SEC Football: Top-10 Defenses (1992-2007)

Against Heisman winner Troy Smith and undefeated Ohio State, the Gators held Ohio State to an absurd 82 yards of total offense en route to a 41-14 win. In all, the ’06 Gators played five games that were decided by one possession and another four that were still much in dispute in the fourth quarter, which obviously doesn’t include the National Championship. This defense delivered time and again.

2. 2003 LSU (11.0 PPG allowed, 13-1, National Champions)

Key Players: DE Marcus Spears, DE Marquise Hill, DT Chad Lavalais, DT Melvin Oliver, CB Corey Webster

While the ’06-’08 LSU defensive line is incredibly good, these guys are one step above them. The Tigers continued their struggles against Florida in 2003, losing 19-7 in a game that appeared to knock them from the National Championship race. But their complete decimation of Auburn (31-7) in the coming weeks put them back in it, which was followed by a November stretch that saw them dominate Alabama 27-3 and then shut down Eli Manning in the de facto SEC West Championship game 17-14.

In a rematch against No. 5 Georgia in the SEC Championship, the Tigers had won the first meeting 17-10 in Baton Rouge, LSU completely dominated 34-13. They rose to No. 2 in the BCS, and got the opportunity to face Oklahoma in the friendly Sugar Bowl confines, which they took advantage of in a 21-14 win that saw this LSU defense put the clamps on Heisman winner Jason White.    

1. 1992 Alabama (9.4 PPG allowed, 13-0, National Champions)

Key Players: DE John Copeland, DE Eric Curry, LB Lemanski Hall, LB Michael Rogers, LB Antonio London, CB Antonio Langham, CB George Teague, SS Sam Shade

There’s a lot of debate on some of these, I’m sure—you can really interchange ’03 LSU and ’06 Florida because they’re so similar and both have the dominant title-game performances. '98 Tennessee and '04 Auburn were both undefeated with incredible defenses.

But if you even begin to argue against '92 Alabama at the top of this list, you either didn’t see them play or you can’t do math.

Copeland and Curry is easily the best defensive-end tandem in modern SEC history, if not all SEC history; they each had 10.5 sacks on the season. And you can argue Langham and Teague for best corner duo in SEC history, as they each had six interceptions.

The worst thing I can say about them would be to make a joke about Langham, but he was still agent free in 1992. 

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