SEC coaches: Thick skin needed to endure ‘ignorance’ of critics overlooking parity

ATHENS — The SEC has never been deeper, and the coaches and players are feeling the heat just a quarter of the way through the season.

It seems every week is its own “Separation Saturday” of sorts as the league teams jostle for position in what promises to be an SEC race that goes down to the finish.

The SEC boasts five of the Top 10 teams in this week’s AP Top 25 poll, and 75% of the league (12 of 16) are among the top 27 vote-getting teams on the ballots.

“Kirby (Smart) and I have talked about that a lot,” Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin confided when asked by the AJC on the SEC coaches call about the mental bandwidth required to play such a deep league schedule.

“I think that’s something that’s not given much credit to …. it’s like the NFL every week,” Kiffin said of the competitive balance and parity brought about by lenient transfer rules and NIL-related inducements. “(But) different than the NFL, where you go 10-6 or 9-7, you make the playoffs, OK, good job, (but) what happens in this conference?”

Kiffin’s Rebels were one of three 3-loss SEC teams to get left out of the 12-team College Football Playoff last season -- Alabama and South Carolina were the others -- in favor of at-large teams SMU and Indiana, neither of which played the caliber of schedule.

The SEC’s offseason battle on that front has been well-documented, with the CFP announcing that a more enhanced schedule metric will be available to the selection committee when evaluating the teams and factoring schedule strength into the equation.

To Kiffin’s point on expectations, fan bases that are paying more than ever for their tickets and television viewing options have upped their ask, making the 12-team playoff field seem to be the cut-off point for what qualifies as success.

This, in a league where nothing comes easy.

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables has seemingly rebuilt the No. 7-ranked Sooners into a contender on the strength of a salty defense and the addition of Washington State transfer quarterback and current Heisman Trophy favorite John Mateer.

But with a remaining schedule that features six Top 20-ranked SEC teams, Venables knows there are more games ahead like the 24-17 battle Oklahoma fought through last Saturday against Auburn in Norman.

“Our league is, again, as we know, a one-possession league,” Venables said. “So, once we get into league play, it just makes everything a little bit more challenging.”

Kirby Smart knows that better than anyone, as his Georgia football team overcame an SEC road slate last season that included trips to Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss, en route to winning the SEC championship.

Georgia has those same teams at home this season, including the 7:30 p.m. marquee matchup with Alabama this Saturday, but nothing has gotten any easier.

“I go into every week and every game knowing it’s hard to win in any conference, but it’s really hard to win in our conference on the road,” Smart said in the days leading up to Georgia’s 44-41 overtime win at Tennessee.

“We deal with a different crowd atmosphere than any other conference, in terms of attendance and impact of the game.”

And the teams deal with more scrutiny than ever before, as the dynamic of players being paid publicly has changed the tenor of expectations and social media scrutiny.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian can attest to that, as preseason Heisman Trophy favorite and first-year starting quarterback Arch Manning has been under the microscope from his first snap in the 14-7 season-opening loss at Ohio State.

“Where it’s on television, on the Internet, on Twitter (X), whatever you want to call it, on podcasts, there’s a lot of opinions,” Sarkisian said. “They’re just now being heard because of all the different platforms that they can be heard, and the hard part for our players is human nature; they (players) on Twitter, they’re on these platforms, they watch TV, and they can see so much of what people say.

“I think it’s just important to make sure that we’re messaging things the right way within our own building.”

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman knows all about that, as things are heating up in Fayetteville after the Razorbacks suffered a 32-31 upset loss at Memphis last Saturday.

Arkansas plays host to Notre Dame this week and will find itself in an underdog role in Razorback Stadium.

Pittman shared last week that the team should set and control its own narrative.

“I don’t think there’s any larger expectation than what we have in a building, and why you get hired as a coach, and you obviously believe in your program, you believe in your university, your state, and your kids and your coaches, so we expect to win every game,” he said.

“Now, dealing with (expectations), you know, you have to have thick skin, that comes with the job. I’m not saying it’s a fair part of the job, but it does come with the job.”

Pittman tells players that what matters most is the team bond and staying focused on the internal messaging.

“You make sure that your kids are in the right frame of mind, and you can’t take any of what people say about you, whatever it is, too seriously,” he said. “If I don’t know somebody, and he’s got an opinion about me or the team, I’m not positive why it would matter to me.”

And yet, those expectations amid this more balanced landscape are real, and in the heat of the moment, players and coaches do feel and react.

Brian Kelly, head coach of No. 4-ranked LSU, found himself defending a recent 20-10 home win over Florida this season.

“I don’t know what you want from me? You want us to win 70-0 against Florida to make you happy?” Kelly said, raising his voice when the initial post-game press conference question was about the perceived lack of offensive success.

“That football team just worked their tail off to get an SEC win, and you want to know what’s wrong? You are spoiled …. give them some respect instead of micro-analyzing every little thing, this is ridiculous.”

Smart, asked about the rising pressures, agreed with Kelly when it came to an SEC win being devalued, in this case, a victory over Florida.