Happy Friday, July 10. It's 94 degrees across the Deep South, nobody has played a down of football since January, and somehow the SEC has still managed to produce approximately 47 controversies in the last 48 hours. Let's begin.
First, the most important news of the morning: you can now spend money on Tennessee football jerseys. The Vols capped off their week-long Adidas uniform reveal parade on Thursday by dropping the new 'Dark Mode' all-black alternates — and as of today, the merch is live and available for purchase. Tennessee entered a 10-year deal with Adidas after more than a decade with Nike, and the school has been rolling out new looks like a content team that just discovered the drip calendar. The Dark Mode look features a black helmet, black jersey, black pants, orange numbers, and a Power T logo stamped in a circle on the front collar like it's trying to be a Supreme drop. The 'I will give my all!' slogan is tucked inside the collar, presumably for the players to read right before they get whupped in that one night game per year where they actually wear these things. Tennessee is 1-3 in Dark Mode games under Heupel — they lost to Oklahoma in them last season — but Vol Twitter doesn't care because the drip is immaculate and they haven't processed the loss yet.
Meanwhile, Georgia fans are having a rougher morning. ESPN dropped their annual panel ranking of the top coaches in college football, and Kirby Smart — two-time national champion, builder of a dynasty, lord of Athens — has been bumped to No. 2. Who knocked him off? Curt Cignetti. The guy whose whole brand used to be a Google Me T-shirt. Cignetti received five of ten first-place votes from ESPN's reporter panel after leading Indiana — Indiana! — to an undefeated season and a national championship last year. The man took the losingest program in college football history and won a title in Year 2. ESPN's Dave Wilson said there was 'no hesitation' in putting Cignetti at the top. Kirby, who has 117 wins and two national titles in ten seasons, is now the guy ESPN voters pick when they're feeling nostalgic. Georgia is still projected to compete for a playoff spot and Smart is still widely considered the best program builder in the sport. But 'No. 2 Kirby Smart' is going to live rent-free in Athens all summer, and the fan base absolutely will not survive it with their dignity intact.
And then there's Ole Miss, which continues to be the SEC's communal punching bag this offseason. Steve Sarkisian called their degree program a basket-weaving curriculum. Lane Kiffin told Vanity Fair — Vanity Fair! — that recruiters struggle to get kids to move to Oxford. Stephen A. Smith spent three minutes on national television defending the Rebels' academic reputation, which is somehow simultaneously heartwarming and humiliating. Sark walked it back at the SEC spring meetings, saying he could have used 'macroeconomics' or 'engineering' as his example and 'the class was irrelevant.' Sure, Steve. Very convincing. The good news for Ole Miss fans: Texas comes to Oxford on October 24. The bulletin board is writing itself. The bad news: Kiffin is now in Baton Rouge and just landed a four-star EDGE in the 2027 class even after losing a five-star to Miami. He was always going to find a way to make your life difficult from somewhere new. That's simply his gift.
