Buddy Blog: What To Ask Billy At SEC Media Days?

Can I even talk modern football talk? The game has changed, the standards have changed, and even the terms have changed.

The other day somebody asked me, “If you were at SEC Media Days on Wednesday what would you ask Billy Napier?” Since I haven’t been to an SEC Media Days in three years, I had to think about that one.

Napier takes to the podium at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel official function of the old East-West division format. Three Florida players are with him to the event -- wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, cornerback Jason Marshall Jr. and starting center Kingsley Eguakun.

It’s already beginning to feel vastly different.

Can I even talk modern football talk anymore? The game has changed, the standards have changed, and even the definitions have changed. The rules of engagement are also different. And since I rarely get a chance to ask the Florida coach any kind of question at all, I might even gag.

The other day an obscure young reporter asked Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz if he planned to use artificial intelligence for assistance in formulating a new defensive scheme. To Drink’s credit, he said no – and he took a pass.

Shortly after that, another youngster asked Eli three questions about analytics that sounded all Greek to me, leading me to wonder if it’s time for me to be turned out to pasture with a copy of Steve Spurrier’s common sense football glossary on football.

Are you getting the drift about changes in the game?

And as a matter of fact, by the time we’re done with the ‘23 season and are about to launch the expanded SEC '24 campaign, we’ll be preparing for an alternative universe which frankly scares the bejeebers out of me. There will have been more changes in CFB from 2020 through 2024 that all the previous 50 years combined. Lord, help us.

I woke up from a nightmare recently where SEC Media Days were being held somewhere in Texas and they were down to just five schools. Three of them were in Texas, one from Oklahoma, and I believe the other was Georgia — the foreshadowing of a concern, perhaps that the SEC has been hijacked by the ghost of the Southwest Conference past.

Turns out maybe that’s not all that farfetched, as SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey opened the Nashville hypefest with the news that next year’s SEC Media Days will be held in Dallas. Can the greedy hand of Jerry Jones be far behind?

My paranoia only got worse when Paul Finebaum’s first caller (from Tulsa) – after waiting on hold for 30 minutes Tuesday – just couldn’t wait to tell him that Oklahoma was getting more four-stars than Texas and beating the Longhorns in recruiting. Which was really hot SEC news since those two teams won’t join the league for another year.

Otherwise, Tuesday in Nashville was fairly mild -- except when Kirby Smart-ass kept insisting the proper way to identify the rivalry with the Gators was officially the GEORGIA-Florida game. ReportedlyThe HBC fired back on his Facebook post: "Until he wins 11 out of 12 of the FLORIDA-Georgia games I think we all know what it's called."t. Except that the HBC says he never wrote or said that and was surprised to hear it attributed to him. "I never said that," he told me Wednesday. Later he checked it out and attributed it to "an overzealous assistant."

I must admit it would have been a helluva quote though.

Napier isn’t going to be walking into a hornet’s nest on Wednesday because he gets to fly under the radar of low expectations and is likely to be overshadowed by what that guy from Tuscaloosa says about how he’s going to handle LSU and Georgia two slots ahead of him at the lectern.

This could be a good space for Napier, who by comparison to the Bully Boys, is just trying to get the word out that he and the Gators will be fielding a team, too, this season. There are even a few insiders close to the program who are saying Florida will easily surpass the FPI ranking of No. 18, which projects a 6.8-5.2 record. Harmless, of course to the Georgias, LSUs and Alabamas.

We already know Napier will be peppered about his quarterback Graham Mertz and new defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong. Providing we had a clear channel of communication, and that he’d have the time and inclination to respond, I would like to know truly how he feels his team has improved, by how much, who, and what are their realistic expectations of wins. And who are the players who will make the difference for him in 2023.

If they can hold serve -- that is to say, if they can win over half their games in 2023 -- the way things are setting up at 2024 for this Florida football team will be a contender again. Yes, I said a contender, and yes, I meant for the 12-team playoffs, since the SEC East will be no more.

It all starts there. And the issue is right now is trust. So take a deep breath Gator fans and double down on your white-knuckle faith.