Mid-November.

For some, it’s award-finalist season.

For others, it’s firing season.

Where you lie on that scale is often a failproof indicator of where your team’s season is going.

At Texas A&M, the can’t-miss hire finally became the this can’t go on any longer hire.

Jimbo Fisher is out after just shy of 6 ignominious years. There’s no confirmation that Fisher’s halftime interview during last week’s 51-10 victory over Mississippi State, where Jimbo proclaimed A&M the “best 5-4 team in the country,” was the death knell, but if ever one interview summed up an entire tenure, it was that interview.

Fisher channeling his inner Butch Jones and going full of champions of life with a 5-4 team full of 4- and 5-star players was all you need to know about how the national championship winning head coach’s tenure went in Aggieland. Fisher leaves College Station with a 45-25 record, 6 wins fewer than the man he replaced, Kevin Sumlin (51-26). Fisher also will leave with $76 million to not coach the sport for Texas A&M. It’s hard to fathom being so bad at something that someone will pay you $76 million to not do it, but not everyone grows up to be an SEC football coach.

Zach Arnett, whose team lost by 41 to the about-to-be-terminated Fisher, was also dismissed. Arnett was given only 1 year to do the impossible and step into the gaping hole left by the gone-too-soon Mike Leach. A defensive coach replacing Leach was always going to be a tough ask, but if State was only going to give Arnett 1 year, it’s fair to wonder why they gave him the job in the first place. They were understandably put in a horrifying position last winter when Leach passed away suddenly. Arnett is now bearing the brunt of how difficult that moment was in Starkville.

Are more SEC firings imminent? Sam Pittman was fired by “sources” after a 48-10 loss to Auburn, but it turns out those sources must have been the same that alleged Arkansas’ actual team was watching “The Polar Express” at halftime of that debacle. Pittman will coach Saturday when the Hogs take on FIU, and while a 5th year at Arkansas doesn’t seem a guarantee, Pittman was adamant and energized this week when promising he’d turn things around.

Here at the “List”, we too are confident and energized this week, even if the return of Brock Bowers to the fold makes the already difficult task of ranking the best 10 players in the SEC all the more difficult. Welcome back, Brock! We missed seeing you play football.

Bowers’ return does not lead to a “List” shake-up, but it could down the line, especially as Georgia makes its 3-peat push.

As always, we rank Honorable Mentions first, limited to 2 per school.

Honorable Mention: Alabama: S Caleb Downs, LB Dallas Turner; Arkansas: DB Dwight McGlothern, K Cam Little; Auburn: DB Jaylin Simpson, DL Jalen McLeod; Florida: QB Graham Mertz, RB Trevor Etienne; Georgia: S Tykee Smith, CB Kamari Lassiter; Kentucky: LB D’Eryk Jackson, DB Maxwell Hairston; LSU: C Charles Turner; WR Brian Thomas Jr.; Missouri: DB Kris Abrams-Draine, WR Luther Burden III; MSU: LB Jett Johnson, LB Nathaniel Watson; Ole Miss: S John Saunders Jr., WR Tre Harris; South Carolina: QB Spencer Rattler, WR Xavier Legette; Tennessee: Edge James Pearce Jr., RB Jaylen Wright; Texas A&M: DL Walter Nolen, DB Josh DeBerry; Vanderbilt: LB Langston Patterson, OL Bradley Ashmore.

10. Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)

Arnold is on a tear of late. In his past 4 games, he’s given up completions just 4 times in 1-on-1 situations. He’s also collected 2 interceptions, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, 3 pass breakups, and a sack in that span. Heady stuff for a sophomore who, along with safety Caleb Downs, is leading one of the nation’s best secondary units. With Chattanooga and the Iron Bowl left to play before the SEC Championship game, Arnold grades out as one of the nation’s best corners, per PFF.

9. Quinshon Judkins, RB (Ole Miss)

Ole Miss was wiped out in Athens but not for a lack of production from Judkins. The sophomore tallied 89 total yards of offense and scored 2 touchdowns in defeat. On the season, Judkins ranks 4th in the SEC in rushing yards (868) while leading the SEC in touchdowns (14). That’s not a bad following act to 2022, when he led the SEC in rushing with over 1,500 yards.

8. Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)

Cooper led the team with 11 tackles in Jimbo Fisher’s finale. Cooper and the Aggies’ defense produced multiple turnovers and a scoop and score in the 51-10 win over Miss State, a signature performance for a unit that has been marvelous all season. Cooper remains in the top 5 nationally in quarterback pressures and tackles for loss, the most consistent player on a defense that ranks 12th nationally in total yards and 11th in success rate defense. 

7. Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)

Nabers caught 6 passes on 9 targets in LSU’s 52-35 win over Florida on Saturday night. It was a rare touchdown-less performance for Nabers, but a 5th consecutive win over the Gators will make that an afterthought. Nabers was first on my Biletnikoff Award ballot this week, bucking the media frenzy around Marvin Harrison Jr. of Ohio State, to whom Nabers compares favorably or equally in nearly every statistical benchmark (13 more receptions, 281 more yards, 0.2 fewer yards per reception).

6. Jalen Milroe, QB (Alabama)

Milroe’s star turn continued Saturday at Kentucky, where the Crimson Tide quarterback produced 6 touchdowns (3 passing, 3 rushing) in Alabama’s 4-touchdown rout of the Wildcats.

Milroe keeps getting better and as he does, the SEC Championship Game starts to look more and more interesting.

5. Kamari Lassiter, DB (Georgia)

Lassiter has shown out in 2 consecutive games against Biletnikoff Award list receivers. First, Luther Burden caught only 2 passes (of his 3 receptions in the game) lined up against Lassiter in coverage. Burden III gained 14 yards on those plays. Next, Tre Harris caught 1 on his way to a 2-catch, 12-yard performance for Ole Miss at Georgia on Saturday night. Find me a DB that has produced that beautifully in back-to-back marquee games this season. I will wait.

What’s most impressive about Lassiter? He’s so good 1-on-1 that Kirby Smart is bucking his trend of assigning one corner to each boundary. The Dawgs have moved Lassiter around the field, allowing him to track players like Harris, Florida’s Ricky Pearsall and Burden III over the past month. That’s a testament to Smart’s trust in Lassiter and the increasing statistical reality that Lassiter is the best player in the nation’s best secondary.

4. Javon Foster, OT (Missouri)

The massive Missouri left tackle continues to grade out as the SEC’s best tackle, and he led the way for Schrader and the Tigers as they pounded Tennessee 36-7 in CoMo last weekend. Missouri’s 255 yards rushing were the most for a Missouri team against Tennessee in school history. On the season, Foster leads a Tigers line that has the SEC’s leading rusher and ranks top 5 in the SEC in fewest pressures allowed. Foster has yet to allow a sack in 2023, after allowing 6 in the prior two seasons.

3.  Cody Schrader, RB (Missouri)

My favorite story of the college football season is Schrader, the Division II transfer who is now the frontrunner to win the SEC rushing title in 2023. If ever there was a “bet on yourself” story to teach your kids, other kids, or for that matter, grown adults, it is Schrader. He’s undersized. He was widely expected to be “too slow” to impact much other than special teams at Missouri. Did he listen to any of this? No. Does he consistently find a way to torch good defenses? Well, 112 yards at No. 1 Georgia and 205 against No. 14 Tennessee suggest the answer to that question.

How about a little SEC history to go along with the 1,124 yards rushing this season? Why not.

There’s nothing he can’t do — and Florida, the worst defense from a yards per play standpoint in the SEC, is next. Look out.

2. Carson Beck, QB (Georgia)

Beck continued his marvelous first year as a starter with a 306-yard, 2-touchdown performance in the 52-17 win over No. 9 Ole Miss. Beck has moved over 3,000 yards passing in the regular season and his quarterback rating of 166.95 trails only Jayden Daniels of LSU. Beck’s numbers in November, in 2 games against top-15 opponents, are sensational: 39-57, 560 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 9.8 yards per attempt. Considered the biggest question mark for Georgia’s 3-peat hopes in the preseason, Beck is now a huge asset as Georgia heads down the stretch.

1. Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)

Daniels should win the Heisman Trophy. Full stop.

After practicing in pads just once all week, Daniels went out and set an NCAA record in LSU’s wild 52-35 win over Florida. He threw for 372 yards and 3 touchdowns and then ran for 234 yards (at a 19.5 yard per carry clip!!) and 2 more touchdowns. If you needed a signature performance to seal his Heisman, this was it — coming off a heartbreaking loss, short on practice due to concussion protocol, in a rivalry game where his defense once again struggled to get stops.

Perhaps the Heisman has been a team award for a long time. But if Robert Griffin, Lamar Jackson and Tim Tebow can win with 3 losses — and all deserved to win, due to incredible on-field performance — so can — and so should — Daniels.