5-at-10: SEC media daze, Tiger's fast start, and big questions

From the satellite offices of the "Talks too much" studios, let the games begin.

SEC media daze

Shhhh, we're about to wrap the SEC media days. Three days in the book. One monster day left.

Nick Saban and the rolling rock show that follows the Tide lands here today. How big are we expecting it to be today? Fans are already lined up in the lobby and two security guards have stopped by wondering what time Saban is scheduled to appear.

He's scheduled at noon. Noon, and people are lining up and jockeying for position before 7 a.m. local time.

That said, today figures to be a blur. In addition to Saban, there will be Georgia, Ole Miss and Kentucky. We will have the predictions. We're dealing with a lot of stuff. Candelsticks.

We had a slew of big names on Press Row on Wednesday, ranging from Steve Shaw, the head of SEC officials, to Justin Connolly, the ESPN poobah over the SEC Network, to Bill Hancock, the executive director of the college football playoff.

Hancock, in particular was excellent and if you missed it, we may replay it on Friday and we'll run it as a Q-and-A in Sunday's Times Free Press.

As for news of today, here's the order of prediction we submitted for how we think the teams will finish the SEC:

photo SEC Southeastern Conference

EAST

South Carolina

Georgia

Florida

Missouri

Tennessee

Vandy

Kentucky

WEST

Alabama

Auburn

LSU

Mississippi

Miss. State

Texas A&M

Arkansas

With Alabama as my guess as the SEC champ.

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photo Tiger Woods

Tiger starts quickly

We have high hopes for the British Open. We want it to be entertaining.

Thursday got off to a golden start with Tiger Woods making birdie on Nos. 11, 12 and 13 - he rolled in a putt from off the green on the 11th - to get to red numbers.

He finished at 3-under 69, and while we have high hopes, those hopes have to be tempered by the simple fact that Woods has not shot a s sub-par round since March. And yes, it felt weird even typing those words together.

There were a handful of familiar names moving to the top of the leaderboard early Thursday morning, including Rory McIlroy's torrid 6-under 66. That's great news.

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photo Cuonzo Martin

The Conz speaks

Counzo Martin, the current Cal basketball coach, spoke to CBSSports.com about leaving the Tennessee Vols in a sudden and shocking day in April. Well, apparently shocking to those outside the program.

"Jordan McRae, Jarnell Stokes, they were all like, 'Coach, you gotta get out of here,' " Martin told Gary Parrish. "The guys were like, 'It's time to roll.' And it wastime. I think everybody knew that."

Here's the story.

Interesting stuff indeed.

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This and that

Keep an eye out for our TFP golf ace David Uchiyama's excellent coverage from the Honors this week.

The ESPYs were actually fairly entertaining last night, at least the parts we saw were. Also, we're not a fan of his professionally, but nothing but huge respect for Stuart Scott's battle against cancer and his great speech last night. Well-played indeed.

A book claims that Texas was willing to offer Nick Saban a $100 million contract. CUH-razy.

photo Nick Saban

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Today's questions

We have plenty.

Have you sent a mailbag question?

Who do you think will win the SEC?

Will Tiger win another major?

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