Live Blog: SEC Media Days - Day 1

Follow along as we keep you up to date with appearances by Greg Sankey, LSU's Brian Kelly, Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz, Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Jul 17, 2023 4:14 PM EDT
Original:
Jul 17, 2023

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – It's the first day of the SEC media circus from downtown Nashville and there are already hints early this morning that this could be a very interesting day. Check in throughout the day to catch up on everything as it unfolds.

Key moments
from Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz's time at the podium

• Eli Drinkwitz has most uninspiring introduction from an SEC commissioner ever. After much dull talk, it ended with notes that the Missouri coach likes to play paintball with is team and taking awkward recruiting photos.

• It should be noted that earlier this morning, Drinkwitz said his No. 1 goal was to not be trending on social media when the day is done. He said he spent past 36 hours working on that. His opening statement has done exactly that. He's rushing through the roster notes that come off like the reading of a grocery list. If the goal is to make people in the room not pay attention, mission accomplished.

• Drinkwitz admitted that his reading of the entire roster, plus everyone's stats was intentional to leave as little time as possible for the media to ask him questions in an effort to avoid ending up on Twitter. He seemed quite proud of undercutting the media.

• Says being able to point to how Luther Burden has been able to capitalize on NIL opportunities by staying in his home state is key to his recruiting. Pointed out to players getting to have their own pizza in the state.

• Surprisingly, the one question that genuinely caused everyone to perk up because there may not be a more interesting person to answer it completely shut it down. Drinkwitz was the second coach asked about his thoughts on AI being used in college football and he coldly responded that he has no thoughts on it, so he won't comment. He spent three minutes breaking down a play like he was explaining quantum physics two questions earlier, but the guy who dresses as Darth Vader for press conferences went out of his way to avoid the AI question? The one coach who might be able to be on the cutting edge of the future in college football decided to not show the one leg up he might have on the rest of the coaches he faces.

• Drinkwitz completely dodged the NIL question as it pertains to the commissioner's mission and Missouri's law on the matter. On top of dodging the question, he tried to run out the clock on the press conference by slowly naming every politician in Missouri he could remember.

Key moments from
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher's time at the podium

So that just happened. Listening to Fisher today was like standing in front of a power washer, but instead of water coming out at an insane rate, it was words. The clear overall goal was to say a lot without saying much and go out of the way to not answer anything people want to know. It was a master class in verbal spewage that would have made Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones proud.
It should be noted that, unlike other coaches, Fisher did not make an appearance at the SEC Network desk.

• Earlier today, it was stated on SEC Network that the idea of a Georgia three-peat is not the SEC story of the year. It's whether Jimbo Fisher can get the Aggies out of the ditch down in College Station.

• Fisher is so anxious to get this over with that he didn't even let the A&M fight song finish out. He's always particularly quick-worded, but he's in mid-season form for pacing.

• Fisher addresses passing of former A&M assistant Terry Price. He profusely addresses the positive qualities of Price and how he was a true Aggie.

• Addressed discussion of culture of issues by saying that when you recruit well, your culture is fine because when the coach walks out of the room, players will tell the recruit what's really going on within the program.

• Says the staff love Bobby Petrino and that he is fitting into the culture in College Station rather well.

• Fisher is non-committal as to whether the team will go under center or run from the traditional Petrino formations.

• Said playing Texas is good for college football and the two schools. The word great was used an uncountable amount of times. Very safe, stock answer.

• Asked why would having so many former head coaches might get into a volatile situation if things go wrong. Asked if anyone has ever been in a staff room where there wasn't tension. We all have great respect for each other and it's been tremendous. Did reiterate that he's the boss.

• Doesn't want to address Bob Holt's question about whether Petrino will call the play. At one point, Fisher slipped up and said "He'll call a lot of them..." before stopping himself and talking about how the offense is a more collaborative thing that most people know it to be.

• Says if people tamper in recruiting, they have to be caught. It can't just be accusations. There has to be solid proof of it. When you catch them they have to be punished, and must be punished harshly. Says communication with your players must be open all the time.

• Says this most recent recruiting class didn't get the hype the other one did, but there's some really good players. Offensive linemen, secondary group and linebackers were specifically mentioned, along with wide receivers.

• Fisher says he is unaware of what the Texas NIL laws are at the moment because they keep changing and he has to ask his compliance coordinator each day what they are at the moment because they're constantly evolving, so he isn't willing to speak on specific legislation.

• Fisher said having the proper culture this year is on the player leadership and he thinks the guys who are coming back will do a lot to fix that. Coaches can want it all they want, but players have to lead it on a day to day basis.

• Said Aggies have to engrain the work ethic and mentality needed to turn it around, especially early in the SEC schedule.
"You can't do it until you get it right. You have to do it until you can no longer do it wrong."
"Your actions speak so loud I can't year what you're saying. You gotta go back and do it. It doesn't matter. We need to just be quiet, shut up and go play.

Key moments
from LSU Brian Kelly's time at the podium

• Said at SEC Network desk that he went to a gymnastics meet for the first time. He loved the 90-minute fast pace. He then started going to basketball and baseball. He especially enjoyed being a fan at the baseball games because he said he's never been a fan before and thought it was a great, unique experience for he and his wife.

• Kelly says he encouraged Tommy Rees, who worked for him at Notre Dame, to take the opportunity to work for Nick Saban over at Alabama.
"You don't get a chance to work for Nick Saban very often, and when you do, good things tend to happen. Matter of fact, they tend to happen all the time."

• At the SEC Network desk, Kelly said that players continued to trust after blowout loss to Tennessee in early October was true turning point of the season.

• Kelly is six wins short of having 300 wins.

• Not used to SEC media days because his previous jobs didn't create opportunities to kick off the season on national TV in front of a large media crowd.

• Indicated being on campus with women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey and the LSU baseball program setting such a high national bar might be putting a little pressure on the football side to get in the same conversation as Alabama and Georgia again. Says LSU has a football team that "is coming."

• LSU opens with Florida St. on Sept. 3 at 6:30 p.m. on ABC.

• "When you have to dip into the transfer portal and bring in that many guys on defense, that's an area of concern because you don't really know what you have until you play Florida State."

• Says he does not want LSU to be a finesse running team. He wants a brutal, physical attack so teams can't simply be tougher up front and shut the Tigers' offense down.

• Kelly is very uncomfortable answering the NIL question that will now be hammered upon all SEC coaches. He wants to avoid getting political or come down as ungrateful for laws that have done a lot of help Kelly do what he's been able to do at Louisiana that he couldn't do well at Notre Dame. He offered a couple of concerns about third parties, but it was obvious that he wanted out of that question as quickly as possible. This may very well be a trend for coaches in states where laws have been written to do the most possible to help the local state university get an edge on schools in other states.

• Out of a political firestorm question about NIL into a question about the Pat Fitzgerald situation at Northwestern regarding how much coaches should know about what's going on within their program away from the facilities. Kelly says head coaches are in the hallways, in the locker rooms and eating with the team while also having lots of other staff members interacting with players on a day-to-day basis to avoid having stuff go on within the program without a coach knowing.

• Kelly is glad that players on his team want more yards after the catch. The question before was about his reaction to the Jeremy Pruitt sanctions and findings at Tennessee. Receiving such a softball question about yards after catch appears to be a brief moment of relief for a man who appears to have one goal today – don't say the wrong thing.

• LSU coach says he adjusts his recruiting accent based upon whether he is in northern Louisiana, southern Louisiana or in the Lake Charles area. The content of the answer sounded like it should have been sarcastic, but the tone almost felt like it was a serious breakdown of how he changes his accent to make him more acceptable in various parts of the state.

• Kelly says he thinks there is room for AI in getting ready for games, but says its best use might be to help create a model for players needed in recruiting to determine who that player might be across the country.

Key take aways
from Greg Sankey's State of the SEC address

The expectation is Sankey will address some very heavy topics today. He mentioned earlier this morning that his speech will be way longer than what it has been in the past because of all the topics he feels he needs to address.

Below is everything the commissioner addressed in what was a very long term at the podium today. He clearly had a message he wanted to get across and it was delivered strongly. The obvious point was that states have thoroughly screwed up name, image and likeness, and it is now up to Congress to fix it, although there isn't much faith in the SEC offices that the federal legislative bodies have what it takes to actually do the work that needs to be done. It was a frank, direct set of observations and calls to action.

• Sankey says he thinks the SEC already is what should be considered a super conference. He doesn't think it's healthy to think beyond the 16 they are trying to deal with in 2025. Said that if the league were to go bigger, there would be an entirely different set of considerations to think about that he turns over in his mind every now and then at night.

• Sankey has concerns when it comes to NIL collectives about who is really in charge of those collectives.

• So many changes between addition of Texas and Oklahoma, plus playoff changes and issues with non-conference games were a big part of sticking with eight games. Said an SEC eight game schedule is very robust when it comes looking at how tough schedules are. Said there will be discussions as to whether to rivalry games will go to every other year in the future.

• Elimination of divisions discussions goes back to 2018. It was built around what is considered fair and balanced, which required defining what fair looked like and what balance looked like. Stopped talk in 2020. When 16-team schedule discussion began in August 2021, talk of defining fairness and balance and executing it in the schedule began again. The SEC will continue to discuss eight or nine games for 2025, but fair and balanced will continue to be a common thread.

• Registration of agents, transparency of communication, financial support and a definition of name, image and likeness are three things Sankey wants to see come from Congress.

• Sankey was asked about whether Nashville could possibly host the SEC championship game in the future after the Titans' dome stadium is built, and he pretty much shot that down.

• Sports gambling has placed student athletes, and especially officials at dangers as people have been tracked down and threatened as a result of the increase in sports gambling, especially across the SEC.

• Discussions with Congress and states by the league is not about taking away from what players get from NIL. It's about the shady stuff that is going on where commitments aren't being fulfilled. He has great concern with how it's being handled state to state.

"Our student athletes deserve something better than a patchwork of state laws that support their name, image and likeness activity, if support is the right word."

"Our state athletes deserve something better than a race to the bottom at the state legislature level as efforts as the efforts are made to create what are perceived as a competitive edge through state laws that are not overseen."

"Future student athletes, those who right now might be 15, 16, or 17 years old, they deserve something better than to need to sort through a fully unregulated market place, being approached by individuals who present themselves as something they may not be. Where anyone can purchase card stock and run it through a printer and call themselves an agent on a business card and then engage in making offers to young people that are neither transparent, that do not include protections that many of us would expect to be normal. That makes it difficult for young people to both understand navigate this free for all as they try to make both life guiding and life changing decisions."

"To our knowledge, no state has taken action to enforce it's own state laws around name, image and likeness activity."

"The states haven't been active in enforcing laws, and now states are preventing the NCAA or conferences from adopting and enforcing reasonable name, image and likeness standards. If states will not enforce the laws, and states are going to prohibit the NCAA or conferences from enforcing these reasonable policies, Congressional action is then the only way to provide a national uniform standard for name, image and likeness activity and to draw the lines around the boundaries that have simply become play for play."

"Our student-athletes continue to ask for uniformity in name, image and likeness policies across the country. Our student-athletes want to know their competitors on the opposite line of scrimmage are subject and governed by the same rules and policies by which they are governed."

"Uniformity will ensure a high school student and his or her family do not have to investigate potentially dozens of different state laws or university policies to figure out how they can be active in this name, image and likeness world."

"There has been an ongoing effort to deem student athletes as employees of institutions, or conferences, or the NCAA. I have yet to have a conversation with an engaged, participating student athlete who says they want to be deemed an employee of an institution or a conference.'

"Efforts to simply upend the collegiate model place in jeopardy the opportunities for thousands of student athletes for decades to come."

"The reality is only Congress can fully address the challenges facing college athletics. The NCAA cannot fix all of these issues. The courts cannot resolve all of these issues. The states cannot resolve all these issues, nor can the conferences. Whether Congressional action is achievable is a matter of debate. Much debate."

• SEC media days will be in downtown Dallas next season. This will honor the expansion with Texas and Oklahoma coming in and will go a long way toward adding to an already large fan base and conference awareness next season. The unspoken point to this is an opportunity flex on the Big 12 and formally establish Texas and Oklahoma as SEC country.

• The best way to summarize the long list of conference accolades is that the SEC dominates pretty much everything from national championships in most sports, attendance levels, players drafted and players playing for professional championships. It included pretty much every sport you can imagine all the way down to soccer.

• Sankey said one of backstage discussions in Atlanta last year was the uselessness of neckties and how powder wigs went by the wayside, but ties are still a thing. That conversation went longer than Sankey anticipated because it was with former Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach who passed away last December.

• Appropriate that we are in Nashville because Vanderbilt opens with Hawaii on Aug. 26 in Nashville to kick off SEC football. The following week Tennessee plays Virginia at the home of the Tennessee Titans.

Roman Harper identifies coordinator hires outside of Petrino
that will have huge impact on SEC

PHILLIP MONTGOMERY, Auburn
Mentioned Montgomery was a Broyles Award winner at Baylor, not because of RGIII, but, Bryce Petty. Said that means he really coached his tail off. Also mentioned his offensive accomplishments at Tulsa as head coach.

TRAVIS WILLIAMS, Arkansas
Said this hire will be more impactful than Dan Enos because the Arkansas defense was "atrocious at tackling, angles and giving up deep plays" under Barry Odom.

SEC Network panel predicts
who will be the league's super star in 2023

Roman Harper: KJ JEFFERSON, Ark.
Talks combination of Sam Pittman being the best offensive line coach in the SEC, the ability of Raheim Sanders at running back and what new offensive coordinator Dan Enos brings to the table will help Jefferson stack wins. He also said an improved defense will help add to Jefferson's dominance as wins bring the bright lights to help people see how good he's always been.

Paul Finebaum: HAROLD PERKINS, LSU
Cited the game against Arkansas as the alarm bell for how dominant Perkins can be. Says an extra year of development could make him unstoppable.

Greg McElroy: QUINSHON JUDKINS, Ole Miss

Thinks the Ole Miss running back can produce 2,000 yards this season. He is convinced the passing attack will improve a lot this year, making it easier for Judkins to run. The rest of the crew is skeptical, asking about where the play calling commitment will be and how the Rebels will be in enough games where they can hand Judkins the ball over and over to close out games to make this possible.

Who do the SEC Network talking heads
think will dominate the quarterback scene?

There are only five quarterbacks at SEC media days this year. That in itself is telling about what is going on around the year as teams scramble to figure out who their next guy is going to be.

Roman Harper: KJ JEFFERSON, Ark.
Talks about his arm strength and ability to affect the run game. Said he has been on the Jefferson bus for three years and that he is the best quarterback in the league.

Paul Finebaum: JAYDEN DANIELS, LSU
Likes his confidence. Says he even looked confident going up the escalator prior to this segment.

Greg McElroy: JAYDEN DANIELS, LSU

Comfort built throwing the ball last season and that LSU has better overall weapons are two main reasons he is taking Daniels over Jefferson. Says he thinks the growth in that he has already shown he can scramble to run, but that this season he will be scrambling to throw the ball in addition to running with the ball.

SEC Network's Jordan Rogers says all indications are
that Jalen Milroe won't be QB in Tuscaloosa

"I walked away from (the spring game) going 'I think Ty is going to be the starter.' As then as I saw when they added Buckner from Notre Dame, that told me for sure it was going to be Simpson or Buckner. I don't think you bring in that type of guy unless you go 'We need another guy who can run this type of offense, can be the back-up for this type of offense, because Jalen is a much different offense and it's a different animal. He's dynamic, but the one thing Nick Saban said when I sat down with him this spring Nick Saban when it comes to the quarterbacks, he went 'I need these quarterbacks and whoever is going to be our starter stop making the plays that beat us before they make the plays that win us the game. I think Jalen makes those wow plays that you are like 'Unbelievable!" and then he makes those plays where you are like "Wow. Unbelievable." You can't have that. I think it's Ty or Buckner. I think Ty starts it, but I think it's going to be a competition into the season."

Former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy expressed later in the morning that he also thinks Milroe's time starting games at quarterback for the Tide is over.

Eli Drinkwitz says his goal is
to finish the day as incognito as possible

The Missouri head coach popped on with the SEC Network this morning sporting a sunburned face with a tan line where his glasses where as he trolled the beach where he said he ran into Kentucky coach Mark Stoops. Despite the accidental inverse raccoon look he will be sporting on the stage, Drinkwitz said his goal is to end the day as unnoticed as possible.

Obviously, we don't want to create too many headlines, which obviously, I am not a good example of that. I spent the better part last 36 hours really preparing myself, trying to to be trending on Twitter at the end of the day. We'll see. I don't think Ross is going to be there, Dellinger, is going to be there, so I think I've got a shot to make it past that one.

Commissioner Sankey hints
that we may have big news today

In a precursor to the main event, Sankey joined the SEC Network for a quick interview. During it, he discussed the role of the league in trying to curtail some of the ambiguity surrounding NIL as state legislatures come up with their own individual regulations.

There was also talk of how to change SEC media days going forward, making it more of a fan experience in larger venues that will help the league continue to follow the NFL model of becoming a year long headline grabber. However, the line that stopped everyone down is that Sankey said he is uneasy about how long his speech has to be this year because he has to cover a lot of information. There are a lot of questions people are anxious to find out and the SEC is notorious for making news with big announcements in a bid to drown out the rest of the conferences this time of year. It should be a huge opening State of the League address.

allHogs.com SEC predictions
released for 2023 season

There will be a full media poll released at some point during SEC media days, but for now, here is where our staff sees things finishing out. We agreed at the top and bottom, but found little common ground in the middle.

allHogs.com 2023 SEC Divisions Predictions

The elephant not in
the SEC Media room this week

With the unexpected passing of Mike Leach at the end of last season, there will a huge void as far as possible interesting, entertaining content. We took at look earlier this week at the very limited number of SEC coaches who might be able to fill the smallest portion of a truly unfillable hole left behind by Leach at SEC media days.

Can Anyone Fill at Least a Little of the Void
Left Behind By Leach at SEC Media Days?