In addition to Mizzou, Alabama, Mississippi State and Tennessee took the stage at SEC Media Days. Here's the news from the teams other than the Tigers.
ATLANTA, GA—Wednesday’s morning session at SEC Media Days was center stage for two of the league’s six new head coaches. Mississippi State hired Joe Moorhead away from Penn State after last season to take over for Dan Mullen. And one of the more eventful coaching searches in history eventually led Tennessee to former Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt. Both spoke about the challenges of taking over a program and being a head coach for the first time in the SEC.
Moorhead has been a head coach before, but Fordham and the Patriot League have a spotlight just a few watts short of his new job. But the former Penn State offensive coordinator proved he’s already on board with the marketing department.
“You look around at the event and the people that are here and coverage and slogan that ‘It Just Means More’ really resonates,” Moorhead said. “Not to take away from Patriot League Media Day, which was held at Green Pond Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania certainly this is a little larger in scope and significance.”
But in the end, it’s still football.
“Everybody’s seen the movie Hoosiers, where Norman Dale takes the team before the state championship against Muncie Central, and they are in Butler Fieldhouse,” Moorhead said. “They run the tape measure down from the hoop to the floor, and they see it's ten feet. That's how I feel transitioning here from my time at Penn State and my time at Fordham into the SEC. You know, the field is 53 and a third yards wide. It's 100 yards long. When you're on the field, there's going to be 11 people on the other side.”
Moorhead walks into a team led by all-SEC candidate Nick Fitzgerald at quarterback that won nine games, including a 37-7 thrashing of LSU. New coach or not, the sights are set high in Starkville this season.
“Our goal is to be the best Power Five team in the state, to be the best team in the SEC conference, and ultimately compete to be the best team in the country,” Moorhead said. “Hopefully when things go well to be back here in Atlanta, the first weekend in December competing for the conference championship, and certainly the opportunity to head into the College Football Playoff.”
In Knoxville, Pruitt walks into a far different situation. The Volunteers were winless in league play last year. That had never happened before. They lost their last three league games by a combined 71 points. Tennessee has not won ten games since 2007 and has won more than seven only twice.
“The only thing I can assess is the last six months,” Pruitt said. “I wasn’t at Tennessee the last ten years.”
With little recent success to tout, Pruitt instead spent much of his time talking about Tennessee’s history and “the power of the T.” He also lauded his coaching staff, which has been part of a combined 13 national championships, including five for Pruitt himself as a Nick Saban assistant. Not that he’s expecting his former boss to give him a bunch of tips.
“You think Coach Saban is going to give me advice?” Pruitt said, drawing a chuckle. “As soon as you go put on the other uniform, I can guarantee you, everybody, even though everybody's friends, we want to beat the other guy. You know? So we don't want to give the other person the edge.”
Pruitt has also worked under Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher while both were at Florida State and Miami coach Mark Richt at Georgia.
“Coach Saban, I could sit here and write a book because I worked him the longest. I worked for him for eight years. You know, he was -- everything in Coach Saban's program is defined. He's relentless. Nobody works harder than he does. He's a great coach, great teacher,” Pruitt said. “Coach Richt, you know, the things he taught you, one thing, probably the biggest thing to me is there's more to life than football. I know that sounds -- but there is. And, you know, one of these days, that -- you don't care how many championships you win and all that. So I'm thankful for the opportunity.”
THE TIDE ROLLS ON
A stark contrast to the SEC rookies, Alabama head coach Nick Saban was Wednesday’s headliner.
“When I saw the list earlier in the spring and saw I was speaking on the same day as Coach Saban, I was a little worried I was going to have to go after him,” Joe Moorhead said. “It would be like taking the stage and performing after the Beatles and no one is going to be in their seats and paying attention to what you're doing.”
Saban drew by far the biggest media crowd of the day. The Tide coach’s razor-sharp focus is legendary…which is why one of his players found it so amusing when Saban’s boat ran out of gas on an outing with some players this summer.
“First, we didn’t run out of gas,” Saban said. “It was a brand new boat, first time out and the fuel pump went out.”
Saban said he received probably a hundred gas cans from Alabama fans after the story got out. “So if anybody needs a gas can…”
On a more serious note, everybody wants to know who Saban’s quarterback is going to be this season. Jalen Hurts led the Crimson Tide to the national championship game two years in a row, but was replaced in the second half last season by Tua Tagovailoa, who led Alabama to a comeback win over Georgia. Saban knew the questions were coming so he headed them off in his opening statement.
“I think the number one thing that you will want to talk about is the quarterback controversy that you'd love to create, that you've already created, that you will continue to create, and I will tell you the same thing exists there. It's still to be determined as to who is going to play quarterback for Alabama,” Saban said. “There’s really nothing else to say about it.”
For those hoping Saban might ride into the sunset and open up the SEC for someone else, you might be waiting a while.
“Let me say this: Mrs. Terry does not want me at home. I can tell you that. She doesn't care if I'm 60, 70, or 80. So she's looking for something for me to do,” he said. “Now, I really enjoy what I'm doing right now, and as long as I'm healthy and I can do it, I'm going to continue to do it and not worry about any numbers or what my age is or anything like that.”
We will have complete coverage of Mizzou's session in Atlanta throughout the night and the rest of the week.
