SEC Media Days - Day 2 roundup

Texas A&M has had a ‘drama-free’ offseason according to coach Kevin Sumlin.

The Aggies are settled at the quarterback position for the 2016 season despite the mass exodus from the program over the past two seasons. With Kenny Hill at TCU and Kyle Allen at Houston, former Oklahoma quarterback Trevor Knight was named the starter during spring practice.

Knight is a graduate transfer and eligible to play immediately. He lost his starting gig to Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma.

“Quite honestly, it was a situation where Texas A&M filled a void for Trevor Knight as a guy who wanted to play, as a graduate transfer, a guy who wanted to play at a high level,” Sumlin said. “Be around a program that he thought fit his skill set with some coaches he thought fit his skill set and some teammates that he wanted to play with, got him a little bit closer to home since he’s from San Antonio.”

“And then filled a void for us as a quarterback who was not just a transfer quarterback but a guy who had real game experience and had some success. So, for us, it was a great match and I think has led to really a drama-free offseason.”

Well, the offseason hasn’t been entirely drama-free. Wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead grabbed headlines with his subtweets of high school quarterback Tate Martell, who verbally decommitted from Texas A&M.

Sumlin didn’t want to talk about Moorehead on Wednesday.

“I think I addressed that about three months ago, right, with what we did with Coach Moorehead. That’s been addressed,” Sumlin said. “And so, you know, there’s no reason to really rehash that.

“I will say that what we do, we got a great educational program for our players and for our coaches. And, you know, since that time, as you want to bring it up, we didn’t have a bunch of decommits, we had a couple. But since that time we’ve had a hell of a lot more commits than decommits.”

Speaking of Knight, he’s been spotted with Sadie Robertson of the “Duck Dynasty” Robertson family. There was recently a picture of Knight together with Robertson (left), who was wearing an A&M shirt. The Robertsons (Sadie is Willie’s daughter) are Louisiana natives.

That A&M-LSU game could be even more spirited now.

Kirby Smart’s first preamble

Kirby Smart knew what he was doing in his first SEC Media Days as a head coach. The Georgia coach spoke for over 10 minutes before even taking a question, even touting such things as his team’s spring game attendance.

As far as the running back situation at Georgia, well, it could be a little dicey early in the season. Nick Chubb is still recovering from the serious knee injury he suffered against Tennessee in 2015 and Sony Michel may be out for a while with the broken arm he suffered in an ATV accident over the July 4th holiday weekend.

Michel was Georgia’s primary back in Chubb’s absence.

“[Chubb’s] doing everything with the rest of the team as far as summer workouts,” Smart said. “That may change when we go to pads. He’s not going to go out there and do everything right away as far as tackling and scrimmaging. Ultimately he’s got to gain confidence in that knee back, and he’s taking the right steps in that direction.

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“And Sony, kind of a sad injury, very upsetting for him. He’s probably in the best shape of his life. He worked hard to be in the best shape of his life … I don’t know the expectation for Sony, if he’ll be back or not. We’ll know a lot more when we get closer to the season. A lot of that injury is how does the muscle repair itself round that plated bone. That will be a big part of it.”

Tennessee adjusts to life as the SEC East favorite

Tennessee has been a trendy pick to ascend to the top of the SEC throughout Butch Jones’ tenure with the team, but the Volunteers enter the 2016 season with Georgia as the co-favorites for the SEC East in the eyes of many observers.

After seven-straight seasons of between 5-7 wins, the Volunteers went 9-4 in 2015. With quarterback Josh Dobbs returning, the most experienced quarterback in the division, Jones is embracing the high expectations for his team.

“So, to me, I love it,” Jones said. “That’s what you work for. You want high expectations. You want high standards. I remember standing up here at the podium three short years ago, and the room was half filled and nobody was talking about Tennessee football. So, I’d rather have – that’s why you coach. That’s why you play, is to be in a program like the University of Tennessee where everybody is talking about you. That’s what you work for. Now it’s what you do with that opportunity.”

Jones was also asked about the sexual assault settlement the university recently reached with plaintiffs who filed suit. Tennessee will pay eight women nearly $2.5 million after the women alleged the school created a culture that enabled sexual assaults by athletes.

“Well, we don’t look at it as something of the past or something that’s been settled,” Jones said.
“Everything is a teaching unit. These are very, very serious issues that surround every college campus, they surround society today, and we’ll continue to educate our players on the importance of it. We’ve brought in 70-plus speakers. We’ve been very proactive with that.”

Shaw talks targeting rule changes

Officials in the replay booth will have the opportunity to call for targeting fouls in 2016. Previously the call must have been made by officials on the field.

Will this cause an excess of replay interventions? SEC Coordinator of Officiating Steve Shaw doesn’t think so. He said Tuesday that the conference reviewed the entire 2015 season and found just two plays that a replay official would have deemed to be targeting. He then walked those in attendance through those two plays.

The replay official will also look at many aspects of targeting fouls and with “broadened authority” from the replay booth, some penalties could be overturned.

“Now, they’ve allowed replay to look at all aspects of a targeting foul,” Shaw said. “Before we were just looking for that contact to the head, but now the official in the booth, his broadened authority, he can look at is the player defenseless? Where was the contact? Was there a launch? What was the action of the defender?”

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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