SEC Media Days, Monday notes – and a prediction or two

DALLAS – Happenings of note from day one of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Media Days at The Omni here.

Speakers on the first day were Commissioner Greg Sankey, LSU head coach Brian Kelly, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin and Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea.

It is, of course, the first year in the conference for both Texas and Oklahoma – OU coach Brent Venables hits the stage on Tuesday afternoon, after lunch, and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian speaks on Wednesday, the final speaker of that day.

SEC Media Days continues throughout the week, wrapping on Thursday, and can be seen live on ESPN2.

Sankey was up first, welcoming everyone and dealing out his opening statement, then taking a few questions.

• Sankey noted his two daughters were born in McKinney, and that he was in attendance for Nolan Ryan’s seventh no-hitter in 1991, thrown against the Toronto Blue Jays. He even brought the ticket with him to prove it.
• He also noted that one of the SEC’s most famous figures – former Alabama coach Nick Saban, who retired in the offseason – was initially denied access Monday morning because he misplaced his credentials.
• “Sixteen is our today,” Sankey said, “and 16 is our tomorrow,” referencing the SEC’s new number with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma. I’m guessing we may hear that a few times this week.
• He promoted the AI and sports panel on Thursday morning, prior to the coaches’ addresses.
• The SEC is the only conference to participate in every one of the 14 college football playoffs, Sankey boasted.
• Forty-nine former SEC players are in the NBA playoffs, more than any other conference, he said.
• For the 25^th straight year, the conference led the nation in football attendance and for the 28^th consecutive year, the SEC led the country in baseball attendance.
• There are 270 Olympians with SEC ties. Forty-two are SEC returning competitors.
• Thirty-five percent of the U.S. Track & Field roster is made up of athletes from SEC universities; 37 percent of the swimming roster is.
• “There is no easy button we can push to resolve the issues we face,” Sankey said, of the problems that college athletics, specifically college football, has.
• “On Saturdays in this country, for decade after decade, people come together,” he said. “…We need more of what college football does, not less.”
• He announced that the SEC will return to Atlanta and the College Football Hall of Fame for the 2025 edition of SEC Media Days.
• Asked why SEC Media Days came to Dallas: “We actually made an effort to move here to 2018 (media days),” he said. “Had an incredible alumni base here. It’s one of the most accessible cities in the country. …Our move in 2018 was a recognition that we had move west with Missouri and Texas A&M. …We’ve had three years to prepare for expansion and as we went through expansion, that made western events more and more important. We looked at Houston, looked at Dallas. …We are a big part of Texas, Texas is a big part of us now.”
• Is there a plan for an SEC tiebreaker system, regarding the SEC Championship Game, with the dissolution of the SEC West and SEC East divisions this season? “Yes. It is a lengthy plan, consolidated around eight principles. We can finalize that any time before the start of the season.”
• How focused is he on the situations between Florida State and Clemson, and their respective litigations with the Atlantic Coast Conference? “I’m focused on our 16. I’ve said before, I’m not a recruiter.”
• Sankey was continually asked about conference expansion. “I’m certainly not going to fuel speculation on what happens next,” he said, after the third consecutive question.
• He was asked what Saban can do to positively affect change in the way of problematic situations with name, image and likeness (NIL) and transfer portal issues. Saban, Sankey said, has the “ability to be influential in a different role outside of coaching. …One of the things I’ve found over time is that Nick uniquely fought ahead over issues and provided deep and clear insight. I’ve been in the SEC for 23 years. I think he can bring that clarity and an understanding that even I don’t have of dealing with those issues. …I’ve seen him engage in those conversations already.”

LSU head coach Brian Kelly followed.

• Coach Kelly noted that it’s the 100^th year of LSU football coming up, and that Tiger Stadium has been refurbished to commemorate it.
• He also noted that the season opener is six weeks away.
• “I want you to see the man outside the jersey,” Kelly said of Perkins.
• The 2024 LSU team is “built on accountability and trust, but built knowing we have to be able to play much more balanced football,” he said.
• The challenge, he said, was to bring the defense up to the standard necessary to play for a championship.
• He said the opener against USC in Las Vegas “will certainly test us.”
• “When we look at our football team in its totality, there will be a number of players we count on,” he said. “At the wide receiver position, there’s probably six to eight players that will get the opportunity to compete and make an impact.”
• “Clearly, being the number one offense in the country was not good enough. Offensively and defensively we’ve got to be able to compliment each other. We’re going to have to be able to play better defense this year. I think we’ve made the strides this year to compete better at both.”
• Bo Davis: “The sales pitch was certainly his opportunity to rebuild the pride of LSU’s defensive line. There’s a great and rich tradition there, and that had something to do with it. …He’s demanding, never demeaning.”
• On the transfer portal: “I think the transfer portal is what I always thought it would be in that it can’t be strictly need-based. If you’re in the transfer portal for need base, in other words, if you’re filling needs, you haven’t done something right in recruiting. And last year, it was need-based, and that wasn’t good. You need to use the transfer portal to top off the tank, so to speak. …When you can get to that situation, the transfer portal becomes an effective tool.”
• Do great quarterbacks have certain traits? “If we’re talking outside the skill factor, the ability to throw the football – if you talk about just from the neck up, the ability to translate, take the offense the things that are taught in the classroom, and translate that to the field, yes. That was one of Jayden Daniels’ best assets. His recall, ability to go through all the progressions, and then in the game he could do it. That’s what makes the great quarterbacks great, and Garrett can do that, as well.”

And South Carolina coach Shane Beamer followed Kelly.

• Coach Beamer is the 34^th coach in program history, it was noted in his introduction.
• Apparently, ziplining and listening to Kenny Chesney are hobbies, in addition to reading history.
• He’ll be starting his fourth season coaching the Gamecocks.
• Wished Lane Kiffin well after the death of his father, Monte Kiffin, noted he received a call once from Monte after writing him a letter. Monte was the longtime defensive coordinator great who created the Tampa 2 defense.
• “Did some good things last season on offense,” he said, noting they started three true freshmen on offense, two on the offensive line.
• Noted that SC has led the SEC in takeaways since 2021, and in blocked kicks.
• Twenty-eight players will play the season as graduate students, Beamer said.
• “I really, really like our football team going into 2024,” he said. “When you guys do your picks, we’ll be picked 14^th, 15^th, 16^th, I’m sure… I understand we have a tough schedule that we get to play, but everybody’s got a tough schedule, that’s called playing in the toughest conference in America. …Our players hear me say it all the time: You can’t have growth without discomfort. You’ve got to be uncomfortable in order to grow. We certainly had some uncomfortable moments as a team. But we grew from those uncomfortable moments, as well.”
• Beamer, the former Oklahoma assistant, was asked his opinion on what the biggest challenge is that the Sooners face coming into the conference. “I think it’s a couple of things. It’s the size and the depth and the athleticism that you see each week in this conference.”

Of note away from the podium, Saban and one of his former players, Greg McElroy, now an color analyst for ESPN and ABC, were on the TV crew on air and were asked to make their predictions on which teams would reach the SEC Championship Game.

Remember, as Sankey was asked after his comments: there are no more divisions, so the two teams with the best records – supposedly – will make the title game.

“I think Georgia and Texas,” Saban said. “But I don’t think there’s any team right now, or any coach that you would talk to, including myself for many, many years, that right now there’s not some part of their team they’re concerned about. How those problems, sort of, get resolved, whether it’s a young player that comes in and makes an impact, or an older player that develops consistency, those are the question marks that I think make it impossible to make predictions right now”

He continued.

“But I think Texas, if their defense comes through and they can replace some of the interior people that they lost that were high draft picks and all that, they are really good offensively. Even though their quarterback has missed time, (Quinn) Ewers has missed time in the last couple of years, (Arch) Manning was lights out in the spring game. Like, Arch was 21 of 25 for 347 yards. So that depth at quarterback is probably really important for then, because Ewers has missed time the last couple years, a game or two, which could really affect where you end up.”

Saban didn’t write off his former team, the Alabama Crimson Tide.

“So I really like Texas. I think Georgia has got a really good team,” he said. “I believe in our Alabama team, too. I believe in Jalen Milroe. I just think the question marks in the secondary, until those get resolved, it’s hard to, sort of, jump on that bandwagon.”

McElroy, who helped Saban win his first national title at Alabama back in the 2009 season, picked the SEC title matchup to be Georgia and Ole Miss.