Producing 63 selections in the 2020 National Football League Draft, 15 more than the next closest conference and their 14th-straight year atop the list, the Southeastern Conference has long been regarded as the mountaintop of college football.
Turning his focus to players returning to campus this fall, CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee ranked the SEC’s top-10 players ahead of the 2020 season, releasing his list on July 15.
One Florida Gator made the cut, redshirt senior quarterback Kyle Trask slotting in at No. 10.
“Trask stepped in for an injured Feleipe Franks in Week 3 vs. Kentucky and threw for 2,941 yards last year – the best season for a Florida quarterback since 2009, which was Tim Tebow’s final season in Gainesville,” Sallee wrote.
“He completed 54.8-percent of his passes while under pressure last season, the second-best mark in the country. Not bad for a guy who hasn’t been the starting quarterback in an offseason at any point during his high school or college career.
“His future looks bright now that he’s finally the unquestioned starting quarterback for the Gators.”
While Trask and head coach Dan Mullen must adjust to life without four of their top-five wide receivers from 2019, Van Jefferson, Freddie Swain, Josh Hammond, and Tyrie Cleveland, the program does return senior Trevon Grimes and boasts arguably the nation’s best tight end in junior Kyle Pitts.
On top of this, co-offensive coordinator/offensive line coach John Hevesy’s unit returns four starters from a year ago and added versatile Mississippi State Bulldogs graduate transfer Stewart Reese, the brother of redshirt sophomore linebacker David Reese.
Lamical Perine, a four-year contributor, played, perhaps, the best football of his career toward the end of last season and was selected by the New York Jets in the fourth-round (No. 120 overall) in April.
To help fill this void, Florida received a major boost when redshirt sophomore Lorenzo Lingard, a Miami Hurricanes transfer, had his request for immediate eligibility approved by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in May.
Junior LSU Tigers wideout Ja’Marr Chase, the reigning Fred Biletnikoff Award winner, received the No. 1 ranking from Sallee, with Alabama Crimson Tide redshirt junior linebacker Dylan Moses and Mississippi State senior tailback Kylin Hill occupying the next two spots.
Completing the list, in order from four-through-nine, were LSU sophomore cornerback Derek Stingley, Jr., Tennessee Volunteers senior offensive tackle Trey Smith, Alabama senior running back Najee Harris, Missouri Tigers junior linebacker Nick Bolton, Georgia Bulldogs senior safety Richard LeCounte, and Crimson Tide senior offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood.
Pitts was one of a dozen players to receive an honorable mention, joining a group including Arkansas Razorbacks redshirt senior tailback Rakeem Boyd, Texas A&M Aggies senior quarterback Kellen Mond, and Alabama wide receivers DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle, a senior and junior, respectively.
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