Saturdays in Athens
SEC MEDIA DAYS SPECIAL – PART 2
George Somerville
5th august 2021
It’s summer in the South. Mint Juleps are being sipped in the Square in Oxford, Mississippi, by gentlemen who resemble a cross between Jack Daniels and Colonel Sanders.
But in reality, those warm and steamy days mean only one thing…It’s time for SEC Media days.
And in this second part of this SEC Media Days special we hear (with apologies to Ryan McGee) from a Pirate, a Goat, a Newbie and a second year coach who decided to try out his new stand up routine. Intrigued? You should be. Read on Colonel Sanders…
The Goat
The appearance of Nick Saban at #SECMD21 was eagerly anticipated. Mostly because, well it was Nick Saban, but also because prior to hitting the stage he had already let slip about the NIL contract that his young quarterback had signed. But more on that later.
Saban appeared relaxed and in good humour hitting the stage on Tuesday morning. From recanting stories of his dog Lizzie at his first media day to telling us all he has been spending more time with Miss Terry, this was the laid back and horizontal Nick Saban.
Which was brilliantly timing. Because in a parallel universe, Jacksonville State Head Coach, Deion ‘Showtime” Sanders had just walked out of his Media day press conference after a journalist addressed him as Deion. Sanders, clearly offended by the insult of being called by his Christian name, rebuked the media member saying;
“You don’t call Nick Saban, ‘Nick.’ Don’t call me Deion,”
Coach Sanders was on a roll,
“if you call Nick, Nick, you’ll get cussed out on the spot…so don’t do that to me. Treat me like Nick.”
So I have to say I was quite looking forward to the first question to be asked of Nick, sorry Coach Saban. Call me a sadist, but oh to be the first one to ask Head Coach Saban a question.
Of course, Nick Saban is addressed as Nick all the time. It is his name after all. And I think Saban was largely oblivious to the muted laughter in the room when the first question asked was
“Nick, could you expand…”
As we know Nick Saban is all business but even the G.O.AT. had time for a bit of banter. One journalist decided to ask something of a long winded and technical coaching question,
“Dave Aranda last week at Big 12 Media Days says defenses now are getting more aggressive, getting negative plays, tackles for loss stats are more important. So he thinks that an evolution might be 12 personnel, 13 personnel wide zone. Do you see that, the college game going that way, or is it still important to spread it out and hit explosives at the vertical pass game?”
Saban looked confused and asked in typical brusque fashion,
“Um…..What is 12 personnel?”
Saban went on,
“I don’t know…two tight ends and two wide receivers…or just one?”
As the room fell silent, the journalist who started this must have been questioning open his mouth, however Saban’s face broke into a full smile and said,
“I’m just kidding. I know what 12 personnel is”.
with the room exploding into laughter. You can see Saban’s serious answer to this question, below.
Really the biggest shock headline of the day should have been “Nick Saban finds wicked sense of humour”…..
#RollTide
The Pirate
I said in Part I that anticipation was highest for the two Missippian coaches. Lane Kiffin did not disappoint and would be a hard act to follow. But as it turned out, Kiffin was just the warm up act.
Up until this point each Head Coach had taken it in turns to extole the virtues of their own football program with an opening statement. Some longer than others but each an advertisement and bold prediction as to how the Coach envisages the season playing out.
But as we know, the Mississippi State Head Coach is not one to follow the well trodden path. Never. And so Mike Leach’s opening remarks were condensed into a new SEC Media Day record….35 words crammed into 10 seconds and we were off! And as Leach says, he isn’t one for opening statements. These are his opening remarks which left the room in stitches,
“All right. I’m not a big opening statement guy, and plus you guys are going to ask whatever you want to know anyway, so let’s just go ahead and get started. Is there any questions?”
As anticipated, the media had eagerly awaited Mike Leach taking the stage and here was the opportunity to find out what the Bulldogs Head Coach thought about the SEC. And what about the Tennessee job?
“Mike, was there a moment a few years ago when you were at Washington State that you thought you might be the next head coach at Tennessee?”
Leach’s response points to and comically references the lead up and eventual hiring of Jeremy Pruitt as Vols Head Coach,
“I talked to Tennessee, but that thing never – well, nothing ever got nailed down. Then pretty soon, they had a coup d’etat there. You guys can sort that among yourselves, but that’s pretty well-documented.
So, yeah, I didn’t end up in the middle of the coup, so lucky for me”.
The press pack was lapping this up and next Leach was pressed on the status of his vaccination record,
“Just a follow up question on the vaccination. Are you vaccinated? And then why or why not?”
To which the Pirate responded in typical Pirate fashion,
“If I was or I wasn’t, I wouldn’t share it with you. But again, we leave that to the doctors and anybody’s doctor or care provider”.
And finally, when asked on his views on the proposed expansion of the College Football Play Off, Leach proclaimed that a twelve team play off wasn’t going far enough. Leach said this of Play-Off expansion
“It’s never enough….I think 12 teams is a huge step in the right direction. I personally would like to see 64, and you could format it out pretty easily, but I think it’s a huge step the right direction, and I look forward to it”.
And with that the Pirate was off. And boy did he leave the crowd wanting more……
#HailState
New Kid On The Block
I already had the benefit of hearing South Carolina Head Coach, Shane Beamer when I joined his Spring Camp press conference. So I was a fully paid up member of the Shane Beamer’s fan club.
Although I wasn’t quite prepared for the hyped version of Beamer that appeared at #SECMD21.
Beamer’s opening remarks – unlike Coach Leach’s – had no intentions of hiding his joy at being present during SEC Media Days. Beamer started,
“As someone who has grown up around this league, has always enjoyed watching this on television each and every summer as an assistant coach at other places, to be here today representing the University of South Carolina, I’m very honored, very grateful, and, frankly, really, really cool to be up here in front of all of you and representing our program today”.
Just over 50% or 13 and a half minutes of the time that Shane Beamer spent on stage was attributed to his opening remarks. And let’s be clear, this was no Jeremy Pruitt filibuster. This was a confident, passionate, positive message to recruits, Gamecocks players, staff, boosters and fans alike. There was no question in my mind, as I had heard before, that Shane Beamer wins press conferences.
Beamer was as self assured in answering questions as he was in his manicured statement. He answered questions about recruiting, players already on roster, debut season expectations and the inevitable question that every South Carolina Head Coach gets asked about – the Tight End position.
But perhaps Beamer’s answer to the final question asked sums up his coaching ethos. As they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, so this is what Beamer Jr had to say about why he got into coaching,
“I’m an old-school guy at heart and love the college game and what it’s about. I love the fact that you can get a 17-, 18-year-old young man in your program and then four years later watch him graduate, in addition to now I’m getting calls to go to their weddings and they just had babies and things like that”.
Beamer elaborated,
“I got into this business because of the players. I love kids. I love coaching these young men that I coach, and I’ll never waver from that for sure, but certainly it’s a different time now with everything that’s going on throughout college athletics as well…… but at the end of the day, it’s always about the young men in our program and always will be, and I couldn’t be more fired up about the group of guys we have in Columbia”.
As I said Beamer wins press conferences. The acid test is if he wins games as easily.
ps, the photo of Beamer and his players used at the top of this article is a reshoot of a classic Steve Spurrier photo taken in Arbys post SEC Media Day. Everything Beamer does is a nod to the past and I can see why the Gamecocks fans love him already.
#GoGamecocks
I'm Here All Week Folks
Eli Drinkwitz has never given the impression that anything daunts him in the SEC. Since his arrival from Appalachian State, Drinkwitz hit the ground running and never looked back.
Like Beamer I have had the benefit of hearing the Mizzou Head Coach in person and he is relaxed and funny. Nothing seems to phase him.
But, at SEC Media Day, Drinkwitz dialled up the funny and I swear he unleashed the Eli Drinkwitz Stand Up comedy routine on the room.
Drinkwitz started with three quips on the bounce, clearly intent on warming up his audience,
“Appreciate everybody being here today. You begin to appreciate the tough sportswriters who last to day 4. You can see empty seats here. Some guys aren’t cut out for life on the road and don’t have their pandemic legs underneath them”
SEC Network legend, Paul Finebaum was next in the firing line.
“A shout out to Paul Finebaum for his contract extension. Nobody steals a show quite like Paul and start out SEC Media Days by leaking that news, so congrats to Paul on that”.
Of course the subject matter everyone wanted to talk about was the prospect of Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC. So Drinkwitz threw this into his repertoire also.
“Hard hitting questions coming out of yesterday. I think one of them was whether or not the horns down is going to be 15-yard penalty in the SEC in the future. So I asked Commissioner Sankey in the hallway, and he gave me a strong rebuttal by saying no comment. So we’ll see where that goes”.
I was certain that the next thing out his mouth was going to be a mother in law joke.
But it’s the SEC so in amongst the technical and serious questions there are some downright strange and zany ones. For some reason, a member of the media sought to ask,
“Since your popularity is surging right now, I was just wondering, when you sign an autograph, do you signe Eli or Eliah?”
With not a blink of the eye, Drinkwitz responded,
“I sign E and a bunch of squiggly lines and see who can figure it out. I go with Eliah and then go from there. I don’t know about the popularity of surging deal, but Twitter is not real, just so we’re on the same page”.
It’s the SEC, man – don’t you just love it?
#GoTigers
The Best Of The Rest: Who Said What?
Of course, I have covered just a fraction of the quotes and comments we heard over the course of the week. So what did the others say? Here’s some more great quotes…..
“On our football schedule we are the defending National Champions of the hardest football schedule in college. I look towards next year, and I think we’re going to three-peat in that area next year. However, we’re the University of Arkansas, in the southeast conference west, exactly where we belong, and we’re excited about those challenges”…..
Sam Pittman: Head Coach, University of Arkansas
“I had a lot of confidence going into Tuscaloosa last year. I don’t think the location changed my confidence or anything like that. As a matter of fact, I was probably more excited to go to Tuscaloosa just because of how hard it was going to be and how difficult it was going to be.
I think it’s important because we’re not scared of Alabama. I know that a lot of people want us to be scared, but we’re really not”.
Bo Nix: Quarterback, Auburn University
“I don’t know what my bread and butter is because we’ve been all over the place with every different style of quarterback. If you go back, even being a coordinator, you go back to the Alex Smiths and the Chris Leaks, through the Tebows, to Tyler Russell and Dak Prescott. There’s been so many different variations.
I think the key to it is, and one of the reasons we’ve been successful is, never try to take a square peg and put it into a round hole. It’s identifying what our guys do really well and build around the strengths of not just the quarterback, but the offense as a whole.
We will go to do that this year and build around the strengths of our quarterbacks”.
Dan Mullen: Head Coach, University of Florida
“It’s Clemson-Georgia, it’s two really good teams. But I think the biggest thing for us as a team, as much as we get hyped for it, because it’s Georgia-Clemson, it’s a Week 1 game. You can win Week 1, you can beat Clemson by 100 and have a terrible season, you could lose to Clemson by 100 and have a great rest of the season.
I think it’s important to keep in perspective that all it is is the week one game. As fun as it is competing against a really great team, let week one be week one”.
JT Daniels: Quarterback, University of Georgia
“Our SID and I had a bet what was going to be the first question. I tried to hedge off the transfer portal before it got started, but I’m glad you came right back to it. It is. Obviously, our roster changed. By the time I got there in late January, there were a large number of kids in the transfer portal. At the same time, we’ve been able to add really quality individuals inside our program. We love the player, but we love the person too and what they’re bringing as far as the culture piece inside of our program”.
Josh Huepel: Head Coach, University of Tennessee
And that was it – SEC Media Week 2021. It promised much and delivered more. And smack bang in the middle was the biggest news of the decade – Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference. This was all pure box office…..and we’re still weeks away from the new season!
#ItJustMeansMore
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
A GLASWEGIAN LIVING IN LONDON, GEORGE IS A COLLEGE FOOTBALL FAN WHO FOLLOWS THE ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE. HE PROVIDES CFB CONTENT FOR THE TOUCHDOWN AND IS ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST.