As day four of 2023 SEC Media Days has come and gone, we dive
into a quick recap to wrap up the week’s festivities. Coaches who
took the podium were Josh Heupel(Tennessee), Lane Kiffin(Ole
Miss), and Shane Beamer(South Carolina).
1. Tennessee
First up was Josh Heupel and the Volunteers. They are
coming off their best season in decades as they finished with an 11-2
record, defeating the Clemson Tigers 31-17 in the Orange Bowl.
Along the way they also finished the season with the number one
offense in the entire country averaging a whopping 46.1 points per
game, while racking up 525.5 yards per game. The Journey wasn’t
easy though given the last staff’s mishaps, which led to
investigations. He went on to say, “When I took over two years ago, there was so much uncertainty that surrounded our program in late January. Because of the connection and accountability and the love and trust we’ve built inside of the building with our players and staff, we’ve been able to climb relatively quickly.” Look for it to
stay that way.
2. Ole Miss
Next up was Lane Kiffin and boy, he sure didn’t
disappoint. While he is known to talk a lot more than the usual
coach, he went all the way on the deep end with this one. He spoke
about his dismay with the NIL and its format, with it basically being
a “pay-to-play” system along with other things saying, “I was just thinking on the plane ride over here, what if you had that in other sports? Tom Brady, A’Ja Wilson, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, what if every year those guys can opt to free agency — twice a year —and they have no long-term contracts? Basically, everybody is not even on a one-month contract because they can leave in two windows,” Kiffin said. “It’s created a lot of issues and roster changes.” I agree with some of it, but that’s just the name of the game
these days. Either adapt or get left behind.
3. South Carolina
Finishing the regular season with huge wins over potential
playoff contenders Tennessee and Clemson, the Gamecocks are
definitely excited but still hungry for more. Even with those big
wins, they still only finished the season winning eight games while also
dropping their bowl game 45-38 to Notre Dame. Beamer went on to
say, “It’s a big thing with us and a big message: no complacency. We can’t assume that because things went well for us last season —because we won eight games and accomplished a lot of firsts — that it’s just automatically going to go that way again because we have returning players.” With Spencer Rattler returning at QB along with
a nice recruiting class, the gamecocks should improve.
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