How well do SEC coaches really get along?

[quietfan 233]

http://www.lsubeat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...S0202/706010308

DESTIN, Fla. — What goes on behind the conference room doors at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Hotel during the Southeastern Conference spring meetings?

Reporters are not allowed in. They can only hover outside waiting.

One by one they file in, these 12 coaches with a combined salary in the $20 million range. The rest of the year they try to beat each other to death, be it on the field, on the recruiting trail or by turning in their colleagues to the SEC and/or NCAA for alleged recruiting violations.

But now they don't seem angry in their expensive beach wear and relaxed look over these three apparently carefree summer days.

"I haven't seen a lot," said LSU athletic director Skip Bertman, who was beyond the doors in a meeting with the 12 coaches and the 12 athletic directors on Wednesday.

"Tommy Tuberville (Auburn coach formerly at Ole Miss) and Ed Orgeron (Ole Miss coach) were play fighting today," Bertman said as he playfully put up his fists. "But nothing really. Nick (Saban) and Les (Miles) were cordial."

Another coach said Saban, who is in his first year as LSU-rival Alabama's coach, and Miles, who replaced Saban at LSU in 2005 when Saban went to the Miami Dolphins, were more cold than cordial. Miles' comments to reporters Wednesday outside the doors at a noon break from the meetings added credence to that description.

"We're discussing the same agenda," Miles said. "To me, it (Saban) is just a guy that's representing the other school."

Asked about what kind of a relationship he has with Saban, Miles said, "Never knew him before. Have no real relationship with him. Have none still."

Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said he didn't notice Miles and Saban speaking directly, but he does remember past meetings when things got hot among various coaches.

"This is my fifteenth year, and over the years there have been some significant arguments," said Fulmer, who often sparred with former Florida coach Steve Spurrier through the media and turned in former Alabama coach Mike Dubose to the NCAA for recruiting violations that led Alabama to probation.

"The meetings are thoughtful," said SEC commissioner Mike Slive, who originated legislation in 2004 dubbed the " Fulmer Rule" that calls for league coaches to turn in fellow coaches to the conference office first.

"The best way I could describe them is by saying the first amendment is alive and well when our coaches meet," Slive said.

"I mean everybody has their own turf to protect and different dynamics at different schools," Fulmer said. "At the end of the day, it's a majority vote and not everybody always agrees, but that's what we settle with. The last few years haven't been too bad."

Asked for specific episodes, Fulmer smiled and said, "Nothing that I really care to talk about publicly, but sure we've had some significant discussions. But these are reasonable people who understand the dynamics and the pressures that are at different places."

Spurrier, a Johnson City, Tenn., native who once beat Fulmer five straight times, liked to make fun of Fulmer before the Vols were able to get past the second-tier bowls and into the national championship game it won in 1998.

"You can't spell Citrus without U-T," he said.

"I've always got along with Steve pretty well," Fulmer said. "No, not really, never confronted him personally. But we've had our back and forths in the newspaper and those kinds of things. But I think there's a good mutual and healthy respect both ways."

Spurrier is now in his third year at South Carolina and losing more regularly than when at Florida, but he still has managed to split two games with Fulmer. And he's still taking shots at the Vols.

While discussing the improved football program at Vanderbilt, Spurrier mentioned the Commodores' 28-24 win over UT in 2005, which marked the Vols' first loss to Vandy since 1982.

"They about always beat Tennessee, don't they?" Spurrier joked.

Spurrier feels the meetings could use some levity.

"No, we don't have too many comedians over there," he said. "They're not that funny."

Spurrier, known for running up the score while at Florida, remembers some tempers flaring at a few spring meetings over the years.

"There are some that get upset," he said. "But most coaches understand. I've never known a good coach that worried about somebody running up the score on them. It never bothered me, and I've been beat bad like everybody else."

Other coaches see the meeting of the 12 as entertainment.

"I remember looking at Steve and Phillip together one time and yeah, it's amusing," Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said. "But there's never anything serious or bad."

Georgia coach Mark Richt looked forward to the meetings in his first year in 2001.

"I was curious as to what it was going to be like in there," he said. "I was almost shocked at how cordial everybody is and how they seemed to get along real good. I think what I found is you've got a bunch of guys who have a respect for the job that the other has."

Just then, Florida coach Urban Meyer walked by, and Richt said, "Hey Urban, how are you?"

Back on subject, Richt said, "Everyone knows just how difficult of a job it really is."

But then Saban walked by, gave a friendly hello and told Richt he had recently been in an Athens, Ga., nightclub to watch his son Nicholas Saban's band play and said he noticed a lot of Georgia's football players at the club.

Richt was obviously taken aback by the comments. Was Saban kidding? Does Saban, who spends a lot of off time in north Georgia on Lake Burton, realize that Richt just lost Parade All-American, redshirt freshman linebacker Akeem Hebron? Hebron just transferred after being suspended for two semesters following a pair of recent alcohol-related arrests.

Richt had no comment, but witnesses said he did not appear cordial and seemed angry.

Hmmm...tension between Saban & Richt? Say it ain't so...

[WinCrimson 61]

You're in Athens, Georgia. Why wouldn't you go to the bars?

[SouthLink02 8]

The nightclub is Boar's Head in Athens....a lot of people saw Saban there. All it is...is a bar....a college bar

In addition, why wouldn't the players go there? It's the off-season and a lot of them are over 21....and even if those aren't 21....as long as they go and drink...no problems will occur....we all know that players drink on every team.

Saban is a prick...always has been, always will be...it's why everyone who worked for him loved it when he left including his own supporters