This week junior Myles Garrett was named a finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, which goes to the defensive player of the year in college football. It is the presumptive culmination of an outstanding career at Texas A&M. Garrett, a potential first-round pick in the NFL Draft, is expected to skip his senior season and turn pro.

Some, like Sports Illustrated’s Chris Burke, have Garrett tabbed as the first player taken in the 2017 draft.

Garrett has today’s home finale with LSU, then a bowl game before making the decision on whether to declare for the draft. Along the way, he might pick up some hardware as the nation’s top defensive player.

It’s a season that began with Garrett earning recognition on the SEC Network as Tim Tebow’s Freak of the Week. Tebow noted Garrett’s 6-5, 265-pound frame and delivered the unbelievable physical ability to power clean 420 pounds, bench press 475 pounds, a vertical leap of 39 inches, and run a 4.46 in the 40.

If this is his final season of an illustrious career at Texas A&M, it will be one hampered at least statistically by an injury suffered in the Arkansas game that sidelined him for two games. Still, Garrett earned midseason All-America honors.

The diehard Dallas Cowboys fan from Arlington returned to form in last Saturday’s 23-10 victory over UTSA. Garrett recorded a career-high 4.5 sacks, second-most for a single game in program history and just a half-a-sack off the school record set by Alex Morris way back in 1987 against Houston.

Saturday’s standout performance moved Garrett past Tennessee Hall-of-Famer Reggie White on the SEC all-time sack list.

Garrett, with 32.5, is one of only eight players in SEC history to reach 30 career sacks. His next sack will move him past Florida’s Alex Brown and into the No. 5 position on the SEC all-time list. It will also move him into fifth place on Texas A&M’s all-time list, passing 2016 Super Bowl MVP Von Miller.

“It’s nice to know, but hopefully I’m not done,” Garrett told reporters following Saturday’s game. “Hopefully I can get past 35 and keep on leaving my mark on the game.”

Having already made his mark as perhaps the premiere pass rusher in the nation, Garrett could stand alone in the SEC with 1.5 sacks over his final two games. Should he accomplish the feat he would become the first player in SEC history to pile up double digits in each of his first three seasons. He put together 11.5 as a freshman and 12.5 as a sophomore before posting 8.5 so far in a shortened season by injury.

“I’m still not 100 percent but probably as close as I’ll get there this season,” Garrett said.

It’s been an incredible three-year run for the five-star recruit from Arlington Martin High School, the second-ranked player overall in the class of 2014, top player at his position nationally, and top prospect from the hotbed of talent out of the state of Texas.

He’s certainly lived up to his billing. And tonight against LSU, he’ll get one more chance to add to his legacy.