Oklahoma gets attention in 2nd day of SEC Media Days:

Sooners share Media Day stage with Georgia, Mizzou, Tennessee:

GDW Analysis:
 
DALLAS: Oklahoma and Texas have to wonder what they have gotten into, now the two schools are members of the Southeastern Conference.
Oklahoma got to see what is like Tuesday during the segment of SEC football media days, sharing the spotlight with the Georgia Bulldogs, Tennessee Vols and Missouri Tigers.
For the so called experts from the highly talented conference in college football, Georgia looks to be the favorite, even though their run to the playoffs ended last season in a loss in the SEC championship to Alabama.
 
Georgia Bulldogs:
 
Season opener: August 31 vs. Clemson in Atlanta
SEC opener: September 14 at Kentucky
SEC home games: Auburn October 5, Mississippi State October 12, Tennessee November 16.

 Comments by coach Kirby Smart.
 "
We're dealing with new challenges this year. We don't have a chip on our shoulder in terms of people trying to use that as motivation. I've never used a failure from the previous year as motivation and never used the success of a previous year as motivation; we won't do that this year. That's not who we are.

We want to recreate ourselves to say in the best light we can. This team has been fun to coach. I tell people all the time we had 15 really tough spring practices, and that includes the spring game. I probably would only trade one of those in and say could I do it over. We got a lot out of those.

I enjoy being on the grass with this group. Fun to be with. We have a great locker room, we love each other, and they're working their butt off right now. We have four new coaches. That's a new challenge for us. I don't think we've had a situation where we had four new coaches. We got four new coaches coming in it.

I'm excited about the energy they brought, the buy-in they brought, learning our culture, and how we do thing at our place. Some have been with us before and some at similar places, but I am really excited about the four new coaches."

 Tennessee Vols:
 
Season opener: Vs. Chattanooga August 31
SEC opener: At Oklahoma September 21
SEC home games: Florida October 12, Alabama October 19, Kentucky November 2, Mississippi State November 9.
Comments by coach Josh Heupel:
 "T
his football team that we have when we embarked on our off season when we got back in January, it's a unique roster in that we're really experienced at certain spots, in particular on the line of scrimmage, and we have some youth that surrounds them. The challenge has been that our young guys can't be young when we get to the fall.

The leadership that we have from our veterans, the young guys coming in, buying into the culture, competing every single day, this has been a great group, a great team. Up until this part of the off season, the first three-quarters of our off season, they've been unbelievable in their work habits, their competitiveness, how they've attacked every single rep every single day, and I cannot wait to get to training camp. I'm ready to go compete with these guys on the grass. And I know Vol Nation is excited about the season that we're ready to embark upon as well.

It's hard to believe that training camp is right around the corner in less than two weeks. We're ready to go compete. We got great renovations that are going on inside of Neyland Stadium, one of the great venues in all of sports, let alone college football. Our fanbase is extremely passionate, season ticket waiting list of over 15,000 people, and we'll be ready to go kick off here in a little over a month."

 Oklahoma Sooners:
 
Season opener: Vs. Temple August 30
 
SEC opener: Vs. Tennessee September 21
 
SEC home games: Tennessee September 21, South Carolina October 19, Alabama November 23.
 
Comments by coach Brent Venables:
"Really looking forward to getting things started here at the end of July. Really excited about our football team. We've got a great blend of both experience -- I believe we have, give or take, around 24 players that are going on their third or more a year as a starter in college football. And we also have this amazing foundation of youth. We have 52 scholarship players that are either a freshman or sophomore going into this year. We're going to welcome 53 players this season, that have never been at Oklahoma, in the fall to run out on the field. That's 38 scholarship players and 15 walk-ons.

We do have, again, a lot to look forward to. We have -- I love the direction of this football team and the development since January that's taken place, but we still have a lot of work to do. A lot of excitement, but we got a lot of work to do, and we still have an opportunity over the next several of weeks and couple of months to continue to develop, which I think is going to be critical as we chase an opportunity, compete for an SEC Championship.

It goes without saying, the SEC is a deep, incredibly competitive league, unlike any other in college football, and everything, everything, again, about this league is about parity. It's about competitive depth. And it's a one-possession league, as we've looked at it outside-in. You've got incredibly challenging venues. Every member of this conference, top to bottom, is committed to the excellence that this conference represents. And so as a football program, being in our first year, we are really looking forward to the challenge."

 Missouri Tigers:
 
Season opener: Vs. Murray State August 29
 
SEC opener: Vs. Vanderbilt September 21
 
SEC home games: Vanderbilt September 21, Auburn October 19, Oklahoma November 9, Arkansas November 30.
Comments by coach Eliah Drinkwitz:
 "
And, you know, we have a group of experienced players. I think one of the things that helped us last year was the number of players that we had on our team with career starts. And this year we really have the same. We have 22 players on our roster that have 12 or more starts in their collegiate career. So we have the expertise. We have those let-down games in our past that really help us realize that, hey, you can't take a Tuesday practice off. You can't miss Workday Wednesday. You have to approach Fast Friday with a mindset of this is what it takes to win in order for you to put your best foot forward on Saturday, and in this league if you don't, you're going to get embarrassed in a hurry."

On tap Wednesday at SEC Media Days:
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi State, Texas.

 
Photo of the Oklahoma Sooners after winning the Red River Classic against Texas in October 23, from the Cotton Bowl.
 
Photo courtesy of the University of Oklahoma.
 

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