Hoover

HOOVER — Phillip Fulmer’s annual trip to Southeastern Conference Media Days is never uneventful.

The Tennessee football coach was served with a subpoena Thursday, four years after he skipped the league’s annual talkfest to avoid legal entanglements.

Lawyers for disassociated Alabama football booster Wendell Smith hired a process server to hand Fulmer a subpoena as the coach arrived at Media Days. According to Brandon Blankenship, Smith’s Birmingham-based attorney, the server placed the subpoena in Fulmer’s hand outside the Wynfrey Hotel, site of Media Days.

“He said, ‘Coach Fulmer, I’ve got something for you,’ and gave it to him,” Blankenship told the Associated Press.

Speaking at his regularly scheduled Media Days appearance, Fulmer repeatedly denied any awareness of the subpoena.

“I have not seen a subpoena,” he said. “This is not the place for that kind of thing.

“There are great fans that have great passion about the Southeastern Conference that are not interested in that kind of B.S., and I would have some other choice words if there weren’t so many cameras in here.”

It wasn’t until several hours later that Fulmer’s attorney, Jeff Hagood, admitted his client had received the subpoena.

“Phillip was getting out of his car and focused on other things, as you might imagine, getting ready to face an audience of about 800 people or so,” Hagood told the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel. “Someone basically threw something at him. They didn’t look official, as far as he was concerned. It didn’t look like a law enforcement person or that ilk.

“He didn’t pay attention to what it was.”

According to the News Sentinel, Hagood claimed Fulmer didn’t recognize the subpoena for what it was until late Thursday afternoon, as he made his way out of town.

“If Phillip had a subpoena and knew he had it, he would never lie about it,” Hagood said. “This was an ambush.”

Smith, who was disassociated from Alabama after the NCAA accused him of paying a high school recruit, is suing the NCAA for defamation. Smith’s attorneys want Fulmer to testify about the case in a sworn statement Sept. 25, two days before the Vols play at Auburn.

In 2004, Fulmer skipped Media Days to avoid being served in another lawsuit involving an NCAA investigation of Alabama. Fulmer conducted his Media Days press conference that year by speakerphone from Knoxville; the league fined him $10,000.

Richt ready to ‘show more emotion’
In Mark Richt’s first six and a half seasons at Georgia, “excitement” wasn’t exactly his middle name.

The Bulldogs head coach was known for his calm sideline demeanor — hardly a common trait among SEC head coaches. The cool exterior was intentional: Richt doubled as UGA’s offensive coordinator, and he believed an emotional response to individual plays or series would affect his play-calling.

“If I got too excited, outwardly excited, I would lose my focus,” he said.

But when Richt handed play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Mike Bobo before the 2007 season, it took almost half the schedule before the head coach realized he could break out of his shell. Not until after a lackluster, 35-14 loss to Tennessee on Oct. 6 did Richt realize he could be more demonstrative.

“I was a little bit more free to let my emotions go,” he said.

“I said, ‘Something’s got to change.’ I knew it had to start with me.”

The result? Richt started flashing more fire on the sideline, and his players did the same.

The heart-on-their-sleeves Bulldogs famously rushed the field en masse to celebrate a first-quarter touchdown against rival Florida, then ignited the home crowd against Auburn by bursting out of the pregame locker room clad in black jerseys.

“It did kind of catch fire,” Richt said.

It may or may not be coincidence that Georgia won its final seven games and finished the season ranked No. 2 in the final Associated Press poll.

Richt vows to show more of the same this year.

“I’m a little bit more free to kind of turn it loose,” he said. “And that’s what you want your team to do, is turn it loose.”

Nutt getting comfortable at Ole Miss
New Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt only arrived in Oxford, Miss., last November. But he’s already making himself at home.

Nutt, who accepted a buyout at Arkansas on Nov. 26 of last year, then replaced Ed Orgeron in Oxford a day later, is settling in with the Rebels.

Thursday, Nutt reminisced about being greeted by hundreds of cheering Ole Miss fans at his introductory press conference. The new scenery is a welcome change for Nutt, whose final two seasons in Arkansas were mired in conflicts with fans and some players’ disgruntled parents.

Nutt is happy to have left it all behind.

“So it’s just been an excellent transition,” he said. “You’re exactly right. There’s something about being reenergized with new names, new problems, new street numbers, the whole bit.”

Nutt’s new team faces his old team Oct. 25th in Fayetteville, Ark. And he admits he’ll be at least a little sentimental about his return to Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, where he spent the past 10 seasons.

“We had some great days, great times there,” he said. “You can’t help but think what it’s going to be like, coming in from the visitor side.”

Clock rules mark major changes
Every SEC coach has spent plenty of time thinking about the new clock rules, which promise to change strategy in almost every game situation. But no one has given the new rules as much thought as Rogers Redding.

Redding, the SEC’s supervisor of officials, knows the transition to a 40-second play clock in most situations will be momentous.

“For all of our lives in college football, we’ve been used to the referee marking the ball ready for play and starting the 25 second clock on every single play,” he said. “For the first time in the history of college football, that’s not going to be the case most of the time.”

The move is expected to shorten games, with the 40-second clock beginning as soon as the previous play is whistled dead. The clock will also begin to run following out-of-bounds plays: After a ball-carrier steps out of bounds, the clock is stopped until the ball is ready for play, then restarted.

The conference’s replay rules also got a minor tweak. SEC coaches can still challenge a play call once per game, leading to a review of instant replay. But now, if a coach’s challenge is successful, he will retain the challenge, which can be used just once more.

After the second challenge, successful or not, the coach can’t challenge another play.

Among other rules changes: The 5-yard penalty for accidentally touching an opponent’s facemask has been eliminated; field goals will be reviewed if it’s unclear whether a kick cleared the crossbar or squeezed inside the uprights; sideline violations automatically result in a 5-yard penalty, eliminating the warning that previously followed the first violation.

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