SEC documentary on Netflix should have just enough Hogs to get fans by

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A week from now, college football players from across the country will take the field for the first time in what is commonly termed "fall camp," even though none of it takes place in fall.

Arkansas will do the same as the Hogs begin preparation for a season that will kick off 31 days later against Alabama A&M at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. However, Arkansas fans won't have to wait that long to experience new content in regard to SEC football.

As many have probably already seen by now with the recent trailer drop, Netflix has put together a documentary called "SEC Football: Any Given Saturday." It will premiere Aug. 5 with all eight episodes dropping at once for those who prefer to binge these sorts of projects.

The trailer shows the series, led by Emmy Award winning producer Paul Martin, will have quite a bit more depth than typical college football documentaries. Part of this is because Martin, who oversaw the "Drive to Survive: Formula 1" for Netflix that made Americans fall in love with a racing series most often ignored in the United States, approached it with the curious eyes of a European who knew nothing of college football.

"Viewers will ride along on the team buses, sit in on locker-room speeches, drop in on barbershop banter, and witness the grind it takes to be a D1 athlete in the nation’s most competitive football culture," a press release from last December read.

For those who have never met exchange students or immigrants from Europe, the idea of sports in school, whether it be high school or college is one of the more strange things about American culture. And while Paul was familiar with the NFL from its efforts to grow the game in Europe in the 1980s, he had no idea there were pockets of the U.S. that not only prefer college sports, but that may not care about the NFL at all.

"You can tell from my accent, this is not my natural kind of habitat," Paul said on a podcast with ON3 at SEC Media Days just shortly before the screening. "It was my first kind of exposure to college sport. The biggest personal takeaway from me was how much I love marching bands now, yeah, you go, and you're like, oh, my god, is that Star Wars?"

"So that was great. But just, I mean, just the spectacle of, you know, just go to these stadiums of, like, 80, 90, 100,000 people, and the constant noise, and the passion for it, and the generational passion."

Being in a place like Razorback Stadium or Baton Rouge for a night game with a highly ranked opponent in town is a far different atmosphere than Paul had ever experienced. However, simple things college football fans take for granted in the SEC were seen as unique as well.

"You get there and you sample the atmosphere, and it's just completely unique," Paul said. "There is nothing like it in sport. And people had said to me, okay, the games that they like English soccer games, and I can see why they make that parallel, but it's a completely different atmosphere.

"It's like, it's non stop noise. You know, in the UK, in soccer, you have home and away fans, so it tends to be built around the sort of the back and forth between home and [away fans yelling], 'You're [expletive]!' 'No, you're [expletive}!' like that kind of back and forth. Whereas in college it's all one color, and it's marching bands, and it's, you know, the emotion and all that kind of stuff. So I just think it's an utterly unique occasion in sport."

However, some of that passion, especially behind the scenes, won't be seen from some of the SEC's biggest names. Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Ole Miss refused to participate.

That doesn't mean those schools won't be included in certain cases. In the trailer there is footage of former Alabama coach Nick Saban telling ESPN co-worker Pat McAfee the only place in the SEC that's not tough to play is at Vanderbilt in Nashville while Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia watches online.

"So we're always trying to find another way into the storytelling and make it character led make, you know, really try and articulate the emotional states for coaches or for players, whoever it is," Martin said. "But obviously, listen, the football plays a huge role in it, and we're incredibly lucky.

"You know, we were with Vandy when they beat Alabama, which, you know, I'd love to say we saw that coming, but, you know, happened to be in the right place at the right time, and, and that was extraordinary to see how fired up they were. And they, they very much used Nick Saban's words 'No easy games in the SEC apart from kind of Vandy.' But they went out there, and they played their a**** off, and it was great. And then the aftermath of that game, carrying the the goal post down, kind of Main Street was extraordinary."

While Arkansas was one of the teams that opted in and also had its big moment against a Tennessee team that appears to be featured prominently, particularly because of Martin's fascination with the Vol Navy, the trailer gives the impression the Razorbacks' time on screen may be limited.

It took a second, more deliberate viewing of the trailer to see there is a short clip from the win over Tennessee. It took several more viewings to catch that there is a quick flash of a clip, maybe a quarter of a second long, showing an Arkansas lineman possibly celebrating.

Whether the Razorbacks earn any significant screen time remains to be seen. However, getting to see at least a little of the Hogs' highest moment from last season with perhaps a few other tidbits of behind the scenes footage thrown in is a much better way to pass the early days of August than the alternative.

Fans are anxious and full of the renewed hope that comes with the start of a new season. However, a well-crafted, in-depth recap of where things left off with at least one guaranteed high moment to show up is a solid way for Hogs fans to get fired up about the start of yet another football season and pass the time.

"I think what's great about the SEC is, you know, once that season starts, just every game feels important," Martin said. "You know, every game feels like it's life and death for for all the different teams. So in that way, we were kind of blessed as as producers, to be able to make this show."

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