ForumsMike Slive stepped to the podium to address the media at SEC Media Days on Wednesday and one of his first orders of business was to welcome three new head coaches to the Southeastern Conference: Robbie Caldwell, Joker Phillips, and especially, Derek Dooley.
“As of last week, we had three head coaching changes in the SEC,” Slive said. “Robbie Caldwell at Vanderbilt and Joker Phillips at Kentucky were named to succeed the retiring Bobby Johnson and Rich Brooks, respectively. Congratulations to both of them on their well-deserved promotions.”
“The other head coaching change took place at Tennessee when Derek Dooley’s predecessor left to return to his western roots (smiling). I want to welcome Coach Dooley back to the SEC. And when I say ‘welcome,’ I mean welcome.”
Mike Slive’s relationship with Tennessee’s former coach was no secret. The two crossed paths on at least a couple of different occasions for reasons ranging from secondary NCAA violations to public criticism of league coaches and officials. Slive reprimanded Kiffin twice and threatened a suspension for any future incidents.
OTHER QUOTES OF INTEREST FROM DAY ONE OF SEC MEDIA DAYS
Nick Saban
Q. I don’t think anybody was really that sad to see Lane Kiffin leave. You’re pretty familiar with his replacement. Now that Dooley is at Tennessee, what is your relationship like? How often do you still speak with him?
COACH NICK SABAN: Well, you know, Derek is a fine young coach. Did a marvelous, marvelous job for us for seven years – five years at LSU and two years at the Miami Dolphins. His dad Vince is one of the greatest coaches of all time, in my opinion, in this league, in the SEC, is a good friend and a neighbor of ours at Lake Burton, who we just went to dinner with this past Saturday night. And Miss Barbara, who is Derek and my best public relations agent out there, who oftentimes gets on the radio and says things that we (hesitation) all approve of. But anyway (smiling).
So with that, I think anytime, whether it’s Jimbo Fisher, Will Muschamp at Texas, Derek at Tennessee, even though we have to play, Bill Belichick and I went through a very similar situation, and I was on the other side of that, him being the guy that had been a head coach for a long time, me being kind of the new guy on the block playing in the same division, we always competed well against each other, but we never lost respect for who we were. Who he was as a person, his family, our relationship. I learned a lot from that experience with Bill.
I will have the same kind of experience, even though we have to compete against Derek at Tennessee, it’s a rivalry game for us and for them as well, that we’ll never lose respect for him and his family, what he’s done.
You can compete in a game without hating somebody or losing respect for them I guess is what I’m trying to say.
Joker Phillips
Q. Could you talk about what Tee Martin brings to the staff?
COACH PHILLIPS: The number one thing is he understands Facebook, which a bunch of us don’t understand it. I understand it a little bit, but he understands Facebook.
I mean, he is not that far removed from winning the national championship. These kids know him. Randall Cobb and he were already friends on Facebook. Randall was right there in Alcoa, which is right outside Knoxville. He was one of his idols, because Randall was a quarterback. That’s helped us. He’s brung that.
He’s also been able to get into this state. His name is out there in this state. Been able to get into the Atlanta area, which he’s done a lot of things. He also was the quarterback in all of the Nike camps. He knows people all across the country. He’s brung a lot of positives to us and we are excited to have him.
Urban Meyer
Q. Last year you were muzzled about what you could say about other coaches. Could you give us your honest reaction when you heard that Lane Kiffin and USC was hit with probation? Where were you? What did you do? Who did you give a high-five to?
COACH MEYER: I’ll let the commissioner handle that one. How is that?
No, no comment. Sorry (smiling).
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