Kentucky head coach uncertain over QB position

Mark Stoops and Nick Saban share the same problem: They are both uncertain as to who their QB will be when the season starts on Labor Day weekend. Now, that’s about all Kentucky’s head coach and Alabama’s head coach have in common going into the 2014 season. Many people figure Kentucky will finish last – again – in the SEC East. The same people think Alabama will finish first and go to the first College Football Play-Off as the SEC’s representative. Oh, and both teams have a SEC losing streak. Alabama’s is 1. Kentucky’s is……16. “We’re still unsettled on who the starter is going to be,” Stoops said. “But I’m very confident that we’re going to improve at that position.”

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Hugh Freeze: Ole Miss not yet a total SEC team

Hugh Freeze came into the SEC Media Days a pretty happy guy. His Ole Miss team was coming off monster wins (for the program, at least) against Texas and LSU, as well as a bowl victory. He’s recruited strongly – even in the face of Alabama. He started off his press conference with a somewhat sharp word for another SEC rival: “One good thing about Media Days is Coach Spurrier isn’t talking about Ole Miss as much, wanting to play us every year.  Maybe that’s a good thing“, referencing Spurrier’s comments from 2012 about schedules where he said: “If I made the schedule, Georgia’d be playing LSU and we’d be playing Ole Miss.” But still, he told the assembled media

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Mark Richt comes out combative over Georgia drug rules

Mark Richt is used to criticism as head coach of the University of Georgia. Every year people place him on the hot-seat for either not beating South Carolina, or not beating Auburn, or losing a game they should win, or not beating a team by enough, and 2015 won’t be any different – although after beating Clemson and LSU, maybe the seat’s a LITTLE cooler. Richt’s also had his fair share of criticism about Georgia’s drug policy, which has seen the school suspend or boot a number of players over his time between the hedges. However, at the SEC Media Days in Hoover, AL, he was unrepentant. He said: “We don’t want our guys to do drugs, okay? I don’t

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Nick Saban: I was not offered $100m by Texas

Nick Saban, head coach at Alabama, arrived at the SEC Media Days in the face of an eventful offseason. Firstly there were the rumors that he might be leaving Tuscaloosa for the bright lights of Austin and the Texas Longhorns. Today there was something going around that UT and its board of regents were preparing a $100m offer for him to dress in burnt orange in 2015 and beyond.   He said: “Well, I didn’t have any conversations with them.  Nobody offered me anything.  So I guess if I didn’t have any conversations with them, I didn’t have very much interest.  I think the University of Texas is a fantastic place, and they’ve got a lot of wonderful people there,

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Arkansas HC Bret Bielema takes it slow at SEC Media Days

Arkansas Bret Bielema had an interesting 2013 – one which had his wife talking about a Wisconsin loss and ‘karma’ (and one that backfired!). His Razorbacks finished 3-9, including going winless in the SEC. In February 2014, he sounded off about player safety, campaigning in a change in the rule for hurry-up offenses – one that would slow them down. He called the hurry-up offences “death certificates”, referencing the death of Cal football player Ted Agu during preseason workouts. Cal’s system is all about the hurry-up offense. So in the SEC Media Days in Hoover, AL, it was hardly surprising that he had his opinion on such things – as well as a bunch of others. Earlier, Missouri coach Gary

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LSU head coach Les Miles transcript in full at SEC Media Days

LSU head coach Les Miles is ALWAYS nothing short of entertaining when it comes to a press conference, and this year was no difference. Instead of picking out the juicy bits, the whole press conference was simply….awesome. And you’ll find out Austin has no beach (I think he was pissed about being misinformed about Lake Austin), and that his daughter’s a helluva ballplayer. Anyway, the guys at ASAP (I got this via the Twitter of Barrett Sallee at Bleacher Report) faithfully wrote up this press conference, and we thought we’d simply show it to you in all its glory. And warning: The first few paragraphs are just a Les Miles diatribe about how great the Tigers are going to be this

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Alabama to play USC in 2016

Alabama has confirmed that it will play Southern California in Arlington on September 3rd, 2016. The game will be part of the Cowboys Classic at Cowboys Stadium, and feature two of college football’s biggest powerhouses. And if he stays in a job up to then, it could also feature Lane Kiffin, ‘Bama’s offensive co-ordinator and former head coach of USC, before he was fired during last season. BOTTOM LINE: It’s a great bowl-to-start-the-season game, but personally we would have preferred a home-and-home between the two schools. Alabama in Southern Cal would have been amazing, as would the Trojans visiting Tuscaloosa. JerryWorld’s just a little stale.

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Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel: SEC Media Days

Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel was the first head coach to speak on the third day of SEC Media Days in Hoover, AL. One of his major subjects was departed WR Dorial Green-Beckham, who was dismissed from Columbia earlier this year and has instead moved onto Oklahoma. Pinkel revealed to local media that he spoke to OU coach Bob Stoops before D G-B went to Norman, and added: “He’s in a good place. I want things to work well for Dorial.” He added in his press conference when asked about his receiver: “You make mistakes, you have a chance to learn a lesson, and I think he will….We lost a great player.” As for the loss as a meaning for

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Vanderbilt HC’s first SEC Media Day a good one

Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason’s first press conference was a success, by all accounts. Why? He wasn’t afraid to say something out-of-line with the dullness that you usually get around SEC Media Days time, so when he hit the podium – nattily clad in a bow tie – on the Monday of sessions in Hoover, AL, he came as a relief at the end of a long day which included SEC Commissioner Mike Silve comparing the conference to Ali. You know….apart from earlier this year against Florida State. Anyways, here are some of things he said. He started with: “The great thing is I’m undefeated, so I’m feeling real good about where we’re at.” About Vanderbilt competing for a SEC

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Tennessee HC Butch Jones speaks at the 2014 SEC Media Days

Butch Jones, the Tennessee head coach, was at his second SEC Media Days get-together, and here are some of his memorable quotes, which have been gained off Twitter. On the UT receiving corps: “We are the original wide receiver U” (apparently, it’s not….it’s Pittsburgh) Who’s going to be QB?:  “We like the progress with [current QBs] Justin Worley, Joshua Dobbs and Nathan Peterman, but we’re not naming a starter”. On the fact that Tennessee’s playing Alabama every year because of the 6-1-1 schedule, which has infuriated some coaches: “What makes college football special is the rivalries”. Young talent: “That has brought a lot of positive energy….We’ve had an influx of young talent.” On Florida: “I believe Florida’s going to be

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