As we have been saying all week, this gathering of SEC football coaches is like a montage of all the best online dating sites…a little bit of everything, to suit any taste, with each one creating their personal profile for you to check out and on which make your judgments.
SEC Football Media Days; Day 3
While we had our moments of levity yesterday with South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, Day Three today was considerably more measured. That’s because the morning started with the SEC coach who always looks and acts like he is running for high political office: Nick Saban of Alabama. While many of the coaches walk into the hotel lobby at this event in Hoover, Alabama and greet the handful of fans there and maybe even sign some autographs, Saban draws a bigger crowd than most. You get the sense he drove up in a motorcade with flags on the front of the limo. He has security escort him right past through the lobby and past the well-wishers, straight up to the media room. His suit and tie are just right. He doesn’t have a hair out of place. His words are carefully chosen. That’s because he is Nick Saban and he approves his message. His site will be “IAmYourCandidate.com.”
Saban’s opening line? “I hope you had an eventful Summer in a positive way, or uneventful if that is what pleases you.” Wow….trying to be the candidate to please everyone, isn’t he? Oh and Nick, it’s July 15th. Most of us still have a day or two of summer in us. Nick continued. “The good news is that there is no news. It means your players are staying out of trouble and making good decisions.” Wow. I think Candidate Nick just lost all Florida State voting precincts. Alabama was 12-2 overall and 7-1 in conference, losing the national semi-final game to Ohio State. That’s a good season by most team standards. Not so much for Candidate Nick. “Our priority is that we have to re-establish the identity that we like to play with.” Part of that identity is opining on what the NFL does. Saban drew heat Wednesday for his commentary that by the NFL giving draft eligible players their feedback on December 15th, it impacts the way some players prepare for the post season, wanting to make sure they don’t get hurt ahead of the declaring for the draft. Candidate Nick had no explanation why the other teams in the postseason didn’t feel it was a negative impact for them. Then it was back to the Candidate Nick we expect, touting Alabama’s, “…very tough schedule,” clearly overlooking the Tide’s home game against Charleston Southern in late November.
Candidate Saban is a headline act, so it can be tough taking the stage after him. That’s why Kentucky’s Mark Stoops looked like he would rather be anywhere else than there. His Wildcats were 5-7 overall last year, a decent enough improvement in some people’s eyes. Stoops though said, “I’m glad the first two years of trying to rebuild this program didn’t kill me.” He gets the “HeyI’mJustHappyToBeAlive.com” site. Stoops called his Wildcats a blue-collar, hardworking football team, but he knows where his Lexington bread is buttered. He gave credit to basketball coach John Calipari for building a program that makes it easier for the other sports at the school to recruit. Stoops said the Wildcats have to change the way they develop the team over the course of the season. He said the team did not mentally and physically handle the second half of the season well and that they have a small margin of error. Not exactly the most inspiring words from a coach who said he is glad his job didn’t kill him.
Missouri has won back-to-back SEC East titles. The Tigers were 11-3 overall last year and 7-1 in the conference. Returning quarterback Maty Mauck is 14-4 as a starter. They’re probably going to have some momentum going into the projections for this season, right? Don’t ask head coach Gary Pinkel. Why? Because he says he is a “process guy.” Ok. “ProcessGuy.com” is easy enough. He apparently doesn’t pay much attention to anything other than what is right in front of him. For instance, Pinkel says when it comes to recruiting, he goes after whomever he wants, “…and I don’t pay any attention to the recruiting stars or what the services say about any player.” Pinkel says he has no idea where the preseason polls have ever had Missouri. “I don’t know where we’ve been picked since I have been here. I don’t read the newspapers or any of that other stuff.” Pinkel explained why Missouri is playing Arkansas State this season. First he called them a good program and then explained that it was set up back when Missouri was still in the Big XII and it just carried over to now in the SEC. You know…it’s a process. The gathered media in the room actually ran out of questions before Pinkel’s half hour was up. The process had clearly run its course.
Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema is going to get the site “EngagingGuy.com” because here is a guy who is on the hot seat by many people’s thinking, but instead of tightening under the assumed pressure, he treated this like it was open mic night. His “profile” has so much to say. First of all he could not let Dan Mullen hog the sartorial spotlight yesterday with his Adidas Yeezys. Bielema showed up in new Nike Air Force 1s…the Bling-Bling Edition….sparkly silver tennis shoes made just for him. He said he wears them because it highlights Nike’s association with Arkansas and he said you can recruit young kids using the Nike brand. After his opening comments he said he would, “Open it up to some really easy questions.” Ok, how about this one. He was asked why the front picture on the program’s media guide is a picture of him with his offensive line. Bielema, who is no small man by any measure answered, “Selfishly it was the only group I felt comfortable taking a picture with.” Even though Arkansas improved from 3-9 to 7-6 in just one year, Bielema was not impressed. “It’s like that pop-pop, fizz-fizz. It’s not very exciting.” What was exciting was the Razorbacks blowout win over the Texas Longhorns in the Texas Bowl. Bielema called being able to take a knee in the victory formation near the goal line at the end of the game “borderline erotic.” As much fun as Bielema is though social media junkies need to beware. He said he has dropped players from the recruiting process because of inappropriate Twitter handles or pictures. “You recruit your own problems and I only want guys that are not going to be a problem for me.” Time well spent with a guy who may have to change his profile info next season.
The fourth and final day of SEC Football Media Days tomorrow brings us Ole Miss Coach Hugh Freeze, Georgia Coach Mark Richt and LSU Coach Les Miles. Oh yeah, Les Miles. The entertainment value knows no bounds.
Main Photo:
