Kevin Sumlin looks cool. At the podium, he practically oozes cool. If it weren't for the fact that he was one of the new guys, Sumlin would have been the perfect inheritor of the pre-motorcycle crash Bobby Petrino, whose press conferences were the must-miss events of SEC Media Days.
But Sumlin was one of the new guys, so he probably got one of the more attentive audiences of the day. (Steve Spurrier, the SEC's resident comedian, and Gary Pinkel, another boring but new guy, were also high on the list.) Aside from his prolific use of the word "damn," though, Sumlin largely served up a helping of the stream of compliments that coaches pay to the SEC -- which is a way of complimenting themselves, of course -- and the stream of coachspeak. Texas A&M, we were assured, is taking Louisana Tech very, very seriously.
What about taking on Alabama and LSU and the like on an annual basis? Eh, Sumlin's mind is elsewhere.
We don't need to worry about our SEC schedule, the teams we're playing, Florida, LSU, Alabama yet. We need to worry about us first. We've got enough things in our own program right now that we got to get fixed before we start worrying about playing those football games.
Coach Les Miles said Texas A&M and Missouri better strap it up before playing in the SEC. Well, of course he did.
I don't think that was any kind of derogatory statement at all based on the fact that he was the head coach at Oklahoma State and was in the Big 12 for a number of years. So I think he understands the physical nature of this league.
Then again, Texas A&M also isn't expected to make too much noise on the field during its first year in the SEC. So maybe it's best for Sumlin to keep his head down and wait until his players can back up whatever he says when the games actually start.