SEC coaches name five Tigers to All-SEC teams

Three months ago, if you’d have told us a lot of things about the year that was in Missouri football, we’d have laughed in your smarmy Nostradamus face. Mizzou’s going to beat the defending champion? Psh. They’re going to sign a top 20 recruiting class? Oh yeah, sure they will. They have a shot at finishing above .500 in Eli Drinkwitz’s first year? Whatever you say, chief.

Time to add a few more things to the list. A number of postseason honors were announced on Tuesday, including All-SEC teams awarded by the league’s coaches and Pro Football Focus’s all-conference teams.

Leading the charge of once-unexpected honorees is Connor Bazelak, who racked up a host of plaudits. After starting the season as the second QB on the depth chart, Bazelak was named the Co-SEC Freshman of the Year, along with Auburn’s Tank Bigsby. Bazelak was also the QB on the SEC’s All-Freshman team, and received a Honorable Mention from Pro Football Focus.

The SEC coaches also saw fit to award a number of Missouri defenders. It should be no surprise that Nick Bolton was named as a First Team All-SEC linebacker. But in a surprising twist, the coaches also tabbed Trajan Jeffcoat as a First Team defensive lineman. May we remind you that Jeffcoat was removed from the Tiger program last year and rejoined late in the summer. That’s quite a story.

After a year of setting records, Larry Rountree III was also recognized by SEC coaches as one of the two running backs on the Second Team. Rountree was teamed with Kevin Harris out of South Carolina.

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t call out our Thiccer. Mevis had a great day all around, landing on the Freshman All-SEC team and The Athletic’s All-Freshman team that spanned the entire country! Mevis was also named Third Team All-SEC by Pro Football Focus.

Speaking of Pro Football Focus, those inscrutable number crunchers saw fit to honor a few other players who weren’t recognized by the conference’s coaches. As mentioned above, Connor Bazelak was given an Honorable Mention and Mevis was Third Team. Joining Mevis on the Third Team were Nick Bolton (a bit low in our opinion) and Damon Hazelton, Jr. The highest-ranked member of the Tigers at PFF was Larry Borom, who was named to the Second Team after being a advanced numbers darling all year. Center Michael Maetti (please come back!) was also recognized as an Honorable Mention.