Rece Davis reveals all-time favorite player from each SEC football program

There have been plenty of notable players to play in the SEC, but it can be hard to pick favorites. ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis tried his hand at picking his favorite SEC players, doing so from each team.

Davis went down the list of the 14 SEC programs and picked out a respective favorite player. There was one exception, though, as he picked three favorites from Florida — partly because he works with two of his selections.

These are his favorites and not necessarily who Davis thinks are the best players in each program’s history. Still, it’s an impressive collection of names.

Alabama — Derrick Thomas

A member of the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, Thomas won the Butkus Award in 1988 as he became a consensus All-American. The Kansas City Chiefs drafted him No. 4 overall and he played his entire career there, winning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1989 and making nine Pro Bowls.

Thomas died of a pulmonary embolism as he recovered from a car crash in 2000. He’s the only player to pass away during his career and be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Arkansas — Darren McFadden

McFadden was a two-time Doak Walker Award and Jim Brown Trophy winner at Arkansas in 2006 and 2007. He rushed for nearly 4,600 yards in three years in Fayetteville as a two-time SEC Player of the Year en route to a College Football Hall of Fame selection.

McFadden became the No. 4 overall pick of the Oakland Raiders in 2008 and played in the NFL until 2015 with the Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys.

Auburn — Pat Sullivan

Sullivan is one of the most notable players in Auburn history. He won the 1971 Heisman Trophy as part of a consensus All-American season, throwing for 2,012 yards and 20 touchdowns. All told, he total over 6,000 yards and 54 touchdowns before embarking on a brief NFL career.

Sullivan returned to Auburn as quarterbacks from 1986-91 before becoming the head coach at TCU. He also worked as the offensive coordinator at UAB from 1999-2006 and was the head coach at Samford from 2007-14. Sullivan died of cancer in 2019, and his No. 7 was retired.

Florida — Tim Tebow/Danny Wuerffel/Jesse Palmer

Davis joked he didn’t “want to take the phone calls from the other two” by listing three former Florida players. Still, all three had impressive careers in Gainesville.

Tebow was the most decorated of the three, winning two national championships and the 2007 Heisman Trophy as he became a College Football Hall of Famer. He currently works as an analyst for the SEC Network along with Palmer, who threw for more than 3,700 yards from 1997-2000.

Wuerffel is also in the College Football Hall of Fame after leading…