{"id":75366,"date":"2025-07-16T18:07:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T22:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=75366"},"modified":"2025-09-13T16:11:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T20:11:19","slug":"75366-sec-coaches-with-a-lot-to-say-at-sec-media-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/07\/16\/75366-sec-coaches-with-a-lot-to-say-at-sec-media-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Coaches With a Lot To Say at SEC Media Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coaches had a lot to say Wednesday at SEC Media Days<\/a>. We know because the clock ticked and ticked during the opening statements. It harkened back to the days of Les Miles, when he would wax poetic about his kids\u2019 summer sports achievements and his fishing trips. He seemed homey in a grandfatherly way. It took a while to realize Miles was doing it because he was running out the clock, so there was only time for a couple of media questions.<\/p>\n

The Clock<\/h3>\n
\"Jordan
Photo courtesy:\u00a0 Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No one is thinking that is what these coaches are doing. They have an approximately 25-minute session on stage. Some of that is for the opening statement. The rest is for the Q&A with the assembled media.<\/p>\n

Hugh Freeze gave us some much-needed brevity Tuesday with an opening statement that went only 2:50. Frankly, it felt like he just didn\u2019t have a lot he wanted to add to it. Mississippi State\u2019s Jeff Lebby went only five minutes on Wednesday. But that was sandwiched in between Alabama\u2019s Kalen DeBoer (13:30), Billy Napier (12:30), and Brent Venables with a whopping 15:20.<\/p>\n

It was impossible not to chuckle when Venables said, \u201cI want to be respectful of your time,\u201d at the end of his 15:20 speech. Of course, when you have made as many changes to the coaching staff as Venables has, and you want to list them all, you need a little more time.<\/p>\n

Addressing the Big Issues<\/h3>\n

The new revenue sharing and NIL model is an obvious topic for every coach to address. Some talk about how they prioritize who gets what money, or how they use the new spending freedom to address roster needs. Others throw in their support for the athletes getting paid, and some actually mean it. And still, some talk about how it is all above their pay grade, and that is why the school hired a general manager and a front office staff.<\/p>\n

But Florida head coach Billy Napier took the next logical step. He suggested the schools have a new responsibility to the athletes, to teach them how to handle their newfound finances. \u201cI think the more pressing issue, and I\u2019m going to kind of divert here, is what do we do to provide the structure for the players,\u201d Napier said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to teach our young men fiscal responsibility. We have to teach financial literacy. Budgeting, tax strategy, long-term planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Napier said many, including himself, don\u2019t handle financial responsibilities well when they are young. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to create a place and a structure where we can give them guidance. I think it\u2019s a huge issue that not many people are talking about. I mean we\u2019ve got a generation of athletes in college sports. Where are they going to be when we look up in five or 10 years from now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Waiting It Out<\/h3>\n

Lebby said the new structure of paying players directly from the schools\u2019 net revenue creates \u201cA ton of unknowns.\u201d He said that while people are quick with their opinions, he thinks the system needs to run its course for about a year before changes are considered.<\/p>\n

Coach Speak of the Day<\/h3>\n

It was a big day for coach speak. It rose to a whole new level on day three of the event. Apparently they all read the same book.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep the main thing the main thing, (Venables, Napier, and DeBoer).<\/p>\n

Venables said his new quarterback, John Mateer<\/a>, \u201cLeads from the front.\u201d We think if he were in the back, he would not be leading so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe plan our work and work our plan.\u201d (Napier)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s extremely coachable\u201d (Venables on new quarterback Mateer). No idea what only moderately coachable would look like.<\/p>\n

Day four,<\/a> the final day of the event, has Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Missouri.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coaches had a lot to say Wednesday at SEC Media Days. We know because the clock ticked and ticked during the opening statements. It harkened back to the days of Les Miles, when he would wax poetic about his kids\u2019 summer sports achievements and his fishing trips. He seemed homey in a grandfatherly way. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":75370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35574,35573,17,35581,3],"tags":[35,244,3310,37,3303],"class_list":["post-75366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-alabama-crimson-tide","category-florida-gators","category-news","category-oklahoma-sooners","category-sec","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-florida-gators","tag-mississippi-state","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-sec-media-days"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75366"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75373,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75366\/revisions\/75373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}