Day 2 From The SEC Meetings In Destin
posted by Scott Hood, Wednesday, May 27, 2009
9:30 a.m. - Welcome to Day 2 of the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla. It’s still fairly early in the morning here but the coaches and administrators have all arrived for day-long meetings. We spoke with Darrin Horn for a few minutes before he headed into his meeting. I also saw Bruce Pearl and Andy Kennedy in the lobby having a chat when I walked in about 8:15 a.m. When we were downstairs hanging out by the meeting rooms, I saw Les Miles, Houston Nutt, Les Miles and Bobby Petrino scurry by. Hopefully, we should be able to talk with a lot of these guys when they break for lunch at 12 noon or later in the day when the football coaches meet with the AD’s and Commissioner Slive at 3 p.m. ET.
Horn told us that it looks like Devan Downey and Dominique Archie will go down to the wire - June 15th is the deadline to withdraw their name - with regards to the NBA Draft. Both players have been working out for teams. Horn said: “Year Two is always challenging regardless of who stays or who goes or what happened your first year. Taking the next step is always something that’s tough. It’s always the last few steps you need to take to really turn your program around that are the hardest. Those things come in years two and three.” I’ll have more from Horn in the Notebook later today.
Right now, meetings are scheduled all day (9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET) for the AD’s and all the football and basketball coaches. The Faculty Representatives are scheduled to meet with the AD’s from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. In the afternoon, the football coaches meet with the AD’s at 3 p.m. followed by the men’s basketball coaches (4 p.m.) and WBK coaches (I haven’t seen Dawn Staley yet) at 5 p.m.
The league’s executive committee is scheduled to meet from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Unlike last night, there is no party planned for tonight. After all the meetings were completed yesterday, the conference threw a party on one the party decks here with plenty of food. I did go and grab some shrimp, chicken fingers and sandwiches. Hey, $3 billion from TV will buy you a lot of good food.
I did come dressed for success today with my black Rivals shirt and black jeans. The only thing missing was the Number 3 on the side of my car.
10:30 - The 2009 season marks the beginning of the SEC's landmark 15-year agreements with CBS and ESPN. Yesterday, CBS issued a press release announcing that their coverage will begin Sept. 19 with the much-anticipated Tennessee at Florida showdown game in Gainesville. Of course, it might not be a very competitive game. But the Lane Kiffin v. Urban Meyer storyline was too juicy to turn down. I spoke with a writer from Knoxville yesterday and he thinks the UT-UF game will be worse than the 59-20 trouncing a couple of years ago. Since UT-UF will be the first game shown by CBS this season, that means the USC-Georgia game in Athens on 9/12 will not be shown on the network. However, I expect it will be quickly gobbled up by one of the ESPN networks. It could be the prime time (7:45 p.m.) game on ESPN or the late afternoon game on ESPN2 like it was a couple of years ago when USC knocked off the Dawgs in Athens.
CBS will televise 15 SEC games in 2009. Right now, there are DH's planned for Oct. 10(3:30 and 8 p.m.) and Nov. 14 (12 Noon and 3:30). The only other specific SEC game CBS has targeted is Alabama at Auburn on Fri., Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving. CBS will also show the Army-Navy game on Dec. 12. The main broadcast team will continue to be Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson, along with sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson.
A few of the ESPN bigwigs are here at the meetings, so maybe we'll have an announcement about their early-season schedule before we depart here on Friday.
12:30 - It's nearing lunch time here in the Central Time zone. ESPN just made an hour-long presentation to the AD's and I'm told that the USC-Georgia game in Athens on Sept. 12 is the leading candidate for the 7:45 p.m. prime time slot on ESPN. If that happens, three of USC's first four games would be shown on national TV - NC State, UGA and Ole Miss (Thur. night). All 3 of those games should be on one of the ESPN platforms. I wonder how many other schools in the nation will have 3 of their first 4 games on national TV. Not many, I assure you.
The coaches should be taking their lunch break here fairly soon. Hopefully, we'll be able to talk with some of them.
3:00 - We just finished up a slew of interviews with football and basketball coaches as they emerged from their morning and early afternoon meetings. One of those coaches was Steve Spurrier, who held his first extended session with the media just a short time ago. Here is a summary of what he said. If you've read my Gamecock Club reports, there probably won't be much new, but here goes. As I'm writing this, the NFL Network is showing a story about Spurrier's final NFL season with the lowly Buccaneers in 1976:
1. Garcia is doing better buthe "needs to learn more about playing football." The spring was "helpful but he has a long ways to go." He needs a great two months during the summer. If he "invests his time wisely" he should improve. SOS continues to talk positively on Garcia's desire to get back into the good graces of the university by devoting 175 hours to community service and other things he was required to do. SOS said Garcia is in good academic standing with a GPA close to 3.0 in the spring semester.
2. Spurrier said he was surprised the Coaches Association voted to return to a secret ballot on the final ballot after all the bowl games have been played. "I think we ought to stay public. It keeps everybody honest."
3. Spurrier said he is not in favor of an early signing period. "I think we have football season that we should concentrate on. There's plenty of time."
4. He again advocated a playoff system to allow teams like Utah to compete for the national championship. But he added he likes the current bowl system but that a playoff would be "more fair" to everybody.
5. Has the USC job been harder than he expected? No. "We just haven't put it all together yet. That's all you can say. We haven't put the coaches and players together to have a big year." He's won 28 games in 4 years, which is four more than any other USC coach in their first four years, but "we haven't done quite as well as we hoped."
6. Spurrier is "excited" about the 2009 team. "I really believe we're going to have our best leaders." He anticipates the best participation rate of his first five summers. "Right now, everybody likes each other."
7. The key, of course, is the play of the QB and the O-Line. He expects the defense to be pretty good again.
8. He believes Tim Tebow will be a pretty good NFL QB.
9. The Liberty Bowl was the "most fun" USC has had in a bowl game. Ironically (or not), that's the only bowl game USC has won in Spurrier's tenure.
10. Trying to win at South Carolina still "intrigues" Spurrier. "That's the challenge, to have that big year at South Carolina. It hasn't happened. That's what intrigues me and gets me excited every day. I'd rather do it there than someplace that's already won a SEC. Winning that first SEC (title) would be something special. We still have hope we can do that."
11. Spurrier said he's back on the "four or five more years" train. He said he feels good, the same when he was 45.
12. He insisted he's not concerned about how he's remembered.
13. He said he didn't vote for Duke last year at the beginning of the season at the request of Grant Teaff, Exec. Director of the Coaches Assn. But he may vote for the Blue Devils this year after they won 4 games in 2008.
14. Florida is going to be a "huge favorite" in the SEC East, with Alabama or LSU likely in the West.
15. Nothing new on Whitlock or Axon.
4:15 - The football coaches have emerged from their meeting with the athletic directors and Commissioner Slive. By all accounts, Slive delivered a passioned plea for civility between the coaches. I'll have more about it in my Notebook later today. I also spoke with Houston Nutt about the importance of the Thursday night game in Columbia between USC and Ole Miss. The Rebels don't play very often on ESPN prime time, so that will be a showcase game for them. I also spoke with Les Miles about Ron Cooper and the signing of Sam Montgomery. Right now, the hoop coaches are meeting with the AD's and Slive. BTW, it looks like the SEC will approve teams allowing four grad assistant coaches on the sidelines during games, an increase of two per game.
7:00 - Day 2 here at the SEC meetings are pretty much over. We just met with conference commissioner Mike Slive at the end of the meetings. Besides talking about his passioned speech to the FB coaches about civility, one other interesting thing came up - there has been legislation proposed to limit the number of players a school can sign in any one recruiting cycle to 28. Apparently, the SEC might consider passing the rule even if the NCAA rejects it. I know the Big 10 commissioner has been outspoken on this topic. Support for the new rule increased after Ole Miss signed 37 players in February. Of course, they can only bring in 25. It has the perception of hording. The reaction is similar is what happened in the 1970's when schools started signing 50 and 60 players in a single class. Shortly thereafter, rules were passed to set maximums on signees, roster sizes and the total number of scholarships. I will have more about this in the notebook.
By the way, let me finish by saying I've been highly amused by the headlines screaming about the "confrontation" between Spurrier and Kiffin on Tuesday. Believe me, it wasn't a "confrontation". I was five feet from Spurrier and Kiffin when the incident happened. All Spurrier did was turn towards Kiffin and in a playful manner told him what he had actually said a few months ago. Anybody who claims it was a "confrontation" is blowing the incident way out of proportion.
I have posted my article from Spurrier's press conference today. I will have the notebook up shortly. We'll talk tomorrow.
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Day 2 of the SEC meetings in Destin, Fla. are underway and Gamecock Central is there to describe all the goings on. Administrators and coaches are scheduled to meet all day and, hopefully, take a few minutes to talk with the media.
9:30 a.m. - Welcome to Day 2 of the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla. It’s still fairly early in the morning here but the coaches and administrators have all arrived for day-long meetings. We spoke with Darrin Horn for a few minutes before he headed into his meeting. I also saw Bruce Pearl and Andy Kennedy in the lobby having a chat when I walked in about 8:15 a.m. When we were downstairs hanging out by the meeting rooms, I saw Les Miles, Houston Nutt, Les Miles and Bobby Petrino scurry by. Hopefully, we should be able to talk with a lot of these guys when they break for lunch at 12 noon or later in the day when the football coaches meet with the AD’s and Commissioner Slive at 3 p.m. ET.
Horn told us that it looks like Devan Downey and Dominique Archie will go down to the wire - June 15th is the deadline to withdraw their name - with regards to the NBA Draft. Both players have been working out for teams. Horn said: “Year Two is always challenging regardless of who stays or who goes or what happened your first year. Taking the next step is always something that’s tough. It’s always the last few steps you need to take to really turn your program around that are the hardest. Those things come in years two and three.” I’ll have more from Horn in the Notebook later today.
Right now, meetings are scheduled all day (9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET) for the AD’s and all the football and basketball coaches. The Faculty Representatives are scheduled to meet with the AD’s from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. In the afternoon, the football coaches meet with the AD’s at 3 p.m. followed by the men’s basketball coaches (4 p.m.) and WBK coaches (I haven’t seen Dawn Staley yet) at 5 p.m.
The league’s executive committee is scheduled to meet from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Unlike last night, there is no party planned for tonight. After all the meetings were completed yesterday, the conference threw a party on one the party decks here with plenty of food. I did go and grab some shrimp, chicken fingers and sandwiches. Hey, $3 billion from TV will buy you a lot of good food.
I did come dressed for success today with my black Rivals shirt and black jeans. The only thing missing was the Number 3 on the side of my car.
10:30 - The 2009 season marks the beginning of the SEC's landmark 15-year agreements with CBS and ESPN. Yesterday, CBS issued a press release announcing that their coverage will begin Sept. 19 with the much-anticipated Tennessee at Florida showdown game in Gainesville. Of course, it might not be a very competitive game. But the Lane Kiffin v. Urban Meyer storyline was too juicy to turn down. I spoke with a writer from Knoxville yesterday and he thinks the UT-UF game will be worse than the 59-20 trouncing a couple of years ago. Since UT-UF will be the first game shown by CBS this season, that means the USC-Georgia game in Athens on 9/12 will not be shown on the network. However, I expect it will be quickly gobbled up by one of the ESPN networks. It could be the prime time (7:45 p.m.) game on ESPN or the late afternoon game on ESPN2 like it was a couple of years ago when USC knocked off the Dawgs in Athens.
CBS will televise 15 SEC games in 2009. Right now, there are DH's planned for Oct. 10(3:30 and 8 p.m.) and Nov. 14 (12 Noon and 3:30). The only other specific SEC game CBS has targeted is Alabama at Auburn on Fri., Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving. CBS will also show the Army-Navy game on Dec. 12. The main broadcast team will continue to be Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson, along with sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson.
A few of the ESPN bigwigs are here at the meetings, so maybe we'll have an announcement about their early-season schedule before we depart here on Friday.
12:30 - It's nearing lunch time here in the Central Time zone. ESPN just made an hour-long presentation to the AD's and I'm told that the USC-Georgia game in Athens on Sept. 12 is the leading candidate for the 7:45 p.m. prime time slot on ESPN. If that happens, three of USC's first four games would be shown on national TV - NC State, UGA and Ole Miss (Thur. night). All 3 of those games should be on one of the ESPN platforms. I wonder how many other schools in the nation will have 3 of their first 4 games on national TV. Not many, I assure you.
The coaches should be taking their lunch break here fairly soon. Hopefully, we'll be able to talk with some of them.
3:00 - We just finished up a slew of interviews with football and basketball coaches as they emerged from their morning and early afternoon meetings. One of those coaches was Steve Spurrier, who held his first extended session with the media just a short time ago. Here is a summary of what he said. If you've read my Gamecock Club reports, there probably won't be much new, but here goes. As I'm writing this, the NFL Network is showing a story about Spurrier's final NFL season with the lowly Buccaneers in 1976:
1. Garcia is doing better buthe "needs to learn more about playing football." The spring was "helpful but he has a long ways to go." He needs a great two months during the summer. If he "invests his time wisely" he should improve. SOS continues to talk positively on Garcia's desire to get back into the good graces of the university by devoting 175 hours to community service and other things he was required to do. SOS said Garcia is in good academic standing with a GPA close to 3.0 in the spring semester.
2. Spurrier said he was surprised the Coaches Association voted to return to a secret ballot on the final ballot after all the bowl games have been played. "I think we ought to stay public. It keeps everybody honest."
3. Spurrier said he is not in favor of an early signing period. "I think we have football season that we should concentrate on. There's plenty of time."
4. He again advocated a playoff system to allow teams like Utah to compete for the national championship. But he added he likes the current bowl system but that a playoff would be "more fair" to everybody.
5. Has the USC job been harder than he expected? No. "We just haven't put it all together yet. That's all you can say. We haven't put the coaches and players together to have a big year." He's won 28 games in 4 years, which is four more than any other USC coach in their first four years, but "we haven't done quite as well as we hoped."
6. Spurrier is "excited" about the 2009 team. "I really believe we're going to have our best leaders." He anticipates the best participation rate of his first five summers. "Right now, everybody likes each other."
7. The key, of course, is the play of the QB and the O-Line. He expects the defense to be pretty good again.
8. He believes Tim Tebow will be a pretty good NFL QB.
9. The Liberty Bowl was the "most fun" USC has had in a bowl game. Ironically (or not), that's the only bowl game USC has won in Spurrier's tenure.
10. Trying to win at South Carolina still "intrigues" Spurrier. "That's the challenge, to have that big year at South Carolina. It hasn't happened. That's what intrigues me and gets me excited every day. I'd rather do it there than someplace that's already won a SEC. Winning that first SEC (title) would be something special. We still have hope we can do that."
11. Spurrier said he's back on the "four or five more years" train. He said he feels good, the same when he was 45.
12. He insisted he's not concerned about how he's remembered.
13. He said he didn't vote for Duke last year at the beginning of the season at the request of Grant Teaff, Exec. Director of the Coaches Assn. But he may vote for the Blue Devils this year after they won 4 games in 2008.
14. Florida is going to be a "huge favorite" in the SEC East, with Alabama or LSU likely in the West.
15. Nothing new on Whitlock or Axon.
4:15 - The football coaches have emerged from their meeting with the athletic directors and Commissioner Slive. By all accounts, Slive delivered a passioned plea for civility between the coaches. I'll have more about it in my Notebook later today. I also spoke with Houston Nutt about the importance of the Thursday night game in Columbia between USC and Ole Miss. The Rebels don't play very often on ESPN prime time, so that will be a showcase game for them. I also spoke with Les Miles about Ron Cooper and the signing of Sam Montgomery. Right now, the hoop coaches are meeting with the AD's and Slive. BTW, it looks like the SEC will approve teams allowing four grad assistant coaches on the sidelines during games, an increase of two per game.
7:00 - Day 2 here at the SEC meetings are pretty much over. We just met with conference commissioner Mike Slive at the end of the meetings. Besides talking about his passioned speech to the FB coaches about civility, one other interesting thing came up - there has been legislation proposed to limit the number of players a school can sign in any one recruiting cycle to 28. Apparently, the SEC might consider passing the rule even if the NCAA rejects it. I know the Big 10 commissioner has been outspoken on this topic. Support for the new rule increased after Ole Miss signed 37 players in February. Of course, they can only bring in 25. It has the perception of hording. The reaction is similar is what happened in the 1970's when schools started signing 50 and 60 players in a single class. Shortly thereafter, rules were passed to set maximums on signees, roster sizes and the total number of scholarships. I will have more about this in the notebook.
By the way, let me finish by saying I've been highly amused by the headlines screaming about the "confrontation" between Spurrier and Kiffin on Tuesday. Believe me, it wasn't a "confrontation". I was five feet from Spurrier and Kiffin when the incident happened. All Spurrier did was turn towards Kiffin and in a playful manner told him what he had actually said a few months ago. Anybody who claims it was a "confrontation" is blowing the incident way out of proportion.
I have posted my article from Spurrier's press conference today. I will have the notebook up shortly. We'll talk tomorrow.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.