Sam Pittman Entertaining, but Lane Kiffin Blunt at SEC Media Days

Both are by far highly anticipated every year for humor, bluntly direct answers

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
Jul 21, 2023 11:34 AM EDT
Original:
Jul 20, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — With Mike Leach's passing, you had to wonder who could make SEC Media Days in Nashville, Tenn., remotely interesting but Arkansas' Sam Pittman and Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin stepped in an filled that role rather nicely. Refreshingly so.

After some young reporter Wednesday morning delivered a terribly over-worded statement that finally was ended with a question mark, Pittman just sorta looked at him for a minute. Those of us around the Razorbacks on a daily basis figured what was coming and Sam delivered. "Is that a question?" he asked. It simply could have asked if the Hogs were going to continue to have an explosive offense under new offensive coordinator Dan Enos, but ended up being one of these popular monologues they hang a question mark at the end.

Lane Kiffin hit the stage Thursday morning to kick off the final day of the annual gaggle of media that fire every sort of question out there. Coaches have developed a long-winded way of saying a lot to run the clock out on their time having to do it. A lot of the questions that mostly drew a no-comment type of answer opened the door for Kiffin when he was asked to rank the booster collectives around the SEC.

"I am not about to start putting rankings out on boosters from top to bottom in the conference," he said before sort of adding, "God, I want to so bad, though."

What he said next is what we all know to be true, but no one really wants to say it. As usual, Kiffin was bluntly correct and direct about saying it without mentioning any particular schools. He doesn't have to do that because if you even glance at the post-recruiting rankings you know who's there.

"You want to look at the best boosters in the country and eventually the schools that have the most money that decide to pay the players, just look at recruiting rankings the next few years," he said. "That will give you your answer." He's' absolutely correct, but it doesn't necessarily mean they will keep them for long. With no transparency, we have no idea what the real numbers are and are making educated guesses, at best.

"It is what it is, guys, and you can't fault them," Kiffin said. "You've got 18-year-old kids deciding where to go. The No. 1 thing they decide on is money, their salary. You guys would have done that when you're 18. You can't fault them. You see some kids, why is that kid going way over there? Going there because you're making more money.So you can't fault them for that. That's the setup they are in."

They didn't establish the rules. In the media, we often apply the logic we've learned with a few years of life lessons and what we think now about it but most of us probably have a few different beliefs and ideas than we did when we were 18. At that age, I could fill up the car three or four times and still buy soft drinks (we didn't have these fancy smart drinks like they do now) and hamburgers for a week.

Pittman brought some humor with his answers, but Kiffin hit the nail on the head directly with his comments. It's the free agency world we live in today. Whether we think it's best or not for the sport is up to others to decide, As Kiffin said, it is what it is.