Pat Dye and Johnny Majors were SEC legends.
They may not have won as many national championships as Bear Bryant did at Alabama, but the Crimson Tide never looked forward to playing Auburn and Tennessee.
Dye died Monday from complications of covid-19 about a week after his diagnosis. Majors died Wednesday.
Those guys were role models and mentors to hundreds of young men who played football for them, and even in retirement they remained sharp and good counselors.
Both spoke to the Little Rock Touchdown Club, and Majors’ talk made national headlines when he referred to Phil Fulmer as a traitor. Fulmer got the Tennessee job before an ill Majors was ready to retire.
Of course, the Touchdown Club and its founder David Bazzel have brought in dozens of outstanding speakers, created awards for outstanding football players and coaches, and been a bright spot for Monday lunches.
Baz is currently in a holding pattern for this season.
Much of the club’s membership is older, and Baz doesn’t want to endanger anyone during the coronavirus pandemic.
Having the meetings reduced from 250 — and up to 400 on occasions — to 100 is not appealing either.
And with the pandemic still alive, it is a bit difficult to get speakers to agree to come to Little Rock.
Baz is watching everything closely and weighing options. The LRTDC might be postponed a month or two.
From Bob Stoops to Urban Meyer and just about every kind of speaker imaginable, the club has been described as the best in the country. If the lunches are canceled, they will be missed.
The LRTDC started in August 2004 with 17 members.
One can only wonder whether what happened at Oklahoma State this week is a prelude to what will happen when more college football teams return to campus Monday.
Three of the team’s players tested positive for covid-19, including Amen Ogbongbemiga, a returning starter who admitted he had attended a protest in Tulsa last weekend. He said he was covered up.
The virus is a big concern nationally because a lot of the people attending protests are not wearing masks.
The coronavirus watch has begun in athletics. South Carolina basketball Coach Frank Martin said he has recovered from a case.
A part-time worker in the athletic department at Iowa State also has tested positive and has been quarantined.
Every conference is as different as its part of the country.
The SEC has OK’d coronavirus screening of athletes instead of testing.
The Pac-12 schools will test all athletes who return to campus and will continue testing throughout the school year.
Only time will tell if one way was safer than the other.
In related news, it is being predicted that if the NCAA cancels another national basketball tournament, the Power 5 conferences may move forward without the NCAA.
Canceling the college football season could hasten the action of the 65 schools, including independent Notre Dame, because that could create a devastating economic impact on the schools.
College football is reported to be a $4 billion to $6.5 billion industry.
One reporter reasoned that the University of Arkansas has the toughest schedule in the SEC because it doesn’t get to play itself.
There are no easy schedules in the SEC West, and very few in the East.
When you play Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Mississippi State every year, your schedule is tough Then throw in a trip to Notre Dame, and that’s why the Razorbacks schedule should be considered very tough this season.