As part of our look back to the 10th Anniversary of the ’98 Vols and their National Championship—a team that featured excellence in the backfield and on defense—earlier we ranked the Top-10 Rushing Offenses in the SEC’s modern era, since expansion in 1992.
Today we turn our attention to the defensive side of the football, and look at the best defensive units here in the same era.
A couple of ground rules: no consecutive seasons were included because often the personnel is virtually the same. So you won’t see ’93 Alabama or ’07 LSU, for example, because we went with one of the adjacent years.
Unlike the rushing-offenses piece, where we used NFL success to help rank the tandems, with defenses, you’re talking about eleven guys instead of just two or three, and their ability to work as a unit is what makes the defense great, so we placed almost no emphasis on the NFL or name value.
However, like the previous piece, a team’s on-field success is factored into the rankings. And obviously, the numbers were crunched, especially scoring defense and total yardage.
And so away we go.
Top 10 SEC Defenses: 1992-2007
10. 2002 Georgia (15.4 PPG allowed, 13-1, SEC Champions)
Key Players: DE David Pollack, DT Jonathan Sullivan, LB Boss Bailey, LB Tony Gilbert, FS Kentrell Curry
In Mark Richt’s second season, the Dawgs took lofty preseason expectations and made the most of them, running the table outside of their usual struggles with Florida. It was Georgia’s first SEC Championship in 20 years and their first ever East Division title.
This was a team that improved over the season—their worst defensive performance was in the opener against Clemson, which would be the first and last time they’d surrender four touchdowns in one game all year.
Along the way, the defense carried them to a 13-7 win over South Carolina and an 18-13 win over Tennessee. Then they dominated late, providing the most lopsided win in program history against Georgia Tech 51-7, completely putting the brakes on Arkansas in the SEC Championship 30-3, and then using an interception return for a TD to key a 26-13 win over Florida State in the Sugar Bowl.
David Pollack was the 2002 SEC Defensive Player of the Year.
9. 1998 Florida
18 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
Justin Goar 11 months ago
wow, great list.
not only are all the teams on here deserving but i pretty much agree with your order too. awesome stuff!!
i may have had 98 fla a bit higher, and had 04 AU switched with tenn or fla.
that 04 AU squad was nails.
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Will Shelton 11 months ago
Thanks man...I've seen all of these defenses in person except '03 LSU, and outside of '92 Bama, '98 Florida is the one I'd least like to play again.
The main reason I placed '98 Tennessee ahead of '04 Auburn is the Tennessee team had to rely on their defense more while Auburn was just murdering people throughout most of the regular season. It was strange, but I think I saw them at their very best and worst...I saw them come up with at least five turnovers in the Knoxville game against the Vols, and then I saw Gerald Riggs break them for long runs twice in the SEC Championship Game. Still, that '04 Auburn team is better on paper than any of the other National Champions that've come out of the SEC in the last 15 years with the possible exception of '96 Florida, who wasn't undefeated.
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DScot 11 months ago
Nice rundown. Good article. Also, about that '92 defense- before the Florida game I think they were ranked #1 in rushing, passing, total yards, and scoring defense all at once.
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Ben White 11 months ago
Good article. No doubt the SEC has seen some good defenses in recent years.
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Justin Hokanson 11 months ago
How can a defense that gives up 11 points a game be behind two defenses that give up 13 and 14 points a game?
Regardless of future NFL talent, the 2004 Auburn defense was lights out. They were at their best against the best teams in the nation. They held #5 LSU to 9 points, they held #8 Tennessee to 10 points in their own house, then they held #5 Georgia to 6 points. That's giving up basically 8 points a game to three of the best teams in the country.
They had teams that didn't even cross midfield in a couple of games.
Auburn should be sitting at #3.
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Will Shelton 11 months ago
The factors I mentioned in an earlier response about '98 Tennessee come into play even more with '06 Florida - that they carried more of the burden for their team than '04 Auburn did. The '98 Vols and '04 Auburn are almost interchangeable, and Auburn does have better numbers in points allowed, but the '98 Vols also improved and got better every game throughout the season where Auburn gave up some big busts in the SEC Championship Game in '04. And it's not Auburn's fault, but the '98 Vols and '06 Gators have tremendous National Championship performances that the Tigers never got the chance to experience. Because of all that, I think both of them go down in history slightly ahead of '04 Auburn...but in the numbers, Auburn is better and I definitely see where you're coming from.
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Justin Hokanson 11 months ago
Sounds good. I like the list for sure, good info.
While I agree that the '04 Auburn D didn't have to carry as much of the load because of a great offense, it's hard to argue with their three biggest games of the season and doing what they did in those games.
But they are all great defenses.
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BabyTate 11 months ago
I like the way you stuck with the era you're from and are familiar with. Because of this, I'll give this article five stars. In your wheelhouse and accurate, young man.
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Will Shelton 11 months ago
Thank you sir...it works out well for my generation to be able to have arguments using that "in the modern SEC era" tag with the '92 divisional format, because basically we can talk about everything we've ever seen.
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Daniel Brown 11 months ago
Why no '99 Mississippi State? 13.0 ppg allowed. 222 Total YPG allowed (That's better than '03 LSU). #1 Total Defense in the nation. Less than 2 yards allowed per rush attempt against. Peach Bowl victory. Maybe the Peach Bowl ending isn't good enough to make your list, but '99 MSU at least deserves an honorable mention.
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Will Shelton 11 months ago
There are a couple of groups, including the '99 Bulldogs, that were exceptional defensive units and simply never got the breaks or the offensive production needed to fully help them along the way to crack this list. Right off hand I can think of a bunch of groups that didn't make the cut, as well as some other really talented defenses that just didn't do well in the numbers. This list was much harder to crack that I thought it was going to be when I started it.
9 of the 10 teams on the list won their division or played in the BCS, and '05 Alabama had the second best stats of any defense over the last 15 years, so I did include them. Just on numbers alone though, you're right, that State group with Fred Smoot (one of my all-time favorite SEC players) deserves recognition.
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Daniel Brown 11 months ago
But the title of the article says best defense, not best teams that happened to be defensively oriented -- reminds me of people who say Tebow isn't the best QB in the nation because they didn't win enough. Well, fine, it's up to you. However, I still think '99 MSU edges out '05 Bama. There are more factors to ppg allowed than just defense (well, I guest just field position) and better measures of defense.
Alabama Rush D: 3.14 y/carry 94 y/game 9th in the nation 9 FFum
Miss. St. Rush D: 1.83 y/carry 67 y/game 1st in the nation 12 FFum
Alabama Pass D: 5.5 y/att 11 Int 9TD
Miss. St. Pass D: 4.3 y/att 15 Int 7TD
Alabama Total YPG allowed: 255 YPG 2nd in Nation
Miss. St. Total YPG allowed: 222 YPG 1st in Nation
Come on, admit it -- you janked '99 MS State.
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Will Shelton 11 months ago
Well done on the research...solid arguments are always much appreciated.
In a direct comparison with '05 Alabama, what pushes the Tide over the edge for me besides the 10.7 PPG allowed is who they played:
'99 MSU didn't play Tennessee, Florida or Georgia, lost to the only ranked opponent they played and their schedule for the year went 64-74. I have to believe that some of their numbers are due to playing that schedule - which isn't their fault, but is what happened.
'05 Alabama played five ranked opponents and went 3-2 against, and their schedule went 74-67. That also allowed them to have the performances that stick out in your mind (Florida and Tennessee)...I'm staring at '99 MSU's schedule right now, and I can't remember any of these games (though giving up only 22 to Tim Couch ain't bad)
That's not to say State wouldn't have done well if they had played better teams, and your stats are certainly compelling...but still, I'd have to go with Bama head to head because their defense did more against tougher competition.
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Daniel Brown 11 months ago
Yeah, you got me there. Being an SEC fan, I tend to just expect the SOS argument to go in my favor. The standard for defenses is just too high in the SEC. Oh well. Nice article, anyway.
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Big Fan71 11 months ago
To add a little more...Bama 2005 defense played Texas Tech and held them to 10 points. Tech dropped 34 on Nebraska, 59 on K-State, 56 on TAMU, and 23 on Oklahoma. I doubt they would have taken MSU to the wood shed, but 10 points was the lowest that Texas Tech (who scored 475 on the season) had been held to since 2001. They scored 17 against National Champion Texas. The 99 MSU defense was VERY good, but they never faced an offense like Tech.
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jackson rockhold 11 months ago
all you have to say about Bama 92...seven first team all sec....four first team all american and that my friend is somthing that will NEVER be duplicated again in anyones lifetime
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Zeke 2029 11 months ago
The most impressive thing about the 2005 Alabama defense was the red zone. I'm not even sure 1992 Alabama was as impressive in the red zone. This team went from the 4th quarter of the third game until the 4th quarter of the 10th game without giving up a single red-zone TD. Opponents averaged 1 point per red zone visit over the course of that streak. I think it was either 5 FGs in 15 visits or 6 FGs in 18 visits. Included in that streak were multiple 4th down stops, turnovers, and maybe even a blocked FG or two. The TD scored by SoCar in the 4th quarter of the 3rd game was against the backups, and the TD by LSU in the 4th quarter of the 10th game was on 4th down.
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John Thompson 11 months ago
Fantastic! That '92 Tide Defense was unbelievable...
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