It’s time for that late July tradition. Yes, those few days when hordes of media members swarm a hotel to gobble up every word uttered by the head football coaches in the Southeastern Conference.
Yes, the SEC Media Days are almost here.
All the action–er, talking, big gobs of talking–begins Monday, and continues through Thursday with four of the league’s teams meeting with the media on each of the four days. Tennessee goes on Monday, for the record.
Back in the day (which we’re defining as up until 2010 or so), these offseason media events provided a rare chance to hear straight from coaches and players. Today, you can hear straight from the defensive backs coach’s mouth, right on the practice field, before the sweat dries and see it live online as it happens. Nevertheless, through the years, the SEC Media Days have produced some wild moments. We relive five of the best, and the weirdest, in this week’s Friday 5.
5: Dicky’s Dream
SEC Media Days aren’t just for coaches. Each team brings some players to represent the program. There’s now three per team attending the event; for Tennessee, DeSean Bishop, Arion Carter, and Jeremiah Telander are accompanying coach Josh Heupel.
Well in 2008, the contingent for Kentucky included wide receiver Dicky Lyons, Jr., and… things got weird. Facing a horde of cameras and recording devices, Lyons shared a surreal dream he had that involved his fiancee, Georgia quarterback Matt Stafford, and a barroom brawl.
Let’s just go to the transcript:
“I’ve been having these creepy dreams about [my fiancé] leaving me. ‘Cosmo’ says it’s natural to have these dreams. But I’ve been having these dreams that she’s leaving me, and this other dream the other night, I went out, and I’m following her, right, because I’m having suspicions.
“So then I find her at this bar, and I go up to her and I’m trying to talk to her. I said, ‘What are you doing?’ And she’s like, ‘I just don’t want to marry you.’ I’m trying to shake her, and slap her out of it, and I’m like, ‘Focus!’ And I slap her, and then I turn around, and Matt Stafford punches me in the nose. Matt Stafford goes, ‘You don’t hit women.’ And then all of a sudden their backup quarterback who is now at Delta State, Blake (Barnes), he comes hitting me and then I’m like fighting off all these quarterbacks, (Brian) Hoyer from Michigan State, all the guys who I was at with the Manning camp started jumping in. I did pretty well because I was biting them, I was twisting their arms, I knew all these Army Ranger tricks in my dream. I mean, it was just crazy. I was laughing about it.”
It gets better. Lyons closed the story by noting, “I texted [Stafford] and said, ‘I’m dreaming about you,’ ” and that Stafford never responded. “I don’t know if he likes me that much.”
4: Tim Tebow’s Virginity
The curious case of Tim Tebow. One of the best college football players, at least of the modern era. He thrived in Urban Meyer’s spread option offense, back when Meyer was seen as one of the tactical geniuses of the game and before he somewhat ruined his reputation with a disastrous and brief tenure as an NFL head coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars
Tebow stood out with his play, and his belief. He was open about his faith and mentioned it often during interviews. And so, in 2009, as Tebow came to the SEC Media Days for the final time with two national titles and a Heisman Trophy already in hand, an online reporter decided to make news and ask Tebow, “Are you still saving yourself for marriage?”
Tebow’s response: “Yes I am. … I think you’re stunned right now. You can’t even ask a question. I was ready for that question. I don’t think y’all were.”
Most media members in attendance were appalled.
That reporter? Clay Travis, who defended his choice the next day, on AOL (yes, children, AOL was still a thing) FanHouse:
“I asked because I believe it’s newsworthy and because, believe it or not, I thought Tim Tebow would answer the question by saying: ‘Yes, I am.’ Which is exactly what he did. Why did I believe this? Because Tebow lives his faith. And I believe that living his faith is not artificial, he’s not pretending to be something he’s not. Further, I don’t believe that saving yourself for marriage is something to hide from. Not in the evangelical Christian faith that Tim Tebow practices in a Southern church and not in the evangelistic Southern church where I was raised.”
Travis went on to found a popular sports media site and become a political commentator. So looking back, this probably doesn’t crack the top 100 shocking questions or remarks that he has made.
3: Robbie Caldwell did WHAT to turkeys?!?
The head coaching career of Robbie Caldwell barely registers a footnote. He stepped in during the summer of 2010 as interim coach at Vanderbilt, after Bobby Johnson abruptly resigned. Caldwell led the Commodores to a 2-10 record, and then Vandy chose to go another direction. Caldwell, however, cemented himself in SEC Media Days lore with his appearance at the 2010 event – just eight days after Johnson’s retirement, by the way.
“My first hourly paying job was on the turkey farm,” Caldwell said. “I don’t know if I could tell you what my job was, but I was on the inseminating crew. That’s a fact. I worked my way to the top.”
When someone in the back didn’t understand what he meant, Caldwell offered to demonstrate.
The follow-up questions about Caldwell and the turkey farm generated more gold:
Q: Just wondering if your duties on the turkey farm in any way affected your ability to enjoy Thanksgiving?
COACH CALDWELL: (Pulling his jacket out and showing his large stomach.) I knew I was a fat guy, but I didn’t need all these heavy-duty extra springs. This job has been good for me, I’ve lost about seven pounds in the last eight days. No, it hasn’t. You can tell by looking at me. I done it all, too. If I told some of these ladies, what they put in that lipstick right there, oh, my goodness, because I de-beaked, blood tested, vaccinated. I done it all. It was pretty special.
A wild turkey is one of the smartest animals in the world. But a domestic turkey is the dumbest thing. We had to put sprinklers out there to keep them from smothering out there in the summer when it gets hot. If you don’t believe it, research it. I guess it’s why I worked so well with them. There’s probably a reason.
Caldwell got a standing ovation from media members following his time at the podium – something that had never happened at SEC Media Days, and likely won’t ever happen again.
A few years later, Caldwell reflected on his 15 minutes of SEC Media Days fame to USA Today:
“I went in there and I was myself. The guy asked, ‘Do you remember your first job?’ I said, ‘Salary or hourly?’ So when he said hourly, I told him. Next thing I know there’s a guy tugging on my britches’ legs saying, ‘Coach we hate to ask you to leave but we gotta bring the next man in.’ When I get done, everybody stood up. I thought everybody was going to lunch. They had to call me back in and gave me a standing ovation. It’s kind of sad because, you know, I just talk to people. I’m being myself.”
This report claims that ESPN owns the only surviving video footage from Caldwell’s press conference, and wants about $480,000 for it.
2: Nick Saban’s pimps rant
The coaching career of Nick Saban is replete with victories, national championships… and the bruised egos of reporters who were subject to one of his rants to the media.
Saban saved some of his choicest tirades for SEC Media Days – take your pick, although this is a good one, from the 2017 event. The best of the bunch, however, was from the 2010 iteration of SEC Media Days, which occurred when three programs in the conference – Alabama included – were being investigated for improper contact with agents.
Saban said, “I don’t think it’s anything but greed that is creating it right now on behalf of the agents. Agents that do this, I hate to say this, but how are they any better than a pimp? I have no respect for people who do that to young people, none. I mean, none. How would you feel if they did it to your child?”
Of course, today, nearly every significant player at an SEC school has an agent to negotiate their NIL compensation. How times change.
1: Phillip Fulmer and the speakerphone
In 2004, then-Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer announced on advice of counsel he wouldn’t attend the SEC Media Days because of lawsuits related to his testimony about recruiting violations at Alabama. Fulmer, who had no love lost for the Crimson Tide, was an alleged whistleblower for the NCAA investigation that got Alabama’s program placed on probation.
Instead, Fulmer attended the media conference remotely, addressing reporters through a speakerphone. This led to an especially surreal moment as reporters surrounded the device, which included cameramen from TV stations filming the speakerphone.
The only other inanimate object to receive that much camera focus at SEC Media Days was probably Jeremy Pruitt.
The whole to-do got rendered moot four years later, again at SEC Media Days, when lawyers staked out the Wynfrey Hotel successfully served Fulmer with a subpoena as he stepped out of an SUV outside the building.
The SEC fined Fulmer $10,000 for not appearing. Then Alabama – led by Saban – proceeded to beat the Vols 15 straight times, starting in 2007.