2014 SEC PREVIEW: Can Missouri shock the SEC East AGAIN?

As we’re in the swing of doing our SEC previews, we thought that as the SEC Conference 2013 winners were first up on The SEC Football Blog SEC Preview, then the 2013 SEC Conference runners-up (aka ‘Winners of the SEC East) should be second on the list. Then we can go with 2013’s also-rans.  So we start with Missouri. I can’t wait to see Maty Mauk. I was really, really excited to see Maty Mauk link up with Dorial Green-Beckham, until Gary Pinkel booted him out of Columbia. But I’m still excited to see Maty Mauk. Oh, and there was some stuff about a guy called Michael Sam, too.  LAST SEASON Missouri shocked the WORLD in 2013 when they won

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2014 SEC Preview: Can Auburn make it two straight SEC Championships?

The 2014 SEC season is nearly upon us, so it’s high time (no pun intended, Nick Marshall) that we start our round of 14 SEC previews with the Auburn Tigers. We were thinking about starting with favorites Alabama, or the Yell Boys at Texas A&M, but we realised that we do previews, we start with the Champions – and those were the Tigers, who beat Missouri in a 59-42 shoot-out in Atlanta. Anyway, here’s your preview of the 2014 Auburn Tigers. LAST SEASON This was an incredible season to be an Auburn fan. ‘War Eagle’ finished 12-1 and 7-1 in the SEC, with their only loss coming at LSU. They beat Alabama and Georgia in stunning circumstances, with ‘Kick-Six’ and

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Safety de-commits from Florida…and flips to UGA

Safety Deontai Williams has de-committed from Florida, and instead has set his sights to play for Georgia. The 6-0, 175lb Williams, who hails from Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, FL, was rated 3-stars by 24-7sports.com, who were the first to report the news. Georgia’s new defensive co-ordinator Jeremy Pruitt was given the credit for ‘flipping’ Williams. Williams was also given offers by LSU, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Louisville, Boise State, and Purdue amongst others. Louisville had been named early leaders. Williams follows up from the commitment of 6-3, 190lb WR Shaquery Wilson from Coral Gables, FL. Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Virginia and Louisville were among the teams to have offered Wilson, a 3-star player.    

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SEC Media Days: Our Quick Coaches’ Press Conference Awards

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

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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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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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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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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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