For me, this is a rhetorical question, but I'm curious as to what other CFB fans think. If you've followed my beginning posts, it's easy to tell I am a big fan of number 19, but am I putting him on too high of a pedestal? Well, let's take a look at the numbers and see what they say.

Here is a list of last year's SEC receiving YPG leaders, except for players that either graduated or moved on:

RECEIVE YDS/GAME Team Cl G Rec Yds TD Long Avg/C Yds/G

2. Earl Bennett........ VU SO 12 82 1146 6 77 14.0 95.5
3. DJ Hall............... UA JR 12 62 1056 5 78 17.0 88.0
4. Sidney Rice......... SC SO 13 72 1090 10 46 15.1 83.8
5. Keenan Burton..... UK JR 13 77 1036 12 73 13.5 79.7
7. Tony Burks.......... MS JR 12 35 850 5 78 24.3 70.8
9. Marcus Monk....... AR JR 14 50 962 11 56 19.2 68.7
10.Kenny McKinley... SC SO 13 51 880 5 44 17.3 67.7

As you can see, Vandy's Earl Bennet is the returning leader, however, Burton has twice as many touchdowns has Bennet does... In fact, Burton is the leading touchdown reception leader in the SEC and that includes the now-departed, first round draft pick of the New Orleans Saints: Robert Meachem, who led UT with 11 TD receptions last year... but that's still one less than Burton.

In this year's pre-season All-SEC Team, Burton was left off in favor of Bennet and LSU's Early Doucet. While the Bennet selection is acceptable and justifiable, the fact the Doucet was picked over Burton is kinda shocking.

Last year, Doucet -- who was also a junior -- posted these receiving numbers: 59 receptions, 772 yards and 8 touchdowns -- certainly a productive season; but these numbers pale when compared to Burton's 77 recpts, 1036 yrds and 12 TDs (not to mention a 100-yard kickoff return against U of L).

Not only that, but Burton was third in the SEC for kick return average, a top-ten list Doucet didn't even make.

After comparing the numbers, the question is why was Doucet picked over Burton? My answer is this: LSU is a much more attractive team than UK is, especially on a national scale and it's a deservedly so situation. However, just because you have the better program (what about basketball though? ;) doesn't mean your lead receiver is automatically better than UK's...

If anything, Alabama's DJ Hall deserves to be there over Doucet as well.

Of course, like they say, pre-season lists don't mean much. It's the post-season All SEC teams you are looking to make and if Keenan duplicates or exceeds his junior year output, the voters will have a hard time keeping him off of the 1st team list... and maybe even the national one.

Oh well, isn't this what the last two weeks before CFB starts are for? To debate whether or not player A is better than player B and so on? Good thing we don't have a long time to wait until we find out what's what... Before I end this post, I'll leave you with a highlight video that goes a long way in supporting my position.

Introducing number 19, KEENAN BURTON.

Until later, GBB