It is easy for Alabama football to have a big fan turnout for SEC Media Days. Having the event in Hoover, AL gives Tide fans easy access.
As much as other conferences would like equal billing, SEC Media Days is the ‘big dog’ of college football previews. Alabama football will be well represented by loyal fans but there will be faithful from other SEC schools as well.
The fan craziness is predictable. Nearly just as assured is a few players and a coach or two will slip up and go off-script. Steve Spurrier used to have lines designed to be viewed as outside the bounds of normal coach-speak. He often employed them as zingers against his biggest rivals, generally Tennessee and Georgia.
Players are carefully coached for what to say and more importantly what not to say. Alabama football players rarely deviate from the plan.
The environment is rather like a rowdy circus parade, filled with actual, center-ring performances. Even if this analogy is too much of a stretch, there is no doubt who is the RingMaster. It is Nick Saban.
Saban may not enjoy the foolishness, but he knows how to play it. The other coaches are just sideshows.
Saban will be bringing three Alabama football players with him and the trio are no surprise. The All-Americans, Tua Tagovailoa, Jerry Jeudy and Dylan Moses will join Nick. The event begins on Monday and ends on Thursday. The big day for Alabama football fans is Wednesday.
Monday opens with Dan Mullen, Ed Orgeron and Barry Odom. Tuesday it will be Kirby Smart, Matt Like, Jeremy Pruitt and Jimbo Fisher. Joining Saban on Wednesday will be Chad Morris, Joe Moorhead and Will Muschamp. As the event limps into day four on Thursday, it will be the perfect time to end with Gus Malzahn, Derek Mason and Mark Stoops. No offense is intended to Stoops or Mason.
Here is a full list of the players representing each school.
For four days the media will rush and stumble, into and on top of every possible storyline. Brash comments from a few players will be magnified into game-changing locker room material. No matter how ill-advised, nothing done or said in July has ever determined the future outcome of a football game.
The best thing about SEC Media Days is what it represents. The event is tabbed as being the unofficial start of the coming football season. For that, we can all be thankful.