There is no shortage of firsts this week in Southeastern Conference football.
The 29th SEC championship game will be the first one to kick off in prime time, and it will also be the first to have company. Tennessee hosting No. 5 Texas A&M is among three undercard contests that will transpire Saturday before No. 1 Alabama and No. 11 Florida collide inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with a fourth – Vanderbilt at No. 10 Georgia – having been canceled Monday afternoon due to COVID-related issues with the Commodores.
Then there is Wednesday’s start to college football’s early signing period, which made its debut in December 2017 but is occurring for the first time amid the global pandemic.
“It’s different this year because you haven’t seen these guys,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “It seems like a year since we have seen a recruit. It hasn’t been that long, but it just seems like forever. Most of them are not in the same spot as some of them would be if a coach was coming in their home a week before. When you are coming into their home, it creates doubt.
“This is virtual recruiting, so most of these kids have decided what they are doing. It’s probably going to be anticlimactic. It’s going to be more about whether they sign or don’t sign, not who they are signing with.”