SEC Media Days 2011: Sweltering Promise In Birmingham

Lockett’s oft-referenced bowtie doesn’t make an appearance at today’s interview sessions, so the first thing we had to do was press him on its absence and what message he’s sending by wearing a normal (if flashy and elegant) suit and tie. “Mom picked this one out.” Lockett didn’t want to call attention to himself with neckwear, not when his personality can carry a room: “It’s like, look at me, I got a bowtie.” Does this fashion shift harken to his role, in his sixth year of college football, as the elder statesman of the Ole Miss Rebels? “I wouldn’t say elder. Senior.” Sage? “So seasoned I’m salty.” Lockett’s back, and he hasn’t changed a bit. “Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I make people feel happy.”

About that ACL tear that knocked him out of the 2010 campaign: “My leg got cold, then it got hot, then I heard a pop.” On crutches for interminable weeks, what did he miss about the game? Without missing a beat: “Everything.” He tried hanging around practices and the weight room, but would end up at home crying to his wife, who finally told him he had to get some separation. But all that’s at an end: When fall camp kicks off, he’ll be back in full-contact ball, with “the freshest legs in the SEC. I don’t know too many guys excited for camp to start.” He’s also resumed his unofficial duties as a role model to incoming freshmen, whose nerves are beginning to show around the edges. “I just tell ‘em, football’s football. That’s all you can tell ‘em.”

Some of the most entertaining head coaches in all of college football convened in Alabama for the spectacle that is SEC Media Days this week, and we were all better for it. From newcomer Will Muschamp, who speaks fast enough and with enough exuberance to cause keyboards to melt as reporters try to transcribe on the fly, to Les Miles, who never disappoints, SEC Media Days yielded plenty of entertainment, if nothing else.

Mike Slive took the podium first and immediately laid out his plans for college football’s grand conference. Chief among them was raising the mandatory GPA from 2.0 to 2.5, as well as the idea of paying an athlete’s cost of attendance, above and beyond the bounds of a typical scholarship. Slive hit on other topics, ranging from recruitment rules to NCAA investigations, but it was the extra benefits and GPA requirement that stole the show, and should continue to be talking points for quite some time.

Live coverage from Birmingham, where SB Nation is taking in the spectacle of SEC Media Days.

Les Miles, the last coach to address the gargantuan throng of reporters in the main media room of SEC Media Days, mounts the dais and takes a comfortable seat ... in the moderator’s chair. When told he should stand at the podium, he looks mildly bemused, as though he’s never been here before. It’s Les Miles, so it’s entirely possible he doesn’t know he has. This won’t stop him from winning ten games this year.

Live coverage from Birmingham, where SB Nation is taking in the spectacle of SEC Media Days.

James Franklin has a wealth of resources available to him at Vanderbilt University, albeit not always in line with those provided his SEC compatriots, but one thing they need to get the guy right away is a better portrait photographer. Endearingly doofy and indistinguishable from any other D-I skipper on film, Franklin is impossibly dapper in person. He looks Vanderbilt, if that makes any sense, right down to the glasses.

Live coverage from Birmingham, where SB Nation is taking in the spectacle of SEC Media Days.

You’ll hear a lot of chatter this morning likening Nick Saban’s treatment of the media to an emotionally abusive spousal relationship. This isn’t far off. Whatever else he is, and he is many, many things, Coach Saban is not a morning person today. He eschews his traditional thanking of the assembled press, dispenses some bizarrely sincere-sounding wishes that everyone had a good summer, then manages to convincingly grind out a sentence expressing that this is one of his favorite days of the year. A few people laugh. They are quickly silenced.

Here’s the schedule for Friday, which is the last of the SEC Media Days 2011. You can follow along with the event in various formats (live video, live audio, live chat, Twitter, and so on), and a list of links is here.

Friday, 9:30-12:20 Eastern

Live coverage from Birmingham, where SB Nation is taking in the spectacle of SEC Media Days.

Derek Dooley bounds up the steps to the dais and thanks a roomful of journalists for their work promoting college football, with his trademark deprecatory wit: “We’ve certainly done our part in giving you material to write about over the last year, but that’s what a good relationship is all about.” More from Precious at the podium:

Live coverage from Birmingham, where SB Nation is taking in the spectacle of SEC Media Days.

“So the juices are flowing, I’m sure, from everybody.” This is the second sentence we’ll hear in this interview session, and it’s as good as it’s going to get. (For the record, he was discussing the anticipation of the upcoming season, we think.) Gene “Chiznap” Chizik is his own brand of soporific. Last year he set a new benchmark for say-nothing coachspeak at the 2010 Media Days, and with the added luster of a national title and slick stench of scandal hanging around the program, you might think this press encounter would yield a few surprises. You are dearly mistaken:

Live coverage from Birmingham, where SB Nation is taking in the spectacle of SEC Media Days.

Just as reliable as the perennial rumors that Mark Richt sits astride a wobbly saddle of molten lava in Athens is the certainty that you’ll never see him crack in front of a bank of microphones. Tanned, relaxed, and jocular, he holds hundreds of reporters in thrall to his pastoral charm so well that it’s almost impossible to remember his team was last seen losing the Liberty Bowl to UCF. Highlights from charm school follow:

2011 SEC Media Days roll on in Birmingham, with Kentucky, Georgia, Auburn, and Tennessee coaches and players running a gauntlet of print, broadcast, and online media outlets. Today’s schedule of appearances is as follows (all times Central):

The conference has provided an overwhelming number of options for following along with today’s action:

Live coverage from Birmingham, where SB Nation is taking in the spectacle of SEC Media Days.

Dan Mullen is poised in a relaxed runner’s stance as he’s introduced to the assembled media, like a talk show host caught accidentally on live air pumping himself up in the wings. He bounds up the stairs like it’s not after 5:00 already, like this whole pony show isn’t already running behind, and like he’s genuinely happy to be under hot lights in an itchy suit talking football with 800 strangers. This last part is probably true. Such is the charm of Mississippi State’s bullish, manic skipper. Highlights from the last interview session of Day 1:

Live coverage from Birmingham, where SB Nation is taking in the spectacle of SEC Media Days.

Steve Spurrier mounts the dais, fit and preening in a pink tie nobody else on earth with that ruddy a complexion could pull off, and sporting hair that will not look so magnificently chestnut come November. He’s noticeably more jocular than the Spurrier the White we saw last July, with the sheen of a recent division championship still apparent, despite everything that happened on a scoreboard in December. Highlights from a rollicking Q&A session follow:

Live coverage from Birmingham, where SB Nation is taking in the spectacle of SEC Media Days.

It takes Will Muschamp, freshly-hatched head football coach of the Florida Gators, approximately 35 seconds following his introductory sentences to begin talking faster than anybody in this room can ever hope to type. “It’s good to be back in the SEC. We’re all undefeated. No poor decisions yet on third down.” (This last, you will be relieved or disappointed to learn, did not appear to be delivered as a parting shot at Greg Davis.) Highlights from his remarks and Q&A session follow:

SEC Media Days officially begin Wednesday morning in Hoover, Alabama. For those eagerly awaiting their college football fix, the conference provides a live stream of the proceedings. Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Mississippi State will be the focus of the first day.

At 3:00 p.m. ET the universities receive a break, and SEC Commissioner Mike Slive takes center stage. The 70-year old will discuss the status of the conference, expectations for the oncoming season, and conference plans beyond 2012.

The Southeastern Conference will informally kick off all 2011 college football-related rancor and panic with the arrival of SEC Media Days, to be held this Wednesday through Friday in Hoover, Alabama. Approximately 900 reporters, radio hosts, and bloggers will question coaches and players from all twelve SEC football programs, on the following rotating schedule:

Wednesday, July 20: Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi State, South Carolina

Thursday, July 21: Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee

Friday, July 22: Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt