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Day Two of SEC Media Days gets underway with Bulldog head coach Kirby Smart among the scheduled talkin’ season participants. Here’s the full schedule:
10:05 a.m. – SEC Coordinator of Officials John McDaid opens things up to talk about rules changes and areas of emphasis for 2025.
10:25 a.m. – Georgia: Kirby Smart with LB CJ Allen, DB Daylen Everette, QB Gunner Stockton
12:15 p.m. – Auburn: Hugh Freeze with QB Jackson Arnold, DL Keldric Faulk, OL Connor Lew
1:30 p.m. – Tennessee: Josh Heupel with LB Arion Carter, TE Miles Kitselman, DT Bryson Eason
3:15 p.m. – Texas: Steve Sarkisian with QB Arch Manning, LB Anthony Hill Jr., DB Michael Taaffe
Today will also lend itself to a couple of major storylines set to play out across the season, including….
Is the SEC in a little trough, or down for the count? No SEC team has participated in the College Football Playoff title game since Georgia’s dominant 2022 victory. Georgia and Tennessee each bowed out early in the 2024 playoffs, and perennial contender Alabama hasn’t won it all since 2020. The conference is under some pressure to reassert itself nationally in 2025, and two of the four coaches at the podium today (Smart and Sarkisian) are at the helm of the teams most likely to have a shot at returning the league to dominance.
Fires, like khaki slacks, come in a variety of styles. And there may be no set of chinos in the league quite as toasty as those belonging to Hugh Freeze. Freeze and Tennessee’s Josh Heupel each face scrutiny after less-than-ideal 2024 seasons. Freeze finished 6-7, which is an unacceptable result even at Auburn, where counting to eight is a graduate level course that requires permission from your academic advisor and his or her parole officer.
Heupel meanwhile delivered the Volunteers to their firsts College Football Playoff appearance, yet had those feel-good vibes squashed by an early exit and the offseason drama surrounding the departure of quarterback Nico Iamaleavin’. It’s hard to imagine a coach being on the hot seat after a 10-3 season. But Heupel may only be a couple of duds in 2025 away from being on the slightly warm seat right behind the hot seat.
Once again you can tune into SEC Network and ESPN+ to catch the action live. And of course if news breaks (especially during the UGA portion of the program) we’ll be right here to talk about it. Until later…
Go ‘Dawgs!!!