Mr. College Football Tony Barnhart recaps SEC Spring Meetings in Destin

During Thursday morning's edition of TexAgs Radio, legendary college football reporter Tony Barnhart joined to share his thoughts on the Jimbo-Saban feud, SEC Spring Meetings in Destin and more.

Key notes from Tony Barnhart interview

• Good Morning. I am ready to move on from the coaching drama. Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher have closed that chapter as of now.
   
• Jimbo was defending his program. He could have done it with less intensity, but he knows he should have a pretty good football team. This job is supposed to be fun and the feud was entertaining for a couple of days.
   
• The coaches were presented with an eight and nine-game conference schedule model. The conference model the SEC has now is going away. It seems that coaches like three permanent teams and rotate six teams. With the nine-game model, every two years you would rotate through the conference and every four years, you would have played in every Southeastern Conference stadium. 
   
• You have to put on your big boy pants in the SEC. You maximize the strength of your conference when you play these big games.
   
• Half of the league will play four games at home and the other half will play five at home. People may not like that.
   
• I think the playoff will expand to 12 teams. Greg Sankey does not want each of the conference winners to have automatic entry to the playoffs. Sankey wants to stay at four or go to 12. Eight would not work.
   
• Texas A&M is talented. I asked Olin Buchanan yesterday about Haynes King at quarterback. Is Haynes King the answer and if not, who is the answer?
   
• Everybody remembers the great game Zach Calzada played against Alabama last year. He had some inconsistencies. Jimbo has a knack for coaching quarterbacks, so we'll see if that's Haynes or one of the other guys.
   
• Alabama's offensive line is questionable. Saban did a good job last year because it was a very un-Alabama offensive line. The question is can they get the running game back?
   
• Georgia lost so many plays in the NFL Draft. Everyone will pick them to win the SEC East. They have is one of the best defenses, but they will give up more than 11 points a game this season. I am a big believer in Stetson Bennett. Can Georgia be good enough to compensate for just a good defense and not an incredible defense like last year?
   
• If Jaxson Dart plays like Matt Corral at Ole Miss, they will be good. In the trenches, the SEC is tough. In this league, you have to be able to stop the run.
   
• Brian Kelly will do a really good job at LSU. They have talent. The question is, who is going to be the quarterback? I think it will be Myles Brennan. Kelly has won at every place he's ever coached, but LSU is a different kind of place.
   
• When we get to SEC Media Days in Atlanta, it's going to be something. It's the SEC. We look forward to being there.
   
• There are a lot of guardrails to fix when it comes to NIL. They want to have two windows of availability when it comes to the transfer portal. It would open on April 15 and end around the end of May, then open again last Sunday of November and end on National Signing Day.
   
• The combination of NIL and the transfer portal is difficult. Now guys leave even though they are playing, and it's just cause they got a better deal somewhere else. I don't see anything that is going to meaningfully change NIL right now.