Jumbo Package: Petrino speaks about playing Alabama in opener, SEC Media Days wrap up

Happy Friday, everyone. SEC Media Days are now behind us and we are right at two weeks from the opening of fall camp. The ACC had their event this week as well and, as you’d expect, Bobby Petrino was asked about Alabama.

“You know, and I don’t think that our guys are extra excited about it,” Petrino told reporters in Charlotte, according to transcripts, “but I think it motivated them throughout the winter, throughout spring ball, throughout the summer workouts to work extremely hard.”

It’s a mindset playing in games like this.

”The number one thing we have to do is believe that we can go down there and beat them so that when you truly believe in something, then you go out and play your best, play to your best of your ability, and that’s what’s important for us. If there’s any disbelief at all, usually you underachieve, and that’s the main thing we can’t do. We need to go play our best game to give us an opportunity to win.”

You have to wonder what the Louisville players are really thinking about. The last time Alabama had a point spread like this in the opener, Virginia Tech gave the defending champs a tough time on offense, knocking AJ McCarron around quite a bit while successfully limiting the run game. Of course, that was back when Alabama was still playing methodically on offense, and the Hokies had a salty defense that allowed only 4.5 yards per play and 283 total yards per game on the season. This Louisville squad has only four returning starters and hired Brian Van Gorder to try and piece things together for a unit that was rather underwhelming in 2017. Has to be tough to sell these kids that they have a real shot.

Hey, somebody asked Kiffin about the Alabama QBs, and he decided to fire up some more controversy.

Then we have Blake Barnett chiming in.

Blake seems to harbor some real resentment. I guess it’s Saban’s fault he was beat out at Arizona State, too.

Alabama’s social media team seems to stay in hot water with Twitter.

A remixed song used in a video posted by the account was pinged as a copyright violation that led to the Twitter timeout.

The account was back up and running by Thursday afternoon.

It was the fourth copyright strike against @AlabamaFTBL in 2018 after receiving two last year, according to the Lumen Database that tracks DMCA notices.

Social media has created a mess where property rights are concerned.

Wrapping up SEC Media Days, we had Auburn, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina.

“Offensively, the big thing that stands out to me is our quarterback’s back, and this is only the second time since I’ve been at Auburn in nine years that our quarterback’s back, so I think that’s a--very positive,” Malzahn. “[Stidham is] very talented. You know, we -- the way he was playing, middle part of the year, end of the year was really phenomenal. I said this before, but from a quarterback standpoint, in this league, experience, there’s nothing like it. Because the defenses are different than other leagues, and I just really like the way he handled himself. He’s a very tough young man, mentally and physically. And I think our offense is in very good hands going into this second year.”

Gus also now agrees with Saban on the nine game conference schedule.

“We did a poor job of letting one loss translate into two and two turn into three,” Shurmur said. “We let one game affect the next week.”

“While everybody has been watching what is on the surface everything, the only thing we lacked is quality depth,” Mason said. “And for the first time in my tenure, I have it.”

The loss in question was served with a big slice of humble pie.

Nick is the best coach in college football because of the accomplishments he’s had. He’s done an outstanding job running his program from a scheme standpoint, from a recruiting standpoint, from a development standpoint. You name it, he does an outstanding job.

Athletic Directors are always looking for the next mold of what that could be. And I think that’s what’s provided myself and other guys opportunities. Not to say that we haven’t done a good job and a job in the role that we had with Nick, but that gives you opportunities to get, you know, a chance to be a head coffee. But at the end of the day, I guess if you do have more odds, you got a chance somebody’s going to eventually beat him. Hopefully we’ll continue to get that to happen.

Hopefully that will be a while yet.

We’ll wrap up Media Days week with a little music for you.

That is spectacular.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.