MU’s Kentrell Brothers earns first-team All-SEC honors from coaches

Missouri senior linebacker Kentrell Brothers finished the regular season with 39 tackles more than any player in the Southeastern Conference, so it should come as no surprise that Tuesday he was chosen first-team all-conference in a vote by the league’s coaches.

Brothers, whose 152 tackles are the most in the nation this season and rank fourth on the Tigers’ single-season list, was joined on the first team at linebacker by Alabama’s Reggie Ragland and Vanderbilt’s Zach Cunningham.

Sophomore defensive end Charles Harris, a second-team selection, was the only other Missouri player to receive All-SEC honors.

Brothers, a third-team preseason all-conference pick despite being the SEC’s top returning tackler, finished with double-digit tackles in 11 of 12 games this season, including a career-high 17 at Georgia on Oct. 17. He had at least 15 tackles in four games.

The only game Brothers failed to record 10 or more tackles was Oct. 3 against South Carolina while playing on a sprained ankle. It forced him to miss the fourth quarter a week earlier at Kentucky.

Brothers still finished with seven tackles against the Gamecocks and finished the regular season with 12 more tackles than any other player in the country. Illinois’ Clayton Fejedelem and Utah State’s Nick Vigil each have 140 tackles.

Harris, a Lincoln Prep graduate from Kansas City, tied for the team lead with redshirt freshman Walter Brady. Both recorded seven sacks. Harris also tied with Texas A&M’s Myles Garrett for an SEC-best 18  1/2 tackles for a loss this season.

Last season Missouri had two first-team selections — defensive end Shane Ray and running back/return specialist Marcus Murphy. It also had four second-team selections — Chiefs rookie center Mitch Morse, Markus Golden, Bud Sasser and Braylon Webb.

The SEC will announce the conference award winners — players and coach of the year — on Wednesday, with the SEC All-Freshman Team set for release Thursday.

Now-retired coach Gary Pinkel was the 2014 coach of the year, and Murphy was the special teams player of the year last season. Ray was the defensive player of the year, giving a Tiger the honor for two straight years after Michael Sam won it in 2013.

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 3:34 PM with the headline "MU’s Kentrell Brothers earns first-team All-SEC honors from coaches."