Week 11 of SEC action saw us crown both division champions in unbeaten and No. 1 Alabama and 8-1 and No. 6 Florida. Both have advanced to 13 SEC Championship games, tied for the most in SEC history. They’ll meet Dec. 19th for the SEC Championship, the 10th such meeting between the two schools (Alabama leads 5-4). When they meet, they’ll bring all of this week’s top 5 SEC players with them, along with a host of players who have spent time in the top 10 or on the SDS honorable mention list this season.

Texas A&M is 1 of 4 programs that has never qualified for the SEC Championship Game, but Jimbo Fisher’s squad was impressive in a 31-20 win at Auburn that will keep the Aggies very much in the College Football Playoff conversation in 2020. The Aggies have the best win of any résumé in the country in their 3 point win over a healthy Florida. Unfortunately, the Aggies only have 1 more chance to impress. Saturday’s game against Ole Miss was scratched due to COVID. The Aggies will play at Tennessee on Dec. 19 and hope for help elsewhere. It’s a formula that’s worked for Alabama multiple times in the BCS and Playoff era — why not Jimbo and the Aggies?

As for individual performances, Week 11 was another banner week for SEC offenses. Mac Jones was Mac Jones and Kyle Trask was Kyle Trask and we’ll get to that, but can we talk about the freshman campaign Connor Bazelak has put together at Missouri? He threw for 380 yards in the Tigers’ thrilling 50-48 win over Arkansas. The only players on the field better than him Saturday? Larry Rountree III, who ran for 185 yards and 3 touchdowns, and Arkansas receiver Treylon Burks, who had a monster 206 yards receiving and a touchdown.

Kentucky fired offensive coordinator Eddie Gran after a season-best 41 points and 291 yards rushing against South Carolina — a strange flex for a program that has been crushed offensively by injuries for 2 seasons. And South Carolina’s Kevin Harris ran for 210 yards to finish the 2020 season with 1,138 yards rushing, currently tops in the SEC. It certainly wasn’t on Harris or Mike Bobo’s offense that the Gamecocks wrapped the 2020 season with a 2-8 record, the program’s worst mark from a win percentage standpoint since Lou Holtz went 0-11 in 1999.

As promised, Honorable Mentions shrink to a max of 2 per school this week. If players have opted out, they are gone as well. Here are the week 10 power rankings, if you want a bit of perspective.

We’re getting down to the end now — and this has been a very fun list to do. I’m especially proud it never became a boring “top 10 mock draft” list that some folks want it to be. This is about college football players. That’s why a guy like Derek Stingley Jr., who didn’t even grade out as a top 5 corner in the SEC this season per both Stats Solutions and Pro Football Focus, won’t make the cut inside the top 10 here but will almost certainly hear his name called in the NFL Draft’s first round when the time comes. I bet he would prefer the NFL. I know I would. In any event, this is a list about elite production, not just elite reputation.

Honorable Mention: Patrick Surtain II, CB (Alabama); Christian Harris, LB (Alabama); Grant Morgan, LB (Arkansas); Jalen Catalon, S (Arkansas); Zakoby McClain, LB (Auburn); Smoke Monday, S (Auburn); Stone Forsythe, OT (Florida); Kadarius Toney, WR (Florida); Richard LeCounte III, S (Georgia); Ben Cleveland, G (Georgia); Darian Kinnard, OT (Kentucky); Jamar Watson, LB (Kentucky); Michael Maietti, C (Missouri); Nick Bolton, LB (Missouri); Derek Stingley Jr., CB (LSU); Jabril Cox, LB (LSU);  Jerrion Ealy, RB (Ole Miss); Matt Corral, QB (Ole Miss); Martin Emerson, CB (Miss State); Aaron Brule, LB (Miss State); Bryce Thompson, CB (Tennessee); Henry To’o To’o, LB (Tennesee); DeMarvin Leal, Edge (Texas A&M); Carson Green, OT (Texas A&M); Dayo Odeyingbo, DE (Vanderbilt).

10. Jalen Wydermyer, TE (Texas A&M)

Wydermyer has been a mainstay in the Honorable Mentions section, but Kellen Mond’s most reliable passing game target moves into the top 10 after a 2-touchdown performance against Auburn. Sure, one of the touchdowns was a deflected ball that Zakoby McClain should have taken the other direction for a lot of yards, if not 6 points. But how about the concentration on the first touchdown to get the ball in blanket coverage and get a foot down?

https://twitter.com/SECNetwork/status/1335272642547421188?s=20

Wydermyer leads the Aggies with 40 receptions and now has a team-high 6 touchdown receptions. On a team that still lacks elite perimeter playmakers, Wydermyer makes an offense that prides itself on running the ball and staying on schedule plenty lethal at the end of drives.

9. Isaiah Spiller, RB (Texas A&M)

The Aggies’ bellcow rumbled for 120 yards against Auburn Saturday, mostly on hard running in the second half and an impressive 8-play, 75-yard A&M touchdown drive at the end of the 2nd quarter that seized momentum back for the Aggies in a tight game.

https://twitter.com/footwork_king1/status/1336015438657019905?s=20

As noted in the Wydermyer entry, the Aggies aren’t a particularly explosive offense down the field. They rely on Spiller to set the tone and gain the tough yards to stay on schedule. When he does, this is a really good team. On the season, Spiller’s 904 yards rank 3rd in the SEC and he’s 1 of only 4 SEC backs in this strange conference only season to average 6 yards per carry. That’s enough to keep him in this list for another week.

8. Jamin Davis, LB (Kentucky)

The best linebacker in the SEC, according to Pro Football Focus, Davis led Kentucky in tackles this season with 89, a number that was good for 3rd in the SEC. He also posted a sack, multiple tackles for loss, quarterback pressures and passes defended and forced a fumble, recovered a fumble, intercepted 2 passes and scored a defensive touchdown.

Davis will likely not be an All-American, mostly because he plays for Kentucky and not Alabama, Florida or Georgia. But he’ll get my vote for SEC Defensive Player of the Year, and the Wildcats looked like a different defense the one time he missed a football game this season (Alabama).

7. Kevin Harris, RB (South Carolina)

Speaking of best player on the team and not close, how about Kevin Harris? He finished his 2020 campaign with 1,138 yards rushing on 6.15 yards per carry. While the Gamecocks played QB shuffle and tried to figure out how to stop anyone on defense, Harris was busy grinding out 100-plus yard rushing performances against Florida, Vanderbilt, LSU, Ole Miss and Kentucky. His 15 rushing touchdowns were better than Heisman winner George Rogers and only 2 shy of Marcus Lattimore’s school record. And who could forget his 5-touchdown performance against Ole Miss, which featured this ridiculous run to paydirt.

Harris capped things off Saturday with a 210-yard day against a Kentucky run defense that had been terrific all season.

He probably won’t win the SEC rushing crown — Najee Harris has too much football left to play, but he should finish top 3 in the league in multipe rushing categories, a tremendous accomplishment given the team he played for this season.

6. Elijah Moore, WR (Ole Miss)

A COVID-19 pause and a bye week means we’ve only seen the Elijah Moore show once in the last 4 weeks. Maybe absence doesn’t really make the heart grow fonder, because Moore drops a few spots to just outside the top 5 this week. Moore grades out as the No. 3 receiver in college football, per Pro Football Focus. The junior out of Fort Lauderdale still leads the SEC in receptions with 86 on the season. He’s also scored 8 touchdowns, and will have one more chance to show his talents on a big stage against Stingley and LSU on Dec. 19.

5. Najee Harris, RB (Alabama)

Clearly, Najee Harris did not take kindly to my removing him from the top 5 last week. (OK, OK, he never saw and that’s fine). Harris engaged his inner beast mode against LSU, walloping the Tigers for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns Saturday night. I’m not sure there’s a running back in the sport with better vision and a sensational ability to cutback and follow the blocking grain.

Harris trails Kevin Harris for the SEC lead in rushing yards, but he slots in at 2nd in yards at 1,038 and 3rd in yards per attempt at 6.14 to go with his SEC leading 20 rushing toucdowns. Harris is the answer to most every potential “What if …” Alabama hypothetical too. Even if you slow the passing game (good luck) — well, there’s Najee.

4. Mac Jones, QB (Alabama) 

Call me crazy if you want but if it’s OK to punish Kyle Trask because Florida doesn’t run the ball well, it’s probably OK to punish Mac Jones because the weapons he works with are unfair.

However good Najee Harris and Smith are, it isn’t an indictment of Jones’ ability as a quarterback. Jones was magnificent against LSU, especially in the first half, when he connected on his first 12 passes before a drop finally ended his completion streak. I just don’t think he’s the best football player at Alabama anymore, and that might be true even if he wins the Heisman Trophy in January.

3. Kyle Trask, QB (Florida)

Blasphemy, you say? Go outside, turn around three times and spit? Drugs are bad?

Not at all.

https://twitter.com/SEConCBS/status/1335388984969609217?s=20

Trask, who lit Tennessee up to the tune of 433 yards and 4 touchdowns, continues to be ahead of Joe Burrow’s “we’ll never see that season again” pace from 2019. He also is doing it against an SEC only schedule, with no Utah State or Northwestern State to embarrass a la Burrow in 2019.

But like Mac Jones, Trask isn’t the best football player on his team, and even if he becomes the fourth Gators quarterback to win the Heisman, he still won’t be the best player on his team in January. That’s not a bad thing– at all– it just means he isn’t going to be number 1 or 2 on this list at present.

2. Kyle Pitts, TE (Florida)

Pitts is an NFL tight end playing college football. Pitts has only played 6 1/2 games, having missed 2 1/2 after being injured on an illegal tackle in the Georgia game. In that brief time frame, he’s tallied 36 receptions on 51 targets for 641 yards (17.8 yards per reception) and 18 of his catches have been explosive plays, or receptions gaining at least 16 yards.

Pitts has a reputation as a receiver playing tight end, but he actually grades out well as a blocker, having improved that skill immensely this season. That’s made him more of a matchup problem, because he can now line up with his hand in the dirt. The result has been Mullen has schemed Pitts to where he now averages 11.9 air yards per target, which is first among tight ends this season and the 11h-best mark in the past 10 seasons among all tight ends with at least 3 receptions per game and 5 games played.

The numbers are all things that make him Florida’s best player, but sometimes you just have to see him do things on video to understand he isn’t really human:

Pitts will now face an LSU defense that he ate alive a season ago — and he’ll do it at home, with LSU ranked among the worst pass defenses in college football. Look out.

1. DeVonta Smith, WR (Alabama)

If you want to argue with me placing the SEC leader in receiving yards and touchdowns and the guy Pro Football Focus rates as the No. 2 player in college football (behind only Kyle Pitts), that’s fine. I won’t argue with you. I’ll just suggest you watch this video and explain yourself.

None of that is normal. None of it. This is the best player in college football. Don’t @ me.