Get ready, Nick Saban: Expect plenty of QB battle questions at 2023 SEC Media Days
Talking season has arrived.
Does it really ever end, though? We talk, and talk, and talk about college football all year round. Sometimes football is being played. Sometimes it isn't. No matter what, talking persists.
However, there are specific events best designed for college football discourse, and one arrives this week: SEC Media Days.
All 14 programs will head to Nashville with their head coaches and a few players to talk about the 2023 football season. Alabama football will be among those teams as coach Nick Saban, cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry, offensive lineman JC Latham and linebacker Dallas Turner speak with no shortage of reporters.
With hundreds of media members in attendance, there's an amount of uncertainty. Wild card questions pop up. There is, however, a fair amount of certainty. Or at least, there are safe bets of topics that will emerge when Alabama speaks Wednesday morning at the Nashville Grand Hyatt.
Here are some predictions of the topics Saban and his players will be asked to discuss.
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The Alabama football quarterback battle
There's a quarterback competition, have you heard?
Alabama has five scholarship quarterbacks on the roster after Bryce Young went to the NFL Draft and became the No. 1 overall pick. Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson and Tyler Buchner are expected to be the main competitors for the opening. It was talked about throughout the spring, it was talked about after spring practices, and it will surely be discussed at the key event of talking season.
Quarterback battles are always conversation fodder, no matter the program. When it's Alabama, that increases exponentially.
Expect Saban, and players to an extent as well, to receive plenty of quarterback-related questions. Just don't expect much clarity in those answers. The battle is expected to play out in preseason practices and perhaps into the first game.
NIL
These days, college football can't be discussed without the topic of name, image and likeness popping up. That won't likely change in Nashville.
And when you throw in the fact Saban is the unofficial commissioner of college football, it's only natural to expect he will get questions about the state of the overall sport. NIL is front and center in that.
2024 schedule
The 2023 season is first on the docket, but the 2024 schedule has been much more talked about.
It will mark the first year of a new format after Texas and Oklahoma join the conference. The eight-game schedule is viewed as a temporary solution, but it still has led to plenty of discourse.
That will likely extend to SEC Media Days where coaches, particularly Saban, will probably get questions about it.
Alabama's ability to be at the top of college football
In one way or another, this topic is sure to emerge. It's likely that media members pick Georgia to win the SEC this season after winning the past two national championships. LSU might even end up getting picked to win the SEC West again, even though Alabama is usually the popular favorite for that spot among media members each year at SEC Media Days.
After Alabama missed the College Football Playoff with two losses this past season, some in the media have questioned whether the Crimson Tide will be able to compete for a national championship this season. The question at quarterback usually fuels those discussions.
Big picture questions are sure to be sent Saban's way about the future of the program.
A question for Kool-Aid McKinstry
Here's a question someone might throw at the Alabama cornerback: How did he get the nickname Kool-Aid?
With McKinstry having one of the best names in college football, that question is only natural at a big event such as SEC Media Days.
Here's a spoiler answer to that question: McKinstry has said in the past he got the nickname from his grandmother because he entered the world with a smile. He also told his kindergarten teacher that was his name. So it stuck.
He eventually got an NIL deal with the Kool-Aid brand in summer of 2021.
It's likely his name is brought up in some format in Nashville.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football: Nick Saban can expect these topics at SEC Media Days
