Into the Fire: What LSU Can Accomplish at SEC Media Days ’18

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SEC Media Days are truly one of the most underrated spectacles in all of sports. It is the only event that has the pageantry of a college football Saturday in the south, the mic work of a Monday Night Raw, and the hoopla of a Super Bowl. Fans dress up in their Saturday best, coaches and players dress to the nines, and yet, nothing is actually on the line. SEC Media Days are a low stakes affair, but are still taken very seriously by a whole lot of people. It is exactly what the SEC conference means when they boast that “it just means more.”

So with all of the pomp and circumstance, yet nothing really on the line, what can a team, particularly the LSU Tigers, accomplish next week when all of the south converges on Atlanta for the biggest SEC Media Days event in history? There is quite a lot actually, because while a casual fan might see this as a moment for coaches and players to play dress up and brag about their team, the coaches are using this as a prime opportunity to recruit, recruit, recruit. Ed Orgeron has a rare chance to speak indirectly to hundreds of prospects all at once without having to eat their mama’s cheeto chicken surprise. No living room visit is needed. Coach O can get the attention of a four or five star recruit on Monday with a meticulously calculated sales pitch. What Steve Jobs did selling iPhones to the world at Apples’ World Wide Developers Conference, Ed Orgeron can do for the LSU Football program at SEC Media Days.

If you think that is blowing the magnitude of this event out of proportion, you might want to rethink being so skeptical, because it is proven that SEC Media Days can lure in recruits. When Nick Saban took up for some players who were in trouble on live TV as he was being questioned, he showed how loyal he was to his players. If you think the thousands of prospects who watch this event did not recognize and take note of that, then you are in denial. Kids are impressionable and SEC Media Days is all about leaving an impression. Take LSU stud defensive end Rashard Lawrence for example. When he was told he would be going to SEC Media Days the young man was ecstatic because he has dreamed about this opportunity. Players view the invite from their coaches as an honor and a chance to put their name out there as they job hunt for an NFL gig. Getting to be the face of a program is not half bad either and for a budding superstar like Rashard Lawrence, being thought of as a good player is one thing, but being thought of as a quintessential LSU Tiger is something he will be able to take with him wherever he goes for the rest of his life.

So as 14 teams gather in Atlanta next week, with their fans cheering unapologetically throughout hotel lobbies and the local Chick-Fil-A, sure there may not be a final score that they can point to up on a scoreboard and now that they have won something; but that is not the point. Plenty can be accomplished for the future of a football program at SEC Media Days. Even more than that though, plenty can be lost at SEC Media Days, because when it is all said and done, the ultimate goal for any coach, player, or representative of an SEC school at this soiree is to not make an ass out of yourself.

– Alan Michael