SEC football fans know SEC Media Days is not the start of a new season. The event is not even the end of the SEC’s ‘talking season.’ It is, however, a savory appetite-whetting experience that signals fall camps are not far away.
SEC Media Days is a major college football event. Every SEC head coach and forty or so players are given a highly visible platform to sell themselves and their programs. The event may not actually increase fan passion for SEC football, but it skillfully feeds those passions.
Especially during the offseason, ‘feel good’ stories are relished. Even fans who hate Arkansas and Georgia had to be moved by the video seen below, with an impromptu triple hug moment between Sam Pittman and Nolan Smith.
The moment at #SECMD22 heard round' the South. #Georgia's Nolan Smith and now #Arkansas HC Sam Pittman embracing. "Is it okay if I shake your hand?" Pittman has always had an incredible relationship with players. Pittman played a role in recruiting Smith to #UGA pic.twitter.com/kPot5AsbdJ
— Maria Martin (@Ria_Martin) July 20, 2022
SEC Football Media Days Head Coach Awards
- Sam Pittman earns a ‘good guy’ award – a distinction not new for him from his time at both Georgia and Arkansas.
- Billy Napier got a bit teary-eyed talking about the influence his dad had on Billy’s coaching career. That’s another slam-dunk ‘good guy’ award.
- Mark Stoops earns our third ‘good guy’ award. He was asked what it will mean to him when sometime early in the 2022 season, he will become the Wildcats’ all-time winningest coach. Mark said he has not personally focused on it, but
"I do honestly just personally think about my mother, because I want her to be there. For her to have two sons that have the all-time wins at Power Five programs, with Bob at Oklahoma, myself as Kentucky, that’s really the only focus I have, is on my mother to be able to be there and share in that moment."
Some Alabama football fans may not know the coach Stoops will pass in wins is Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.