SEC Media Days Must-Read: The best of Les Miles

Les Miles was awesome when he took the podium at SEC Media Days. Here are some of the best bits. ON …..?  “It appears to me that some of the media have not shaved and have left their car running in the back parking lot, kind of ready to get off to fishing or wherever they’re supposed to be off to. Scooter has way too much sun to be inside. I can tell you that, I did not bring tennis shoes. That is a product of a sports information director who knows that I have an attachment to those shoes. I’m wearing regular shoes and regular socks.” ON QUARTERBACKS “I think Brandon Harris has gotten most of the summer work.

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Stoops: I’m glad the first two years didn’t kill me

Mark Stoops, the Kentucky head coach, spoke at SEC Media Days. Here are some of the best quotes. ON THE EARLY YEARS “Really glad the first two years trying to build this program didn’t kill me.” AND NOW? “And as we move forward, we’ve worked extremely hard to make Kentucky relevant in the SEC East. As we move into this third year, we really feel like we put ourselves in a position to do just that.” ON EXPECTATIONS “We embrace the expectations. I think most of our fan base knows where we had to come from. They expect to see a blue collar, hard working, fun football team out there. That’s what we intend to deliver. As I said earlier,

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Bret Bielema: Scars are a beautiful thing

Here’s the best bits from Bret Bielema’s press conference at SEC Media Days. ON CLOSE LOSSES “We played Alabama and Mississippi State, both heart breakers at the end. Mississippi State was obviously ranked number one at the time, and we let it get away from us. All the credit in the world to Dan, his staff, and his players to make that happen. I am a big believer in life in this fact. Scars are a very beautiful thing. I have scars on my knee from an ACL surgery. I have scar on my ankle from ankle surgery. I have a scar on my left hand from hand surgery. My mom has scars from 24 years of breast cancer survival. My

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Pinkel: Missouri fans still want Border War

Gary Pinkel has said that fans still want the annual game against Kansas, which was stopped after the Tigers moved to the SEC. The so-called ‘Border War’ might not be the fiercest in the country to college football neutrals, but to both fanbases, the game at Arrowhead highlighted the season. And the rivalry’s very close – Missouri leads the rivalry 57-54-9 (or 56-55-9, depending on who you talk to!). The Tigers have won five out of the last six. “I don’t think there’s any question the fans want it back. It’s one of the longest rivalries in college football,” he said. “As you well know, when we moved it into Kansas City, Arrowhead Stadium, we’ve had some phenomenal games down

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Saban blames NFL for Sugar Bowl defeat

Nick Saban, the Alabama head coach, isn’t blaming players for their lack of preparedness going into the 2014 College Football Play-Off semi-final loss to Ohio State. He’s not blaming himself. Or his coaching staff. Nope. He’s blaming the NFL. “I just felt like, in our experience last year, our team chemistry from the SEC Championship game to the playoff game was affected by something,” he said. “I think that to have a December 15th deadline from when a junior can submit for a draft grade and then you get that assessment back sometime right before or right after Christmas, and then you have a playoff game coming up on January 1st or 2nd, and I think it’s my obligation as

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LSU DT booted for academics

Redshit freshman defensive tackle Travonte Valentine has left LSU after failing academically, reports have said. According to reports, Valentine sacrificed spring practice to focus on academics after redshirting his first year. He still didn’t manage it, and now he’s transferred to Arizona Community College. He was suspended in April for not getting his grades straight. At the time, Miles told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “We’ve instructed him to go to this school, go to class, take care your business. If he does that and handles behavior then there will be a future for him here. Otherwise, we’re not certain.” Now, we might be being cynical here, but this smells awfully like LSU booted Valentine because he couldn’t keep the GPA that LSU would

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Butch Jones: No backflips over Tennessee’s recruiting success

There were no backflips after Tennessee’s fantastic 2015 recruiting year, head coach Butch Jones said, adding that 2014 was an overachievement from a team that didn’t bring back anyone on the offensive and defensive lines. “Contrary to reports, there were no back flips, and there were no somersaults, but I think in the world of college football, you’re judged by wins and losses, but also you’re judged by does your team overachieve or under achieve. And I thought last year’s football team, team 118 overachieved.” He added that overachievements have also been seen in the classroom, where he saw only 12 players manage an average of a 3.0 GPA to 52 (Now, let’s not talk about what classes they were

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Dan Mullen: Dak Prescott was close to going pro

Dak Prescott was close to leaving Mississippi State and going pro, admitted head coach Dan Mullen. “He applied, got all of his NFL paperwork,” Mullen said.  He added that it was with his counsel that Prescott decided to stay in school. “We did some research and study of looking at quarterbacks that were coming out, where he might fall…..If he had gone and maybe midround draft pick that’s going to sit the bench in the NFL, he’d have a chance to get zero game reps, and I think that experience in the long run will help his career of getting those live game reps. It might not be at the NFL speed or in that offense against those schemes, but

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Kevin Sumlin: Texas A&M losses to LSU led to Chavis hiring

Kevin Sumlin, the Texas A&M head coach, has admitted that thr straight losses to LSU led him to hiring new defensive co-ordinator John Chavis. Firstly, the question: “Coach, you guys played LSU the last three seasons. They held you to under 20 points in all three games, all losses. Did you kind of take the mindset, if we can’t beat LSU and John Chavis, I’ll go hire him away?” Sumlin’s answer was brutal and to-the-point: “I didn’t kind of. That’s exactly what I did. There’s really nothing more to the answer than that. That’s true. We’ve studied the defense. We get it. We struggled. It’s a great fit for us and a great fit for him. He was ready for

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Spurrier with the zingers!

I could sit here and give you a long news article about Steve Spurrier and what he said about South Carolina football – “We’ve got a good team at South Carolina ready to go this year. We had a little bit of a struggle in the middle of last season” – but that’s not why we look out for what the Head Ball Coach says at SEC Media Days. It’s the zingers. So here’s a collection of them: INTRODUCTION SPEECH “A lot of familiar faces out there after a lot of years coming to this event. I figured a bunch of you guys would have retired by now.” “We believe we have a fighting chance to do that. I know

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