What Brian Kelly, Lane Kiffin, Shane Beamer, and Clark Lea had to say about Texas joining the SEC

DALLAS – The head coaches of LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt took to the SEC Media Days stage on the first day of the event on Monday and fielded a variety of questions from those gathered to preview the 2024 season. One topic that kept coming up for all the coaches was the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the league.

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Considering Dallas’ proximity to both Austin, Texas and Norman, Okla., it makes sense that media members from both markets, plus one in Dallas that caters to both, would point their questions to head coaches of longtime SEC programs toward the direction of the newcomers. The burnt orange one took a lot of the attention.

Each had a different way of addressing the additions.

Brian Kelly

Kelly made sure to welcome the new members of the league in his opening statement.

“I want to welcome Texas and Oklahoma into the SEC, making this, in my opinion, the premier college football conference in the country,” Kelly said. “Deep, and competitive, and certainly now an incredible challenge from top to bottom.”

The Longhorns aren’t on LSU’s 2024 or 2025 schedules, but Kelly and his program do have some familiarity with Texas. He had to scout the Alabama Crimson Tide last year and one of the contests he watched was the Longhorns’ win in Tuscaloosa.

Did he see a team that could win a conference title in year one?

“I think it’s always about how you replace and so if you recruited well and you can step in, if they recruited well and they have guys to step in, Texas certainly has the ability to compete for an SEC championship,” Kelly said.

Lane Kiffin

Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian go way, way, way back, all the way to their USC days under Pete Carroll. They also overlapped briefly at Alabama, and both were Nick Saban‘s offensive coordinators at one point on their quest to return to head coaching.

Kiffin thought highly of what Sarkisian has entering 2024, but made sure to note there is a challenge in this league the Texas head coach may not have experienced in the Big 12.

“So I think they’re one the elite rosters in America,” Kiffin said. “You know, Sark would know well the challenges, so it’s not like he’s coming with the team in the SEC with the coach that hasn’t been, so I think he understands that. That conference was competitive too, so he had tough games there and tough places to play on the road there.

“This is just — it’s just different. The SEC is really challenging. Study road records and study road records at night in the SEC and why do those percentages change. They’re really good players, but they’re really hard places to play with electric atmospheres that are challenging to play in. So you just come in this conference you get that more.”

Shane Beamer

Beamer has more Oklahoma connections than Texas ties thanks to several years spent on Lincoln Riley‘s staff. He has first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to move from a Big 12 program to a SEC program.

The biggest change he noted in that move? The large humans.

“From being in other conferences — and I’ve coached in multiple leagues in my career — it’s the size and the depth and the athleticism you see on the line of scrimmage every single week in this conference,” Beamer said. “I can remember being at Oklahoma, coaching tight ends, and you would be getting ready to play most Saturdays and there may be one or two guys on the opposing defensive line that you really got to be cognizant of. Like this guy can completely wreck your game if you don’t have a plan for him.

“But then you come into this league, it’s not one or two, it’s like six or seven every single Saturday on the line of scrimmage. That’s one thing.”

Another aspect Beamer highlighted were the environments of stadiums with near-100,000-seat capacities.

“There is nothing like it. Just the competition, pageantry, it’s special,” Beamer said. “It’s something I missed when I was not in this conference and coaching in other conferences, and excited that I’m still part of the SEC.”

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Clark Lea

Lea has some experience coaching against Sarkisian from his time at Notre Dame.

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“Got a ton of respect for him and the program he’s building,” Lea said. “It’s taken time for him and he’s taken time with the foundation. Yeah, I think in year one here where Texas and Oklahoma are now a part of the SEC, to have a piece of that and a game with them is really exciting.”

Lea will battle the Longhorns on October 26 in Nashville. Texas is 3-8-1 all time against the Commodores, but the two programs haven’t played in almost 100 years.

Lea is excited for the next round of games between the two programs.

“The fact it’s in Nashville, you know, I’m proud of that and looking forward to competing with them, and I think it’ll be a great celebration of where the SEC is and a celebration of where our game is headed,” Lea said.