Mizzou’s outstanding linebacker Kentrell Brothers has been awarded First-Team All-SEC honors, but it still feels like a consolation prize.
Near the end of the 2013 season, outgoing linebacker Andrew Wilson was asked what kind of understudy Kentrell Brothers had been. He smirked. “He’s a good player. He studies the game real well. He’s going to be a great for years to come,” Wilson said of Brothers at the time.
Fast forward to mid-October, 2015. After playing some the easier portion of their 2015 schedule, Brothers has a statistic that stood out among everyone on the team, he led the nation in tackles. The Missouri defense didn’t have that familiar prototype end lineman that Craig Kuligowski seems to just manufacture out of thin air every year, but they do have Brothers who is playing at a very high level.
As the season moved on, so too did the Tiger defense. What the team lacked in offense and dignity, it made up for in defense and the ability to punt the ball. Just the defense alone made the team palatable to watch, knowing that when the offense got the ball they’d be lucky to be able to let Corey Fatony get a foot to it.
But leading this defense was without question the senior linebacker from Guthrie, Oklahoma. Finding a way to the ball and finishing hard was a trademark of his play, reminding Missouri fans of someone that hit like Pig Brown. Brothers was the difference maker and it was really, really obvious.
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Let’s move now though, from mid-late October to November 2. Brothers had the watch list of a major award backing him at the time, the prestigious Butkus Award, given to the top defender in the nation annually. With Brothers being such a consistent player, he would continue to be put on widdled-down lists that compared him to the best in the nation, right?
But on November 2, the Butkus Award watch list named ten finalists. Much to the surprise of media, coaches and teammates, Brothers was shockingly left off of the list.
Is this the final list? Isn’t another part being released later in the day or something? How can this guy not even be considered as one of the top 10 players in America when he is likely the best one?
The Butkus Award lost a lot of legitimacy in Missouri that day.
Dave Matter of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch pointed out on his Twitter that two members of the SEC that were on that list of 10 finalists, weren’t present on either the 1st or 2nd Teams All-SEC.
Not to beat a dead horse, but the two LSU linebackers who made the Butkus Award final 10 over Brothers didn't make 2nd-team All-SEC team.
— Dave Matter (@Dave_Matter) December 8, 2015
We were all thinking it, but he said it.
The watch list for the Butkus Award has since been narrowed down to five players, and still Brothers appears to shine above all others. To award the true nature of his play, it’s inconceivable that Brothers isn’t a part of that list.
Oh but wait. He was awarded 1st Team All-SEC.
It’s a start, but it’s just a reminder that he’s not going to field recognition that he earned. Brothers put in the effort for the ages, something that Missouri fans may never see again. And until Brothers walks away with something of a more nationally-oriented award, I doubt you’ll be done hearing about it any time soon either.