The second day of SEC Football Media Days didn’t bring the same kind of chaos as the opener, but it still delivered a few comments worth circling. Kirby Smart leaned into the conference’s big-picture posture, Clark Lea took pressure off his quarterback room, and Shane Beamer said South Carolina has already started making changes after a rough 2025 season.
Smart, Georgia’s head coach, was asked by On3’s Brett McMurphy about SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s warning that the league could become independent of the other Power 4 conferences as college football’s fight in Congress continues over how to “protect” the sport.
“Yeah, I’ve actually been there for a long time," Smart said in response.
The comment fit the tone of the moment, even if it sounded more like tough talk than a real roadmap. After three straight national championships from the Big Ten, the timing of any SEC breakaway talk feels more rhetorical than practical.
Smart, though, carries real weight in these conversations as the SEC’s most prominent coach in the post-Nick Saban era. If the league is serious about that kind of move, the people running the schools would be the ones worth hearing from next.
Lea, meanwhile, made it clear he isn’t expecting his next quarterback to duplicate what Diego Pavia did.
“I don't actually believe that that player needs to perform the way that Diego performed," Lea told ESPN during Day 2 of SEC Media Days.
That line can be read two ways. It could mean Lea trusts the pieces around the quarterback enough that the offense won’t need one player to carry everything. Vanderbilt’s defense is one of the most experienced groups heading into 2026, and the program’s talent level has risen after back-to-back winning seasons, including a 10-win year in 2025.
It could also be Lea’s way of acknowledging that Pavia was a one-of-one kind of player and that no one should be asked to recreate that exact act, especially if the next man up is true freshman Jared Curtis.
Beamer spent much of his time talking through competition points on the South Carolina roster, including the need to settle on a starting kicker and identify a reliable running mate for star EDGE Dylan Stewart. But he also said the Gamecocks have already adjusted their approach heading into 2026.
“We tweaked some things. After the '24 season, we tweaked things.
After '22, we tweaked things. You're always tweaking things to get better.
You're always trying to learn and look at how we can improve our processes. That's not just after a 4-8 season like we had last year.
We've always done that, but certainly this year, we tweaked some things in regards to spring practice. How we did things was a little bit different," Beamer said.
That matters for South Carolina after the program slid badly in 2025 following a surprising 9-3 regular season the year before. Beamer’s challenge now is turning those adjustments into something visible on the field, and into a reset in the team’s habits and mood.
In Other News...
Auburn Staff Is Sending A Loud Message About Gavin Jenkins
At SEC Media Days, Auburn made it clear that Gavin Jenkins is not being treated like just another sophomore cornerback. Alex Golesh spoke about Jenkins in the kind of terms usually reserved for players with a much bigger future in front of them, framing him as someone who is already climbing into the programs core while also drawing attention as a possible pro down the line.
The bigger question now is how quickly that promise turns into production on the field. Golesh expects Jenkins to compete for a rotational spot right away and keep pushing for more as the season unfolds, and Champ Anthony added his own backing by pointing to Jenkins length, athleticism and work habits. For Auburn, the message is pretty loud: the staff thinks Jenkins is on a fast track, and the only thing left to sort out is just how fast that track really is. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Faces Another Brutal Reality Check Entering Alex Goleshs First Season
Auburn went to SEC media days carrying the kind of baggage that has become hard to ignore around the program, and the leagues preseason vote only reinforced it. The Tigers were slotted near the bottom of the conference heading into Alex Goleshs first season, a reminder that this is no longer a one-off stumble but the product of five straight losing seasons and a coaching carousel that has already turned four times since the start of the decade.
For Golesh, the challenge is bigger than simply changing the mood in the building. He arrives as another offensive-minded hire with a track record built outside the power-conference spotlight, much like Gus Malzahn did when he first came to Auburn, but the expectations around this job are far less forgiving now. The question is not whether the pressure exists, because it clearly does, but how quickly Golesh can make Auburn look like a program headed somewhere other than another year of disappointment. [Read more 🡒]
National Analyst Just Validated What Auburn Fans Want In Alex Golesh
Auburns coaching conversation has started to shift from personality to process, and Brooks Austin added a national voice to that discussion in a video posted by AL.com. Austin contrasted Hugh Freeze as more of a laid-back, relationship-first coach with Alex Golesh, whose reputation around the sport is built on relentless energy and a workmanlike approach that can change the feel of a program.
For Auburn fans, the appeal is obvious: the idea that Golesh would bring a more organized, steadier growth chart rather than a constant search for the next spark. Austin framed that as an upgrade, the kind of improvement that can matter as much as any splashy hire, and it is exactly the sort of validation that keeps Auburn supporters watching closely for what comes next. [Read more 🡒]