Players who led SEC in passing, rushing, receiving in back-to-back seasons

What do Arkansas QB Austin Allen and LSU RB Derrius Guice have in common, other than sharing the same hometown as their respective schools?

They both have a chance to accomplish a noteworthy feat in the SEC, which is to win two straight individual passing/rushing titles.

Allen led the SEC with 3,430 passing yards as Chad Kelly’s bid to defend his title was over when he suffered his season-ending injury against Georgia Southern in Week 10.

Meanwhile, Guice came away with the rushing crown behind 1,387 yards, 138 of which was against Louisville to edge Nick Fitzgerald (1,375) and Rawleigh Williams III (1,360).

Texas A&M WR Josh Reynolds won’t be around to try his luck at back-to-back receiving titles because it’s time for him to start making a mark at the next level.

In this piece, we’ll look at all the SEC players throughout history that won back-to-back titles in passing, rushing and receiving.

Note: The SEC only provides official leaders dating back to 1948 in all three categories.

Passing

Unlike the other two statistical areas, leading the SEC in passing yards isn’t uncommon.

There was a 12-year gap between Zeke Bratkowski (1952-53) and Steve Spurrier (1965-66), and then an eight-year separation that followed Pat Sullivan (1970-71) before John Fourcade (1979-80). Other than that, there had never been a gap more than four years until now (no one since 2010).

In fact, there have been six instances in which a quarterback immediately took the baton from the previous player to do it himself.

The only ones who three-peated were Kentucky’s Babe Parilli and Florida’s Shane Matthews. Speaking of the Gators, the school has had four players do it, including two Heisman winners.

The only year in the 1990s that didn’t touch one of these stretches came in the last year of the decade in 1999.

Rushing

On the other hand, Guice can achieve a very rare feat if he manages to lead the conference in rushing again next season.

In about 70 years since the SEC officially began keeping track of individual leaders, only four players have topped the league in rushing yards twice in as many seasons. Who would think that only one would do it in the 34 years after No. 34 did?

Georgia legend Herschel Walker, the Heisman winner and three-time All-American, racked up 5,259 rushing yards from 1980-82. His rampage during that time is still an NCAA record for a three-year span.

Darren McFadden, a two-time All-American, was the most recent player to go back-to-back, piling up a combined 3,477 yards from 2006-07. He finished as the Heisman runner-up in both seasons.

Alabama’s Johnny Musso hit 1,000 yards for Paul “Bear” Bryant in each of his final two seasons, the last of which in 1971 saw the Crimson Tide fall to national champion Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

Musso was the first (and second) 1,000-yard rusher in Alabama history and the only one under Bryant.

John “Kayo” Dottley went for 1,000 yards in two seasons under Johnny Vaught (that makes three different “Johns” mentioned in the last three paragraphs). Dottley’s 1,312 yards in 1949 led the NCAA, and he was a Pro Bowler with the Chicago Bears as a rookie in 1951.

Receiving

While the receiving department has seen this happen a little more frequently, it hasn’t been done since the SEC Championship Game came into existence.

The last player to do it was the Vols’ Carl Pickens from 1990-91, Johnny Majors’ last two full seasons with the school. Pickens had 917 yards for the SEC champs in 1990 before posting 877 the following year.

He went on to have a solid nine-year NFL career in which he recorded four 1,000-yard seasons, including three straight from 1994-96 with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Auburn and Florida have each had a couple players.

From 1952-74, there had never been more than a five-year void for this occurring, but we’ll have to wait until at least the 2018 season before it has a chance of happening again, and a quarter of a century will have gone by.