I’m an SEC Media Days virgin.

There. I said it. Don’t shame me for it.

This week will mark my first time at the annual event, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve experienced plenty of other preseason media days, but perhaps none quite like what I’ll see starting today in Atlanta — the fans, the media frenzy, the hype, etc.

There are plenty of things that I’m looking forward to seeing.

Here are 10 of them:

1. (Potential) First-round QBs

Is it crazy to think we’ll have multiple first-round quarterbacks at SEC Media Days? The SEC has had one quarterback drafted in the first round in the past 6 years (Johnny Manziel). Excuse me if I’m a little excited about the prospect of multiple first-round signal-callers (potentially) in Atlanta.

Drew Lock and Jarrett Stidham both have sky-high expectations entering 2018. They’re each the undoubted face of their respective programs, and naturally, they’ll field plenty of questions about just that. Lock was at SEC Media Days last year, though certainly not as a household name the way he is this year. This will be Stidham’s first time with this kind of spotlight on him in 2018.

I look forward to hearing from two guys who are going to get picked apart in the coming months.

2. New coaches everywhere

Including Matt Luke, who took over as the Ole Miss interim coach shortly after Hugh Freeze’s post-Media Days exit, there will be six coaches with new teams in Atlanta.

  • Chad Morris, Arkansas
  • Dan Mullen, Florida
  • Joe Moorhead, Mississippi State
  • Matt Luke, Ole Miss
  • Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee
  • Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M

Interestingly enough, Pruitt is the only coach of that group who enters 2018 as a first-time head coach (don’t forget that Moorhead was at Fordham before he was the offensive coordinator at Penn State). It’ll be interesting to see how blunt Pruitt is in a large media setting.

Fisher will obviously have plenty of attention, too. It’s still odd to think of him as part of this group of SEC coaches. Fisher will actually be the first coach to speak in Atlanta so he won’t have to wait long to make his presence felt. I wonder if Fisher, who was vocal at ACC Media Days last year about the ACC having the best conference in America, will change his tune.

3. Nick Saban not answering questions about his quarterbacks

You know it’s coming. Arguably the biggest SEC storyline heading into Media Days is the Alabama quarterback situation. Obviously neither Jalen Hurts nor Tua Tagovailoa will be in Atlanta, but Saban will. And yes, he’ll find new ways to avoid providing any insight on which quarterback he favors to start in 2018.

Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports

We might not get a good Saban rant, but his face before he answers a question on the matter will tell it all. He’ll get sick of those questions in a hurry, but inevitably, those quarterback-related questions will still get asked.

But hey, let’s pretend like Saban came to Atlanta just to answer the million-dollar question in college football.

4. Kirby Smart not answering questions about his quarterbacks

And just in case there was any doubt, Smart isn’t saying anything, either. I actually thought before his hand injury that there was a decent chance that Jake Fromm was going to be one of Georgia’s player representatives at Media Days. That would have actually quieted the notion that Justin Fields has a legitimate chance to win the starting job on Day 1.

Instead, Smart will be the person who dodges questions about the dynamic with Fromm and Fields.

Do I expect Smart to share any actual insight other than the canned responses about “they’re making each other better” or something like that? No. He’s had an entire offseason to learn how to address the elephant that joined the room a few months ago (yes, Fields is the elephant in this scenario).

5. Benny Snell unleashed

The most interesting player personality in Atlanta could very easily be the Kentucky tailback. Snell is a first-team All-SEC running back, which is interesting in its own right. But I’m plenty interested in “Benny Tha Bandit,” too.

In case you haven’t seen what the junior tailback can do off the field, have at it (via AVIXGOD):

Snell is a confident dude. I can’t decide what I’d rather see him going off about his Music City Bowl ejection or him busting out a freestyle.

Can I get both?

6. The usual characters and all the new characters

A new venue won’t deter some of the usual faces associated with SEC Media Days. There’s the Auburn fan who paints his dog, the Alabama fan who dresses up like Bear Bryant, the Alabama ring hat guy and others. I’m guessing that those usual characters will still make the trip to Atlanta because that’s what diehards do (I’ll be seeing them for the first time).

I’m curious if a bigger city brings a bigger cast of fan characters to the week’s festivities. Can we maybe get an Ed Orgeron lookalike? What about someone with Georgia tattoos on their face? I don’t feel like that’s asking for too much.

Let’s get weird, SEC fans.

7. Finebaum

Yeah, I’m a fan. And yes, I was excited to see Paul Finebaum’s contract renewed Friday. That, in my opinion, is a win for the SEC. Whether you love or hate Finebaum, I know how important he’s been with the growth of the SEC brand.

I also know that no other conference has a personality like Finebaum, and what he does is an integral part of SEC culture. It sort of blew me away how negative the response has been from SEC fans about him possibly leaving. You don’t have to love a Tammy call to appreciate how good he is at what he does for 20 hours per week on live television. My appreciation for him has grown the more I watched his show this offseason.

If you think being on live television for 20 hours a week is easy, you’re crazy. What Finebaum provides all year is entertainment for the common fan. Even if you don’t like the callers, the amount of actual SEC football talk trumps anything else on TV during the dead of the offseason.

So yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing Finebaum in Atlanta.

8. Fire takes about Atlanta as the new location

If I know one thing about us journalists, it’s that we like to complain.

“What a joke. The press box is completely out of free Diet Coke.”

“Can you believe how awful the media seating is?”

It doesn’t take a lot to throw off a working journalist, at least as it relates to our accommodations. I wonder what the complaints will look like with a completely new media venue for the week’s festivities. As someone who never went to Media Days in Hoover, I have nothing to compare it to. The more seasoned veterans definitely will.

What will likely happen is Atlanta will either be a perfect setup, or it’ll be the worst thing ever and let’s go back to Hoover. There are very rarely lukewarm opinions as it relates to venues.

I’m here for all the fire.

9. Nick Fitzgerald’s new look …?

Let me explain. This is what the Mississippi State quarterback tweeted out a few weeks ago:

Fitzgerald made a bet that if Mississippi State baseball won the regional, that he’d get a mohawk and dye it blonde like MSU baseball player Riley Self. The Bulldogs not only won the regional, they won the super regional and came within a game of making the College World Series final.

I cannot confirm if Fitzgerald is indeed rocking the mohawk. If he does, though, he’ll certainly have plenty of questions to answer about it.

10. A healthy Deebo Samuel

I always feel for the guys who can never seem to stay healthy. So far, that’s been Samuel. The good news is that he’ll be in Atlanta, and he’ll get to talk about what he hopes will be a big senior season.

He certainly doesn’t take his health for granted. You know that just being at SEC Media Days and getting to represent the Gamecocks will mean a lot to him. As a result, he’ll probably have no shortage of media members surrounding him at all times. Given what he’s been through, he deserves that kind of attention.

It’ll be fun to hear about Samuel talk about South Carolina’s new offense and how he fits into it. Few SEC units are more intriguing than that offense, and few players in college football are more electric than a healthy Samuel.

Who knows? Maybe the next time Samuel will be talking to a bunch of media members in Atlanta will be ahead of the SEC Championship.

OK, I might’ve gotten a little ahead of myself there.