NCAA logoFour hours and four minutes. That’s how long Tennessee football fan Andrew McLain and his 3-year-old son Peyton waited in the Hyatt-Wynfrey Hotel lobby last Wednesday to collect an autograph from UT defensive end Jacques Smith during the Volunteers’ turn at Southeastern Conference football media days.
Standing right beside them were 3-year-old Emily Dubose and her mother Melissa, all of them decked out in orange, Emily eventually having her picture made with Smith and Peyton earning a high-five from the former Ooltewah High School star.
Said the elder McLain of so lengthy a wait for so brief an interaction: “It was worth it. I can’t wait for this season to get started. It’s going to take some time, but I really think we’re on the right track more than we’ve been in a long time. Go, Vols.”
And this general scene was repeated for all 14 schools. No wonder new UT coach Butch Jones said of his first media days in the league: “When the SEC does something, it’s truly special — it’s a spectacle. That’s what makes the SEC what it is today, the best college football conference in the country.”
With seven straight BCS national championships in the books — and Alabama the early favorite to finish No. 1 for the fourth time in five years — there is little doubt that the SEC again will be special.