The AP 2014 All-SEC teams were announced on Monday and there was a noticeable exception.
According to the AP, Tennessee’s Cam Sutton was not among the top five cornerbacks in the conference.
Senquez Golson (Ole Miss) and Vernon Hargreaves III (Florida) made the first team. Cyrus Jones (Alabama), Damian Swann (Georgia) and Jonathan Jones (Auburn) made the second team.
Sutton finished the season with 11 pass breakups, three interceptions and 35 tackles. While those numbers aren’t gaudy, they are indicative of the fact that teams threw away from Sutton.
Basically, good things didn’t happen for the opposing team when they threw the ball Sutton’s way.
In my opinion, leaving Sutton off the All-SEC teams was more indicative of voters who looked at stats, rather than performance.
There’s no doubt that Sutton is among the best cornerbacks in the SEC. He might even be among the best in the nation, but you can’t glean that simply from a boxscore.
The Vols did, however, end up with two players on the the All-SEC teams. Derek Barnett and Curt Maggitt both made the All-SEC second team. Barnett as a defensive end and Maggitt as a linebacker.
It would be very easy to argue that Barnett should’ve been included on the first team above Bud Dupree.
Barnett finished with 10 sacks to Dupree’s 7.5.
Dupree did have more tackles than Barnett (74 to 68), but given a choice between the two, I’m taking Barnett every day.
If Tennessee is able to soar to the top of the SEC East next season, I’d expect Sutton and Barnett to be household names.
If they’re not, then we really have some issues.