Ready for more coach-speak? SEC Media Days begin on Monday in ATL

The world’s most dreaded quartet is Pestilence, War, Famine and Death, also known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

But from here, the most dreaded quartet is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in mid-July, also known as Southeastern Conference Media Days.

Of course, the annual SEC event isn’t as terrifying as the equestrians from Revelations. But facing four days of coach-speak in a freezing hotel ballroom can be ominous, especially considering little to nothing usually is revealed.

Robotic coaches typically recycle comments from spring football press conferences, booster club appearances and SEC Spring Meetings. Reporters must somehow type out new, updated content with numb fingers.

Sure, it’s a first-world problem, but it’s my problem. I’ll embrace a rare quote or breaking story that adds some fire to the four-day doldrums.

Actually, there was a time when those juicy quotes weren’t so rare.

One can help but miss the days of Steve Spurrier, who, as South Carolina’s coach in 2015, said: “I sort of always liked playing (Georgia) that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended.”

Andrew Kilzer, TexAgs

Steve Spurrier won 126 SEC games during his 23 years in the league between his tenures at Florida and South Carolina.

Gold.

Then there was the Tim Tebow incident of 2009. One SEC coach had not voted for the Heisman Trophy-winning Florida quarterback for the preseason all-conference team.

A Florida reporter asked each of the then-12 coaches whether he’d voted for Tebow. Eleven confirmed they did.

As luck would have it, Spurrier’s was the last press conference that year. He opened his by saying, “It was me.”

Spurrier revealed — maybe the last revelation of SEC Media Days — he’d instructed a staff member to fill out his ballot. The staffer, feeling Florida was sufficiently represented on the team, voted for Jevan Snead of Ole Miss.

Tebow always attracted a lot of attention. Unlike most players, who talk with reporters in the corners of the ballroom, Tebow answered questions from the podium usually reserved for coaches in 2009.

It might have been that year when Clay Travis, then a fledgling local radio host in Nashville, asked Tebow if he was “saving himself for marriage.”

Four years later, Texas A&M Heisman Trophy-winner Johnny Manziel drew the biggest crowd of reporters since Tebow.

However, Manziel was not stationed at the coach’s podium like Tebow was. Also, unlike Tebow, Manziel was not asked if he was saving himself for marriage.

It was just assumed he was not.

Although Manziel commanded so much attention, the most interesting SEC Media Days involving A&M was the prior year.

That was the first year in the SEC for A&M and Missouri. Reporters, players and even some coaches viewed the Aggies as lambs going to slaughter.

Arkansas' Knile Davis, who boasted he was the best running back in the SEC, said: “I hear the rookies been talkin’ noise. Sayin’ the SEC ain't all that. They'll see.”

That year, A&M went 11-2 and defeated Arkansas, 58-10. Davis rushed for 377 yards that season. Seems he was wrong a lot.

TexAgs

The 2025 edition of SEC Media Days returns to Atlanta’s College Football Hall of Fame for the third time (2018, 2022).

To be fair, sometimes Aggies have made erroneous statements, too.

In 2019, A&M’s Kellen Mond declared himself the best quarterback in the SEC.

Mond had a very good year with 2,897 passing yards. But in ’19, Joe Burrow passed for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns en route to winning the Heisman Trophy and leading LSU to the national championship.

Two years ago, A&M coach Jimbo Fisher perhaps misspoke when asked about relinquishing play-calling control to new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino.

“He'll call a lot of — hopefully he'll call the game,” Fisher said. “We'll have suggestions on things we do, whether it's offense or defense. Every coach is always involved.”

Eyebrows were raised. Hopefully? Every coach is involved? That reply raised more questions than answers.

At least that quote provided excellent material for an updated column. That doesn’t always happen often at SEC Media Days.

By the way, later that season, Fisher was fired. Looking back, Fisher’s curious quote proved to be an ominous response.

Almost as ominous as facing four dreaded days of coach-speak in a freezing hotel ballroom.