What happened to these SEC greats?

In life, there are SEC players we remember. We all know what happened to Peyton Manning, Matt Stafford and Julio Jones. On the other hand, we remember – sadly – what happened to Aaron Hernandez.

But there are some players where you sit there and think: “Damn! What happened to these guys. They were GOOD in college”.

So here are your players. We’ve gone with one or two per SEC team. So if you’ve got any further ideas, let us know.

ALABAMA

Tyrone Prothro: Playing in Tuscaloosa from 2003 to 2005, Prothro pulled off one of the most memorable, brilliant catches in 2002. It was so good it had me in tears. Then again, so did his career-ending injury that made you want to throw up if you saw it again. Now, Prothro is working at Wagner’s after a stint at Regions Bank, Coca-Cola and Toyota. He also did an internship with the Carolina Panthers.

 

ARKANSAS

Cobi Hamilton: Still the top wide receiver in Arkansas History, Hamilton came into the NFL as a sixth round pick (frankly, I thought he’d be higher with his incredible figures), and has played on nine different teams before getting finally ‘retired’ in 2018. In his time in the NFL, he had 17 total receptions. And was targeted 28 times. Ouch.

AUBURN

Brandon Cox: By the end of his time as quarterback on The Plains from 2004 to 2007, Cox is actually Auburn’s fourth-highest QB in terms of passing yards and touchdowns. Probably recognising that his time in football would be over when he left, he got a degree in business administration. He’s now working in construction helping with clients.

FLORIDA

Shane Matthews:In his time in The Swamp, Matthews earned first team all-SEC for three years straight (1991-3). After a poor NFL career, he did some high school coaching, did a Sports radio show and…. was involved in a fraud with former teammate Monty Grow, where he earned $400,000 from Grow’s health company from clients. The company was later busted for illegal kickbacks. Matthews paid back the money and pled guilty to a misdemeanor and did three months in jail.

GEORGIA

David Greene: Passing for over 11,500 yards during his time at Georgia – where he finished with the most wins under his belt over four years in the history of top flight college football – Greene never panned out in the NFL, and now works selling insurance with a former teammate.

KENTUCKY

Andre’ Woodson: Woodson had 81 touchdowns and over 9,000 yards receiving during his time in Lexington. After never playing in a NFL or CFL game, he decided to go back to football. He was wide receivers coach with Moorhead State for a couple of years, but that didn’t pan out either. He works for Amazon as an Ops PR specialist, where he’s been for the last 5 years.

LSU

Al Richardson: It’s easy to name Ryan Perrilloux or Jamarcus Russell in the “Where are they?’ section, but LSU all-timer Richardson is one that intrigues me. After four years where the linebacker smashed LSU’s all-time tackles record – he even managed 21 in a SINGLE GAME (a feat that’s not been bettered since 1981), made All-American in 1982, he vanished, only popping up after he moved his family from New Orleans to Baton Rouge just before Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. He was last seen supporting his son’s decision to go to Auburn instead of LSU in 2009. Ashton Richardson was a brilliant student on The Plains. But one question plagues me: Why didn’t he go and play in the NFL?

MISSISSIPPI STATE

Billy Jackson: Jackson’s 49 sacks is currently SECOND ALL-TIME in the SEC, only behind Derrick Thomas’ 56 sack record at Alabama. Both are unlikely to beaten. No-one has any idea why he didn’t play in the NFL. Maybe it was his 6-1, 225lb frame. I don’t know. But he did continue  his football career up north in Canada, where he played for three teams, getting 10 sacks and 80 tackles in a five-year career.

 

MISSOURI 

James Kinney: The all-time leader for tackles at Missouri, Kinney left and went to the NFL as an undrafted free agent. He was promptly waived by the Jacksonville Jaguars, went to play for the New York Jets, and finally ended up on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He didn’t play for them, it seems.

OLE MISS

Chris Collins: Collins was Eli Manning’s top receiver in Oxford for the last three years of his career, putting up 2,621 yards in four years for the Rebels. After not panning out in a one-year ‘career’ in the NFL, he took his degree in sociology and for the last 13 years has been an assistant driller with Transocean.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Stephen Garcia: Undoubtedly the funnest QB on this list, Garcia managed to get himself in trouble a lot under Steve Spurrier. But because he was pretty good at football, he was never booted by the smart-alec coach. Nutty though it is, he’s still third all-time in passing yards for the Gamecocks, 5th in touchdowns, and second all-time in all-purpose yards. Anyhow, he went off to play in the CFL for Montreal, but never played. He also never played in the Arena Football League, and was not even selected in the AAF Draft. After that, he was running a private coaching clinic and is now a QB coach at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School in Florida. Hopefully his message to quarterbacks will be: “Don’t turn out like me”.

TENNESSEE

Casey Clausen: Clausen went into the 2000 as a much-heralded quarterback, riding on the back of Peyton Manning and Tee Martin’s excellent careers in Neyland Stadium. I still remember Clausen’s first game at Neyland. The place looked ready to explode. Anyhow, after an excellent career with the Vols, he went undrafted in the NFL Draft, and went to the Kansas City Chiefs to the almighty Amsterdam Admirals. He’s now a well-respected high school coach in California.

TEXAS A&M

Reggie McNeal: McNeal had a pretty good college career during A&M’s Big 12 days, throwing for nearly 7,000 yards and 44 touchdowns, as well as rushing for 1,889 yards and 15 TDs in his career. After being a sixth round pick by the Bengals, he was cut and spent three years on three different teams in Canada. After it all finished, McNeal managed to ingratiate himself with Houston’s local authorities, where he was busted for pushing an off-duty police officer while on drugs, and then busted again for possession. Since then, he started QB and WR school Darts and Dimes, which still exists today.

VANDERBILT

Greg Zolman: The prime Vanderbilt kid. Throws for over 7,000 yards and 50-odd touchdowns in Nashville. Then leaves to a forgettable NFL career, comes back, goes back to school…….and ends up working for a big-time hedge fund. You lose some (see Vanderbilt football), you win some (see Vanderbilt education, and hedge fund job with Point 72 (fun fact, Point72 was started by disgraced financier Steve Cohen).