July 2026 SEC Media Days by Professor Carlson

Dateline: Tampa, FL
SEC Media, Day 
By Larry Carlson

Tampa isn’t Gainesville, doesn’t have “The Swamp.” But this IS Gator Country and Florida’s new head coach was comfortably at home with the media this morning. Jon Sumrall, 44, came off as an outlier at SEC Media Days in one way: He’s the first SEC coach this year to seemingly impress the press. And it’s a tough crowd.
A year ago, Sumrall led Tulane into the playoffs. Tulane. Chomp on that awhile. He previously won big at Troy. Now he’s got a squad with 34 transfers and 24 freshmen. Challenges abound. But Sumrall is beaming rays of enthusiasm, and says that’s just who he is. “I may have some bad moments; I don’t have bad days. I got life pretty good.”

The head Gator told us he preaches hard work, enthusiasm and “no whining, no complaining, no excuses.” Asked if he lives up to it himself, he smiled and allowed that he can struggle with that mantra when dealing with his kids at home. Right about then, some reporter’s phone tones went off for ten seconds.
“And you would be kicked out of our team meetings,” Sumrall said, shaking his head.
“I swear, like….you’re lucky I’m not going to throw this podium right now,” he motioned in the direction of the guilty party. “That drives me crazy.” He was wearing a wry smile…but Sumrall made his point.
In this era of guarded answers from almost all coaches and players, Sumrall’s candor refreshed. He drew laughter when he referred to one past loss with “They beat the s%#t out of us…we played ’em again when they had a different coach and they beat the s%#t out of us.”
Florida struggled through a 4-8 season in ’25 and fired Billy Napier. But they manhandled the Texas Longhorns at “The Swamp,” 29-21 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final tally. The two teams will duke it out for a third straight year, rare in SEC circles, in mid-October at DKR. And Sumrall will have prized RB Jadan Baugh back in a Florida uniform. The 6-1, 230-pound truck ran over the Horns for 107 tough yards on 27 carries last autumn and that ugly loss ultimately kept Texas out of the playoffs.
Baugh was considered a hot portal commodity but his allegiance to UF didn’t waver once he met his new coach. “He came to my grandmother’s house on Christmas day,” Baugh told us, explaining that Sumrall brought the whole family and the dog.
The coach impressed the kid. The kid no doubt made an impression on Texas. Another date to circle on your fall calendar: October 17.

Post-It Notes: A&M coach Mike Elko cleans up well in a suit and no longer resembles your cable guy, as he appears to be on the Aggie sidelines. Looks much closer to the Ivy League grad (U of Pennsylvania) he is. And Elko had perhaps the most honest “the truth hurts” admission of the day. A writer asked him how, after a 2025 season as a playoff team, he keeps his squad from being satisfied with last season’s accomplishments.
“I show ’em our trophy case,” he responded. “And it’s empty.”
A&M safety Marcus Ratcliffe was equally succinct when I asked him about last year’s Texas game. “They played a better game,” he said. When I surveyed three writers who cover A&M to predict the Aggies’ record, I got 10-2, 9-3 and 8-4. I’m going 9-3. *** According to the Austin American-Statesman, the average price of a Longhorn game ticket is $261. Ohio State in Austin and A&M at College Station average more than 500 clams and the Texas-OU showdown in Dallas is listed at just under $500.
Cheapest ticket is $93 for UTSA. I recall getting “Knothole Section” seats in the north end zone for 50 cents as a little kid. Been a minute. **** Kalen DeBoer of Alabama comes off as almost laid back, when answering media questions. I got to ask him to compare his two Qbs, Keelon Russell, a Texan, and Austin Mack. He gave a well rehearsed answer and I didn’t learn anything. (I’m predicting it’ll be Russell, former Gatorade National Player of the Year out of Duncanville.) But when I spoke with Bama’s hard-hitting safety, Bray Hubbard, he allowed that the Tide’s head coach is not low key in coaching mode. “He’s got some fire to him, Hubbard testified. “He’ll let it loose.”
And Hubbard, a dude who looks fraternity cool, did use “fire” in the collegiate manner to describe his two favorite Tuscaloosa eateries. When I asked him that, with these shout-outs, there might be an NIL deal in the making, he laughed. “Nah, I’m not worried about that. And they’ve already got too much of my money.”
Hubbard will team with CB Zabien Brown to form the backbone of perhaps the SEC’s best secondary. But questions remain. Who’s the man at QB? And can Bama bounce back from an uncharacteristic inability to run the ball? Georgia turned the Tide back in the title game. Minus three yards on the ground. Five-star freshman EJ Crowell should provide the juice to get things up to speed. I can see Bama back in the playoffs.***

Ole Miss broke out a Heisman campaign of sorts this week, one that pushes both QB Trinidad Chambliss and RB Kewan Lacy, who hails from Dallas. They’re joined on the Rebel offense by Johntay Cook, the DeSoto guy who played for the Longhorns, then got a cup of coffee in Syracuse last fall before landing in Oxford. “Johntay Cook is my dog,” Lacy said today. “He’s looking very explosive and ready for the season…He brings a lot. I feel like he brings that fire we need.”
Chambliss, bespectacled and sporting a bow tie, is easy to see as ready for an impressive Heisman acceptance speech a la Fernando Mendoza. He provides thoughtful answers and flashes a smile befitting a man nearing top o’ the world status.

(TLSN’s Larry Carlson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America. He teaches sports media at Texas State and would love to own a Florida condo.)

 

Dateline: Tampa
SEC Media, Day
By Larry Carlson
Georgia QB Gunner Stockton lets his tootball skill do the talking on the field.
There. Classic pigskin cliche. It fits, since the fifth-year senior speaks strictly in cliches when dealing with sports media types. Last year I deemed him the most yawn-worthy player at SEC Media Days, out of 48 potential player interviewees. And I had company.
Not much has changed. A pleasant and polite young man and a leader, according to Coach Kirby Smart. He mentioned his QB’s generalship in taking the front spot on the water in the team’s recent white-water rafting trip in North Carolina. But ol’ Gunner can make harrowing water sports become humdrum. I asked him to expound about the experience.
“Yeah, it was a little crazy,” he said, with a lazy grin.
We all tried. Somebody asked about the 40-year-old Ford Bronco he owns. A very pretty reporter from Oklahoma inquired about the Bulldog team’s study of the OKC Thunder’s basketball operation, referenced earlier by Coach Smart. And there were dozens of pure football queries, naturally. But finding notable, quotable nuggets from the Jaw-juh gent is akin to seeking out the proverbial and cliched haystack needle.
Stockton just keeps winning, though. Ask Steve Sarkisian. Ask the Texas defense.
Remember when UT knocked then-Georgia starter Carson Beck out of the 2024 SEC championship game to close the first half? He led the Dawgs to a second half turnaround and the trophy. Last season, his team crushed Texas, even adding a salt-in-the-wound onside kick, en route to a 28-7smashing of Alabama for a second straight SEC title, UGA’s third in four years while Stockton has been in Athens. So…he’s gonna take it one game at a time. At the end of the day, he doesn’t have to dole out soundbites to the media. At the end of the day, he’s focused on winning. At the end of the day.
Fun Facts Dept: Auburn’s new head coach, Alex Golesh, was born in Moscow. Not Moscow in East Texas. Not Moscow in Idaho. That other one, in Russia. His family moved to America when he was seven. Grew up in Brooklyn. Not the blueprint for any college coach I’ve encountered. He won big at South Florida, right here in Tampa, and he was hugely successful as Tennessee’s OC before that. Gonna be interesting to see if Auburn, mostly asleep for several years, begins to stretch and awaken. By the way, I didn’t ask Golesh for his borscht recipe. I like that stuff and it’s hard to find. But I didn’t wanna be that guy. Nobody else stepped up. ***** When I asked Vandy wide receiver Junior Sherrill about tough atmospheres around the SEC, he mentioned Florida’s “Swamp” and how loud it is (Texas knows that) “…communication gets a little off.” Was Texas a tough venue? “Definitely. It was personally distracting because I’d never seen a bull that big before.before,” Sherrill said, referring to Bevo. “I actually walked up on it, to see if it was real.” Yep, Bevo’s real. Roll the tape of a frightened, skittering bulldog named Uga, right before UT’s most recent win against Georgia, in the Sugar Bowl of seven years ago. *** Vanderbilt’s star running back should be familiar to many Texas fans. Sedrick Alexander, a 5-9, 207-pound senior, played at LBJ High and set the mark as the Austin ISD’s all-time leading rusher. *** Chatted a bit with South Carolina DB Peyton Williams, who starred at Rockwall-Heath in Heath, TX. He wouldn’t bite when I asked which college he pulled for while growing up. But he did mention that his mom ran track for TCU. When I asked Williams to name a couple of the best receivers in the SEC, he said they’re all good, being that they’re playing in the SEC. “Good political answer,” I smiled. “But who are a few of the best?” Williams returned the smile.
“I’ll say they all are.” I think he’s been taking media training with Gunner Stockton. At least Williams should have singled out his teammate, Nyck Harbor, the 6-5, 240-pound beast of a speedster who torched A&M with an 81-yard TD reception that triggered an Aggie DPS trooper into jostling Harbor past the end zone. ***
The Athletic has ranked all 138 D-1 starting quarterbacks. Eight QBs were placed in the top tier, with Arch Manning seventh, one notch below the guy who didn’t start at QB as an Austin schoolboy. Yep, Drew Mestemaker of Vandegrift, the dude who rocked college football at North Texas last season before moving to Oklahoma State with his coach, Eric Morris. The top-ranked QB is…Trinidad Chambliss, the Ole Miss team leader who emerged last season following humble beginnings at D-II Ferris State. LSU’s Sam Leavitt was tabbed eighth. My boy Gunner Stockton is ranked eleventh, A&M’s Marcel Reed is number 13 and John Mateer of OU is number 16. By the way, Brad Jackson, the soph QB for Texas State, UT’s first opponent, was ranked 27th.
(TLSN’s Larry Carlson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America. He teaches sports media at Texas State and loves trips to Florida.)

 

 

 

TLSN is proud to share that, as a Longhorn sports history site, we were instrumental in helping Larry Carlson attend the SEC Media Days in Tampa, Florida with Kirk Bohls. Larry, who has written at least 100 articles for TLSN, will be writing articles and posting them on the TLSN Facebook site for members to read. Today focused on Oklahoma, with Texas scheduled last to the podium on day 4. 
Dateline: Tampa, FL
 SEC Media days
By Larry Carlson
Every college football fans know we’re under 50 days till kickoff.
A year ago, we were in Atlanta for Media Days and a key topic was that there was not one new head coach in the SEC. That was unusual, given the constant pressure and turmoil in today’s landscape. This year? Six of the league’s boss hogs are new to their position. And if youth in the coaching ranks tells anything..the migraine-inducing, blood pressure-spiking profession is relantessly weeding out the over-50 crowd. Oklahoma’s Brent Venables acknowledged today that, at 55, he’s the senior citizen among the conference’s head men. His Sooners were 6-7 in ’24 but rebounded to 10-3 and the playoffs last year, or Venables would likely be out to pasture.
Lose again to Texas (Brent is 1-3 in the Red River Rivalry and the Horns have outscored OU 57-9 the past two years) and the pressure will soar for Venables to move along.
The Oklahoma schedule is no picnic, with a perverse hero sandwich of a schedule. The bread is in the middle, with four or five soft bites. The meat is at the start and finish. Try Michigan, Georgia and Texas in your first five bouts and you might be 2-3 by the time the OU bus leaves the Texas state fair….and if the Boomers survive that gauntlet, they close out against Ole Miss, A&M and Mizzou. In preparation for that, Oklahoma QB John Mateer looks like he gained 20 pounds of muscle in his legs this offseason, and exudes confidence in himself and his team. But, like Texas and Alabama, OU’s offense will be challenged to come back strong in ’26 with the running game, woefully weak much of last season.
But…the running game be damned. Longhorn fans are eager to see how things turn out for OU’s most-hyped receiving theat, Parker Livingstone…aka Benedict Arnold, in the year of America 250. The transfer from Texas, formerly known as Arch Manning’s roommate, was not going to draw a paycheck that suited him in Austin so he’s moved north to the Sooner payroll.
But if you believed John Mateer today, Livingstone’s new teammates/fellow employees have not picked his brain about the Texas playbook and Longhorn tendencies or weaknesses. And if you do believe that….well, if you’re old enough, very old, you might have once believed OU coach Barry Switzer when he said his minions did not spy on Darrell Royal’s practices. If you identify as the bloodthirsty sort among burnt orange followers, you’re anticipating the the first good lick Livingstone takes against Texas.
Circle that date, Oct. 10, and prepare for corny dogs and the mayhem that is Texas-OU.
*****
Dept of Fun Facts to know and tell: Boy, is Tampa an upgrade over Atlanta for pecking away at a laptop, interviewing football players at coaches…and dining options.
My buddy Kirk Bohls (Houston Chronicle) and I enjoyed terrific food, drinks and atmosphere at America’s oldest (1905) and largest (seats 1,700) Spanish restaurant, Columbia. It’s almost impossible to get in at Bern’s Steakhouse without getting on a 90-day (yep, 90 days, not minutes) waitlist (did it once, and the place — famed for its separate, upstairs dessert room — is stellar), so…you wanna hit Columbia. Trust me.
Back to football…Kentucky’s new head coach, Will Stein, was Lake Travis High’s offensive coordinator two decades ago and worked on the UT staff for several years in the Charlie Strong era. He’s got two former Longhorns on his first Wildcat squad, RB CJ Baxter and LB Bo Barnes. Baxter, of course, came out of Florida as the Horns’ most touted recruit a few years back and ran for more than 600 yards, in spite of injuries, as a freshman in 2023. But the injuries kept coming, kept dogging his progress at the Forty Acres and now he’s in Bluegrass Country. Barnes, too, could find a comfortable home in Lexington. And Stein is a polished guy, seemingly ready for the world. But that real world SEC sked shows Bama, aggy, LSU and OU among the fall’s first seven contests. Daunting.
(TLSN’s Larry Carlson is a member of the Football Writers Association. He teaches sports media at Texas State, lives in San Antonio and loves to vacation in Florida every chance he gets.)

 

Dateline:  Tampa, FL, SEC Media, Longhorn Day 
By Larry Carlson
Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian was only a toddler when Darrell Royal set down his bucket and walked away from football in 1976.  But when admiring his roster, stacked with talent, Sark might need to be reminded of one of Saint Darrell’s maxims:  “Potential just means you haven’t done anything yet.”
As the countdown to kickoff continues, Texas Longhorn followers know the obvious.  
Arch Manning is the most scrutinized and perhaps most talented quarterback in college ball.  Steve Sarkisian brings in more money than the gross national product of many countries.  And speaking of money, some football folks say Texas is cashing checks for the pricey neighborhood of $40 million in player salaries.  Many observers feel it’s a case of “championship or bust” in Austin after a 10-3 season of summits (beating OU, aggy and Michigan) and ditches (Ohio St, Florida, Georgia) en route to no playoff spot.
Last year’s offensive line could not open holes or drive block and oftentimes left Manning to run for his life on passing downs.   Steve Sarkisian’s cure for a crummy front wall was to fire his defensive coordinator and double down on NIL skill players.  So…flashy receivers, splashy transfer runners plus Arch — it’s all enticing.  NFL draft geeks see UT potentially crashing the top ten pick list with four choices…Arch, OT Trevor Goosby, WR Cam Coleman and edge rusher Colin Simmons.But it’s gonna come back to whether or not anyone on the O-line play can help out Goosby and show improvement.  On the other side of the ball, defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, back on the Forty Acres after a decade and a half, will run an attacking D that puts more pressure on passers, play more man coverage.  The unit will likely concede some big plays but hopes to create even more.That’s the plan.
In his remarks to the media this afternoon, Sark mentioned leadership, commitment and toughness as the core principles driving his program.  He commended hard work and good attitudes.  And team “culture,” of course.  The rest, we’ve heard before.  And the Austin contingent of reporters complained that Manning never says anything that’s not a non-offensive six-second soundbite with no beef.  But the week’s biggest crowd then surrounded him when he arrived at his assigned podium at 3:30 and I was glad I had queued up early.  And though he is the dutiful, slightly weary interviewee, he can make everybody laugh several times in any session.  Arch did give stock answers to most of our asks but I was fortunate enough to get a bunch of questions in, on everything from improving on explosive plays in the ground game (cue the standard reply) to his best club in golf “Good question.  I hit my drives pretty good.  But I don’t know where they’re going (laughter).  I broke 80 the other day for the first time…but I gave myself a putt (laughter), his favorite class at UT (it was a sales class), a Sark-assigned scavenger hunt competition this week (“They haven’t announced the winners yet but I hope our team won…We allegedly cheated, though (laughter),” and about cooling off.  He admitted he’s yet to take a plunge at Barton Springs but said he will, following a hot practice this summer, and asked the best time of day for a swim.  “Morning, when it’s not too crowded,” I advised.  
Along with his favorite golf course, the deep, chilly end of the pool might be the only place Arch Manning can go to avoid a crowd.
*****
Lane Kiffin now has the, uh, honor, of being the first man to be hired as head coach at three SEC football programs.  He’s at LSU now, of course, having abandoned Tennessee in scandalous style many years ago, then having split from Ole Miss while the Rebs navigated last year’s playoffs without him.  Kiffin’s always been colorful and for years has been a devilish troll on social media.  Today he told us that — taking a bet from his high school quarterbackin’ son, Knox, —  he removed himself from social media.  He’s been clean for close to ten weeks, and counting.  Consequently, he’s not nearly so wickedly tart or entertaining.  Maybe he’s keenly focused on pulling results from a starry lineup reportedly worth close to $50 million.  Like UT, LSU needs playoff success.  Now. 
The pressure is there.  Will the Bayou Bengals respond?  Says Kiffin about leaving social media but applicable to coaching:  “I’ve built my life out of pushing out of comfort.”
*****
Whit Weeks is a sportswriter/sportscaster’s dream.  He looks every interviewer in the eye, ponders every question before answering with honesty and passion instead of with dull, practiced, vanilla responses. He’s also a badass linebacker for LSU, and with movie star good looks, probably every LSU girl’s dream dude.  But he’s got a steady longtime girlfriend whom he calls “amazing.”  Her name is Landry Kiffin and her daddy, Lane, is Whit’s coach.  No, Lane didn’t leave Ole Miss to clumsily keep a closer eye on his daughter when she’s with Weeks.  The coach’s move was much messier than that.
At any rate, Weeks, back at SEC Media Days for the second straight summer, seeks to atone for an early season-ending injury that was foreshadowing for the Tigers’ soul-crushing season.  “I understand this is the last time I wear these two colors and represent these three letters.  It’s ‘go time’ right now.  It adds extra motivation day in and day out.” he said with his Southern twang.  I asked him just what it feels like to run out on the field at Tiger Stadium for a night game, and the star defender grew even more animated.
“It’s the greatest feeling in the world.  I get goosebumps just thinking about it right now,” he beamed.  “It’s truly unlike anything else, when we’re running out, blaring our music, flashing the lights, just getting hyped with your boys, getting ready to play in the greatest stadium in the world…there’s no feeling like that.”  
Okay.  I got goosebumps.  I’ve at least felt that Tiger Stadium magic as an observer more than a dozen times.   And the Texas Longhorns will need to adjust quickly when they visit Baton Rouge in November.  When those rowdy Cajun fans scream out, “Tiger bait!” at opposing players and fans, they mean business.  Can you say “electric?”  Hell, yeah.
SEC Media Week is a wrap.  Almost time to unwrap the new season.
(TLSN’s Larry Carlson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America.  He teaches sports media and San Antonio and is relishing spending almost a week over in Delray Beach, his favorite city on the magnificently talented Atlantic Ocean.)

 

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