This July, after taking 2020 off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SEC media day will return for a four-day lineup in Hoover, Alabama, which is just a two-hour drive from the Plains. Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin will be featured on the final day of the festivities at the Hoover Hyatt Regency.
It’s clear the SEC staggered their days to keep things interesting each of the days, but Auburn may have gotten the short end of the stick having to share their day with just two teams (and two middling teams at that), Arkansas and Missouri.
No offense to Eliah Drinkwitz and Sam Pittman, of course, but neither would contend that their .500 and sub-.500 records, respectively, give either program more intrigue than an Auburn football program replacing a head coach that brought the Tigers to the National Championship game in his first season and was the OC for the team’s only (official) title this millennium.
Harsin will be the reason for national reporters in attendance to stick around Hoover on July 22nd, and he follows four separate days of interesting storylines across the SEC.
Monday features Florida coach Dan Mullen, who is coming off of an SEC Championship loss to the team up north, Ed Orgeron, who is just a year and a half (though what feels like a century) removed from a National Championship, and fellow freshly installed South Carolina HC Shane Beamer.
Tuesday features the always entertaining Lane Kiffin, Georgia coach Kirby Smart, long-time Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops, and newly minted Tennessee (and former UCF) HC Josh Heupel.
Then there’s Wednesday, which features college football’s greatest villain, Nick Saban, the at-times problematic Mike Leach and Jimbo Fisher, and new Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea.
The SEC is due for a huge year in 2021, with Alabama and Georgia expected to lead the way, but no team has greater spoiler potential then Auburn football.
SEC media day will be the world’s first chance to see Harsin and his coaching counterparts in the same place, and Thursday will be headlined by the head honcho of the Harsinal in Hoover.