DALLAS – Rich Clark, executive director of the College Football Playoff, began day three of the Southeastern Conference’s Media Days on Wednesday at The Omni in Dallas, described by one writer in her work this week as “sprawling.”
Clark, a former General Officer of the U.S. Air Force and former Air Force player, replaces Bill Hancock at the top of the CFP. He might have spoke first, but didn’t leave – he was spotted throughout the day talking with several people in the dining area, people of note like CBS college football analyst Dennis Dodd and ESPN college football writer Heather Dinich.
“College football opened doors for me that would’ve never been opened,” he said.
Clark, who flew missions over Baghdad as a pilot for the USAF in the early 1990s, said adversity is what shapes us, and several times referred to himself as a fan.
“The character that college football gives to our student athletes is amazing,” he said. “…As a fan of college football, there’s no better time to be involved in this sport.”
He did get a few questions of note from the group, particularly where the Group of Five – the conferences that aren’t typically considered to be the upper echelon, or the elite, in the sport – will fit in to the new-look, 12-team playoff that begins this year, when push comes to shove.
In the past, of course, up until this year, only four teams have gotten in. Beginning with this season, it’ll be a 12-team race after the regular season.
“Personally, I’m very excited for (anyone in) that fifth (spot), if that’s where they’re at, and maybe they’re not the fifth,” Clark said. “Maybe they rank higher among the champions.”
Alabama: First-year Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer followed Clark.
You know – the man who has to replace THE MAN, now-retired former Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban, who won seven national championships, six of them in Tuscaloosa.
DeBoer, who coached the Washington Huskies into the College Football Playoff last year, losing in the national championship game to Michigan, was asked about being the one to follow Saban. DeBoer is in the unique position of going from one CFP team to another: from Washington to Alabama, who also made the CFP, losing to Michigan in the semifinals, as Washington was topping Texas in the other.
“I get it. I totally get it,” said DeBoer, who has only lost 12 games his entire collegiate coaching career, a number that, in itself, is very Saban-like. “I understand there’s only one Coach Saban. There will only ever be one Coach Saban. This program is special, and I guess I just take it as a great honor to be the one that gets to do everything we can to carry on the great tradition.
“So much blood, sweat and tears, whether it’s the players and the alumni that have been in this program or coaches, and obviously referring to Coach Saban, so much is put into this place. We all have alma maters. We all have places that we have great pride in, and you always want that to be home. We always want to make those people proud of their alma mater and the work that’s been put in to set this program up for success.
“But for me personally, it was just more about just understanding that coaching football is coaching football to some aspect, and you’ve got to try to simplify it down, as difficult and as complicated as you can make it. I’ve done this for enough years and seen what good culture looks like and maybe even what a culture that needs to improve on looks like, and it’s been just an awesome blessing to be a part of this program, to continue to have that expectation on us.
“The alternative is to be at places where there aren’t expectations. At some point there’s been places where maybe a little bit of that has happened throughout my career, and this is a great place to be. I’m very blessed, very honored, and certainly acknowledge what you said, but we’re just going to focus on this team and being the best we can be and continue to build on the great tradition of Alabama football.”
DeBoer was asked how he and Saban are similar.
“I’ve heard it from our guys,” he said. “I know Coach Saban just poured into these guys. He loved them. He believed in them. He pushed them to be their best.
“I think you always look at – I mean, every coach is different. We all have different personalities. We all have our styles, especially when you’ve been doing it for a while in this profession you kind of have the things that you really like to do and favor.
“But in the end, the most important things, I think a lot of those are probably pretty similar more than they’re different. Pouring into the guys and helping them and pushing them to be at their best, holding them accountable and expecting a high level of discipline while also trying to build a brotherhood and a family that exists through great team chemistry to be great on the football field when it matters most.”
DeBoer gets to bring back quarterback Jalen Milroe, a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender after guiding the Tide to an SEC Championship and the College Football Playoff berth last year. The two losses: to Texas in Tuscaloosa in the regular season, early in the year, and then to eventual national champion Michigan in the playoff.
A year ago, Milroe was in a far different place. He was benched not long after the loss to Texas, his starting job in question. But Saban quickly turned back to him after the other two quarterbacks did far worse in a less-than-stellar win over South Florida. And Milroe did nothing but improve along the way, getting better each week through the Tide’s upset of two-time defending national champion Georgia in the SEC title game.
Milroe was asked if his mindset was different headed into this year than last.
“I think it’s the same, being the best version of myself, being the best quarterback in the country, learning, growing as a player, seeking all information from my coaching staff, being a student of the game,” he said. “I think it’s all about going 1-0, and the grind doesn’t stop. That cliche term, the grind and the stop. Each and every day that you have the opportunity to play the game of football, seize it. Try to do what’s best for the football team in a sense. “So I say, you know, for me, and my development, it’s all about getting better and leaning on my brothers because it’s going to be a chance where we play a game one and it’s all about attacking the task at hand which is being the best version of myself, entering the building and having a rep each and every day that I have on the practice field.”
Alabama opens the season with a pair of home games (against Western Kentucky on Aug. 31, and against South Florida Sept. 7), but then has a pair of September games – at Wisconsin on Sept. 14, and at home against Georgia on Sept. 28 – that will determine whether or not the Crimson Tide will contend for the national title this year – or not. And that’s something that, if you’re an Alabama player, is considered a given.
Mississippi State: Another first-year head coach in 2024 will be in Starkville, Mississippi, who hired former Oklahoma player and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who has been described by many this week as well-traveled, but in a good way.
Lebby, a rather large guy who was an offensive lineman as a player, came to the podium with a lot of energy and he’d better have it: he’s the Bulldogs’ third head coach in as many years. Coach Mike Leach, of course, was there in 2022, but passed away following the season, and then Zach Arnett, who had been the defensive coordinator under leach, was promoted to head coach, but dismissed actually during the 2023 dismal season, before the season was ever complete.
Lebby promised State fans they’ll see a few things: a team that is having fun, who is tough, who brings a competitive brand of football to the field and is accountable to each other and their coaches.
“Toughness travels,” he said. “Toughness, toughness travels. This is a league that is built on toughness. Always has been, always will be. I love that fact of being able to lead our program in a way that creates opportunities for guys to be tough. Mississippi State, built on toughness and edge, and those are things that I’m incredibly proud of.
“Competitive. The most competitive league in all of college football. So how many different ways can we create a competitive situation, a competitive scenario so when we get to Saturday afternoon on national television you don’t get surprised by a result? So having competitive situations inside of everything that we’re doing is a huge part of our program and our culture.
“Then a culture of accountability, being accountable to the guy next to you. From a staffing standpoint, being accountable to the guy that you’re sharing an office with or sharing a wall with every single day and doing right by the people inside the building.”
The Bulldogs have some challenges. They have no returning starters on offense, and only three coming back on defense.
“I’ve talked about it a lot today already, but the climate of college football, where we’re at, the portal cycle that ended in December was a huge part for us having a chance to have success year one,” Lebby said. “We’re talking about our starting quarterback, three of the five starting O-linemen, two receivers, starting running back, and on the defensive side we’ll have three starters from the portal, as well.”
Lebby touched on it a bit, but one thing Mississippi is blessed with is strong junior college programs, like Texas. There’s East Mississippi Community College, normally near the top of the JUCO rankings; there’s Gulf Coast, Hinds, Northwest, and so many more from which to draw top talent, one of the top JUCO conferences in the country. “We’ve got great junior colleges inside our state which is advantage us. So those are things, as we move forward, it will look a little bit different, but for year one, we’ve got guys that will go out there week one that have played a lot of ball, just not a lot of ball at Davis Wade.”
And there’s also this: MSU’s first two road games of the season: at Georgia and at Texas.
“…To me, that is part of the league that we’re living in,” Lebby said. “I’ve continued to talk about this. You want to do it with the best. You want to do it against the best. We’re going to have every opportunity in the world to show everyone actually who we are as a program and as a football team, and I look at that as an opportunity for our guys.”
Lebby will count on a transfer from Baylor, Blake Shapen, a Shreveport, La., native, as his starter at quarterback. Shapen told the media on Wednesday that playing in the SEC and Lebby were two of the biggest reasons he wound up in Starkville.
“I think it starts with Coach Lebby, got to watch him coach at OU, got to see that offense in person,” Shapen said. “It was kind of a no-brainer when he got the job at Mississippi State and he contacted me, obviously I wanted to play in the SEC and I heard Mississippi State is a great place, so it was a no-brainer.
“He’s a great dude, he’s energetic. He’s got a lot of swagger about him. He’s a cool dude but he’s very knowledgeable about football and offense and having an explosive offense. A lot of people gravitate toward him just by the way he is, his personality. He’s a great guy.”
Florida: No one likes to use the term “hot seat,” and there are very few SEC coaches that appear to be on that mythical seat coming into the 2024 season, particularly after Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz finished the ’23 season with a Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State.
But one man whose seat seems to at least perceived to be warm is Florida coach Billy Napier, and the fact that the Gators’ schedule looks so daunting doesn’t help.
They open at home against Miami on Aug. 31; they host Texas A&M two weeks later; they have Central Florida in a non-conference game on Oct. 5, and then visit Tennessee on Oct. 12, and that’s just in the first six weeks.
They play Georgia in the neutral-site game Nov. 2, then play Texas in Austin the following week (Nov. 9), and host LSU and then Ole Miss the two weeks following.
Whew.
“Look, the great thing about our schedule, we don’t have to take this on as individuals. We get to do this as a team. I believe that the thing that I’ve learned and observed in this league, you have to have the ability to self-discipline to prepare the same way each week, regardless of the outcome. Ignore the noise, don’t believe the hype, erase the board, start over, and every person in that building has got to prepare the same way.
“So we’re going to do that. We’re going to focus on the work that’s ahead. Then we’ll look up at the end of the season and we’ll see what that earns.”
Florida, thought of by many as the program under Steve Spurrier for many years and then Urban Meyer that often competed, and won, SEC and national championships, has dipped in recent years. The Gators went 5-7 last year, 3-5 in the conference, but that was Napier’s second season, and he deserves the chance to right the ship.
Napier believes returning experience this year will really help his Gators.
“I like our team. I believe in our team,” he said. “When people ask me why, it’s about experience. It’s about production. We’ve got 463 starts on this team, 17 starters returning. We’ve got 41,000 snaps coming back this year, and we’re fourth in our league in returning production. We’ve got competitive depth for the first time.”
