Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel speaks to media at SEC media days on Monday in Hoover, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
HOOVER, Ala. — The 2014 SEC Media Days are presently underway. The four-day convention began Monday, prompting hundreds of media members to flock to Hoover, Ala., to talk with SEC coaches, players and other associated SEC personnel.
At 11:30 a.m. Central Standard Time, the lights dimmed for what seemed to be a dramatic entrance for Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive. The commissioners’ annual SEC state of the union address lasted around 21 minutes and helped serve as a report of how successful the conference has been not only in football, but in other sports as well.
“Twelve years ago when I became commissioner of the SEC, one of my goals was to build a bridge to prepare the conference for its future,” Slive said. “What we do today, how we handle our successes and meet our challenges will determine the SEC of tomorrow.”
Slive would go on to mention the scheduling of SEC programs, where the conference will continue with the current eight-game conference schedule to help implement the depth and strength of the conference.
With the SEC Network launching exactly a month from Monday, Slive talked about the network as if it was a “commercial.” Slive mentioned certain shows and programs that the networks will air and the football games that the SEC Network will televise this upcoming season. The network “will carry more than 100 men’s college basketball games, 75 baseball games, and 50 softball games,” Slive said.
Slive quoted Dwight Eisenhower, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela to help hammer his ideas home and it seemed to work on the hundreds of media members in attendance.
The head coach Gus Malzahn of Auburn, the defending conference national champions, led off the teams represented at media days.
There were many questions that Malzahn was ready to face about his Auburn team, including his starting quarterback Nick Marshall, who was cited for possessing 8-10 grams of marijuana Friday afternoon. Marshall was supposed to attend media days in Hoover, but did not attend as decided by Malzahn. Marshall was voted the preseason all-SEC quarterback this season.
“It is a privilege and a reward to represent Auburn here at SEC media days. Last Friday, Nick (Marshall) lost that privilege,” Malzahn said about his quarterback. “We have high expectations for our players, but specifically our quarterback, being the face of our program.”
“Up until last Friday, Nick has been a model student, teammate, and citizen. Nick made a mistake and he’ll have to deal with the consequences.”
When asked if a suspension for Marshall would be a possibility, Malzahn said he hasn’t reached that point yet.
Malzahn soon mentioned that his star defensive end Carl Lawson would miss almost the entire season after undergoing surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament, which would be a big loss for the Tigers.
Malzahn revolutionized offense in college football with the hurry-up, no huddle, fast-paced offense he brought to Auburn last season as a head coach. Many other teams in the country are starting to implement this type of offense after how Malzahn had such success running it last season.
“I think if you look around the country, a lot of college teams are playing fast. Really, if you look at the high school teams, the majority of the high school teams around the country are spreading it out, playing fast,” Malzahn said. “You can look at NFL with Chip Kelly, the success he’s had. I just think that’s where the game’s going.”
Florida head coach Will Muschamp would be next to the podium.
Muschamp faced a lot of scrutiny this offseason, where his Gators went 4-8 for the season, started 4-1 and ended the season losing seven games in a row. After the disappointing season, Muschamp kept his job, which he is, was confident in keeping.
“I think you combat the hot seat talk with having a good team and winning games. Control the controllable is always what I’ve said,” Muschamp said. “I haven’t always practiced it, but try and just control the things I can control. That’s coaching our football team, developing our football team. There was never any time in my mind that I didn’t think I would be retained.”
Muschamp mentioned in his opening statement that this Florida team might be the most complete team he has had since he was hired, and this complete team will help win games and get him off the hot seat.
Starting quarterback Jeff Driskel missed the last nine games of last season with a broken foot suffered against Tennessee. This year, he returns healthy and with a new offensive coordinator to run a more fast-paced offense, Driskel is poised for a bounce-back year.
“I don’t think you really want to put number expectations on yourself, you just want to go in and give your team a chance to win,” Driskel said on his expectations for this season. “Obviously we’re going to need more production from our offense to do that, and I think based off of the spring that we’ll be able to do that.”
When asked about playing for Muschamps’ job, Driskel responded, “We’re not playing for his job, we’re playing for the University of Florida.”
The new head coach on the block in the SEC, Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason, may have been the most impressive coach of the day. The suit and bow tie combo definitely helped his image and made a good first impression on the crowd.
It wasn’t only the fashion choices that helped Mason, which was a very minor factor, but he also showed the poise and bravado that you need to succeed as a head coach in the SEC.
Derek Mason served as the associate defensive coordinator for Stanford under head coach David Shaw the past two seasons. He was hired this offseason to replace former Vanderbilt head coach and current Penn State coach James Franklin. Franklin led the commodores to two-straight nine-win seasons before bolting for Penn State.
Stanford and Vanderbilt are two great academic universities with up-and-coming football programs. Mason said he wants to build a similar program as to the one he helped coach for at Stanford.
“Vanderbilt has its own brand. It sits in the SEC which is the best conference in college football,” Mason said. “For us, when we talk about who we are, what we look like, the idea of using the brand, the brand of academics and athletics, as well as recruiting certain types of young man, and that young man is called the Vanderbilt man.”
Mason made the first bold statement of the four-day spectacle, where he talks about his freshmen making a big impact on his team.
“The biggest addition to our program will be our incoming freshmen. We don’t believe in redshirting at Vanderbilt. What we’ll do is we’ll take out of that class of 22, we’ll probably have 17 guys that will step on the field and play at some point in time this year.”
Mason would add that in order to develop a freshman class, you have to play them.
Tuesday will feature South Carolina, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Tennessee.
For coverage and live updates of the 2014 SEC Media Days, follow @drubino11 and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
