because he’s still had a whale of a season that’ll help his future bank account tremendously. His well-documented offseason workouts turned him into Rattler’s go-to target, which has been huge because of the aforementioned injury to Wells. But I brought this up because Legette deserves national recognition. He’s 4th in America in receiving yards and he’s No. 1 in America in catches of 30 yards (10). Some’ll look at what he’s done and say “well, that’s the byproduct of South Carolina trailing in all these games.” That’s just proof that people haven’t watched Legette, who had more receiving yards in the first 4 games of 2023 than he had in the previous 4 years.

Evan Stewart, Texas A&M WR

Stewart reminds me of former Ohio State star Garrett Wilson. They kind of look alike, and their games are extremely similar. Both also had to watch their starting quarterback suffer a season-ending injury. But unlike Wilson at Ohio State, Stewart doesn’t look like he’ll get to play for conference or national titles anytime soon. Instead, he had to watch that dream die in October and he had to roll with another injury to his starting quarterback. The chemistry between Stewart and Max Johnson has been solid, but there was a world in which he could’ve led the SEC in receiving with Conner Weigman as his starting quarterback. Instead, Stewart will make highlight-reel plays for an A&M team that continues to be a national punching bag.

Ray Davis, Kentucky RB

This is strictly related to football. If you know Davis’ story, you know that he’s as grateful of a person as you’ll meet, and with good reason. But the SEC’s leading rusher is playing in an offense that’s become him or bust. He’s averaging 7 yards per carry and he has a receiving touchdown in 5 of 7 Kentucky games. Davis is the only UK skill player who averaged more than 50 scrimmage yards. He left Vanderbilt for a new opportunity after posting a 1,000-yard season, and instead, his offensive surroundings really haven’t improved as much as one would’ve thought. On the bright side, Davis has the most scrimmage touchdowns of anyone in Power 5 and he definitely boosted his NFL Draft stock.

CJ Taylor, Vanderbilt LB

Taylor might be the defensive captain of this team. Don’t let the awful raw numbers of Vanderbilt’s defense overshadow just how good Taylor has been in that “anchor” position in Clark Lea’s defense. Watch a Vandy game and you’ll see him everywhere because he feels position-less. The guy has 52 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 2 interceptions. Why else does Taylor deserve better? Even when Taylor made one of the biggest plays of Vandy’s season — an interception of Carson Beck wherein he was taken down at the 1-yard line — he suffered an injury because of an awkward landing on the turf. That prompted him to vent about the playing surface on social media.

Edgerrin Cooper, Texas A&M LB

To be clear, Cooper is getting national love so maybe this is a reach (Bill Connelly had him at No. 2 for his midseason defensive Heisman). But the casual fan probably isn’t aware of just how good Cooper has been, even in those 3 A&M losses. I bet Jalen Milroe is still feeling the hit that Cooper put on him. He already has 13.5 tackles for loss and 6 sacks. That was with him missing half a game because of the injury he suffered taking the worst of a Joe Milton truck stick. Cooper especially deserves better if he’s going to miss any time because he’s had an All-American season so far. When people lob shots at A&M for another underwhelming Jimbo Fisher season, they should exclude Cooper from that conversation.

Eugene Asante, Auburn LB

The aforementioned Cooper and Asante have both made me audibly gasp while watching games on my couch because of how quickly they’re on top of ball-carriers. The speed that those guys are playing at is second to none, even if they don’t have the SEC victories to show for it. Asante has 47 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 1 fumble recovery and 1 instance of avoiding Jimbo Fisher in the open field.

Remarkable awareness. Unfortunately for Auburn, Asante’s fumble return was its only touchdown of the day. Asante accounted for 1 of the Tigers’ 5 touchdowns in SEC play. Without him, they’d probably be searching for that first Power 5 win because he was the difference in the victory at Cal with 12 tackles, a sack and a pass breakup. The former UNC transfer is the team’s leading tackler. Auburn will need him to continue to play at an All-SEC level if it hopes to earn a bowl berth.

Jaylin Simpson, Auburn DB

Speaking of veteran defensive studs in that Auburn defense, Simpson has been awesome since shifting back to his original safety position. He’s tied for No. 3 in FBS with 4 interceptions, and he’s 2nd on the team with 16 solo tackles. Among FBS safeties, he’s got PFF’s top coverage grade even though he’s been working through a midseason injury. The ball-hawking safety might not have the size that you’d typically expect to see at the position, but he’s going to be brutal for any opposing offense to deal with, especially when he’s fully healthy. If only he could get a breather instead of being subject to an Auburn offense that struggles to move the chains … but I digress. Simpson deserves your attention, no matter how rough Year 1 of the Hugh Freeze era continues to be.