HOOVER, Ala. — An upbeat Dan Mullen and a well-spoken Dak Prescott headlined the Mississippi State contingent at SEC Media Days on Tuesday.

Here are some of the most interesting quotes from both men.

HEAD COACH DAN MULLEN

On wearing the Kanye West’s signature sneaker, the Adidas Yeezy 350 Boost:

“I try to be swagged up in footwear. I’ve got a little sock game going today too. You know what, I was talking to the guys at Adidas like, hey, this is the hottest shoe. I’m like, well, I’d like to wear kind of cool shoes, I think, when I go somewhere. I don’t go too overboard with the suits sometimes, little more conservative that way, but with the sock game and the shoe wear, I try to have some swag on any time I do that stuff.”

On the difficulty of the SEC West:

“When you have that much competition, it certainly makes it challenging. … The best team in the Pac-12, the Big 12, the ACC, the Big Ten, their top team could compete with any team in the SEC, there’s no question about it. But when you’re looking at seven teams in the West that feel they have a legitimate chance to win that side of the league … you have got to be on your A game every single week, because if you don’t show up and play your absolute best against every team on our side of the league, you’re not going to win. You can’t play an OK game and find a way to squeak it out at the end.”

On low media expectations for his team in 2015:

“This is my seventh year coming here, and I think all seven years they’ve pretty much picked us to finish last in the West. It’s kind of like a tradition, I guess. We don’t really worry much about that. I’m much more concerned with how we finish.”

On QB Dak Prescott’s return for his senior season:

“He and I are very, very close. So it’s easy to have conversations about his future. It is very well-based. He applied, got all of his NFL paperwork. We did some research and study of looking at quarterbacks that were coming out, where he might fall. Also, I think the one thing to look at as a young football player, especially at the quarterback position, he’s got an opportunity to get over 1,000 game reps at Mississippi State next season. If he had gone as maybe a mid-round draft pick that’s going to sit the bench in the NFL, he’d have a chance to get zero game reps, and I think that experience in the long run will help his career. It might not be at the NFL speed or in that offense against those schemes, but he’s out there making decisions, getting the reads, getting the progressions, getting the ball out of his hands. … We’d both like to see him play for the next 15 years. He’s a great leader. He’s a great young man. And I know he loves our university and really wants to leave his mark at Mississippi State University. … I know he wants to come back and try to finish his career off with a championship.”

QB DAK PRESCOTT

On whether he’s excited about hearing his name mentioned in connection with the Heisman Trophy:

“I guess I was floated around last year as a darkhorse, but for it to be more prominent this year, it’s humbling with the season we had for my name to be thrown around. But none of that’s ever something I work toward (as a) goal. Going into this season, I’m just worried about making sure my team’s in the best position to win. I think if I can lead my team to a winning season, undefeated perhaps, then I might just get it.”

On the historic football season for the state of Mississippi last year:

“Football is everything in the South. It’s life, and it’s no different in the state of Mississippi. I think at one period we (were ranked No. 1 and No. 3) or something like that. That was great for the state of Mississippi. Great for the young kids who played football in the state or any athletics just to realize that two teams that may not always have had such great success, especially at Mississippi State, that it can be done no matter what’s happened in the past. It was great being No. 1 at Mississippi State. Good for the state, good for the people.”

On his growing fame outside of Starkville, Miss.:

“Right after the (Peyton) Manning camp, walking down in New Orleans, I went to go eat. It was actually Cody Kessler and Christian Hackenburg. Those are two big-time quarterbacks that I think everybody across the country knows. When you’re walking with them in SEC country, I guess you could say, down in New Orleans, not too many people recognize their faces as much as they do mine. So I’m getting stopped for pictures and they’re not. One of them mentioned, ‘Man, they love you down there!’ I was like, ‘Football’s life down there.’ I guess they might not be too familiar with it, California or Pennsylvania guys. But it’s definitely turned up from last year. Life’s changed completely. So it’s been interesting.”

On preseason predictions slotting the Bulldogs low in the SEC West standings:

“Not much. I think y’all probably had us finishing seventh last year and you see what we did there, so things like that really don’t affect my team. If anything, that’ll allow the chip on my shoulder to grow. We want to be the best team we can be and we don’t really care which is the seventh and which is the No. 1.”