Alabama was picked to win the SEC title for the fifth time in seven years, while Tennessee was picked to win the East Division for the first time since 2005 as the SEC released its preseason media poll as the league’s annual media days wrapped up on Thursday. Miles is still facing questions about how to fix what went wrong as LSU went from College Football Playoff contender to fourth place in the SEC West.
Advertisement
SEC Media Days is supposed to be a fun, light hearted event created to get everyone excited for the upcoming college football season, but over the past couple of days, two serious issues have taken center stage in Hoover.
Robinson, a third-year starter and All-American candidate at a spot where Alabama lacks a clear replacement, was arrested in Louisiana in May.
Despite some off-the-field concerns following the arrests and later dismissal of charges against players Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones, Saban stated that his team has shown improvement through the spring and early summer months, which he hopes will continue until the September 3 opener against USC in Dallas.
Saban is facing heat for his decision not to suspend Robinson, who faced a felony charge of possession of a stolen firearm.
Coming off another national championship, it should’ve been nothing but superlatives for Nick Saban and Alabama. The only difference was the stadium it was played in.
“The one thing I will miss is I’m usually up here responding to some barb from Coach (Steve) Spurrier, who is probably playing a lot of golf”.
“We always play those guys like the third game of the year”, Howard said.
“Do we condone the behavior? No”, Saban said. “But you’re innocent until you’re proven guilty in this country regardless if you get convicted in the media or not, which is what you’re doing”.
Finebaum asked Saban why he’s not suspending Robinson for the Tide’s season opener against USC.
There was the heated on-air (and it continued off-air, reports say) debate between Saban and Paul Finebaum, with the latter believing Saban didn’t adequately punish Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones. If you mention LSU around him, he throws up in his mouth. I don’t really care about that. “That’s the end of the conversation”.
Plus, the quarterback competition could well carry over into the season for a third straight year.
“Guys don’t want that same feeling guys have had before, going 5-7, going 5-7, being so close and not being able to finish”, Kemp said.
“Somebody’s got to win the team”, he said. “That has not necessarily happened yet”.
Ole Miss used the SEC’s most prolific scoring offense (40.8 points per game) to roll to a 10-3 season and a second-place finish in the SEC west. “It doesn’t come up in our program”. Allen will be replaced by his younger brother – junior Austin Allen.
Not that the East is getting defensive about that one-sided recent history.
“Certainly philosophically, we’re all very like-minded – Kirby, myself and Nick – and I think that’s why we get along”, Muschamp said.
Advertisement
-Arkansas has mostly been known as a blue-collar outfit under Bielema, which he acknowledged in a colorful way.
