re: Best All-Time SEC Football Player

When I think of the best Tennessee players, I think of R. White first and foremost.

Peyton of course, E. Berry was great and he was even on some shite teams.

Not sure any of them, but Reggie, could be considered the best All-Time SEC player.

Well TM7 is the greatest player ever so I'll go with him

Most of you young pups are hung up on qbs and rbs and a few lbs. I'm gonna go old school and say Lee Roy Jordan........Bama Tough as nails, played both ways, center and MLB. Once had 29 tackles in one game. Coach Bryant once said if a back was in between the lines Jordan would run em down.....and a great pro career with the Cowboys. Just a little different thought for you youngsters..

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He was only offensive MVP because of his name. His 129 yards came on 31 carries, and he was shut down one 4 straight carries inside the two yard line. His team got beat 36-16, and one newspaper article reported the game like this

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When you can't win championships, you gotta take your moral victories where you can, eh?

Are we talking about best SEC players ever and leaving out defensive guys?
I'll throw some in just from the past 15 years or so off top of my head
Patrick Peterson
Rolando Mclain
Glen Dorsey
John Abraham
Eric Berry
Demeco Ryans
Reggie Nelson
David Pollack




that's just guys I can remember watching, I'm a lot younger than a lot of y'all so give me some more defensive greats

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When you can't win championships, you gotta take your moral victories where you can, eh?

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I just pointed out that I enjoyed watching Bo, an exceedingly great player, get shut down in the Cotton Bowl. It was a fun game for an A&M fan. I'm not sure how that has anything to do with moral victories.

Auburn, like A&M, has a single national title that was won by a team full of players none of whom had families that were paid 6 figures to attend school.

Herschel Walker and it's not even close. From the moment he came into the game in the season opener against Tennessee and Georgia trailing, Walker was a man among boys. If he had played his senior year, Georgia would have won four straight SEC titles, Walker would have put up rushing numbers that would have never been broken and Georgia would have won a second national title in four years and Walker would have been the second man to win back to back Heisman's. I truly believe if he hadn't bolted for the USFL and he had played his senior year without getting hurt, all of this would have happened.


Bo Jackson was a freak, but he didn't have the heart of Herschel, Auburn came into Knoxville in 1985 and was rated #1. UT pounded Jackson that day until he took himself out of the game. Something Herschel Walker never did. Jackson complained of Cramps, and never went back into the game. Case closed.


Tim Tebow has to be considered. All he ever did was win. 2 National Championships and a Heisman. Florida was either the SEC champ or runner-up all of his four years.

Cam Newton for one season was great. Never saw I quarterback that big and that fast. The guy was a freak of nature.

Reggie White was injured a lot his first three years at UT. He played on some mediocore UT teams that had Willie Gault, Anthony Hancock, Mike Cofer, Brian Ingram, Bill Bates, etc. When Larry Marmie took over as DC White's senior year he blossomed. Probably the greatest one season ever by a Defensive lineman. Reggie was quite the athlete, he was a prep AA in basketball. I watched Reggie and Charles Morgan play for Chattonooga Howard in the state title in basketball. They came in second to Memphis Northside which was led by future Memphis Tiger Phillip "Doom" Haynes. Don Devoe wanted White to play basketball and he knew that he couldn't make it as a 6'5" power forward in the NBA so he stuck with football. Opposing players often said of Reggie during his senior year, "IF REGGIE WHITE HAD A MEAN STREAK HE WOULD HAVE BEEN OUTLAWED". After throwing a poor offensive lineman to the side with one hand, White was known to go back and line up across the guy and say.."KEEP TRYING JESUS LOVES YOU AND I DO TOO". Reggie White wasn't lazy and he wasn't a player who needed motivating. He played hurt a lot his first three seasons. Once he shook the nagging injuries he was something else. Johnny Majors has often been quoted as saying "I WISH WHEN I HIRED KEN DONAHUE HE COULD HAVE WORKED WITH REGGIE AND MIKE COFER". Cofer lasted also 13 years with the Detroit Lions.

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If the ball carrier stays in bounds, Lee Roy will get em. Bear Bryant was fond of saying.

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Bryant loved Lee Roy Jordon so much, It was a game "AFTER" Jordon had graduated and the linebacker was getting killed. Bryant supposedly hollered at his Defensive Coordinator, "GET JORDON IN THE DAMN GAME", nobody had the nerve to tell Bear that Leroy had graduated.

You wanna go "REAL OLD SCHOOL" how about DE Doug Atkins from Tennessee. He went to UT on a basketball scholly and General Neyland put him on the football team. Atkins also played basketball and competed in track and field. With the NFL Chicago Bears, George Halas called him "THE GREATEST DEFENSIVE LINEMEN I HAVE EVER SEEN". Atkins was named the the NFL Hall of Fame and The College Hall of Fame. Considered "THE MEANEST PLAYER WHO EVER PLAYED THE GAME". https://www.chicagobears.com/tradition/hof-atkins.asp