2014 SEC Media Days recaps for each coach, day by day

We’ll keep adding to this list of head coach rundowns as we venture through the four-day event, with a new batch every day. This will include writeups by those we have on the scene (SBNation.com’s Steven Godfrey, along with SEC site Team Speed Kills and Texas A&M site Good Bull Hunting) and those covering their teams from afar.

The annual Biggest Deal at the event, whether he actually says anything of interest or not. Just kidding. Everything he says is of interest, as evidenced by four facts:

All that for a coach who did his annual grumpy poor-mouthing routine. We love it even more every year.

“You know, I’m hopeful that when we choose the teams that are in the playoff, that we take the 13 years of experience that the BCS had in tweaking their system of picking teams so that they get the right four teams in the game.” Fair enough. They should get it right and they will. But the most popular topic of the day was Lane Kiffin.

Last year, Bielema tangled with Gus Malzahn over whether hurry-up football is good for you or not. This year, it was Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel’s “fiction” retort to Bielema’s health concerns that stirred up another annual SEC rivalry.

One thing we can definitely agree on about BERT: he’s great at cutting promos on opponents. How is he at other things? Arkansas Fight is much more impressed with his second Media Days.

Sure, more newsworthy things happened, but here’s evidence that Arkansas players wore the highest number of bow ties in a particularly bow tie-heavy year for the event.

Our Texas A&M site, which goes out of its way to not take itself too seriously, finally got a question in after some adversity earlier in the week. Let’s all take a victory lap.

“Coach, Derek from GoodBullHunting.com. The A&M/Arkansas series goes back to Dallas this year, which is traditionally a recruiting hotbed for Arkansas. After the contract runs up would you like to see that game stay in Dallas or go back to the campuses?”

THE MODERATOR LET THE LITTLE BLOG THAT COULD ASK A QUESTION IN THE BALLROOM.

Of course, The Big News is Malzahn’s decision not to bring starting quarterback Nick Marshall, who was scheduled to attend before being cited for weed days ago. Whether this is an actual punishment is for you to decide, as is whether being cited for weed is a thing deserving of punishment.

The defending SEC champion’s coach spent most of his time awkwardly trying to sound concerned about the Grave Moral Mistake made by his young man while also trying to not really talk about it.

As they look forward to the 2014 season, the entire group of Auburn Football personnel on hand at SEC Media Days were wearing lapel pins bearing the number 43. The pins are a way for them to honor the past in former Auburn tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen who passed away on June 29, 2014. Coach Malzahn made it clear how special Lutzenkirchen was to him and the Auburn Tiger family. Auburn is working with the family to honor Philip, and they plan for that to continue for a long time to come.

Another question asked what Malzahn hopes Marshall learned from the experience. “I’m hoping he learns a lesson,” Malzahn began. He never specified what he hoped that lesson would be. That was followed by a question on players using marijuana, which Malzahn avoided as if someone were actually trying to hand him a bong on national television.

Is Will Muschamp on the hot seat? He is.

He said so during his opening monologue, a scorcher that topped his own record for delivering deep roster news on seemingly every single scholarship athlete at the University of Florida.

As for what portions of that deluge really matter? Alligator Army has the distilled version.

Now, we know Florida’s defense will be fine, as long as it stays healthy. What will determine whether Muschamp is back in Hoover next year to go for 51 is his latest new offense, which he says is coming along better than expected.

Will Muschamp spent his time deflecting questions by filibustering with a detailed reading of the Florida media guide. We are now all intensely aware of each player’s height, weight, zodiac sign, favorite fast food chain, and preferred Game of Thrones house. Like any good salesman, he pushed specifications at the customer until they couldn’t remember any of their concerns about the rusted body panels. All we could think about was that recently rebuilt V8 quarterback under the hood.

Discussion about job security is, indeed, “part of it” when you go 4-8 at Florida with one of the losses coming to Georgia Southern out of the FCS. Generally, coaches try to dodge talking about the likelihood that they’ll return for the following year’s SEC Media Days. Muschamp talked about it, though.

The conference’s dean was his usual pleasant self, now with an upgraded haircut.

He defended UGA’s drug policy, one of the toughest in the SEC and one that’s paradoxically gotten the Dawgs a reputation as a den of iniquity. And we got to interview multi-talented wide receiver Chris Conley on pulling together a 15-man crew to make a “Star Wars” fan film on campus.

I can’t hate Mark Richt, despite the fact that he coaches South Carolina’s biggest SEC rival. [...]

“I have never hindered a transfer from going anywhere that he wants to go. Because, again, I think life’s too short. If this kid can get a fresh start and do well, I’m happy for the guy.”

This particular stop on the campaign trail in Hoover, Alabama was going to be highly criticized for Presidential hopeful Mark Richt.

Richt approached the podium with his solid black suit, freshly pressed white dress shirt, and the most powerful of red power ties. Aside from the cacophony of camera shutters, the room was silent with anticipation to hear Mark Richt’s three point plan to return his nation to its rightful place as the most powerful in the East world.

There’s no real way to appreciate the glory of a Les Miles presser by reading it or anything about it. So just watch it.

Brandon ran Miles’ comments through Google Translate, as is entirely appropriate.

Derek smashed together 15 seconds from every Miles answer, as is entirely appropriate.

Godfrey asked Mullen about the World Cup and English Premier League soccer. Do not judge us. Mullen enjoyed talking about it, and therefore it was a good question by a certain standard.

Liverpool traded Suarez to Barcelona. A lot of offensive power gone from Liverpool.

I enjoy watching the World Cup. My mom is a British citizen. She grew up in North Wales. Grew up watching that stuff, watching the soccer.

Believe it or not, as a football coach, some of our downtime is in the spring. I’m a big sports fan. My wife sometimes questions what I’m doing, but I don’t mind waking up early Sunday morning and watching the premiership if you have a little bit of the break. Get a workout in, watch that 6 a.m. kick.

But the World Cup is so exciting. You see the passion the fans have, the whole country is on top of it. Unbelievable.

I do think SEC football could be compared to European soccer. The passion our fans have is equal. I’m sure I’ll have a lot of European nations very upset, teams throughout the world upset. That is one of the things that makes this league so much fun, is the passion that our fan bases have for football is similar to watching the passion these European soccer teams and followings have, which is a pretty neat deal.

I’m not a big fan of the idea of “sneaking up on people,” but when you’re talking about a team that isn’t used to going to Atlanta -- the Bulldogs have been to the SEC Championship Game once, and they went with an 8-5 record -- ramping up the preseason buzz and shining a bright light on them is maybe the worst thing you can do.

The Bulldogs are also returning 30 players from last year’s team who started at least one game, and Coach Mullen thinks that is going to go a long way in helping the confidence of the young guys on the team.

Pinkel was far less boring than he’s been the last two years. He’s also got an upgraded haircut.

So I asked Pinkel during his press conference Wednesday about whether last year was a vindication of sorts for Mizzou. He all but brushed the question off.

“Someone apologized to me a little while ago the way they voted after this thing. I said, I don’t know how you voted for us, I don’t really care.”

Disappointed high school English teacher Gary Pinkel took the stage to remind us that Missouri is a very capable football team and you’re never going to get anywhere in life if you don’t apply yourself.

After nearly 17 seconds of opening remarks, Pinkel fielded questions on quarterback Maty Mauk, depth on the defensive line, winning the SEC East, and why you can’t have another extension on your English paper.

The treasure trove is here. Click it. It’s good for you.

Garnet And Black Attack has an entire StoryStream going on Spurrier being great Tuesday.

The thing that sometimes gets overlooked about Spurrier, and part of what gives him the competitive reputation that he’s earned, is that the man has a steel-trap memory about his accomplishments and records, as well as those of his team. Without thinking about it, Spurrier recalled correctly that he’s 0-5 against Auburn since taking the helm at South Carolina -- and said South Carolina is 1-9 against them in school history. Close; he missed a tie.

There is a different vibe in the media ballroom at SEC Media Days this morning. Steve Spurrier and the South Carolina Gamecocks hit this room like an out-of-control chicken truck crashing into a wine bar.

I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t personally remember anything Butch Jones said. Luckily, Rocky Top Talk listened well.

It’s not that Jones predicted doom for Tennessee in 2014; it’s that he gave listeners all the information they needed to predict doom and then allowed them to connect the dots.

I like them, despite having not actually spoken to or listened to them. They’re good guys.

THE CHAMP IS HERE

And no, he’s not surprised he’s smashing the Longhorns on the recruiting trail.

A lot of folks in the media are still learning that Coach Sumlin has a very evident love for what he does in the college game. A few folks here have mentioned that Coach Sumlin comes off as arrogant in interviews. They are starting to see it’s just his passion for the entire process.

Sumlin almost seems to be doing all he can to check the conventional wisdom of the football press corps -- he brought a punter to the biggest media event of the year. How can you craft a counterintuitive think piece about a punter?

The lone new guy (he says he’s the conference’s only undefeated head coach, and he’s correct) impressed with a -- we can say it -- James Franklin-esque show of confidence totally at odds with the Commodores’ long-term football history. A defining moment: Godfrey asked him about losing most of his first recruiting class to Franklin’s Penn State*, and Mason found a way to talk up the opportunities for growth provided by that challenge.

On paper, that’s unconvincing, but if he can make his players believe that he believes, that’s half the battle.

The defensive mind behind Stanford’s shutdowns of Oregon nerded out (always a good thing) about the shifting offenses in his old and new conferences, the top two leagues in the sport. Did you ever think you’d see a bunch of SEC writers interested in hearing about Pac-12 offenses?

* Whose exit had one Vandy player spitting fire on Monday.

The similarities between Franklin and Mason don’t end with their command of the stage. Mason is going to continue the recruiting pitch that worked so well for Franklin: “getting a world‑class education and playing in the best conference in the country and winning,” in Mason’s words. And like Franklin, Mason has a sense of conviction when he says it.

Despite having a self pro-claimed team of of “probably no-name young men”, the new coach feels like his team has a chance to do something special. The message was clear, “Our time to compete for an SEC East title is now.”