Everything You Missed on Day 1 of SEC Media Days

SEC Media Days is here. Half of the KSR crew made it to Nashville in time to hear four speakers open the festivities amid the construction surrounding the Grand Hyatt. If you weren’t locked into the SEC Network for wall-to-wall coverage, don’t worry. We’ve got the highlights covered, starting with a scathing review of our peers.

The Media lost its Fastball

A wise man once said, “This isn’t coach day, it’s media day.” Instead of challenging the speakers in the grand ballroom, some of our friends missed the mark from the SEC Media Days crowd.

Greg Sankey was asked if the SEC reached a decision on the league’s new field-storming policy. It was announced in June after the spring meetings. Brian Kelly went to the podium and nobody asked him about Harold Perkins, arguably the greatest linebacker in the country. One reporter asked Jimbo Fisher about Cam Coleman, an unsigned five-star receiver that committed to A&M last month. You can’t ask coaches about unsigned recruits. That’s one of the first rules you’re taught when you start this job.

It wasn’t a complete swing and a miss at SEC Media Days for the folks in the audience. Jimbo got more than one Bobby Petrino question and Eli Drinkwitz was confronted with a few hard truths. Hopefully the interrogators got all of their bad questions out of the way before Kirby Smart takes the podium.

Jimbo Dodges Bobby Petrino Rhetoric at SEC Media Days

Jimbo Fisher got asked multiple questions about Bobby Petrino. That doesn’t mean he had to answer them. Talking at approximately 125 words a minute, he applied as much finesse as possible when addressing whether or not the former UofL and Arkansas head coach would be calling plays for the Aggies this fall.

“There’s a lot of things that are involved in what goes on, I’m not going to get into what we’re doing, how we’re doing it,” Fisher said. “I’m not trying to avoid anything, I just don’t want to create the narrative out there for what goes on. Listen, Bobby was hired for a reason, and he’s a tremendous coach and a tremendous guy, tremendous football mind, tremendous recruiter, he’s done a great job recruiting since he’s been there, everything he does.”

My prediction: Petrino will call the plays from the booth and they will work well for awhile. When they quit working 3/4 of the way through the season, Jimbo will change the play-calls once they reach the sideline. It will lead to a kerfuffle, Fisher will take back play-calling duties and the two will quit speaking to each other inside the facility, a common theme from every Bobby Petrino regime.

Greg Sankey Salutes Mike Leach at SEC Media Days

Most of the opening remarks from the SEC commissioner focused on NIL. He criticized the “patchwork” laws that vary from state to state, providing an uneven playing field in the world of recruitment. Sankey is lobbying for Congress to take action that would provide universal rules to college athletics. That would work best in theory, but it’s impractical to think legislators can all agree and take swift action.

Those remarks will make headlines, but those words did not carry the same weight as the ones Sankey shared from his last SEC Media Days with the late, great Mike Leach.

“Close Doesn’t Count” for Eli Drinkwitz

I’ll be honest, few people grind my gears the way Eli Drinkwitz does. The Missouri coach tries so hard to be cool and it’s more awkward than a middle school presentation of The Vagina Monologues. He showed up to SEC Media Days with a contract extension and a shiny pair of Nikes, but in a shocking twist, he did not look like Fonzie at the podium.

Drinkwitz read the room. He was reserved, only slightly straying from schmoozing when he admitted to filibustering in his opening remarks to dodge questions. If there’s one coach at SEC Media Days on the hot seat, it’s Drinkwitz. He can’t afford to be in the business of churching up moral victories, like the Tigers’ close call against Kentucky from a year ago.

“Close doesn’t count. I don’t really care how close we played this team or that team. That has nothing to do with what we’re trying to accomplish this year,” said Drinkwitz. “What matters to use are the details and execution to finish on the right side of the game. The only thing I learned about our team is we’re resilient in the face of adversity. At 2-4 it could’ve gone a lot of different ways but our team battled back, even after a very difficult call against Kentucky, our team still battled and found a way to become bowl eligible.”

Even though leading receiver Dominic Lovett transferred to Georgia, the Tigers are bringing back 18 starters. Continuity must translate into wins or it could be a difficult year in CoMo for Coach Drink.

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Travel Problems at SEC Media Days

Getting to Nashville has been a problem for some members of the media. Bud Eliot lost his luggage through multiple canceled flights, and he was not alone. Our own Steven Peake is still on his way to the Music City from Canada. The four other members of the KSR caravan spent a few minutes locked out of our AirBnB. Throw in endless construction through downtown Nashville and it’s been quite the mess. And that’s just how we like it. We got our toes wet on day one. We’ll dive in headfirst into SEC Media Days action Tuesday morning. Stay tuned.

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