2010 SEC Media Days: Off The Football Field, Anything Can Happen

Next up as SB Nation's college football crew gets ready for SEC Media Days: the mysterious PodKATT, who manages And The Valley Shook, SB Nation's LSU blog. He won't be at the media circus this week down in Hoover, Ala., but he still has some thoughts on it, as you would expect. He was kind enough to share a few with SBNation.com.

SEC Media Days for LSU fans is usually more fun when listening to the other coaches. We've never really had a coach on the level of the OBC and his "Can't spell ciTrUs" lines. Saban was just as pissed back then as he is now with the Bama media, which made for some awkward silences, but no really memorable bits. Miles has certainly been friendlier to the crowds, but he remains neutral behind the mic when it comes to talking about the rest of the league. 

On the other hand, talking about LSU has seldom done him any favors with the mob that waits back home in Baton Rouge. Surely Miles will say something that will become the meme repeated endlessly by those hoping for his ouster. In 2008 it was "Defensively we promote within." Neither Mallory nor Peveto survived that year. In 2009, "Best Offensive Line Ever" led to a line that most certainly wasn't. 

Who knows what it will be this year, but realistically his time will be filled with some innocuous coach-speak. More than likely we'll get a few words about how Jefferson is the leader of this team and taking responsibility. Maybe he'll talk about how they are trusting him more with decision making or how they are gonna "open up the playbook" more than last season.

It's unfortunate that the format calls for one coach and three players because I think many Tiger fans would like to hear from our new wide receivers coach and "Passing Game Coordinator" Billy Gonzales about what exactly he plans to do with the offense this season. Patrick Peterson will talk about how he's the best cornerback on the planet right now, then some cocky Nashville radio guy will ask Kelvin Sheppard if he's saving himself for marriage. I hope the cameras are rolling for that one.

Joel Hollingsworth is the manager of Rocky Top Talk, SB Nation's stellar Tennessee Volunteers blog. He, too, will be making the voyage to this week's SEC Media Days, and he stopped by SBNation.com to weigh in on the Vols, who of course have another new football coach this year.

Vols fans can probably predict most of the questions that will be asked by a national media that is getting its first real crack at Derek Dooley at SEC Media Days this week. Expect multiple variations on the theme of how Dooley is different from Lane Kiffin. Expect, too, creatively paraphrased queries about how long Dooley thinks it will take to change the culture and perception of the program and, ultimately how long it will take to make the team competitive again.

Expect all of your standard answers to such questions, too: It's a process; It takes time; I'm not trying to be different than the previous guy, I just am.

If that's all that happened this week in Hoover, Dooley would return home to Knoxville even in the expectations game, which is really a win with that many media members present. But the real magic, if there is any, will come in the specifics that lie just below the surface. Like how long Dooley thinks it will take to just get the team back to 85 scholarship players in light of the NCAA's limitations on "oversigning" and on the number of players a program can take in any given year. Like what he's told seniors Chris Walker and Nick Reveiz who have been doing everything right for four or more years and yet still have to share in the negative consequences of teammates' bad behavior.

Yes, we've had a limited sample size, but Vol fans have found Dooley to be most impressive when he's addressing the details. He's refreshing, candid even. For a rookie walking into the SEC Media Days frenzy straight from Louisiana Tech, he actually won't be intimidated. He's much more likely to answer whatever question is put to him with insight, eloquence, a touch of humor, and no more than a seasoning of coach-speak.

If given the opportunity, expect Dooley to put three years of law school and the Socratic method to good use this week in Hoover, and expect the national media to return to their computers impressed.

Since this will be my third SEC Media Days, I feel like I can give the reader an intimate and deadly accurate picture of the true beast that will be 2010 Media Days.

First, this is a press corps, and they’re going to be locked in a room with laptops clicking away for three days straight with access to caffeine, recirculated air, and in short bursts the coaches and players from each school. Compare this to other conferences and their one day affairs, and you are looking at a herd of people desperate for storylines and action.

Consequently, you may get overblown stories like last year’s single coaches’ vote for Jevan Snead over Tebow (Spurrier, in a clerical error) in the all-SEC preseason rankings. These happen, and in good years are blown out of the way by really fun stories like Phil Fulmer getting subpoenaed in the lobby. In bad years you will have to filter through them and hope a coach provides an entertaining soundbite or two.

Second, the players make for better entertainment than is advertised since coaches bring players with them who are both comfortable in the limelight and able to function well in the public square. Sometimes this is a Tim Tebow performance, a one man soundbite machine who spilled out easy copy effortlessly, and sometimes it’s Dicky Lyons, the Kentucky wide receiver whose long, rambling narrative of a dream he had involving Matthew Stafford and his girlfriend was a surprise hit with stunned reporters.

In the end they’re more fun and often more informative than the coaches, who are mostly there to say little.

Finally, there are obvious storylines going in that some face time can elucidate. Urban Meyer will likely have to have the longest public discussion of his health problems he’s had to this point. Nick Saban will get angry when asked about repeating as national champions, something i regard as a certainty, not a probability. (He will also thank the media, something no other coach does.) Robbie Caldwell, Vanderbilt’s interim coach, can’t possibly be more boring than his recently resigned predecessor, but that’s what under the table wagers between reporters are for, right? And if Les Miles is a second late, well…there will be laughter whether he likes it or not.