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Media Days Preview: Next week is SEC Football Media Days. The event is now a spectacle, a far stretch from its meager beginnings.

Over 1,000 credentialed media will converge at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover adjacent to the Riverchase Galleria with a Starbucks and Shiatsu Massage guy in the middle of the mall.

1300 WTLS/106.5 FM will be back for another year. Thanks to PrimeSouth Bank for their continued partnership of this event.

This year's theme will likely be about hot seat coaches. It tends to be a lot.

Ironically, there are no new coaches to the league this year. You can't really count Ed Orgeron.

Coach "O" has been here before. He coached at Ole Miss. He is also not brand new to LSU. He took over the head coaching duties during last season.

Almost every year we have at least one "new guy." I'll be surprised if next year we don't have several.

I can predict who those new guys might be about as well as the media makes its annual selections. It doesn't take an Einstein to know who the coaches are who have to improve this year.

Let's start with Gus Malzahn. The Auburn coach has fallen off since his inagural splash reaching the national title game. This will be his fifth season, and AU has lost five or more three straight years.

Malzahn's conference record is 18-14 during that stretch.

Kevin Sumlin, Butch Jones and Brett Bielema are in the same boat. Like Malzahn, Jones and Bielema are entering their fifth seasons. Sumlin is headed into year number six.

In five years, Sumlin's SEC record is 21-19. In four years, Jones is 14-18 (in the SEC East) and Bielema is 10-22.

Nick Saban has been the gold standard winning 90 percent of his SEC contests during that stretch.

Hugh Freeze might just make it after all. His problems have been off-the-field with sanctions by the NCAA. He does have a short rope though. If the Rebs go 5-7 again, it's curtains for Mr. Freeze.

SEC Media Days Schedule

Monday, July 10:
Arkansas – Bret Bielema
LSU – Ed Orgeron
Tennessee – Butch Jones

Tuesday, July 11:
Florida – Jim McElwain
Georgia – Kirby Smart 
Miss. State – Dan Mullen
Vanderbilt – Derek Mason

Wednesday, July 12:
Alabama – Nick Saban
Kentucky – Mark Stoops
Missouri – Barry Odom
Texas A&M – Kevin Sumlin

Thursday, July 13:
Auburn – Gus Malzahn
Ole Miss – Hugh Freeze
South Carolina – Will Muschamp

WTLS Media Days Lineup

Tuesday, July 11:
12-2 p.m. - River Region Sports

Wednesday, July 12:
6-8 a.m. - The Wake-Up Call presented by PrimeSouth Bank
12-2 p.m. - River Region Sports

Thursday, July 13:
6-8 a.m. - The Wake-Up Call presented by PrimeSouth Bank
12-2 p.m. - River Region Sports

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