BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Alabama football placed 10 players on the Preseason Coaches All-Southeastern Conference teams, while Mississippi State had eight and Ole Miss had five named to the squads.
Alabama had a league-leading five players on the first team. The 10 selections is the second most from one school on the team.
MSU joined Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn as the only programs in the league to produce at least eight selections on this year’s preseason list.
Former Starkville High School standout A.J. Brown and offensive lineman Greg Little earned first-team honors for Ole Miss, which has at least five All-SEC preseason players for the fifth time in the last six years.
For MSU, junior defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons and senior defensive end Montez Sweat were named to the first team. MSU is the only school to produce two first-team defensive line honorees.
Simmons, a four-time preseason All-American, ranked 11th in the SEC with 12 tackles for loss last season, while Sweat returns for his senior season after leading the conference in sacks (10 1/2) and tackles for loss (15 1/5) last year.
Senior safety Mark McLaurin was a second-team pick. McLaurin tied for the SEC lead in interceptions (six) in 2017 and tied the single-season school-record for interceptions most recently reached by Corey Broomfield in 2009.
Junior offensive lineman Darryl Williams, senior offensive lineman Deion Calhoun, senior running back Aeris Williams, junior linebacker Leo Lewis, and senior cornerback Jamal Peters earned third-team accolades.
Calhoun and Darryl Williams helped anchor MSU’s offense line that paved the way for an offense that gained 5,442 yards last season.
One of the elite running backs in the SEC, Aeris Williams became the first running back since Josh Robinson to rush for 1,000 yards (1,107).
Appearing in 12 games as a junior, Peters closed the season with 23 tackles, one interception, and the first fumble recovery of his career.
Lewis made 12 starts at linebacker and had 46 tackles. He turned in multi-tackle performances in all eight of MSU’s conference games last season.
In addition to the honors Brown and Little earned, Ole Miss’ Javon Patterson, D.K. Metcalf, and Zedrick Woods were named to the third team.
Brown, a preseason first-team All-American and 2017 All-SEC selection, led the SEC and finished 10th nationally with a program-best 1,252 receiving yards in 2017. Brown also led the SEC in receiving touchdowns (11), receiving yards per game (104.3), and receptions per game (6.3). Brown has been named to watch lists for the Maxwell, Biletnikoff, and Walter Camp Awards. USA Today and Athlon rate him the No. 1 wide receiver in the country.
Little, a junior from Allen, Texas, has appeared in every game at left tackle since arriving in Oxford two years ago. He earned preseason All-America first-team honors from the Sporting News and The Athletic, as well as second-team accolades from Lindy’s, Athlon, and Phil Steele.
Raekwon Davis (DL), Damien Harris (RB), Ross Pierschbacher (OL), Jonah Williams (OL), and Mack Wilson (LB) were Alabama’s first-team selections. Isaiah Buggs (DL), Lester Cotton Sr. (OL), Trevon Diggs (AP), Anfernee Jennings (LB), and Deionte Thompson (DB) earned second-team honors.
The preseason first-team honor from the league’s coaches is the second for Pierschbacher and Williams during their careers, and the first for Davis, Harris, and Wilson. Diggs was a third-team selection a year ago, while Buggs, Cotton, Jennings, and Thompson are being honored for the first time.
All 14 SEC schools were represented by at least one player, including seven with six or more selections each. Ten SEC schools had at least one first-team All-SEC pick.
Alabama returns 12 starters from last season’s squad that finished 13-1 and won the school’s 17th national championship.
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