SEC Media Days, the traditional kickoff to the conference’s college football season, will begin next week in Hoover, Alabama. One sure sign of the impending circus is the announcement of which players are being trusted by the league’s coaching staffs to come to town, smile, and not say anything that will end up on opponents’ locker room bulletin boards later. Kirby Smart has made his selections, and appears to have chosen wisely.

Junior quarterback Jake Fromm, senior safety J.R.Reed, and junior offensive tackle Andrew Thomas will join Coach Smart as the Athenians’ representatives when the Red and Black take over the mics on Tuesday. Fromm obviously is a polished interview subject, having spent more time in front of a television camera by the time he graduated from high school than most of us will in our lifetimes. Reed has likewise been pretty savvy in front of the cameras during his time in Athens. Thomas is known as a smart young man who also, in the grand lineman tradition, just doesn’t say too much. In interviews since arriving in Athens Thomas has tended to give simple, direct, and complete answers to questions. I can dig that.

In short, do not expect to hear the assembled Bulldogs say too much of anything that you did not already know about the team’s progress this summer and expectations for 2019. Everyone is working hard. Everyone’s goal is to take the season one game at a time, and they’re not thinking about anyone other than Vanderbilt. Everyone has bought into the program. Everyone is making strides to get bigger, faster, and stronger. But it is still cool to hear them actually say it, because this means football approaches with a quickness. Until later...

Go ‘Dawgs!