SB Nation’s 2013 offseason college football tour

As it so often does in moments of historic civil unrest, the death threats started when the billboard went up on the interstate.

It was the marketing logic of Rob Preston, president and CEO of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, that started a turf war in East Tennessee right about the time Brian Kelly’s Notre Dame team disappeared from the field in Miami.

It feels like a lifetime ago that Texas A&M head football coach Kevin Sumlin stood at SEC Media Days and answered question after question about whether the Aggies were ready for the conference. It felt like an attempt at an initiation, except it was apparent both then and now that the new guy was fully prepared for what he was getting into.

Now, after a win at Alabama, a Heisman, a Cotton Bowl blowout, and a scorching start on a 2014 recruiting class that includes arguably the nation’s top quarterback in Kyle Allen, it’s the rest of the SEC that’s wondering how ready it was for A&M. I had a chance to speak briefly with Coach Sumlin.

Interview with Art Briles.

6/2/2013.

Mississippi State offensive coordinator Les Koenning reverts to his preferred teaching method. The former Texas wide receiver vibrates with enthusiasm, leaping to his feet, but before he hits the whiteboard to chart the evolution of spread offense formations - “I’m a visual learner,” he explains - he says:

“This is how I start when I’m at coaching clinics: ‘What does the term spread offense mean to you?’” he asks.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

It’s right there in Air Force’s game notes (example here -- PDF): Air Force is a hard job.