SEC Football history: 50 best players of all time

4. Best SEC football players of all time: Lee Roy Jordan, Alabama football

Despite his relatively small size, Lee Roy Jordan was an incredibly talented player on both sides of the ball for the Alabama Crimson Tide during his collegiate career. Playing both center on offense and linebacker on defense, Jordan was a guy that head coach Bear Bryant said, “never had a bad day,” and based on his career at Alabama, he would have to be right.

Jordan burst onto the scene as the MVP of the Bluebonnet Bowl in 1960 as a sophomore, but it would be his work in 1961 and 1962 that lands him as the fourth-best player in SEC Football history. He was a second-team All-American in 1961, helping the Crimson Tide to an 11-0 record, an SEC title, and a national championship.

They fell short of repeating in 1962, but Jordan dominated the college football landscape, as he was named a consensus All-American, and first-team All-SEC. In his last game, an Orange Bowl matchup against Oklahoma, Jordan had 31 tackles in front of President Kennedy and was named the Most Valuable Player, his second such honor in a bowl game.

A member of the Alabama Sports and College Football Hall of Fames, Jordan lost only two games during his collegiate career, an impressive statistic no matter what era you play in. A first-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 1963, Jordan went to five Pro Bowls in a 14-year NFL career, while also being a member of the Cowboys’ SBVI-winning squad. He is one of the best overall players in SEC history.