SEC Media Days Diary: Chapter 1

Good evening from Nashville, Tennessee, the proud home of country music, hot chicken, overpriced cold beer, and the 2023 running of SEC Media Days. I, Drew Franklin, am here with my Kentucky Sports Radio colleagues–Freddie Maggard, Nick Roush, Adam Luckett, and Steven Peake–for my first-ever SEC Media Days experience. It’s an event I’ve always followed from afar but didn’t attend because, you know, Hoover, Alabama. But Nashville? Derrick Henry’s Nashville? Broadway? Printers Alley? Beating drums, crowded sidewalks, and morning headaches? I’m in. All the way in. So with the help of our friends at Kroger, KSR’s mini-van (yes, we brought a mini-van) made room for one more. And here we are.

Welcome to my SEC Media Days diary.

Monday Travel and East Nashville

Let’s set the scene in this first edition of the SEC Media Days diary. It is Day 2 at Nashville’s Grand Hyatt Ballroom, but the first for me after a Monday afternoon arrival in the Music City—my apologies to Brian Kelly, Jimbo Fisher, and Eli Drinkwitz for my Day 1 absence. I’m sure they noticed.

The drive down wasn’t without complication because, you know, Nashville, but counting the Alexander Shunnarah billboards helped pass the time through I-65 road closures, construction zones, and everyday Nashville traffic. I counted 17.

Once I arrived, our rental in East Nashville (the KSR House) wasn’t ready for check-in, so Joyland called me across the street for their famous crusted burger.

Obviously, I forgot to pack my diet on this trip.

The Welcome Party and Bad Decision(s)

As a rookie, I’m here for all the extracurriculars and social events, including Monday night’s welcome party at Bridgestone Arena. The SEC provided food and beverage to its credentialed guests in the Lexus Lounge, where I knew approximately two, maybe three, people outside of the four I share KSR House and a mini-van with this week.

Once the party ended, the smart thing would’ve been to go home and rest up. We did not do that. We instead made the irresponsible decision to check on three, maybe four, establishments on Broadway. We found that several other people also made irresponsible decisions because Broadway on a Monday night looked like Broadway on a weekend. Who has a Monday Bachelorette party? Lots of clumsy women in cowboy hats, apparently.

On The Scene

We were early risers today for Day 2 of SEC Media Days, my Day 1. The mini-van rolled up to the Grand Hyatt by 9 a.m. central for a full day of coverage, which you can read here on KentuckySportsRadio.com and I hope you will.

On the scene, radio row was busy with a long line of live broadcasts outside the main ballroom, where each of the league’s fourteen head coaches will hold press conferences this week. We spent most of our time in the ballroom for conversations with Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Mississippi State’s Zach Arnett, and Auburn’s Hugh Freeze.

Smart was a very popular man with the fans in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt as Georgia had the largest turnout of fans, followed by Mississippi State, and maybe an Auburn or Vandy fan, maybe.

Tomorrow we see if Alabama travels and if Blue gets in. I’ll do a little more roaming for tomorrow’s diary, too. The ballroom got boring.

Missing the Pirate

With all due respect to Zach Arnett, Mississippi State’s turn at the stage just wasn’t the same without Mike Leach. Leach did three SEC Media Days as the head coach of the Bulldogs before his tragic passing two-and-a-half weeks after the 2022 season ended.

On Monday, Greg Sankey honored Leach in his opening comments.

"We're going to miss Mike, but he is not going to be forgotten." @GregSankey honored Mike Leach at SEC media days ❤️ @HailStateFB pic.twitter.com/jN2NHRTAkk

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) July 17, 2023

Hey, it’s our new On3 colleague, Andy Staples

Adam Luckett and Nick Roush caught up with new On3 employee Andy Staples for his thoughts on Kentucky Football and On3’s employee handbook. The full interview will be out soon. We’ll let you know.

Free Hot Dogs!

Lunch today was a taco setup, almost like they knew I was coming. Thank you. But let’s talk about the free hot dogs at snack time. We should talk about snack time, too.

At SEC Media Days, there is a daily “snack” on the itinerary. I’m not sure I’ve seen a pre-scheduled snack since kindergarten, but this is the Southeastern Conference and everybody needs snacks.

Today’s snack was hot dogs. I love hot dogs. You ever had a bad hot dog? Exactly. Now imagine you’re working hard and out of nowhere, free hot dogs. Awesome, right? Imagine you’re doing whatever you do for a living, then someone shows up and starts setting up a free hot dog bar next to your desk or excavator, whatever you do. That happened to me today.

Jalapeno-cheddar dogs were also available for a brief moment. They got devoured by all of the hardworking journos at precisely 3 p.m., snack time. I missed out but anyone in the main ballroom knew jalapenos were served. Nobody light a match.

Happy Hour Social

I’d like to stay and chat, but the happy hour social is calling and we can’t keep the happy hour social waiting. Check back for more from the scene and all of the actual football talk from KSR.