Wednesday, July 18, 2012
HOOVER, Ala. ? Auburn Coach Gene Chizik has been through the wars.
No, not the ones in the Southeastern Conference. Those in the Big 12.
At Day 2 of SEC media days Wednesday, Chizik vehemently defended the Big 12 and the SEC's new additions, Missouri and Texas A&M, showing the most support for the conference rookies than any other coach here.
"Missouri and Texas A&M aren't coming into the SEC with their hat in hand saying, 'Thank you for letting me be here,'" said Chizik, a former Big 12 head coach and coordinator. "These are two dang good football teams with dang good football coaches."
Since they unofficially joined the league in the fall, Missouri and Texas A&M have heard all about the big bad SEC from fans, reporters and talking heads.
Even Tuesday, when the two teams took center stage here at this three-day affair south of Birmingham, Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel twice said his team hasn't been playing against high schoolers while in the Big 12.
It's a conference Chizik knows well. He was defensive coordinator at Texas and head coach at Iowa State, each for two years.
In fact, Chizik was 0-3 against Missouri and Texas A&M while coach at Iowa State in 2007-08. His teams were outscored 143-83 in those games.
"The things that I've heard right now, I'll tell you what, I don't think a lot of people are giving Texas A&M and Missouri the credit they deserve," Chizik said in front of more than 300 reporters in the Wynfrey Hotel's main ballroom. "I will say that standing up here because for four years I played in that league."
Chiziki called Pinkel "one of the best football coaches in the country." Chizik was hired away from Iowa State after a two-year run there that included five wins and 19 losses. He won two Big 12 games during that time.
POPULAR PETRINO: Arkansas Coach John L. Smith relied on updates from his wife at the height of Bobby Petrino's scandalous affair and motorcycle crash.
Also, Smith talked to the ex-Razorbacks coach just last week.
Yes, even if he's been gone from the league for more than three months, Petrino's name circulated around the Wynfrey Hotel on Wednesday when Smith made his rounds to TV, radio and print reporters.
Smith, under contract for less than a year, left in his fifth month as head coach at Weber State to return to Arkansas this spring and replace, at least for now, Petrino.
As information about Petrino's scandal emerged during a two-week period leading to his firing, Smith was working to build Weber State, a Football Championship Subdivision team in Utah.
"I would go to work daily and my wife would give me more of the updates on what was taking place as I would come home in the evening," he said. "She would give me an update every evening, keep me abreast of what was going on."
Smith talked to Petrino for the first time since the incident last week, he said.
"It was a good conversation," Smith said. "It was basically about our football team at Arkansas, of which he's always concerned about that, and of course what he's going to do from here on out with his life, things he'd like to get done."
HONEY BADGER IN HIDING?: LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu, a Heisman Trophy finalist as a sophomore last season, was missing among the roster of players parading between interview sessions at media days.
His absence was all the more conspicuous because LSU'?s traveling party included sophomore wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and junior quarterback Zach Mettenberger, still waiting to play in his first SEC game.
Mathieu, nicknamed "Honey Badger,"? has a history of being outspoken, even brash, whether speaking out in person or on his Twitter account. He made headlines for sparring with Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron, on the social media platform this summer.
Coach Les Miles didn'?t seem overly bother by the Twitter outburst when asked about it Wednesday.
"The only thing I can tell you is that our guys are certainly proud of their team and how they?ll want to compete,?" he said. "?I think he probably represented that.
?"I can tell you that no game is won in a Twitter page. It?'s a nice, pleasant pastime, very much like media days. But it?'s all about what you earn in the fall."
Miles apparently felt more comfortable having other players speak for his program during the league'?s kickoff event.
He was asked specifically about the decision to bring a sophomore to the event and what it says about his expectations for Beckham.
?"We bring players that, one, have leadership ability and, two, have talent, and that would plan to have significant impact on the season,"? he said. "?So when you bring an Odell Beckham, you expect that he might be your leading receiver and make some significant contribution.
I think that being here and having the ability to articulate it, the ability to think it through when you all ask him questions, I think it?'s a benefit as he approaches the season.?"
BATTERED BALL CARRIERS: SEC teams have been unafraid to rely on the running game in recent seasons, but some of the league?s best backs enter the season with questions about whether they?'re ready to endure the pounding after having their seasons halted by significant injuries a year ago.
Arkansas junior Knile Davis missed the entire season after fracturing his ankle in a preseason scrimmage. South Carolina junior Marcus Lattimore, who joined Davis on the coaches? preseason All-SEC first team, was averaging a league-best 129.3 yards per game when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the season?'s seventh game.
Texas A&M senior Christine Michael, a preseason third-team all-conference pick, is also returning from an ACL tear suffered against Oklahoma. Michael had rushed for 899 yards and averaged 6 yards per carry when his knee gave out.
Davis said they have a bond because of their injuries.
"We?'ve all kind of got something to prove,?" said Davis, who knows Lattimore from competing against him in the SEC and has had a relationship with Michael since the two met as rival high school players in Texas. "?I'?ve talked to those guys. They'?re doing good. Those are great guys, and I expect them to have a great year.?"
HOOPS-LA: Nearly every year at media days, the Kentucky coach ? whoever it may be ? is asked about coaching football at a basketball school.
So, of course it was going to come this year with Kentucky's eighth national championship win just a few months old.
Coach Joker Phillips let everyone know that it's a positive, at least from a recruiting standpoint.
"Every time our basketball team went to the next round, playing in the Final Four, how many times did kids see the UK interlocking brand out there?" he said. "We want to hitch our wagon to our basketball program."
It was clear, too, Wednesday that Kentucky's football program lacks interest from reporters. The transcription of Phillips' interview was the shortest of all coaches and just a handful of media members talked to the three UK players available.
That said, Phillips, heading into his third season at UK with an overall 11-14 record, was asked the hot-seat question, the first coach to get it thus far in media days.
His response, while standing at the podium: "I'm not sitting down right now so there's nothing hot."
TALKING ABOUT PLAYOFFS: College football's four-team playoff, adopted this summer, has been a conversation piece at media days.
Nearly each coach has given their take and opinion on the subject.
Chizik, the fourth-year Auburn coach, introduced some new points Wednesday. And he's got good experience with the system to do so.
"With a four-team playoff, I'm going to be honest with you, that depends on what glasses you're wearing," he said.
He gave examples, both times involving himself.
The 2004 undefeated Auburn team ??Chizik was the defensive coordinator ??finished No. 3 in the BCS and was left out of the title game.
In that case, "I'm totally in favor of" a playoff, Chizik said.
His 2010 Auburn team was No. 1 in the nation and advanced ??and won ? the championship.
"Am I in favor of playing another one to prove that I deserve getting into the national championship game?" he asked rhetorically. "No, I don't."
He threw out a scenario that would create a rematch in the playoffs ??the No. 1 ranked team loses to the No. 2 ranked team in the SEC Championship Game and the top-ranked team drops to No. 4 and the second-ranked team moves to No. 1. In the format, the 1 and 4 ranked teams would play each other.
"There's going to be unintended circumstances and consequences that a lot of people didn't think about," he said.
GAME-PLAYING CAT: The very first question asked to the sometimes goofy Miles, LSU's coach, didn't concern football ? go figure.
He was asked about an EA Sports commercial in which he was the star. In the commercial, Miles walks into a room while LSU's mascot, Mike the Tiger, is playing the video game. The Tiger mascot is using Baylor's Robert Griffin III as LSU's quarterback instead of Jordan Jefferson.
Miles angrily rips the Tiger jersey off of the mascot and says, "You were like a son to me. A Tiger son."
Miles said he had no creative input in the commercial and said he wasn't even the star of it. That was the mascot.
"I really thought Mike the Tiger stole the show," he said. "We didn't really get along on the set. He was kind of working the camera. It was really a difficult time."
TITLE TALK: Oozing confidence ??as always ??Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen told reporters Wednesday at Day 2 of SEC media days that his team is close to winning a national championship.
Huh?
Mullen is 3-15 against SEC West teams in his three years at Mississippi State. Those three wins came against Ole Miss.
"We had opportunities to beat those teams," he said. "We have to have guys step up and make those game-winning plays. I think three of those teams won the national championship. We're not very far from a national title. We're not far off."
Mississippi State has won one SEC championship in football, in 1941, and the school still doesn't have a national championship in any team sport.
FORIDA'S FOURTH: Twice while at the podium during his address to reporters Wednesday, Florida Coach Will Muschamp mentioned an unsettling statistic.
The Gators were outscored 72-22 in the fourth quarter of SEC games last season.
"A lot of that to me goes into the weight room," he said. "You have to be stronger, well-conditioned."
Muschamp called his 7-6 first season at Florida "a very frustrating year."
From the paltry number of wins to starting quarterback John Brantley's mid-season injury to that dismal final-quarter showing, the Gators were a disappointment. They had to win the Gator Bowl over Ohio State to avoid Florida's first losing season since 1979.
"Yeah, I know," Muschamp said when a reporter mentioned the streak, "I was told a couple of times."
Source: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/jul/18/auburn-coach-says-missouri-texas-m-dang-good/
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