Steve Spurrier used to call the time between the conference media sessions and the start of the pre-season camp “Talkin’ Season.”
Trust me, Spurrier was a master at it.
In 32 days, as of this publication, Florida and Miami will lift the lid on the college football season in Orlando. The talking stops and the walking starts. Already there have been some salvos tossed about by players, coaches and media.
For example, Clemson player John Simpson let fly with the remark last week that he thought Notre Dame was better than Alabama last year.
Okay, let’s recap for a second. Clemson housed Alabama 44-16 in the national title game last January. Notre Dame was a hollow and much-overrated 12-0 team that Clemson also easily vanquished.
Finebaum excoriated Simpson for an asinine remark, saying that it diminishes the greatness of Clemson. Well, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence chimed in, defending his teammate, and called Finebaum “unprofessional.”
Let’s also agree that Finebaum is an SEC homer, but he does call it like he sees it, and Finebaum is right in this case. He also maintains that Alabama will beat Clemson this year, should the two meet.
I’m looking for my popcorn right now.
Then, on the “Rub The Rock” website, a Clemson hot spot, a blogger says that, at long last, the media is calling out Alabama. Clemson has a pretty good football team, but, and this just in, so does Alabama, like it or not.
Poke the big crimson elephant with a stick at your peril. Both teams have questions, and we have no idea how either team will be by the time Santa shows up in department stores (Do they even still have those?). Giving Bama bulletin board material isn’t the most prudent thing to do.
Moving on to more familiar environs, it seems that pundits and haters of the Big Orange, and we’re talking Tennessee here, don’t think a lot of their potential next year. I said earlier that I think UT head coach Jeremy Pruitt knows something about this team and isn’t telling us. Yet a pundit wrote last week that Pruitt didn’t have much to say at his Media Days presser except that UT’s academic prowess was improved.
The pundit missed the other 20 minutes or so of what the Vol coach said. But the media is piling on, almost ridiculing the Vols for their sins of the past. Their remarks almost suggest that Tennessee is incapable of improving, despite the fact that most of these guys have had 18 months in Pruitt’s system, they return 18 starters and have a more favorable schedule this year.
Talk is cheap, of course, but it’s certainly fun to watch. We have just over four weeks before kickoff, and it’s likely going to get worse before it gets better. But that’s always the case in the Southeastern Conference, so sit back, relax and watch the volleys go back and forth.
Oh yeah, don’t forget the butter for your popcorn.
