Southeastern Conference fans don’t agree on a lot.
In fact, they don’t even agree on whether or not they should chant “S-E-C! S-E-C!” after wins. Alabama fans will likely tell you they’re an entity unto themselves, and are so often vilified by the other fan bases in the league, why should they root for the other programs?
That’s just one example.
But the coaches, now – they’ve found common ground on one thing this week at the SEC meetings in Destin, Florida: the status of walk-ons.
That’s one thing, according to a story by ESPN’s Pete Thamel today on ESPN.com (SEC football coaches united in support to keep walk-ons), that NOBODY wants to see go away.
“I don’t know anybody that would be against having walk-ons,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart told Thamel for the piece. “At what cost does that bring us? I think it hurts high school football, and football as a whole, when kids can’t even dream [for the opportunity to walk on].”
There are even some of the current crop of SEC head coaches that are walk-ons. How about Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea? He’s one of them. And Lea is skeptical about what’s going to happen, as so much change has happened to the sport of college football in the last three to four years.
“What I’ve heard is that everything that I’ve heard is not to be trusted,” Lea said. “I think that all that stuff is to-be-determined, and I want to know a little more about all of it.”
At issue are so-called “roster caps,” a number, a limit, of players at which each program will be able to top out.
Right now, Texas – which will play its first-ever season in the SEC, along with longtime rival Oklahoma, this fall – has 35 walk-ons on its roster. Coach Steve Sarkisian is a little uncomfortable. That might be because his own son, Brady, is one of those 35.
“I’m hopeful we can find a common ground on something that is a reasonable number,” Sarkisian said. “Again, I’m not opposed to change. Change is going to happen. Okay? But hopefully we can find a reasonable number to where we still feel like we can operate at a high level as coaches and for our players.”
