Linebacker Leo Lewis has de-committed from Alabama, various reports have said.

Lewis, who comes from Brookhaven, MS, is the top-rated inside linebacker in the nation according to 247-Sports.com, and ranks as the 3rd-best overall player in the whole State of Mississippi.

The player is 6 ft 3 and weighs 225 lb. He de-committed from Alabama on the same day – July 14 – that he went to a camp at Mississippi State.

Lewis has had 20 interests, including Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Texas A&M, as well as Clemson, UCLA, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Florida State.

Now the SEC Media Days are in the book, we’re giving 14 awards to our head coaches’ press conferences.

Our award for “Most God-Like” is easy, though. It’s to Commissioner Mike Slive, because he’s God, Ali and The President and you aren’t.

So without further ado:

STRANGEST PRESS CONFERENCE: Les Miles (LSU) – I mean, who in the hell goes on vacation in Austin, talks about the weather a lot, then declines to mention anything about the strangest thing that happened to him in all of 2013 – the fact that he let his team vote on whether to keep a running back who punched somebody, instead of simply booting him? Or was this just Les being Les? 

MOST MALCOLM GLADWELL-LIKE PRESS CONFERENCE: Nick Saban (Alabama) – Seriously, I felt more intelligent after Nick Saban’s speech. People talk about the best CEOs being the guy able to simplify. And Saban did that.

MOST BILLY GRAHAM-LIKE PRESS CONFERENCE: Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss) – He mentioned ‘blessed’ a lot, and even threw a ‘God’ in there.. 

MOST INSPIRING PRESS CONFERENCE: Mark Richt (Georgia) – Because he talked about why Georgia doesn’t screw around with suspending players and I immediately wanted to beg Commissioner Slive to make that LAW in the SEC.

MOST HONEST PRESS CONFERENCE: Will Muschamp (Florida) – I wish he’d said: “Yeah, I’m on the hot seat. So **** you.”

MOST DESPERATE PRESS CONFERENCE: Mark Stoops (Kentucky) – He sounded like he was ALREADY pleading with bowl organisers to let his sub-500 Kentucky team into one. We were slightly surprised when he didn’t start saying: “Hey! Each bowl game appearance comes with the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team playing a game in your city!”

MOST SUCKS-TO-BE-YOU PRESS CONFERENCE: Dan Mullen (Mississippi State) – Made sure he talked about how damned big his stadium was, and how it would be the biggest in Mississippi. Sounded li Am surprised he didn’t go overboard and mention the overtime victory against Ole Miss over and over and over and over and over again. 

MOST TWITTER ‘FIRESTORM’ PRESS CONFERENCE: Butch Jones (Tennessee) – A lot of people were kinda pissed that Butch Jones said that Tennessee was the ‘Original’ ‘Wide Receiver U’. He’s probably right, but not recently. Here’s an interesting article on it.

MOST ‘MAKE NICE’ PRESS CONFERENCE: Bret Bielema (Arkansas) – Because he and Gus Malzahn really love each other, apparently.

MOST ‘MY QUARTERBACK’S IN THE CRAPPER’ PRESS CONFERENCE: Gus Malzahn (Auburn) – Because Nick Marshall is in the crapper. You think Gus Malzahn gives a **** that it was a citation for weed? We don’t!

MOST ‘WOULD YOU SHUT UP ABOUT MY LAST QUARTERBACK?’ PRESS CONFERENCE: Kevin Sumlin (Texas A&M) – Because no-one could shut the hell up about Johnny Manziel.

LOOKING AWESOME WHEN DOING THE PRESS CONFERENCE: Derek Mason (Vanderbilt) – Because Coach Mason – complete in his bow tie – looked THE BOMB while doing his press conference in Hoover. 

SPEED OVER SLOW PRESS CONFERENCE: Gary Pinkel (Missouri) – Because Gary Pinkel doesn’t believe Bret Bielema’s lines about fast-paced offenses affecting player safety, and wants his offense to be faster than yours.

AND FINALLY….

MOST SPURRIER-LIKE PRESS CONFERENCE: Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) – Obviously.

OH, AND ONE MORE THING….

Jesse Palmer, South Carolina ‘arrived’ a few years ago. Not in 2014 [addition of words like ‘you tool’ are optional here].

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.” He added that redshirt freshman Reese Phillips has impressed him.  “He was a guy throughout spring that may have been the most consistent.  He was a guy that just did a nice job of managing the offense and staying away from negative plays.  Very impressed with Reese.  He’s got a good chance to win the battle.  We’ll see where it goes, but he’s right in the thick of things.” He will be competing with sophomore Patrick Towles and freshman Drew Barker – now that current incumbent Maxwell Smith blew out his shoulder in the Spring.

He added that he would “love” to see bowl committees change their ‘6-win’ rule to allow teams with tougher schedules to get bowl eligibility. “I’d like to see them amend that a little bit.  Maybe we got some pull here in the SEC.” He added with some desperation: “Maybe if we could win four or five, we could get bowl‑eligibility. I’d take that,” then he quickly added: “But, no, we’re out to win each game and win as many games as we can.”

According to Stoops, the decision to have the Kentucky – Louisville game moved down to Thanksgiving weekend is a “permanent” one so the game is playing alongside other SEC-ACC match-ups like Florida/Florida State,  South Carolina/Clemson and Georgia/ Georgia Tech.

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 in Hoover that his team was still “we’re still maybe a year or two away of looking like a total SEC team in the depth chart“, although noted that Ole Miss was “ahead” of when he arrived, especially at 2014 marks the first year where 85 players who Freeze recruited are now going to be on scholarship.

And despite the LSU and Texas wins, there were losses to SEC West foes Auburn, Alabama, Texas A&M and more importantly (for the locals) Mississippi State. But he added confidently: “I said on day one that my expectations were to make Ole Miss very relevant in the SEC West.  And I think this year we should be that.  That’s my expectation, is that we should be competitive in every single game….Obviously I can’t control the health of players, injuries, turnovers, how your quarterback plays.  All of those factors will kind of determining the ending result of win/losses.  There’s no question in my mind we’re a better football team today than we were in year one and year two and we should be very competitive. ”

Only time will tell.

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 want my son to do drugs.  We’ve got policies that are stronger maybe than some when it comes to the punitive part of it. That’s kind of what everybody talks about. Georgia ends up suspending their guys a little bit sooner in the policy, which I’ve got no problems with. There’s other things we have in the policy, too, as far as the ability to educate them about what’s happening, giving them counseling, making sure that they’re healthy, make sure there’s no addiction issue we need to deal with. It’s a lot more than just the punitive part. There’s a punitive part, there’s an educational part, then we love ’em. You made a mistake. You have these consequences. Now let’s turn in the right direction and become a better man for it. I’d rather them have that type of experience in college rather than being married for four years and got a kid or two and they get fired from their job because of something that never got nipped in the bud while they were in their college days. We’ve got a very good group of young men. The fact that we have our policies as strong as they are, it doesn’t bother me.”

One such player is safety Tray Matthews, who transferred to Auburn this summer after he was arrested for ‘theft by deception’ cashing his player stipend check twice. Richt said: “Life’s too short.  They’re young men that make mistakes.  If somewhere along the way you learn from your mistake, you turn it around, finish your career strong, I’m happy for the guy. 
Obviously whether we’re playing Auburn or Tennessee or Florida or anybody else, we want to win that game.  I’m not too concerned about who’s over there, did he play for us, all that kind of thing.  It doesn’t come into my mind.  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.” You might also want to note that when Georgia lost to Auburn, Matthews was one of the players who let what would have been an easy interception or incompletion bounce away to lose the game.

Speaking of players, he also revealed that starting quarterback Hutson Mason and he had discussed a number of times about him transferring from Athens.  He said to that point: “He came to me [and said] “Hey, coach, if I was your son, what would you tell me? 
And I didn’t say: “Hey, I think you should stay no matter what.  But I talked about, If you stay, this could happen.  If you go, there’s no guarantee of anything good happening for you.”….As we just went through the process of what it might look like, as we get to this point now, at one time when he was deciding should he stay, should he go, Murray could have left after his junior year, given him two years a start.  That was a possibility. ….Also, if you remember, we did redshirt him not this past year, but the year before to guarantee at least one‑year separation from Aaron.  Even that season was a little bit, you know, crazy because at any given time, if Murray would have got hurt, that was the year we played ‘Bama in the SEC championship game.  If Murray got hurt, Hutson would have played.  He would have burnt that redshirt to play in this game…..He’s really sacrificed a lot for this team….I think the stage is set for him to have a tremendous senior year and hopefully have the same success or even better than D.J. [Shockley] had.”

Funnily enough, he didn’t mention departed defensive co-ordinator Todd Grantham (who went to Louisville in the summer to work with Bobby Petrino), but said this about new DC Jeremy Pruitt, who was hired in from Florida State: “But I know this year, Coach Pruitt, he’s a proven coach.  He’s won everywhere he’s been.  Not only Coach Pruitt, but the rest of our defensive staff.  We have brand‑new coaches all the way across the board.  Tracy Rocker, Mike Ekeler, and Kevin Sherrer coaching our outside linebackers and our star position, along with Jeremy….They’re all brand‑new.  They all coached high school ball, which I think is great.  They know how to take a kid from ground zero.  They know how to teach fundamentals extremely well.  They’ve all been on college teams that have won national championships.  There’s a lot of credibility as they come in…..But I think these guys know what it looks like to win big, and they’ve put in a system of how we’re going to go about our business.  The guys are responding well to that.  There’s a lot of accountability that goes along with it, as well.” Now, what would the reaction have been if Mark Richt said: “I made a mistake hiring Pruitt. He should have stayed in Tallahassee”.

He noted that he was ‘interested’ to see how the eight-man officiating crews would work out, and whether they would slow down teams’ offenses. “When it comes to tempo, I believe before the ball is snapped, everybody needs to be in position to play.  Offensive player, defensive player, every official needs to be where they need to be. There were times when the ball was snapped, an official was scrambling to get where they needed to get.  Times where defenders were scrambling to get to where they needed to get.  It’s one thing if a team is doing a poor job of substituting when the ball gets snapped. I think sometimes defenders are coming in when a sub of the offense, just because they’re on the field or close to where they’re supposed to be, the ball was allowed to be snapped.  I think everybody needs to be in position to play football when the ball is snapped.  But in doing so, I don’t think it’s going to slow down the tempo much at all.  But that would be my suggestion to officiating, tempo and all that. If there’s more penalties, there’s more penalties.  More eyes, more penalties, that could possibly happen.  I wouldn’t doubt that.”

Whatever the injuries, suspensions, officiating teams, Georgia has been picked by writers to finish No.2 in the SEC East behind South Carolina and Steve Spurrier, who – surprisingly – didn’t try and poke fun at Mark Richt during his own conversation with the press on Day 1 of the Media Days.  He said that the SEC is “wide open” and said confidently: “I said, I’m not happy to be named number two.  I’m not going to start cheering that we’re number two.  I think in the end it’s going to be Georgia.”

This means one thing: The second Saturday of the season – which see Carolina and Georgia get together – is going to be pretty entertaining.

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, it’s a great institution.  But this is about the station in my life where we are.  We moved around a lot.  If I had to do it over, I’d have just tried to stay in one place and establish a great program, not have all these goals and aspirations of things that eventually, you know, you weren’t happy doing. 
So I’m very happy at Alabama.  Miss Terry is very happy at Alabama.  We certainly enjoy the challenges that we have there, the friends that we have established here.  This is where we just choose to, you know, end our career someday. ”

Then there were has been a seemingly endless number of arrests of his football players this offseason, including running back Kenyan Drake for what seems utter stupidity in trying to move his car away from a police scene when specifically told not to.

Saban said: “Now, when somebody proves they can’t be part of an organization, then sometimes you got to get the wrong people off the bus.  I get that, all right?  But I just want you all to know that we all have to be committed to trying to help our young people from a culture standpoint have a better chance to be successful in their life.  That’s something that we’re very much committed to and really is the reason that we coach ’cause that’s the part that I like the best.  It gives me the most positive self‑gratification to see somebody have a chance to be successful…...Some of the things that I said before about guys learning how to control their impulsive behavior, choices and decisions, thoughts, habits and priorities, buying into the whole process of what you have to do to be a successful football player in college.  Those players are suspended but they’re not kicked off the team,” he said. “They’re suspended from activity.  When they prove that I think or we think that they’re ready to come back and show a little bit more responsibility and discipline for how they handle themselves, their decision making, how they represent the university, their family and themselves, then we’ll allow them to come back on the team.”

Speaking of the team, he had some nice things to say about new offensive co-ordinator Lane Kiffin. “Lane Kiffin  has done a really, really good job for us.  The players have responded to him very well.  New energy, new enthusiasm, new ideas to do some things offensively that would enhance our chances of being successful.  I’m really excited to have the opportunity to work with him.”

As for the SEC schedule, Saban wasn’t shy about saying that all the SEC teams should play each other – even if it might be to their disadvantage down the line. “I played in the NFL for eight years.  We had 32 teams in the league.  We all played the 32 teams in the league.  I think that we’re talking about going to this five conference sort of whatever we’re going to call it, big five or whatever it is.  I’d be all for playing all of our games against those guys. You know, it’s what the fans want.  I mean, we need to be more concerned about the people who support the programs and the university and come and see the games.  I mean, those are the most important….I know that everybody thinks I’m crazy, but I think that, you know, every player that comes to an SEC school should play every team in the SEC, which means you have to play two or three teams on the other side.  Well, you can’t expand the conference and not expand the number of games you play to be able to do that.
I’m the only coach that’s interested in doing that, so… People should make those decisions beyond us.  They should do it based on what is in the best interest of our league and college football in general. ”

He added that those who had a rough schedule and finished with a losing record should go to bowl games: “I think they should pick everybody like they do in basketball.  If you go 5‑7, you have a quality schedule, you can still get in a bowl game, rather than somebody trying to manipulate their schedule, go 6‑6 so they can get in a bowl game.”

Excellent. Does that include playing ‘bigger’ opponents in Cowboys Stadium or in the Georgia Dome instead of playing home/home schedules, which would liven up college football beyond belief. I know that Alabama fans would rather have a home/home against Michigan – with the chance to go up to Ann Arbor as they did to Beaver Stadium a few years ago – rather than play in the more placid Cowboys Stadium? And does that include playing ‘lesser schools’ too?

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 Pinkel had dismissed links to death and injury with fast-paced offenses as ‘fiction’, something that Bielema was asked about….

He said: “Not to carry from last year, but I’m probably more of a reality‑based movie guy more than fiction, I guess.  I think I deal more in what I know, what I see, what I believe. 
Have I softened in my view of fast‑paced offenses?  The only thing I’m going to say to that, if you ask me in that tense, you’re asking me have I softened my view on player safety.  The answer would be no.  If I recruit somebody, bring them into my family, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure they’re the most well‑equipped, educated to make player safety a premium in our program….
I firmly believe right now the reason Arkansas never had a call against them is because of the education we gave them as coaches. 
So I firmly believe that, yes, our responsibility as coaches is player safety.  However that comes about, whether it be a 10‑second rule in the future, whether it be a substitution mandatory rule that a committee comes in place and sets in college football, I think the game is going to be a safer one because of it. 
As far as playing no‑huddle offenses, it is absolutely probably one of the most enjoyable things I can have as a coach.  We played Oregon in the Rose Bowl.  Lost a heartbreaker at the end.  I believe it was a field goal or two‑point difference.  Whatever it was, it was a back‑and‑forth game.  There’s nothing more enjoyable than to see a no‑huddle offense sitting on the sideline and can’t stand it. 
But to do that you have to play really good defense and you have to play well on offense.  For my formula to work and complete wins, you have to be able to be good offensively, defensively and on special teams.  All three have to work together. 
A lot of times no‑huddle offenses can play really good offense and bad defense and still win.  That’s just not how I’m going to work.  I have seen a couple good fiction movies, though, so I know good fiction when I see it.  Had to give you guys one to run (smiling). ”

Strange, because coach-wise, he’s still tight with the King of the fast-pace offense in the SEC, one Gus Malzahn. He called his attitude towards the Auburn coach as “greatly respected”, adding: “We don’t necessarily see eye‑to‑eye on certain things…..Gus runs an offensive style and philosophy that is completely opposite of what I believe in, but who can argue with his success.  That makes me respect him even more.”

He adds that none of his conversations with Malzahn have been about player safety, but it’s been respectful (a word he used a lot during his press conference). “I can’t say that we’re breaking bread together and going to dinner when we can, but I’m not throwing bread at him and rocks and everything else.  It’s just what it is.  Greatly respected. ”

He said that the biggest thing he had to get used to coming from Wisconsin to Fayetteville was not the crowds or the passion (Wisconsin’s crowds were pretty deep on both), but “winning versus losing” was definitely hard to take. “It’s quite simple,” he said.  “I’d been able to have a tremendous amount of success, won three straight championships.  That’s why I came here.  I didn’t come here to lose. I expect to go 3‑9.  On the same account, I didn’t expect to win it my first year.  What I’ve done is sustain what I believe helps you win.  Understand that the only way to change the results of a 3‑9 season is to change what you’re doing.”

He also said that he expects Nick Marshall to open the season as starting quarterback for Auburn against his Razorbacks, despite his citation for marijuana. “I think knowing what I know as a head coach, Nick will be there.  I think we want to play against the best and I’m sure he’ll be there,” he said.

He added some fuel to the fire concerning his school’s rivalry with Texas A&M, and the fact that it is moving to Cowboys Stadium, home of Arkansas alum and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones: “We go and try to recruit as many as we can with the state border.  You have Jerry Jones who stands for everything in the NFL.  He’s one of the hugest Hog fans you’ll ever meet.  I heard him quoted as saying, to have the Super Bowl, to have all these high‑profile events in his stadium, but to have Texas A&M play Arkansas is one of the most rewarding in his career.  For a guy to say that means we want to stay true to that tradition….To go to a kid in the state of Texas and let him know every year you’re going to play in Cowboy Stadium, nobody else in the SEC can say that except for the guys at Texas A&M.  That’s a huge recruiting advantage and one we’ll capitalize on. ”

The full transcript of Bret Bielema’s speech at the SEC Media Days can be read here….

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 year. You know, until they lose a game they shouldn’t. 

COACH MILES:  Afternoon.  It’s always great to be back.  It means the summer’s over and we’re getting ready to get ready.
It’s my 10th year of these.  How fortunate I’ve been to lead the Tigers into battle.  I review the very quality players that I’ve been fortunate to coach.  The three guys that we have in here representing us this year are just the style of men that you’d love to spend a decade with.
The SEC Media Days are 1200 credentials and a bunch of chaos.  It kind of lets you know how important the job you have is and how much you enjoy that piece.
I told Commissioner Slive in the last five minutes congratulations on Cox Cable picking up the SEC Network and the fact that there will be a bunch of people in Baton Rouge excited to watch the Tigers.  I won’t have to change my cable provider.
The Miles family, Smacker Miles, I took a vacation, I went to Austin, took my three children with me, so we had six, two parents and four children on that campus.  It was miserable.  I hated it.  But it was great fun.  I mean, it was not a beach, it was not sand, but it was my family, and that was the best.
Manny is my eldest son.  He’s pitching and playing football.  FIFA was on TV.  He decided to pick up a soccer ball, called up a couple buddies, he was in a soccer game for four hours.  Think about that, right?
My Macy Miles is pitching in fast‑pitch softball in Orlando, Florida, at the World Series.  Certainly there’s a lot of media there, as well.  She’s in a 10‑and‑under league.  She has a 4‑0 win as a pitcher, no hit.  A very quality smasher’s club that she faced this morning.
They’re growing up.  Young family arrived.  My oldest was 10, she’s 20.  My youngest was one.  I carried her into Baton Rouge, and she’s 11.  Anyways…
Team overview.  This is our fourth straight 10‑victory season.  We return 16 starters:  six on offense, seven on defense, three on special teams.  We’re a team that’s really on the cusp of an opportunity to win championships.
If you look at the three games we lost, turnovers played a very significant role.  It’s an annual battle.  Certainly we have, in my opinion, the style of team that can win championships.  The necessity to do some of those things better year in and year out can make a difference.
The program is graduating our guys in the 70%.  We’re going to put 16 juniors in the NFL the last two years.  We played what was 19 true freshmen in the last two years.  95 victories, 60 drafted, which is second only to one other team not in our conference, and 13 first‑rounders.
So we’re a program that achieves.  We recruited the second nationally ranked team in the last year.  We’re a team that will expect some of these freshmen to come in and play.  Leonard Fournette and Malaci Dupre, C.J. Garrett and Brandon Harris, to name four freshmen that we would expect to have great impact on our season.
102,000 in Tiger Stadium.  If you thought we were loud before, we just got louder.  How fortunate it is for us to play in such a great venue.
Offensively, quarterback will be Anthony Jennings or Brandon Harris.  It will be a very competitive event from the start to the finish.  Cam Cameron, a guy who’s made a career mentoring quarterbacks, is our offensive coordinator, will do the exactly right things with those guys.  You’ll see how well a freshman can execute at quarterback.
The veteran offensive line will certainly give those guys some time.  La’ el Collins and Jerald Hawkins will be two of the finest tackles in our league.  We’ll be veteran at the guards and at the center.  It should give the opportunity for that offense to continue up and down the field.
We have two very quality tightends, really a quality list there of guys.  But we have Dillon Gordon, who is coming into his junior year, 6’4″, 285‑pounder that can run and catch as well as block.  We’ll be able to put a very, very competitive group out there at that spot.
At runningback, we’ll have two veterans with Terrence Magee and Kenny Hilliard.  And we’ll have two freshmen, Leonard Fournette, who is the number one tailback in the country ranked, and Darrel Williams, who is a very, very talented young freshman.  We’ll be talented there.
At fullback Connor Neighbors comes back with a lot of experience.  A very talented guy.
At wide receiver, the two veterans, Travin Dural, who had a very strong spring, made the great catch against Arkansas at the end of the game to win it, and is really developing really nicely.  Those young freshmen, Malaci Dupre, Trey Quinn, D.J. Chark, Tony Upchurch, those guys have all been looked at by our players.
There’s a constant rumble in our building about the abilities that they have to go get a ball and participate.  Trey Quinn continues to be reviewed by our players, because our coaches hadn’t seen him, as a guy that’s really experienced and understands, has great ball skills.  So we’re really excited.
The defense will be led by John Chavis in his sixth year.  I think he’s the best in the business.  I think he’s a guy that gives us real advantages in scheme, understands the ability and the ways to get the best out of our players.
In the defensive line, everybody that lines up against us will have to know where we play our defensive ends because Danielle Hunter and Jermauria Rasco again may arguably be two of the finest defensive ends in the country, will play a group of young of defensive tackles who are anywhere from 6’4″, 310 pounds, and they’re all going to give you a very, very strong presence inside.  So I think our defensive line will be great.
I think our linebackers will have speed.  D.J. Welter is our mike backer, just continues to play better and better.  Kwon Alexander may be the most active.  He’ll run under 4.5.  Lamar Louis, another tailback in high school, runs under 4.5.  Deion Jones may be the fastest linebacker that we have.
We’re going to have speed and ability there.  When you change the formation, that linebacking corps is challenged.  That will be a great group for us.
In the secondary, Tre’Davious White and Rashard Robinson return at corner.  Safeties, we come off of an injury with Corey Thompson.  Ronald Martin continues to improve, had a great summer, lost weight.
Two freshmen that I want to mention at safety, Jamal Adams and John Battle.  I think both those guys will come in and play significant roles for us there.
In special teams, Bradley Dale Peveto, who coordinated the national championship year returns.  We were 13 of 14 with Colby Delahoussaye at field‑goal kicker.  Our kickoff guy we lose, but Trent Domingue, a very quality guy on our team, has a big leg.  Cameron Gamble comes in, and Kyle Pfau.
There will be great competition there.  We figure the opportunity to kick it out or play a nice tall ball, go down there with speed and hit it, will be available to us.
Punter Jamie Keehn returns.  Big, strong legs.  Certainly will have his most consistent years.  We will have the style of returners that LSU will be comfortable with.  Jamal Adams, Tre’Davious White, to name a few.  Terrence Magee will return on kickoffs.
In conclusion, our kids have had a great summer.  Our players, our team.  They’ve paid a tremendous price.  With the opportunity to have quality two‑a‑days, hard work, do it one step at a time.  We have advantages.
Who’s picked?  I would be willing to bet that not many picked Auburn a year ago.  So what generally seems to me to be our position is, Don’t bother us, we don’t care, we just want to work, we want to improve, we want to play one game at a time, we want to point at the next opponent.
We understand that doesn’t mean that we’re in the immediate talk, but if we continue to do the things we’ve done in the past, we’ll earn our way.
I like us.  I like us in every game.
Any questions?

Q.  Obviously having 18 juniors going out the last two years, having to replace them, is it kind of a Catch‑22 that you can point to all those guys getting drafted but you still have the holes to fill each year?
COACH MILES:  Yeah, we’d like to have those guys back.  I keep approaching the NFL on an opportunity for us to draft back some of our players that they take.  Patrick Peterson, he’d have come back (smiling).
But there’s a responsibility that the coaching staff has to see a void that will potentially occur and we have to recruit to that void.  We have to make sure that our style of recruiting is the style of recruiting that we get an athlete that has a want to be something special, then that guy steps in and plays as a true freshman.  Although not optimal, it’s certainly something we’ve done.
Patrick Peterson was a guy that was recruited to a void that was similar.
We would like to have our guys give view to staying through and not approach a draft position where if you’re a third‑rounder that you would leave as opposed to wait and let that first‑round go‑ahead into the NFL and immediately move your draft status up because every year there’s going to be a first round.  32 teams are going to pick.  They’re going to take them off the board.  I would like to see some of those guys return.
It is not necessarily optimal.  But we will absolutely deal with those young guys that are capable.  Look forward to leave in what will be three years.

Q.  Could you talk about how Leonard Fournette is doing as a person and player since he’s gotten on campus?  No matter what going forward, how does he pan out?  Do you plan to do the runningback thing by committee?
COACH MILES:  Leonard Fournette is doing exactly what he should be doing.  He’s getting in the weight room, running, getting in great shape.  Pursuing the classroom, got great grades.  He’s quiet.  He’s not assuming.  He’s humble in his approach.
I think it’s exactly where he needs to be.  He expects himself to be something very special.  I think if you look at Michael Jordan, he could not have been coached to be Michael Jordan.  Michael Jordan accepted the role of expecting him to be better than any.
I think he has a quiet confidence there that will benefit him, and I think we will always have an opportunity to play at that spot, the runningbacks that are fresh.
I think that’s an advantage.  If you look at Terrence Magee, we’ve gotten them tired.  There have been times when he just busted a big run, took significant contact.  Kenny Hilliard had just played.  In fact, we will need those guys that have fresh legs.
I think you can always kind of count on that from us.

Q.  This time last year Cam Cameron had a veteran crew.  How have you seen his approach change now that he has to teach the younger guys?
COACH MILES:  He has not been involved, to be honest with you.  Right now we’re going to work out seven hours a week.  So that allows our assistant coaches to have an hour with any of our players, one hour a week.
The approach, we got a real quality young freshman, a nice sophomore at quarterback, we’re going to bring him on in a way that he can execute and do the things that benefit our team.
I think he’s doing a great job, but we’re not in the position.  You get me 14 practices in in two‑a‑days, I’ll tell you a little bit more.

Q.  I was curious about your thoughts on the College Football Playoff system.  The BCS had been quite kind to the SEC, especially the last eight years.  Any concern about how this playoff will play out for the conference moving forward?
COACH MILES:  Yeah, I think the Playoff system is something that college football nationally wanted.  I think it’s a quality attempt.  I think the Playoffs will eventually at some point in time expand.
I think that the Playoff will be equally kind to the SEC.  The reason I say that is because there’s just such quality competition here.  The teams week in and week out are so prepared, so capable and talented.  For them not to include one and possibly more in that Playoff would be, I don’t know, maybe shortsighted.

Q.  With Anthony Jennings and Brandon Harris, you have two quarterbacks that can run.  They’re the only two scholarship quarterbacks you have, how do you temper the play calling for calling runs and try to protect them from getting hurt?
COACH MILES:  We always have a quality tailback in that game.  The opportunity to call runs for our tailbacks is something we will do and routinely do.  We’re not in a position where we have to dial up a quarterback carry.  It’s not just something that we have to do.
You’ll find we’ll have a very like approach that we’ve had.  Zach Mettenberger didn’t carry many balls either.  I guess my point to you is we haven’t really changed the offense.

Q.  You mentioned the expansion, 102,000 seats.  Without argument one of the best environments in college football.  You’re opening at a neutral site that hasn’t sold out.  As a head coach, I would expect you would want to exploit that home‑field advantage as much as possible. 
COACH MILES:  We like to play as home, there isn’t any question.  We enjoy walking down the hill to that stadium.  We enjoy the style of people that come in there that are intimately attached to our football team, and that the opponent has a very difficult time getting the ball snapped.  We understand the advantages.
We also recognize that when you take a team, you’re playing a very quality opponent, certainly Wisconsin is that, in a neutral‑site game, and you’re in a position where as a program you’re going to be challenged, there’s a real necessity to answer that challenge that allows a level of execution and allows a level of play that you need to start the season with.
I think there’s some advantages to that.  I think Houston is right down the street for us.  It’s a very quality place to play at and recruit, too.
I look forward to it.  I’ve been in that stadium before.  That will be a great venue.  A very competitive game.  Should be a lot of fun.

Q.  You’ve had these sort of big games off the bat before, the Oregon game triggered a big season.  Talk about this Wisconsin game.  It has major implications.  This is a dangerous team.  Talk about how you’re approaching that game. 
COACH MILES:  They’re talented.  They play offense, defense, special teams in a very physical manner.  We recognize the challenge.  Our program has taken these challenges.
North Carolina, Virginia Tech, great Oregon team.  I mean, it’s an opportunity for us to raise our level of play and really expect that those freshmen that are going to step to the field, those underclassmen that are now being counted on to show that they can play big roles for the Tigers, that they’re ready to do so in the first game.
So we recognize they’re a very quality football team, but we’ll look forward to the competition, as well.

Q.  You lost two starters at the defensive tackle position.  Quentin Thomas is the only guy left with in‑game experience.  Has he been a leader for the young guys?  How has the youth done in the off‑season so far?
COACH MILES:  Christian LaCouture we would expect to be a starter for us inside, has had a great spring, played significantly in the fall, and really we would expect that he would be a guy that would step right in there.
Quentin Thomas is also a guy that played a lot of ball in the fall.  He has really matured, really defined himself as a guy that can give great contribution there.
But we have a number of guys behind that, some of which are true freshmen, some of which are guys true sophomores that we are really looking forward to getting to the field in keeping those first two guys fresh.

Q.  Brandon Harris, highly recruited guy.  What do you like about his game?
COACH MILES:  Well, the key piece is he really throws the ball well.  I mean, he is a guy that has real strength.  He’s innately accurate.  He’s got great footwork.  He can extend a play, get out of the pocket, move around.
But probably the best thing about him is he anticipates that great play, too.  He has the opportunity to see it and has the arm to get it there.
There’s some real advantages with him.

Q.  Without having the numbers in front of me, you’ve probably had more underclassmen leave for the NFL Draft over the last four or five years than any school in the country.  Has it had a deleterious effect, harmful effect?  You mentioned freshmen.  Do you just consider them three‑and‑done guys now?  Seems like you’ve had the most early exits. 
COACH MILES:  Absolutely we have had the most early exits in the NFL Draft.  I think there’s a real challenge to any program that loses a senior and junior class.  I think in the last two drafts, it’s been eight juniors.  We do lead college football in three‑and‑outs.
Certainly there’s a group of men that’s very deserving if you look at Pat Peterson, ‘KeKe’ Mingo, Eric Reid, those guys that are first‑round guys.  I think there’s no question that that is the dream of most high school players that are great players.  That is they would put themselves in position to get their degree and have the opportunity to be highly drafted, drafted very early in the first round, and go on to the NFL.
I think that is a positive, very correct position for those guys.  I think the third‑round player really questions the fact whether or not I should come back, whether or not I should allow that first round to leave, and for me to increase my draft status, play for a championship, and get my degree.
We’re approaching it.  We want our guys to see the opportunity.  But many times, you know, those decisions are made in a way that reflects the need of the family.
If you say getting a degree is certainly a quality outcome for college, and certainly we’ve graduated our guys in the high 70s, and if you say playing championship football is significant, then the NFL, that actual outcome of going to the NFL in a drafted position, is really pretty positive.
It’s hard for me to, you know, ultimately say and convince one of those guys, like Stevan Ridley, who left in the third round, who stars for the New England Patriots.  It’s very difficult for me to bemoan that position.

Q.  I know winning trumps all.  What are some other factors that are key in staying at a school for a long tenure like you have?
COACH MILES:  I think, first of all, you have to have a great school.  I think the opportunity that we present in recruiting is, it’s a place you’re going to get your degree, you’re going to play championship football, you’re going to play one of the historic venues in college football.  I think you have to have one of those.  I recognize how fortunate I’ve been to be at LSU for the length of time that I have.
I honor the young men that I’ve coached.  I recognize the advantages that we have.
I think if you’re a guy that really doesn’t spend time on where you’re ranked, you’re a guy that spends time on how to coach ’em, how to make ’em better, I think there is an advantage.

Q.  You were touting the second network.  How will having your own network be even more of an advantage?
COACH MILES:  Yeah, I think it’s 24/7, start to finish.  When you’re telling those players, you want your family to see you, you want to be covered, you want national acclaim, you want to have an opportunity at national awards, if you want to be on television, if there’s that opportunity, if you recognize that with the network there should be an income per member that allows that member to serve the student‑athlete at a very, very high level, I think it’s just tremendously positive.
We’re a society of immediacy.  If you can see the coach on TV and if you can see how the practice is, you can see strength and humor, hard work, all the things that fit with the need of the 18‑year‑old college student‑athlete, I think the advantages are having that network.  I think the advantages are many.

Q.  I’d be remiss in asking why you hated your time in Austin so much. 
COACH MILES:  Oh, no, no, no.  It was just not vacation.  I loved it.  My daughter’s doing wonderfully there.  I enjoy the experience she’s having, okay?
But it was not a beach.  There was no hotel that I walked out and jumped into the surf.
But the great news is, as a family, we did some things we never would have done.  I’m glad you asked this question (laughter).
Example.  We rented bikes.  It just happened to rain like hell.  There was a bunch of hills down there.  I want you to know something.  As a father, I’m watching my kids going down this hill.  I promise you, some of the experiences I had there, I’ll not have again (laughter).

Q.  Can Kevin Sumlin dominating the state in recruiting, you playing down the street in Houston, Alabama just announced a second game in Arlington, is the SEC taking over the state of Texas?
COACH MILES:  I think our conference is a conference of choice.  I think there’s an opportunity for the very best players to want to play in this conference.  I’m also a coach that coached in the Big 12 Conference and recognized the great advantages of Texas, recognized the great advantages of the OUs in that conference.
But you look at a high school athlete, you want to play against the very best, we can make that argument at the SEC.

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.

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 his team, Pinkel insisted that despite the loss of the player, there were other options on offense where the team could go.

Team-mate Even Boehm said about the incident: “It sucks the way it happened, how everything went down. But he’s where he wants to be right now.”

We already know that his QB is going to be Maty Mauk, who threw for 11 TDs and just 2 INTs for 1,071 yards last year. That’s for certain. Mauk came with him to Hoover. Mauk is some people’s Heisman candidate for the 2014 season. Pinkle said: “The bad news was that we lost our starting QB for 4 games; good news is a Redshirt freshman came in and played at the high level.” He added that Mauk’s leadership style was “very non-threatening“, adding that teammates “like the way he leads… He’s a very natural leader. … He’s a winner and players know it. He leads in a very positive way.”

In short, Pinkel said, Mauk has the ‘it’ factor. Speaking of ‘it’ factor, Mauk called one Johnny Manziel the “greatest player to ever play college football.”

He said about the loss of receivers such as L’Damian Washington as well as Green-Beckham: “We lost quite a few receivers. Good ones.” Mizzou’s beat writer Dave Matter also commented that Pinkel has said over and over again that he doesn’t have to use receivers for the job of catching….he could use running backs as receivers, too.

Some coaches in the SEC are not a fan of no huddle offenses, because, they say, it is dangerous. “I don’t buy the health issue in any way…I think that is fiction“, Pinkel – who loves a fast-paced offense himself – replied. Although about his colleagues in the SEC’s offenses, he noted that Auburn’s was “very, very confusing.”

He added about the team’s strength at defensive end: “Some of the guys said the backup guys are better than the first-team guys. It’s all about depth.” They’d better have depth. Missouri returns only 8 starters (4 on offense, 4 on defense)…the fewest returning starters in the SEC. In short, a lot of people are expected a far worse year for the Tigers….even if Pinkel doesn’t ‘care’ what the writers think.

Pinkel also voiced his frustration at players leaving Missouri early for the NFL. “The frustration, for all of us, is players for the wrong reasons coming out early. And many of them don’t even get drafted.”

Missouri’s second game of the season will be at Toledo, who were expected to give Florida everything it could handle in 2013 but didn’t. Pinkel answered: “They have a rich tradition of beating good football teams. … As I usually am I’m scared to death.”