SEC Media Days 2025
GEORGE SOMERVILLE – THE TOUCHDOWN SEC CORRESPONDENT
The return of Conference football media days means that football on Saturdays is only weeks away, and yes, people, football is back!
By the time you read this, BIGXII media days will have concluded, kicking off what we affectionately call “Talkin’ Season”.
Next week the SEC rolls into town, and by then the show is well and truly on the road!
From now until the last weekend in August, we all get to talk about what “we” think is going to happen with our teams in the upcoming season.
Of course, the 2025/26 SEC football season is always eagerly anticipated.
This year, we have Manning-Mania as Arch takes over the Longhorn reins from Quinn Ewers, adding a little more spice to the anticipation. Add in more than a few coaches on the hot seat and some spicy schedules, this season is going to be a doozy!
While Talkin’ Season is underway, it is fair to say that much of what the media and fans debate over the ensuing months comes from the teams themselves. To fuel that fire, programs have the opportunity to steer the conversations during conference media days, allowing head coaches and players to give up-to-the-minute updates on progress towards being season-ready.
As I have in the past two years, I will be at SEC Media Days to bring you all the news coming out of the four-day event.
SEC Media Days are just like the Conference itself – big and intense. However, if you’re not familiar with what happens during the week of media days, I thought I’d provide a guide on what to expect during that middle week in July.
sec media days - a guide
what are media days?
Media days are held across college football, providing the media with access to the teams in their respective conferences. This coming together enables the media to preview the upcoming season.
Media days are the beginning of “talkin’ season’ which leads us all the way until the start of the new college football season on August 23rd.
Rankings, predictions, speculation, even hot seats will be debated from here until August, and a large part of this will be fueled by the chatter which comes out of media days.
how do media days work?
Southeastern Conference media days are held over four days from July 14th to 17th. When media days were born, the media visited each school campus to meet with the teams. However, with conferences expanding, this meant that media packs could be on the road for significant periods, which wasn’t an efficient use of everyone’s time.
When the decision was made to hold a central meeting, SEC media days were held in Birmingham, Alabama, which is home to SEC Headquarters. However, it hasn’t been until recent years that Media Days have started to revolve around the Conference landscape.
This year, the event returns to Atlanta and the College Football Hall of Fame. This will be the third time Atlanta has hosted Media Days and was the first location the SEC moved to after many years hosting the event in Birmingham, Alabama. However, in the history of Media Days, which dates back to 1985, this is only the fifth time the event has been held outside of Alabama.
And a little bit of history for y’all. In 1985, 100 media members attended that first event in Birmingham. Today, only the CFB National Championship game attracts more media interest in all of college football. While this year’s event is likely to attract a larger media presence, last year, 1,300 members of the media were on site in Dallas to speak with the SEC teams.
who appears and when?
The structure of SEC media days is complex and large, and they run like clockwork.
A team’s timetable is set out precisely over the course of the day that they are on site, allowing the head coach and players to navigate from area to area efficiently and on time.
The event is divided into different areas based on the type of media. The main room is designated for general media, while an electronic media room is reserved for web, audio, and podcast media members. There is a large radio row, this year called Digital Drive, where interviews are conducted on an almost production-line basis. The SEC Network is set up in various parts of the venue. SEC Nation is based in the main hall, alongside the Finebaum show, while Marty and McGee have their own purpose-built set.
This means that head coaches and players have precise times to be at set locations, with a specific amount of time allocated at each media outlet for speaking. This is set out in a matrix that allows anyone to see where, for example, Brian Kelly is at any given time. It is a well-oiled machine.
The schedule is now set with head coaches confirmed for each of the following days
Monday, July 14
- LSU — Brian Kelly
- Ole Miss — Lane Kiffin
- South Carolina — Shane Beamer
- Vanderbilt — Clark Lea
Tuesday, July 15
- Auburn — Hugh Freeze
- Georgia — Kirby Smart
- Tennessee — Josh Heupel
- Texas — Steve Sarkisian
Wednesday, July 16
- Alabama — Kalen DeBoer
- Florida — Billy Napier
- Mississippi State — Jeff Lebby
- Oklahoma – Brent Venables
Thursday, July 17
- Arkansas — Sam Pittman
- Kentucky — Mark Stoops
- Missouri — Eliah Drinkwitz
- Texas A&M — Mike Elko
2025 Football Media Days Student-Athlete Attendees
Alabama
Tim Keenan III, DL, Senior
Deontae Lawson, LB, Senior
Kadyn Proctor, OL, Junior
Arkansas
Cam Ball, DL, Senior
Taylen Green, QB, Senior
Xavian Sorey Jr., LB, Senior
Auburn
Jackson Arnold, QB, Junior
Keldric Faulk, DL, Junior
Connor Lew, OL, Junior
Florida
Caleb Banks, DL, Senior
Jake Slaughter, OL, Senior
DJ Lagway, QB, Sophomore
Georgia
CJ Allen, LB, Junior
Daylen Everette, DB, Senior
Gunner Stockton, QB, Junior
Kentucky
Alex Afari Jr., LB, Senior
Jordan Lovett, DB, Senior
Josh Kattus, TE, Senior
LSU
Chris Hilton Jr., WR, Senior
Garrett Nussmeier, QB, Senior
Whit Weeks, LB, Junior
Ole Miss
TJ Dottery, LB, Junior
Cayden Lee, WR, Junior
Austin Simmons, QB, Sophomore
Mississippi State
Blake Shapen, QB, QB, Graduate
Isaac Smith, S, Junior
Brenen Thompson, WR, Senior
Missouri
Daylan Carnell, S, Graduate
Connor Tollison, C, Graduate
Zion Young, DE, Senior
Oklahoma
John Mateer, QB, Junior
Robert Spears-Jennings, DB, Senior
R Mason Thomas, DL, Senior
South Carolina
LaNorris Sellers, QB, Sophomore
DQ Smith, DB, Senior
Nick Barrett, DT, Senior
Tennessee
Arion Carter, LB, Junior
Miles Kitselman, TE, Senior
Bryson Eason, DT, Senior
Texas
Anthony Hill Jr, LB, Junior
Arch Manning, QB, Sophomore
Michael Taaffe, DB, Senior
Texas A&M
Will Lee III, DB, Senior
Ar’maj Reed-Adams, OL, Graduate
Taurean York, LB, Junior
Vanderbilt
Randon Fontenette, S/OLB, Junior
Martel Hight, DB, Junior
Diego Pavia, QB, Graduate
key storylines to follow
Arch Madness – The Next in Line
This time last year, we all wondered how Texas and Oklahoma would fare in their new conference home. Well, truth be told, both had polarising experiences. Texas made it to the SEC Championship game and secured a spot in the College Football Playoff. And Oklahoma did not.
This year, both teams have new quarterbacks at the helm, although, with no disrespect to the Sooners and John Mateer, the headline story is about the latest chapter in the Manning Dynasty.
While Arch has been in Austin for two years now, this – his third season as a Longhorn – is the first where we get to see him operate as QB1.
So expectations, much like the hype around the new “Sheriff” in town, are sky high. We can expect Arch to be in high demand during his appearance on Tuesday afternoon.
Is Alabama Back?
It’s difficult even to write this sentence, but the question is – is Alabama back?
Did they even go away? This time last year, we were still reeling from Nick Saban’s retirement and the introduction of the Washington Wunderkind, Kalen DeBoer. As high praise as DeBoer got from his time with the Huskies, many weren’t sure what to expect from Alabama in the season ahead. As a wise man once said, “Life is like a box of chocolates”,….. and that is what Alabama fans got last year. Stunning wins over Georgia, LSU and Wisconsin were wiped out by horror shows in the games against Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
Alabama missed out on a College Football Playoff spot, and it must have felt like the sky fell in on Kalen DeBoer. However, since then, the atmosphere around Tuscaloosa has improved significantly and is much more positive. New offensive co-ordinator, Ryan Grubb has returned to the fold as DeBoer gets his “band back together” having a halo effect on recruiting. Last season was difficult for DeBoer, as Saban’s departure created an opportunity for players to leave, which many did. DeBoer’s first season in charge was primarily focused on applying a large band-aid to the roster, which was evident in the unpredictable results.
This year, Alabama’s recruitment appears to have returned to the way it was under Saban. In fact, so good is DeBoer’s recruiting class that many are suggesting Saban is being rolled into meetings with recruits. Definitely a story to watch.
The College Football Playoff Structure
There has been no end to the talk about what the College Football Playoff structure should look like going forward. There has been much chatter around an expanded playoff format with a 5+11 format discussed widely versus the BIG10’s 4+4+2+2+1 preferred format.
While it was widely thought that the SEC was in step with the BIG10 on the issue, word coming from SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Florida, was that Coaches hated the idea of moving to a 9-game conference schedule required to align with the BIG10’s format. This placed the two largest conferences at odds again, which, while not unusual, was unexpected. This is sure to be a hot topic, given that it has already been discussed at length during BIGXII media days.
Coaches already on the hot seat
Every year, it seems ridiculous to suggest head coaches are on the hot seat even before a ball is thrown in anger, but pressure is never far away in the SEC.
Some of those coaches on the hot seat last year survived, but only just, so it feels like those names become perennial mentions again this year.
But some surprising names are being mentioned this year. Oklahoma had a tough introduction to the SEC, and while you would like to think that Coach Venables gets some grace, this season the Sooners have a tough schedule.
When Hugh Freeze arrived in Auburn, he told the Tiger fan base to judge him on his three recruiting classes. Well, this season will be the third of those classes, and with two losing seasons behind him, Freeze has to deliver a winning season this year. Must.
how to keep up with all that's going on
In 2019, the SEC Network began live wall-to-wall coverage. If you have access to the SEC Network, you can watch the whole day live, along with scheduled shows such as SEC This Morning, SEC Nation, and the Paul Finebaum show. ESPN Radio, available via the ESPN app, is free to use in the UK.
Alternatively, given the over 1,300 media members on-site, established media outlets such as CBS and ESPN, as well as many others, will have content available on their websites.
Of course, you are reading the Touchdown, and just like last year, we will be live in the room in Atlanta. Please stay up-to-date via Touchdown’s X and Instagram accounts, as well as our SEC-specific YouTube channel, “It’s Only SEC,” which can be found here.
You can follow me on X and Instagram at @geosomerville.
We will post as much content as possible over the week from the College Football Hall of Fame.
It is shaping up to be a truly amazing and fascinating week ahead. Buckle up, folks, it’s going to be a wild ride!
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.