Two Florida 2017 opponents in Georgia, Vanderbilt go through SEC Media Days
Before Florida head coach Jim McElwain and three Gators (Martez Ivey, Duke Dawson, Marcell Harris) partake in the SEC Media Days action later today, two coaches from SEC East schools spoke to a barrage of reporters Tuesday morning in Hoover, Alabama.
Below is a recap of some of the main points Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason discussed. The Gators square off against the Commodores on Sept. 30 and the Bulldogs on Oct. 28.
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-- After losing just one player (wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie) to the NFL Draft, the Bulldogs return plenty of talent on both sides of the ball entering the 2017 season.
“Last year, we had a coach tell us that we had the best talent. And he had six players taken in the first four rounds after he said we had better talent than he did and we had one player drafted,” Smart said. “Sometimes, I don't know where those messages come from.
“I'm excited about the players we got returning. We have a lot of competition and a lot of positions, and that fires me up. And I think competition is what makes your team better and being able to kind of integrate these freshman into things right now is making our total team better, and we'll continue to do that.”
Is he referring to the Gators in the above quote? Last season, Florida had six players selected in the first four rounds of the draft, while UGA didn’t have any players selected until the fifth round. (The other schools with exactly six picks through four rounds were Tennessee, LSU and Ohio State.)
-- Smart said Jacob Eason has a head start in the quarterback competition entering fall training camp and that he’s excited about the sophomore signal-caller’s growth after watching him this spring.
“The confidence he played in the system with, his ability to throw the ball and understand where pressure's coming from - he's grown tremendously,” Smart said. “I think [offensive coordinator Jim Chaney] has done a great job with him in this offseason making him realize his weaknesses and continue to work on those. … I'm a big believer in completion percentage. I think Jacob understands, and we've communicated throughout the spring, if he wants to change the win-loss record, we have to change the completion percentage and we have to allow him to make some easier throws, and he's got to be more accurate doing so.
“If you have a returning starter, he certainly has a head start. With Jake Fromm coming in, he did a good job this spring picking up the offense, he will continue to grow developing the offense. He's a really good leader, and we expect him to come in and compete hard.”
-- The Bulldogs return two talented running backs in Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, who were both present at SEC Media Days with Smart on Tuesday. When Smart learned that both tailbacks would be returning to school for the 2017 season, he reacted with “total elation.”
“I think Nick was the first guy to inform me, and I think maybe his decision weighed a little bit on the other guys that were deciding. I think he made it OK to do. He showed the confidence, not only in our coaching staff, in our total program that he knows he's going to have an opportunity to get better and grow. And he's going to have that opportunity. I don't think -- I think Nick will tell you that he wasn't 100 percent last year, and he certainly has improved that. So with his ability to move up in the draft and create value for himself, he wanted to come back."
--Smart also shared his thoughts on his outlook for the 2017 SEC East race, nothing that its parity will lead to “really good competition.”
“I think last year, going into the last two weeks of the SEC's race, Kentucky is in the race. And when you have that, you've got almost an NFC East or AFC East effect of these NFL conferences where one loss doesn't put you out,” explained Smart. “You know the team that won the East last couple years, you can have two, maybe three losses because there's an even race there across the board. I think that's good and healthy for the conference.”
-- Mason started his press conference Tuesday by mentioning that "Vanderbilt football is on the rise." In his third season at the helm in 2016, Vanderbilt went 6-7 (3-5 SEC), reached a bowl game and knocked off teams like Tennessee, Georgia and Ole Miss along the way.
"Definitely not satisfied," he said. "This group is definitely moving forward, and I talk to our guys about it all of the time. It's about the work. It's a daily process to make sure that we can work hard to achieve, push ourselves in the right direction to become Vanderbilt men. As I look at where we are too, we're starting to close the talent gap."
-- Mason said that what he's seen from Vandy quarterback Kyle Shurmur over the past six months makes him believe that he is the signal-caller to lead the offense in 2017.
"Experience of having a veteran quarterback is that he understands like the system," explained Mason. "I think the idea of getting us into the right play, I tell our defensive guys all of the time, I never called a bad defense. It's about execution. When you start talking about an experienced quarterback, it's about him understanding, okay, what the defense is giving you and how to get yourself into a better play. That's what we need. We need his mastery of the offense to sort of take hold, and that's what I started to see last year towards the end of the season, and that's what my expectation is now.
"I have been waiting for him to grow up. He has grown up. I am going to give him the keys to the car and get the engine hot and let's go."
-- Mason called Vanderbilt tailback Ralph Webb "probably the most underrated back in this conference."
"He's the back that nobody talks about, but all he does is perform," Mason said. "You put him on a stage, and he's going to be big. So, for him, he's never worried about the accolades. And from year one to year four, his game has progressed every year. Okay. The first year, could he run between the tackles? He did that. Second year, could he catch the football out of the backfield? Did that. Third year, could he pass throw? Did that. Any time you can make yourself a three-dimensional back in this conference, I think that says something.
"But what's most impressive about Ralph Webb is really who he is every day. He wants to be the best. He came back this year to give himself a chance to do something. He's back and Vanderbilt history's done. He's chasing SEC history. He wants to be a top five running back in this conference."
--Mason knows it'll be a difficult task to replace standout linebacker Zach Cunningham, but his outlook for the 2017 defense is bright.
"It's three-four structure. Those guys' jobs are to make sure they keep guys off those linebackers. Zach Cunningham enjoyed the luxury of playing behind some guys upfront that were pretty solid and pretty productive," Mason said. "Zach's a great player in his own right, but as I look at it, this defense is never about one guy, one player.
"This defense will be stout. We'll get after people, and it should look better in 2017, no doubt."
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