SEC Media Days 2026
by GEORGE SOMERVILLE
THE TOUCHDOWN’s SEC CORRESPONDENT
Key Questions heading into Media Days
As much as we would like to think that football programs are well-oiled machines, there’s a huge amount of work and preparation that goes into getting the program ready for the season beginning.
Add in study time, transfer portal ins & outs, recruitment, even the constant noise around NIL, and you can see that there are a lot of distractions around a football program even before training camps have begun.
But Media Days are upon us already, and this signals the start of the clock ticking down to that first game of the season.
Each program knows what they need to do to become competition-ready. So with a summer of hard work ahead for each school, here are what I think are the key questions which each team needs to answer heading into the new season.
Day Two
Auburn Tigers
Like five other SEC teams, the Auburn Tigers have a brand new Head Coach at the helm this season. Alex Golesh makes the step up to football on the Plains, having arrived from a successful spell with the USF Bulls program in Tampa. Golesh has coached in the SEC before as Josh Heupel’s Offensive Co-ordinator at Tennessee from 2021-2022.
Auburn fans have had a torrid time recently with disastrous coaching spells under Bryan Harsin and then Hugh Freeze. While Harsin was clearly not a fit from day one, hopes were significantly higher for Hugh Freeze. However, Freeze’s tenure in Auburn did not go as planned, and the experienced Head Coach did not get to see a full third year and was released before the end of last season.
Now, Auburn fans find themselves with a new Head Coach for the third time in as many seasons. Hopes and confidence are low on the Plains, and Golesh has one of the most difficult jobs of all the new SEC head coaches.
Where to start for Golesh? Hopes were high for Freeze given his proven ability to recruit. However, Hugh Freeze settled on QB transfers Jackson Arnold first and then Peyton Thorne as the guys he wanted to lead his team. Both were disasters, with neither looking comfortable in Freeze’s offenses and Auburn sank like a stone.
To solve the QB crisis, Golesh brings Byrum Brown with him from USF. Brown, a dual-threat quarterback, comes highly rated from his time in Tampa. Brown is particularly adept at rushing the ball, with over 1,000 rushing yards last season for the USF Bulls. It is this option that perhaps will buy Golesh some time as he rebuilds this Auburn team from the ground up.
Georgia Bulldogs
If Auburn are the epitome of chaos, the Georgia Bulldogs are the poster child for continuity and stability.
The Georgia Football program continues to rumble along like the behemoth it has become.
Gunner Stockton returns at quarterback to lead this team for another season. Both co-ordinators, Bobo and Schumann, are reported to have signed contract extensions, meaning stability is secured again in Athens. This is what Kirby Smart does best.
So it would be a major shock not to see Georgia ranked among the top teams in the CFB Playoff again this year. But what is of worry to Georgia fans – not to look too far ahead – is the Bulldogs’ poor showing in the Playoffs so far. Defeats to Notre Dame and the loss to Ole Miss prematurely ended the Dawgs’ hopes of another national Championship success. That seems to be the biggest question right now.
So why do the Bulldogs struggle in the postseason? This is a tough one to answer, and if Kirby Smart knew the answer, the Dawgs would have been in last season’s CFB Playoff semi-final against Miami instead of Ole Miss.
Even though Georgia is playing a nine-game SEC schedule this year – much to Smart’s chagrin – the schedule is definitely workable for the Dawgs. Yes, they travel to Tuscaloosa, Oxford and Columbia, SC, but the early season games against notable out-of-conference opponents are gone. Even the Cocktail Party is being played in Mercedes Benz this year – Georgia’s home from home. Georgia should and will be in the CFB Playoff. Rinse repeat.
South Carolina Gamecocks
Shane Beamer takes charge of the Gamecocks for his sixth season as Head Coach in Columbia. Despite what seems like constant criticism, Beamer has recorded more wins as Head Coach than any other coach, except Steve Spurrier. Still, the question marks over the future of the Head Coach remain.
Yet this season, South Carolina returns the excellent LaNorris Sellers, who will start the season as one of the best quarterbacks in all of college football. Last season was a disappointment for Sellers after his breakout 2025 season. Outgoing offensive co-ordinator Mike Shula has shouldered much of the blame for Seller’s drop-off in production. So the first job of incoming offensive co-ordinator Kendall Briles will be to get Sellers back on track. On his game, Sellers is a difference maker. If Sellers returns to his early Gamecocks form, South Carolina will be hard to overcome, especially in Williams-Brice Stadium.
Vanderbilt Commodores
Is there L.A.P?
That’s the question on the lips of every Commodores fan this summer. Is there life after Pavia?
Under Clark Lea’s leadership, the Vanderbilt Commodores have gone from SEC whipping boys to a team capable of making the College Football Playoff. Yes, you read that right. Last season, Vandy recorded a 10-win season but came up painfully short of a Playoff place. Truth is, nobody would have grudged them a place had they got in.
It is disingenuous to say that Pavia was the sole reason for the Commodores’ meteoric success, but he certainly was a key part. Pavia, at the very least, was the spark that sent the rocket into orbit.
While last season is in the books, it is worth emphasising that Pavia threw for 1,232 yards and, most notably, rushed for 3,094 yards. That level of optionality for Clark Lea meant that Vanderbilt was a real threat on every play. Just ask Alabama!
This year it’s all change with no Pavia or Eli Stowers. So how does Vandy replace such high levels of production from two of the SEC’s standout stars? Offensive co-ordinator Jerry Kill, who brought both Pavia and Stowers with him from New Mexico State, has a job on his hands.
However as a lasting legacy Pavia’s ability to sway 5 star recruit Jared Curtis to switch from Georgia to Vanderbilt might be the difference to Vandy’s season. Curtis will battle for the starting position with Blaze Berlowitz, but those close to the program have been impressed with what they have seen so far.
Of course, it’s not just at QB that Vandy has to rebuild. Success on the field means that talent is in demand either to the NFL or the transfer portal. Vanderbilt lost some key personnel on the offensive line, which makes the job of bedding in a new young QB all that harder.
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.