This hasn’t been a typical Southeastern Conference season so far.
All the talk has focused around some teams’ high-powered offenses, with traditionally defensive-heavy teams such as LSU and Georgia struggling to stop teams early on.
Dolling out midseason awards is usually difficult due to differences in strength of schedule but here we go.
Overall MVP: Texas A&M QB, Johnny Manziel
Yeah, the kid is good.
Antics aside, Manziel is the most important player in the league and without him the Aggies would be a mediocre team.
The Aggie defense is allowing a whooping 32 points per game, the second worst in the SEC. They are allowing almost 474 yards per game, the worst in the league.
If Manziel wasn’t putting up video game numbers every week, this team would be in the bottom of the conference standings. He has a higher completion percentage, more yards per game and a higher QB rating than last season, when he won the Heisman Trophy.
So needless to say, Johnny Football knows how to football quite well.
Offensive MVP: LSU QB, Zach Mettenberger
This would’ve been a lot closer had Georgia not gotten smacked by Missouri, but Mettenberger edges Aaron Murray slightly for this award.
Had someone said Mettenberger would even be in contention for the offensive player of the year at the conclusion of last season, they would’ve surely been thrown into the mental ward. But the 6-foot-5 gunslinger is deserving of the honor after carrying the Tigers through some early defensive struggles.
Mettenberger has a 15:2 interception ratio and is completing 66 percent of his passes on the season with 1890 yards. That yardage total is only 719 less yards than he threw all of last season, and at his 270 yards per game clip, he will only need another two and a half games to surpass 2012’s total.
Or, more realistically just one game and the first half of the Furman game.
Defensive MVP: Alabama LB, C.J. Mosley
I don’t like a world where offensive player of the year in the SEC has more viable candidates than the defensive side.
Mosley beats out standout Florida freshman Vernon Hargraves III, who is going to be a terror for SEC quarterbacks the next couple of years. Mosley leads the conferences’ No. 1 scoring defense in tackles, is second in tackles for loss and is tied for first in quarterback hurries.
The senior linebacker is a consensus NFL first-round pick and will play a big role when the Tigers take on the Tide on Nov. 9.
Coach of the Year: Gary Pinkel, Missouri
If coordinators could win this, obviously Cam Cameron would be the runaway favorite for what he’s done with the previously putrid LSU offense. But Pinkel has taken a Missouri team that finished near the bottom of the conference last season — and became somewhat of a laughingstock — into a legit contender for the SEC East title after spanking Georgia.
Missouri is scoring just less than 46 points per game, second in the conference behind A&M, and is allowing only 22 points per game on defense for one of the best scoring margins in the conference.
Missouri is only committing five penalties per game — fifth best in the conference — and has only turned the ball over six times, which is tied for best in the conference.
The lack of turnovers and penalties highlight how well-coached Missouri has been this season. It’s a shame starting quarterback James Franklin was injured in the Georgia game because Missouri’s season was one of the best stories in the conference this year.