The spicy, snarky and surprisingly candid remarks from SEC coaches this week

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin described the UGA sentiment as “draconian,” pointing out the league could put itself at a disadvantage by creating and enforcing rules other leagues might not.

Kirby Smart supported his president, but the UGA coach also made the bold statement that Georgia could have more than two national titles had the playoff selection processes gone differently.

“I got left out of the (four-team CFP field) several times and thought I had the best team in the country and didn’t need to go cry about it, scream about it, never get upset about it,” Smart said. “It was what it was.”

The 2018 and 2023 Bulldogs were the most notable Smart teams left out, both finishing outside the four-team playoffs after losses to Alabama in the SEC Championship.

Smart’s comments, while somewhat out of character, were not the most surprising heard at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa.

Jon Sumrall will have a hard time emerging from Steve Spurrier’s shadow when it comes to on-field success, but the new Florida head coach served notice he will also try to measure up when it comes to being quotable.

Sumrall shared that “full disclosure, it was a s--- show” trying to run two programs at once, adding that it was “the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”

“We have a conference championship game that Friday night, we also had Signing Day that Wednesday,” Sumrall said. “We signed 16 guys at Florida, and we signed 14 at Tulane with no head coach in place for the ’26 team. I’m like, ‘What is going on here?’”

Ole Miss coach Pete Golding, under investigation for tampering to recruit a former Clemson player, had the most aggressive remarks.

“There’s a lot more people involved that everybody might not know,” Golding said. “I’m not gonna sit up here and say whatever we did or we didn’t do, was it right or was it wrong?

“But, you know, when you go through what we went through (with tampering), and what you’re seeing day in and day out, some things you feel like shouldn’t matter that, you know, they’re making a big deal about.”

Golding pointed out the hypocrisy after schools approached Lane Kiffin, looking to hire him away from Ole Miss in-season.

“We’re talking about tampering, you don’t think coaches get tampered with?” Golding said. “We’re talking about the new Kiffin rule (preventing coaches from being poached in-season), but who do you think is meeting with these (coaches) and offering them a job?”

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko spoke with surprising candor about the self-serving nature of head coaches when asked how many teams should make the CFP field.

“What does Mike Elko want? 40. Then I won’t get fired,” Elko said tongue in cheek. “We don’t have to find a number that allows everyone to get in — it’s OK for it to be hard to get into the playoff.

“None of us (coaches) are answering for the good of the sport. We are answering for the good of ourselves.”

Kiffin was somewhat subdued — by his standards — at SEC spring meetings, but he didn’t leave before stirring the pot.

Kiffin, asked about his much-anticipated return to Ole Miss when LSU plays the Rebels on Sept. 19, referenced his time in Knoxville.

“We’ve got so much work to do before then, we’ve got a huge opener with Clemson,” Kiffin said. “I’ve been back to Tennessee before, so I guess we’ve got some practice at it.”

Many Vols fans have yet to forgive Kiffin for leaving the program after just one season, and leaving his successor, Derek Dooley, operating under an investigation with a roster that included a handful of players with questionable character that Kiffin recruited.

Tennessee fans reminded Kiffin of their fury when Ole Miss played in Neyland Stadium in 2021, as golf balls and a bottle of French’s yellow mustard were among items hurled onto the field during the game.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz was willing to say out loud what many SEC fans have been thinking the past three years when putting the College Football Playoff into perspective.

“If you still think we’re deciding that the best team wins the playoff for college football — guys, if you put 24 teams in a playoff or 12 teams in a playoff, I’m not sure that the best team always wins," Drinkwitz said.

“Matchups determine it. You can go through the history of the NFL. I don’t know that the best team always wins the NFL (Super Bowl). It’s the team that gets hot. It’s the team that has the right matchup. Again, I think it’s changed quite a bit, of what we’re trying to look for.”

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian — who famously said at SEC Media Days last summer there was “only so much money to go around” in a deep-pocketed Texas program that has parked Lamborghinis on the football field during recruiting visits — was talking dollars and cents again.

This time, Sarksian was questioning the process of a voting panel deciding the CFP field in a billion-dollar industry.

“…. there’s a lot of money invested now; there’s a lot of money invested from donors; there’s a lot of money invested from fans; there’s a lot of TV money involved — you’re talking billions of dollars,” Sarkisian said.

“And all of a sudden, we’re all reliant upon 16 people sitting in a room deciding who’s making the playoffs and who’s not. The ramifications of that are enormous, and I do think that is something we have to take into consideration, the allocation of money and funds, what we’re doing with our money. We need to be prudent with that.”

Texas quarterback Arch Manning, of course, has the highest-reported NIL valuation in the SEC at an estimated $6.8 million.

Clark Lea, who led Vanderbilt to its first 10-win season last year in capturing SEC Coach of the Year honors despite Kirby Smart becoming only the fourth coach in league history to win back-to-back league titles, had his chest puffed out plenty.

“I didn’t come to Vanderbilt for a 10-win season,” Lea said. “I came to win a national championship … I’ve been up here (speaking) as a two-win coach. I like being up here as a 10-win coach.”

Lea’s high goals are in line with those of his freshman quarterback, former Georgia commit Jared Curtis, who shared with Diego Pavia that he plans to win a national title with the Commodores.