SEC Media Days Edition 3 Wraps With Spins On Never-Ending Saga That Is Name, Image & Likeness

ATLANTA - We have made it to the fourth and final day of SEC Media Days.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel with quarterback Hendon Hooker, wide receiver Cedric Tillman and defensive back Trevon Flowers will make appearances on Thursday morning at the College Football Hall of Fame/CNN Center, followed by Auburn coach Bryan Harsin along with tailback Tank Bigsby, tight end John Samuel Shenker and defensive end Derick Hall.

Then Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher will close the four-day proceedings with defensive back Demani Richardson and offensive lineman Layden Robinson.

Texas A&M wide receiver Ainias Smith was scheduled to appear, but he was arrested on charges of driving under the influence, marijuana possession and carrying a concealed gun with a full magazine early Wednesday in College Station by Texas A&M police. He has been suspended. Fisher will likely be asked about him on Thursday.

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, Georgia coach Kirby Smart, Florida coach Billy Napier and Kentucky coach Mark Stoops and three players from each team spoke at press conferences on Wednesday.

Pittman put on a show, discussing everything from the back story of his Razorback statue at his lake house to singer Stevie Nicks.

Then Smart delivered one of the better comments on Name, Image & Likeness, an NCAA rule approaching its one-year anniversary that allowed players to be paid.

"I don't think what's going on in college football right now at some places is sustainable, meaning, can you do that year in and year out and repeat that? Can you honor the commitment that some people are trying to make to kids to get them to go to their school? It's not good for college football, what's out there," he said.

Smart also pointed out the good side of NIL.

"For Dan Jackson to be a walk-on from Gainesville, Georgia, come in and get an opportunity to earn money for his education, that is good," he said. "For a young man that has a father that's on dialysis in south Georgia, and he can't support his father unless he goes back and works or he gets NIL, that is good.We have 95 players right now with NIL deals that are on our roster. That's incredible, the depth of that. There's so much good there."

And he said what needs to be fixed.

"It's the guardrails. It's the parameters that we need to protect our game," he said. "Not only protect our game, guys, it's protect young men, okay? So, NIL can be a good thing and they can learn to manage money at a young age. But to use it as inducement to get a young man to go to your school is not good for anybody or the game. I don't have the answer for how to guardrail that, but NIL has been good to Georgia, and it's been good to our players and it will continue to be."

Smart also talked football and explained that his defending national champion team is on the hunt - not being hunted.

A possible end to the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville, Florida, was covered. First-year Florida coach Billy Napier wants to experience it for the first time at least before it becomes a home-and-home series, which is what Smart would like to see.

Stoops, meanwhile, discussed chasing the Bear. He is two wins away from surpassing Paul "Bear" Bryant as the winningest coach in Kentucky history. Bryant coached at Kentucky before going to Texas A&M, then Alabama.

Stoops also made a stirring comment on the combination of NIL and the NCAA Transfer Portal.

"I don't know if there's ever been a more volatile, uncertain and ever-changing period within college athletics," he said. "In much of this we have very little or no control over as a head coach."

Find it all here on Thursday and throughout the weekend at SEC Media Days Central.

Written by
Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.