The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover was a popular place to be on Wednesday morning as Nick Saban and Alabama made their appearance at SEC Media Days. The Tide finished up early though and made way for three other teams to face the media before the end of the day.
Bret Bielema headlined the afternoon with his comments about respecting his elders (being Steve Spurrier) and how he felt about taking a knee on the 2-yard line against Texas.
“It was a proud moment. Borderline erotic,” the third year head coach at Arkansas said. His Razorbacks beat Texas 31-7 in the Texas Bowl last season.
Arkansas is a team that has drawn a lot of eyes this offseason, mostly for their offense. Brandon Allen returns at quarterback along with four linemen, both Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins in the backfield and his number one receiving target Keon Hatcher. The biggest issue for Arkansas will be finishing out close games in the SEC, where they have been 0-7 in one possession games since Bielema took over.
““We have to learn how to close out games when we’re up or even when we’re close,” Allen said. “We weren’t able to do that this year but we’ve put a focus on it for next year.”
Kentucky are entering their third season under head coach Mark Stoops but haven’t seen the significant improvement they have wanted so far. This season the Wildcats are still facing a lot of questions that will need to be answered before the season.
“By the way the season ended last year and the way we were playing,” said Kentucky safety AJ Stamps, “we’re using that as motivation and that adds hunger to go out and prove to the world that we are capable of winning games and keep up as a team.”
Kentucky will have to get their season started quickly in games against South Carolina, Florida and Missouri in consecutive weeks. Patrick Towles should be the leader of an offense that will feature Ryan Timmons, ‘Boom’ Williams and JoJo Kemp.
The Wildcats will need to bounce back after losing their last six games after starting 2014 5-1 with their lone loss coming to Florida in overtime. The final loss was to Louisville in a back and forth game that prevented Kentucky from making a bowl game.
“I feel like we’ve gotten so much better in all phases,” said senior offensive tackle Jordan Swindle. “We’ve matured both physically and mentally.”
The two-time SEC East Champions also took the stage on day three. The Missouri Tigers are being doubted once again by the media but that didn’t stop Maty Mauk from talking up his offense. 
“Sometimes it might be sloppy,” the junior quarterback said . “A 27 QBR with a 14-4 record as a starter. But I’m going to take wins over stats.”
Mauk has struggled with consistency in his career, while not being able to win against some of the bigger teams in the SEC.
“When he’s in the crunch time, he’s been at his best,” said Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel. “But him being more consistent will help everyone around him play better.”
The Tigers schedule lines up for what could be a great start to the season but the last four weeks may end up breaking their season. A Thursday night game against Mississippi State is followed by a neutral meeting with BYU before ending the season with Tennessee and a trip to Fayetteville.
