By: Ryan Lavoie
As has become another tradition that is uniquely Auburn, the Tigers and coach Bryan Harsin opened the final day of SEC Media Days. Harsin was different than his first go around at media days last year. His opening statement lasted only 7 minutes as opposed to the nearly 20 minutes from last year. Almost from the jump, Harsin met the offseason noise head on, “Second time here. Excited to be here. I know some of you out there looking at me didn’t expect me to be here at this time.” Harsin would go on to address it further… “There was an inquiry. It was uncomfortable. It was unfounded. It presented an opportunity for people to personally attack me, my family, and also our program. And it didn’t work. Right now our focus is on moving forward. What came out of that inquiry were a lot of positives….What it did is it united our football team, our players, our staff, our football team.” Harsin was then ready to pivot on the future of his program.
Here’s what he said to a question on his recruiting message: “I think the message is: watch. We got to go out there and play. That’s the beauty of what we get a chance to every Saturday, all right? When you get into the arena, you have the opportunity to go out there and settle the score, all right? You have a chance to compete. That’s really what we do this for. We do it so that we can get into that arena and have that opportunity.”
That is really on brand for Harsin, as many continue to question the recruiting job done so far, Harsin has remained focused on the development of the players already in the program and the can do mentality of going up against the best programs in the country.
Tennessee’s turn to the podium yielded little in the way of some of the big topics of the week, however, it’s good to note that Josh Heupel talked about a 100 million dollar project to “reinvigorate” Neyland Stadium. That project includes an expansion to the training facility, a improved players lounge, and recovery area.
Heupel produced the other side to the Lane Kiffin mustard bottle event when asked if he’d signed any mustard bottles or golf balls “I didn’t sign any mustard bottles or golf balls. Maybe I wish I had a golf ball that night, you know what I mean? I’m only kidding.”
Some Tennessee fans probably wouldn’t have minded if he wasn’t kidding after a crazy night between the Vols and the Rebels. The biggest thing here is the noted change from how can Tennessee be competitive, to how can it reach the next level, something Tennessee hasn’t done in quite some time.
Finally, to conclude SEC Media Days 2022, Jimbo Fisher took the podium and was promptly asked three straight questions revolving around Nick Saban and the spring beef they had. Jimbo did not take the bait though, and ultimately went with the classic response of “I have a lot of respect for Nick.” The tough questions were not limited to the Nick Saban topic however, questions on NIL, the rivals A&M would like to play in a new schedule format, and the transfer portal flooded Fisher’s way.
Probably the most specific thoughts on the schedule were given by Fisher, whose program has a lot on the line in the rivalry department given the incoming additions of Oklahoma and Texas.
“I think the scheduling model is critical, especially as conferences expand. I think the ability to get everybody to play everybody, because you’re talking about a conference champion now, and not being able to play each other and make sure you do when a guy is there in school is going to be critical. And I think conference champions can be determined by how the schedule falls. That’s never been the case because you always played them all. Probably the model of three is much better because it gives you more consistency, helps keep some traditional rivalries,” Fisher said.
According to Fisher, he believes A&M would benefit by playing Texas and LSU, with the third game being more up in the air.
It was an interesting week at SEC Media Days 2022. Nothing was earth shattering like last year’s news of Oklahoma and Texas, but substantive opinions on the state of college football were necessary from all the school’s coaches and those were all welcomed. The biggest agreement, maybe in the history of coaches, was that change is needed. There are different ideas of how to accomplish that, but everyone wants to have rules that apply to all the schools in the country.
I go back to what Commissioner Sankey said on the first day this week, “it is never going to be the same, but it doesn’t have to be the way that it is.” These words will guide the coming years when critical decisions are made about conference membership, NIL, scheduling, and the college football playoff.
The times, they are a changin’, but one thing that isn’t changing, is the SEC’s place at the top of college football.
