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We’ve reached the start of the home stretch, that welcome time when a football fall’s warmth can start to be felt within the summer’s chill, this frozen period of talk and lists and speculation almost giving way to the best time of the year.
Kickoff has drawn near.
The end of SEC Media Days marks the true beginning of dreaming season. The microphones have received their workout in Hoover, and players throughout the conference will be put through their paces on practice fields soon with visions of the College Football Playoff dancing in their helmets. We’re on a downhill track toward September.
What do you anticipate most?
Is it to see if the Big Foot known as Alabama can trample over threats and claim another title in Atlanta? Is it to see if Ole Miss, with Chad Kelly as its howitzer behind center, can break through and topple the Tide in the SEC West? Is it to see if Leonard Fournette can become a two-by-four to the teeth of defensive lines once more? Is it to see if Tennessee can turn hype into highlights and make this season memorable?
Whatever your desire, the countdown can’t end soon enough. This has been a choppy offseason for the league with red mark after red mark ravaging what was supposed to be a relative time of calm. There was the investigation at Ole Miss, the Title IX lawsuit at Tennessee and the multiple arrests at Georgia. There was the Jeffery Simmons uproar at Mississippi State, the Cam Robinson/Hootie Jones controversy at Alabama and the lingering legal problems at Vanderbilt involving two former players convicted on rape charges.
Many of the episodes went beyond embarrassing.
Please, can the circus end?
As with all years, offseason headlines eventually give way to trends created between the hashes. Newspapers must be printed. Websites must be updated. TV and radio programs must be filled with hours upon hours of topical gab.
SEC football is a giant that keeps giving. Soon, we will be granted release from predictions, hype videos and “heated exchanges.” Soon, we will watch the bona fide thing play out in one of the best reality shows of all.
Enough Paul Finebaum. More pigskin.
This season offers added intrigue. Hurricane Harbaugh has swept the country with the satellite-camp craze, turning SEC Land into the Michigan coach’s personal jungle gym. Along with Urban Meyer, Jim Harbaugh appears poised to turn the Big Ten into a big player that threatens King SEC’s crown.
Beyond the upper Midwest, Clemson looks prepared to stalk again after hanging a big 4-0 on Alabama last January in the desert. Oklahoma and Stanford could factor into the national conversation. Don’t underestimate Notre Dame and Houston as well.
Let’s not forget that it would help if the SEC proved its pulse extended beyond the West. No East champion has won the conference since Florida did so by beating Alabama in 2008. Most bearers of the East flag in recent years were little more than a whoopee cushion. Only Georgia in 2012, with a four-point loss to the Crimson Tide, fared better than a house of toothpicks in gale-force winds against the West’s best.
So there are answers to be gained and lessons to absorb. SEC Media Days are a time to whet the palette, to picture the possibilities, to consider what can be after the summer’s frustration gives way to fall discovery. But overall, the event produces sugary buzz, no different than cotton candy. Hunger for the season only grows more intense.
Thankfully, the wait is almost over.
Enough appetizers. Enough junk food.
Bring on the main course.
