SEC Football: Top 50 players entering the 2020 season
15. player. 829. . . . Patrick Surtain II, DB
Alabama cornerback Patrick Surtain II enters 2020 as a projected first-round draft pick in nearly every early 2021 NFL Draft mock.
Surtain recorded 42 total tackles as a sophomore last season with eight passes defended, three forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and two interceptions.
He is on both Athlon’s preseason All-SEC first-team and first-team All-American squad.
840. . . . Kyle Pitts, TE. 14. player
There’s no better tight end returning to the SEC in 2020 than Florida’s Kyle Pitts. The rising junior had a breakout 2019 campaign in which he hauled in 54 passes for 649 yards and six touchdown grabs.
Pitts was named named All-SEC first team by both the AP and league’s coaches while he also finishing as a semifinalist for the Walter Camp Award.
He enters 2020 on Athlon’s All-SEC first team.
850. . . . Israel Mukuamu, DB. 13. player
South Carolina’s 6-foot-4 cornerback Israel Mukuamu enters 2020 as a projected first-round NFL draft pick.
Mukuamu grabbed four interceptions while returning one for a touchdown, defended nine passes and recorded 59 total tackles for the Gamecocks last season to earn AP second-team All-SEC honors.
His best performance came during the Gamecocks’ upset victory over Georgia in Athens as Mukuamu grabbed three interceptions, including returning one for a 53-yard touchdown. He was one of only four players in the country with three picks in a game in 2019.
The stellar week earned him Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week, the Chuck Bednarik Award National Player of the Week, the Bronko Nagurski Trophy National Defensive Player of the Week, National Defensive Player of the Week and SEC Defensive Player of the Week awards.
. . Kellen Mond, QB. 12. player. 873.
No quarterback in the SEC enters 2020 with more experience than Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond has made 34 starts, including 26 in a row for the Aggies in which he’s thrown for 7,379 yards and 52 touchdowns while adding 1,315 yards and 18 scores.
In 2019, he completed 61 percent of his passes as he threw for 2,897 yards and 20 touchdowns with just nine interceptions while adding a single-season career-high 508 yards and eight scores on the ground.
Mond enters 2020 as Athlon’s All-SEC fourth-team quarterback.
. . . JaCoby Stevens, DB. 11. player. 817
LSU defensive back JaCoby Stevens returns to Baton Rouge after helping anchor a national championship-winning Tigers defense.
Stevens recorded 92 total tackles, nine tackles for loss and five sacks with six pass breakups, three interceptions to earn second-team All-SEC honors from the league’s coaches.
The defensive back enters 2020 on Athlon’s All-SEC first team and in the first round of several NFL mock drafts.