The SEC lost 2 great coaches this past week, as Auburn’s Pat Dye and Tennessee’s Johnny Majors both passed away.

For someone who has covered the SEC for as long as SEC Network host Paul Finebaum, the deaths were hard to take.

Appearing on “SEC Now” on Saturday, Finebaum paid tribute to both coaches, starting with Dye (via 247Sports):

“From a personal standpoint, it was really difficult,” Finebaum said of Dye’s death. “I covered Coach Dye’s first practice at Auburn in 1981 and you come full-circle when you think about your whole life. We were extremely close friends and my time with him always was precious. Every time we’d go to Auburn, he’d come by and we would turn the clock back 30, 40 years. I’m so sad and you knew it was coming, but still.”

About Majors, Finebaum said as good as he was as a coach, he may have been an even better player:

“You start thinking back on the great memories of encountering with him,” Finebaum said of Majors. “I never saw him as a player, but he was really a better player than a coach. He won a National Championship at Pittsburgh and nearly won a couple at Tennessee. But he’s one of the great players of his era in SEC history.”

RIP to a pair of great SEC leaders.