FIVE THINGS: From SEC Media Days

Sports Editor Mike Szvetitz and Auburn beat writer Andrew Gribble will be in Hoover for all three days of SEC Media Days. Here are some things they wanted to tell you about.

5. Recession? What recession? From the looks of it here at the lovely Wyndham Hotel, SEC Football is recession-proof. More people than ever are attending SEC football games and more media members than ever are flocking to Hoover for this three-day, over-the-top bash. Don’t be surprised if SEC officials start throwing dollar bills instead of yellow penalty flags in the near future.

4. Anyone who had “four” as the number of questions into SEC Media Days before Florida superstar Tim Tebow was addressed wins. Contact Urban Meyer for your free set of Tebow pajamas.

3. The higher-ups at ESPN opened Wednesday’s ceremonies with a video montage promoting its around-the-clock coverage for the next 50 or so years. The five-minute segment was narrated by ESPN personality Chris Fowler and included various guitar riffs. Mark that down as the most unnecessary segment of SEC Media Days. The vast majority of people in attendance will be at the actual games. Not watching them on TV.

2. Though the transcripts may lead you to believe otherwise, Tebow and Meyer were not in attendance Wednesday. They were just the subject of far too many questions.

1. How confident is the SEC? It opens SEC Media Days, arguably the conference’s most important day of the year, with arguably the four most underwhelming schools in the conference. Expect reporters to attack today’s super-sized lineup of Ole Miss, Florida, Georgia and Alabama with fangs.

-Andrew Gribble

5. One of the best things about SEC Media Days are the questions. And the answers. Anytime you get 1,000 members of the media together in a couple rooms with tons of stories to write, you’re going to get some really good, hard questions.
You’re also going to get the coach’s best efforts to dodge the ones they know they can’t answer. Exhibit A: Arkansas’ Bobby Petrino.
QUESTION: How do you think your career might have been different if Michael Vick had not gone through his problems when you were the coach of the (Atlanta) Falcons?
ANSWER: You know, you don’t think about those things. There’s all the ‘ifs, ands and buts’ of the world. That’s not one you think about. I understand Michael just got out. I wish him well. I think he gets the second chance he needs and does a great job.
Nice stiff-arm, Bobby.

4. Vanderbilt’s Bobby Johnson has the best personality of any coach in the SEC. Sure, Steve Spurrier tells it like it is and loves to engage the media. But Johnson is just funny. He’s quick with the one-liners and never shy to self deprecate. And to be the head coach at Vandy, I guess you have to have to be able to laugh. Same goes for Kentucky’s Rich Brooks.

3. Ballroom C at the Wynfrey Hotel is a lot like a Las Vegas casino. Minus the gambling, the neon, the cocktail waitresses and the pit bosses. But you do lose track of time while in the windowless room. There’s no light. No outside influences. No feeling in your legs. An elephant could be loose in the lobby and if you were in the print media interview room, you’d never know. You’d smell it before you’d hear it.

2. It was the mission of some reporters to figure out which SEC coach didn’t vote for former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow for the conference’s first-team quarterback. Last week, when the coaches’ preseason poll came out, Tebow wasn’t an unanimous vote. He only got 10 votes. And since a head coach can’t vote for his own players, that means someone else didn’t select Tebow No. 1. That person wasn’t in the room Wednesday. Petrino, Johnson, Mullen and Brooks all said they voted for one of the country’s best players.
“I’m not crazy,” Petrino said.

1. Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen had to have had about 10 Red Bulls before taking the podium Wednesday. His opening statement was about 15 minutes, and I think he only stopped to breath three times. He’s the total opposite of his former boss, Florida’s Urban Meyer. Which was refreshing.

-Mike Szvetitz