ESPN's Tom Hart & Maria Taylor discuss SEC Media Days 2016

Key quotes from Tom Hart interview

"It’s great to be here and it is fun for me as this is the kickoff to the season.  I think that every time we come to this event, and I know you guys are generally new to it being new to the SEC, but every time you come in you see something that you never expect to see.  So last night I walk in to a media reception, and across the hall there is literally a 'who’s who' of media personalities.  I don’t want to name names, but there were some national names, some regional names, some great writers, broadcasters.  They were having a Bachelorette viewing party.  Of all the things that you don’t expect to see at SEC Media Days, these guys and gals (mostly guys) are in there having a Bachelorette viewing party.  There were some folks in there that have been on your show numerous times.”

“This is my fifth year with ESPN, but I have been coming to the SEC Media Days for years.  There was an old television network in the southeast called CSS, it was a Comcast network and I used to come here with those guys.  During the Tebow era, I remember being here year after year and he was along the lines of, 'you see or hear something you don’t expect to see or hear.'  Tebow was transcendent and we know that now over many walks of life, he was held in such awe by sports writers that had been covering this league forever that covered Bo Jackson and Herschel Walker that know the greats and had been to national championships.”

“The first time I walked in I realized that this really was a different thing. There was a great article on AL.com a couple of days ago that compared SEC Media Days to a tent revival.  They said if football is religion in the south, then let’s put it in perspective.  One of the notes the writer had in there was that there are more subscribers to the SEC Network than there are Catholics in this country.  70 million subscribers to his quoted number of 68.2 million Catholics.  I said, 'Okay, now he is putting things in perspective.'  Obviously football is huge in Texas and in College Station with A&M, but I don’t know if you can really grasp what it is like here in Hoover, Alabama right now and how the fans just eat this up on a regional scale for the southeastern part of the United States.”

“What is really impressive about this event to me is the shear consumption.  Whether it is radio row where it rivals Super Bowl week, or the internet sites, or the news reporters, or the television coverage the consumption of the starved and hungry fans where they are going to eat it all up.  God bless because that's how you and I make our living, we are thankful for that.”

“I don’t know why Aggies don’t like Andre Ware.  I think Andre is so professional and he has become a dear friend of mine.  I think Andre would have a pretty good reason not to like Aggie fans, or just Aggies in general.  Every time he shows up they show a highlight of his head being ripped off on the big screen, but he never takes it personally and he is able to laugh it off.  He was recruited to be a defensive back by A&M, and if I am Andre Ware whether it be A&M or Texas or whomever recruited me and didn’t want me to play quarterback, I can understand he can have a chip on his shoulder a little bit.  What I would say is, 'Scoreboard. I got the trophy, I got the yards, I had the wins, I had the NFL career.'  Things worked out pretty great for Andre Ware.”

“It is a shame if Aggie’s don’t like him, or let their judgment of him cloud what he does on a college football Saturday.  I think he is fantastic and you know the kind of guys I work with throughout the year, especially those down there for baseball.  I work with some of the best guys in college baseball as well.  I think the Andre is a very underrated broadcaster.  He is not fresh off the farm, he has been doing this for a while now and the little things that maybe fans wouldn’t appreciate that I see, make him one of the best on the ESPN talent roll.  An insider term is a 'telestrator,' when these cool arrows pop up and these diagrams show you a pass play.  He is going to show you what Daeshon Hall did on one end and how that freed up Myles Garrett on the other end with the left tackle.  Andre can do all of that stuff quickly and concisely and can literally paint a picture on the television screen so folks at home can see it and see where to be watching.  A lot of guys can’t do that, especially guys who are new to the business and are just getting their feet wet.  I love working with him and am excited to be working with him again this year.”

“I don’t know how anyone couldn’t like doing A&M games, I mean the atmosphere, the environment, and we had the bowl game, the circus around it.  The circus around the way the season ended last year was a total clown show.  Spending time with coaches leading up to that bowl game, some of them spent time with us and some didn’t, but sitting down with Sumlin and walking through, 'Hey, how did we get to this point?' and, 'What would you differently?'  I think we covered it ad nauseam in the bowl game, but I was really surprised and I am sure it was ego and pride, but Kevin Sumlin looked us in the eye and said, 'I wouldn’t do anything different.'  Well wait a second, how can you say that?  You could either say we recruited the wrong guys, or these guys didn’t develop like we wanted them to, or we should’ve held their hands earlier in the season so we didn’t get to this point.”

“All of the things that Kevin Sumlin and his staff have done after what happened has really shocked me.  I will give Kevin Sumlin this credit, while I didn’t feel he was forthright talking to us about the mistakes they made, obviously he was in a position where he didn’t want to admit those mistakes, but he said with a gleam in his eye, 'We will be fine.'  I thought, 'How could you recruit quarterbacks when your reputation obviously has to take a hit in the recruiting circles based on what had happened?'  Common sense tells us that, but he kind of just shrugged it off like a Teflon Don and said, 'No, we are good, trust me.'  Looking back on it in hindsight, I wonder if the Trevor Knight information was already far along in that regard.  I was shocked and I really think he has saved his hide on the quarterback situation alone, because that is how he made his name to begin with."

“I think one of the things that Maria is sort of hntting at is something that I saw firsthand last night.  As a play-by-play guy I am always on the road, as you know.  I don’t spend a lot of time with the studio folks.  We had the most amazing dinner last night.  We had the entire room and the personalities in that room were just overflowing.  I think what has really impressed me about all of the people we have on air, but especially the studio folks and the people who do SEC Nation, is their authenticity.  They don’t have to act or pretend to be interested in football.  The conversations last night rant the gamut from what Tennessee is doing wrong at their practices on a daily basis to whether or not ‘The Sandlot’ is overrated as a movie.”

“We have a lot of great people that we work with, so it is really a great dynamic.  There is not as much room when you are calling a game for personality.  I think Maria gets that from being on the sidelines for so long.  They have so much room to show their personality and to be on camera and show that camaraderie and chemistry.  I’m a nuts and bolts guy.  I have to worry about third and six before I can crack a joke about Pokemon.  If I can work it in, I will work it in, but probably not in a one possession game.”

“I was basically a sideline reporter for four years for the Braves.  So I have so much respect for the position and how hard you have to work to be prepared.  There were times, and I probably shouldn’t admit this, I would just go around the producer and I would say ‘Hey, now is great time to get your hit in here’.  I would even just text them and tell them to get ready.  Producers have so much on their plate.”

“I have no patience for play-by-play guys who don’t value the sideline reporter role.  It is so obvious when you watch a game.  We could name some names right now.  I don’t know why you would cut out 33% of your on-air roster and say that they aren’t important.  What makes Maria so great is that she sees things down on the field that the viewers cannot see.  These are things that the viewers want to know about and they are things that we can’t see from the booth 150 yards away.”

“Trustworthy-ness is a big word when is comes to quarterbacks.  Some programs can survive without it, but we saw what happened to Texas A&M at the end of last year without it.  If there was more maturity, there probably would be at least one quarterback still there and that infects the entire locker room.  Maria touched on the talent outside at the receiving positions.  I think that last year you had to ask more of the quarterback position.  If you score 30 points a game, that is a 10 win team.  Kevin Sumlin’s teams usually score 30 points a game. I think that they had to ask a lot more out of the quarterbacks last year than what they need form the quarterback position this year, especially with the talent on the defensive side of the ball.”

“I think that one thing that I am really excited about in watching Maria in her new role this year is for her to really have a chance to shine.  We know how bright she is.  Just keep this in mind:  She shows up today wearing a green dress, knowing full well that she is not going to be favoring any team.  No maroon, no red, no orange, she is keeping it neutral.”

Key quotes from Maria Taylor interview

“I am really excited to be hosting SEC Nation. When I took the job at SEC Network two years ago the whole point was to learn how to anchor and learn how to host.  So, to be handed this job, with people there believing that I can handle this job with Tim Tebow, Marcus Spears, and Paul Finebaum, I am just really excited about it.  I am ready to start this new phase.”

“The crew is amazing.  I have been on the show a couple of times for SEC Network night games and I would be near where SEC Nation was.  They had the set up.  The bus and the crew are amazing.  They are doing hits on Friday night.  Then they are up early in the morning.  I know that there is a lot that goes into it, but they have a lot of fun.”

“I think SEC Nation will be a lot of fun.  The most fun I have had over the past two seasons has been going and doing the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament.  It is like doing a studio show on the road.  There is just more energy.  You don’t have to stay on script all of the time.  Someone might say something behind you and you can go off of that.  I really do enjoy that aspect.  I’m not a teleprompter reading anchor, That has never been my thing and it never will be.  Being reactionary is kind of what you get for being on a show like that.”

“You study so much being a sideline reporter.  I think Laura Rutledge will do a great job with (her new role).  She is amazing.  I love her to death and I am so excited for her to be a part of the crew.  You are right, as a sideline reporter you just study as much as you can and you might get a hit every half maybe.  I used to always have the mindset of trying to get two hits in the first half, but if I got one that would work as well.  I would have to work a little bit harder to try and get two in the second half.  That is the way it is, you just have to get to that second hit.”

“One thing that was so great about the SEC Network prime time crew was that they kept me involved as far as a sideline reporter as far as getting in and they knew my stories.  They were so great about making sure I was alright. Some people really value it and some people don’t.”

“I could just fly away after the show is over, but I definitely want to stick around and watch the Texas A&M and UCLA game until it is over.  The atmosphere is amazing, but I also think that after everything that Texas A&M has been through during the offseason, there is an eerily good feeling going into the beginning of the season.  It is almost like the tide has turned.  There are a lot of good pieces to A&M’s puzzle.  There are a lot of returners on defense and John Chavis is a damn good coach.  Then you have all of these receivers coming back and Trevor Knight has experience.  All of a sudden I feel as if the story line has completely changed.  It is going to be a great first game and a first test.  We are going to learn a lot about Texas A&M.  You know for them to have that game at home, it means a lot.  It would be a huge win.”

“I did the spring preview for Texas A&M and I was so impressed with Trevor Knight.  He walked straight up and shook my hand and you could see in his eyes that he was just so excited to be there.  It is just rare to see that.  You could just see the maturity in him and I know that he showed up on campus like that.  That is not something that was instilled in him when he got to College Station.  If you needed a stabilizing force in the locker room, which is exactly what Texas A&M needed, he is it.”

“You should have seen me packing.  Even trying to pack my workout clothes. What if someone sees me going to workout in bright red? That could be a problem.  How many regular white tees could I find with no words on them.  We travel to all of these locations and you may get an Auburn shirt here, a Texas A&M shirt here, but you can never wear any of that stuff on the road.”