SEC speed is dead -- Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese buried it

The Big Ten should have more first-round draft picks than the SEC for the first time in 20 years.

Sonny Stylrs (left) and Arvell Reese were the two fastest linebackers at the NFL COmbine. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State)

COLUMBUS — SEC speed is dead. Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese buried it.

The notion that the South was speedier than the North in college football really developed not around fast guys, but around fast big guys. Florida’s win over Ohio State in the national title game to conclude the 2006 season birthed the SEC speed idea. Slot receiver Percy Harvin played a role in that, but so did defensive ends Derrick Harvey and Jarvis Moss.

(Bill and I covered this in our podcast series, The 25-Year Winter, still available on YouTube.)

The SEC took over college football, not just in wins and national titles and NFL draft picks, but in myth-making. SEC speed implied the rest of the sport couldn't catch that conference.

That’s all tumbling down now. Two sons of the North put the last shovels of dirt on the grave of SEC superiority at the NFL Combine.

Two Ohio-raised Buckeyes — 6-foot-5, 244-pound Sonny Styles, and 6-4, 241-pound Arvell Reese —were bigger, faster and more athletic than anybody the SEC produced in this draft cycle. (The SEC combine stars were a 5-9 receiver from 5-8 Mississippi State who ran a 4.26 40, and an Arkansas running back who ran a 4.33 but played his first three years at Buffalo. Congrats Greg Sankey!)

Throw in players like Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq and Utah offensive lineman Spencer Fano, and the North showed it is just as freaky as the South when it comes to rare traits.

First, the Big Ten won three straight national titles.

Soon, the Big Ten will show its depth is just as strong as the SEC’s (something I think is already true and a reality I expect the playoff committee to acknowledge when it comes to playoff spots this season. Five for the Big Ten, three for the SEC — I made the case on The Bill and Doug Show this week.)

The last piece, where the desperate SEC defenders will make their final stand, is the NFL Draft. Sure, the Big Ten might win more, they have been forced to acknowledge, but the SEC still has more talent.

Prepare to lose that battle as well, SEC honks.