SECMD21 NOTES: Sankey contemplates new season; Orgeron sidesteps controversy; Beamer welcomes comparisons to Dad
HOOVER - The last time we were at SEC Media Days (in Atlanta)…
Joe Burrow was fortelling the future of LSU football, and it was good.
Will Muschamp was telling us this would be his best team at South Carolina…
It was a rare season when no team had a new coach.
Matt Luke, Gus Malzahn and Derrick Mason were considered “hot seat” coaches… only Luke got the thumb.
Nick Saban was fighting off the “what went wrong” after another national title chance was lost to Clemson.
Who knew what this would look like a year later.
Commissioner Greg Sankey was curious.
“I also was here (Sunday) at the podium,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey explained. “We do a little bit of a sound check, and I remember three years ago when I was here, I was going to ask for a wider podium so I could manage my notes better, and I lost that task over the last year, so my discomfort at managing notes up here is real.”
After a year hiatus, the media is back in Hoover, although the numbers are much different. Less than 750 will attend at one time or another this week. Normally there are about 1,200 or so covering the 14 teams.
ESPN has a heavy presence doing some 46 hours of coverage over four days.
While the rooms aren’t empty, the lack of bodies is evident.
Sankey indicates teams may forfeit games this season if COVID affects teams
Greg Sankey placed emphasis on safety again for 2021 but this time, the regular season schedule is not up for the changes it went through in 2020.
Should teams be heavily affected by the virus, they may have to forfeit a game.
“You hope not to have disruption, but hope is not a plan is the great cliché,” he said. “We still have roster minimums that exist, just like last year. What I've identified for consideration among our membership is we remove those roster minimums and you're expected to play as scheduled. That means your team needs to be healthy to compete, and if not, that game won't be rescheduled.
“And thus, to dispose of the game, the "forfeit" word comes up at this point. That's not a policy, and what you see are the bookends now for decision-making. We've not built in the kind of time we did last year, particularly at the end of the season, to accommodate disruption. And unless we're going to do that, our teams are going to have to be fully prepared to play their season as scheduled, which is why embedded in my remarks is the vaccination motivation.”
The 2021 schedules are the normal 12 games with one bye week for each team.
Orgeron touches on off-the-field issues
LSU is under a federal investigation along with civil lawsuits while also being investigated by the NCAA.
But head football coach Ed Orgeron didn’t sound too concerned as he spoke to the media on Monday.
“Obviously, you come off the 2019 season, you're feeling good, you had a great season, and all of a sudden, stuff hits,” he said. “But you know that's life. You've got to be prepared. I think that some of the stuff we were prepared for, some of the stuff we weren't, but we stuff together. As an administrative staff, as a staff, we fought through it.
“I think it shows, when you go to Florida and you're a 27-point underdog, your back's against the wall, you have a freshman quarterback, you beat them in The Swamp, you beat a great Ole Miss team, So that says something's going on in the locker room. Something's going on. Our players believe in each other. I think all those things at the end, we ended up being an ascending program.”
The school learned in February and March that it was under investigation in two separate situations for the mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations.
“That's something I'm not going to comment on. It's an ongoing investigation, and I'm not going to comment on any of that,” Orgeron responded.
Blood lines have expectations high for new SC coach Beamer
Shane Beamer has been around the coaching profession since birth.
His dad, Frank, was a very successful coach at Virginia Tech, winning 238 games in 29 years.
Shane Beamer was around for nearly every one of them.
He has a chance to follow in those footsteps with his first head coaching position in his career, taking over the South Carolina program this season.
“Ever since I got into coaching -- really you go back to when I was playing high school football, growing up in Blacksburg, Va., there were kids I played with who said, ‘the only reason you're the starting whatever on the football team or the baseball team is because your dad's the head coach at Virginia Tech,’” Beamer said.
“Then I got into coaching. Whether it's right or wrong, I always tried to keep that chip on my shoulder or edge about myself to prove myself for sure. Certainly, I'm very proud of that. I got into coaching in 2000 as a graduate assistant with Georgia Tech with George O'Leary, and part of that was wanting to get out on my own and make my own name and not just go work for my dad as a graduate assistant and not be Shane Beamer, but to be Frank's son. It was important for me to go out and develop my own reputation and contacts. I did that, and I was thankful to be part of fantastic programs during that time and places I coached.”
The Gamecock players are more than aware of Beamer’s background and have their own expectations.
“I definitely think he's going to live up to his dad's expectations and the level his dad set for him,” said defensive lineman Kingsley Enagbare. “So far the last six months has been amazing. The energy he brings day in and day out, there's never a dull moment with him. Just the positive, he just reinforces everyone with positive reinforcement, and it's just the feeling with Coach Beamer around is just amazing.
“Like with the whole staff, really the whole vibe of Columbia has changed ever since he's been signed as the new head coach. So definitely excited for things.”
South Carolina won just two games last year, the worst season since it went winless in 11 games in 1999.