Roman Harper gives his ‘season superlatives’ for 2022 SEC football season

Roman Harper dedicated his recent “Roman Numerals” segment on SEC Now to the SEC season’s breakout player of the year, defensive player of the year, newcomer of the year, and biggest win.

Harper’s newcomer of the year was Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins, thanks to the true freshman’s 1,476-yard, 16-touchdown season. For his breakout player of the year, he chose Jalin Hyatt, as the Tennessee wide receiver totaled 1,267 yards and 15 touchdowns — the only SEC wide receiver this season with more than 1,000 yards.

For his defensive player of the year that he felt was “getting no respect”, Harper went with Mississippi State cornerback Emmanuel Forbes. Forbes had a league-high 6 interceptions and 3 pick-6s. His 6 career interceptions returned for touchdowns is an FBS record.

South Carolina’s victory over Tennessee was Harper’s “biggest program-changing win”. That came a week before the Gamecocks upset Clemson, ending a 7-game losing streak in the series and the Tigers’ 40-game home winning streak.

“Not only did they play better than Clemson on Saturday, they looked better, which is even more important, and what I saw was possibly a seismic shift in the Palmetto State knowing that South Carolina may be better in the long run than Clemson right now,” he said.

Finally, Harper had “flowers” for the SEC quarterbacks, calling out Bryce Young, Hendon Hooker, Will Levis, Anthony Richardson, and Will Rogers, specifically.

You can watch the segment below:

.@Harp41's Hardware ??

Breakout POY: Jalin Hyatt
Defensive POY: Emmanuel Forbes
Newcomer: Quinshon Judkins
Biggest W: South Carolina
Give them their flowers: SEC QBs pic.twitter.com/ijTOVviq6b

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) December 1, 2022

Sydney Hunte

Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.