SEC Media Days 2017: Highlights, Comments and Twitter Reaction from Wednesday

Alabama, the three-time reigning SEC football champions, headlined Day 3 of the 2017 SEC media days on Wednesday from the Hyatt Regency Birmingham-Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama. Head coach Nick Saban led the Crimson Tide's speaking contingent in the annual event.

The Tide were joined by representatives from Missouri, Texas A&M and Kentucky during the penultimate day of interview sessions. Of that group, the Aggies have the best chance to make some noise in conference play, though the Wildcats are a potential sleeper.

Let's check out some of the top comments and highlights from Wednesday's action.

Alabama

With a program as dominant as Alabama, Saban has more opportunity to freelance during media days than his counterparts. There are fewer questions about expectations—the Tide are seemingly always a championship contender—and the coach often uses that time to make other statements.

Today he turned his focus to underclassmen declaring early for the NFL draft. He used New York Yankees standout rookie outfielder Aaron Judge as an example for why players should maximize their development time before making the jump, per Dan Gartland of Sports Illustrated.

"Aaron Judge is a pretty good player, but the way I understand it is he spent a couple years in the minor leagues, isn't that right, before he really came up and now he's a rookie that is pretty much a dominant player," Saban said. "Well, if that guy wasn't ready to play in football when he was 22 years old, he might not make the team."

Meanwhile, Alabama Football passed along comments from senior offensive lineman Bradley Bozeman about the program's mentality:

Bama suffered a heartbreaking loss in the national title game against Clemson last season, however, and it's using that as motivation heading into the 2017 campaign.

Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports provided details from wide receiver Calvin Ridley:

A comment from Minkah Fitzpatrick wrapped things up in a perfect way. The defensive back was asked about whether he's going to declare for the NFL draft after his junior season and KTSW Sports‏ relayed his pithy response.

"I'm only concerned about a national championship," he said.

Missouri

The Tigers are focused on getting back on track. They had a combined 23-5 record during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The final season of the Gary Pinkel era and the first year under Barry Odom yielded a 9-15 mark, including a 4-8 season last year.

Gabe DeArmond of Rivals noted Odom isn't shying away from the early disappointment.

"When you win four games, guys, believe me, it hurts your soul," he said. "That's where I was at."

Senior linebacker Eric Beisel, who's been with the program through the highs and lows, provided a little spice to the otherwise mundane proceedings by pouring a little more fuel on the Arkansas rivalry fire, as Bo Mattingly of Sports Talk with Bo spotlighted:

"

Missouri LB Eric Beisel on their rivalry with Arkansas:

"It should be personal." pic.twitter.com/3sct5KRK5j

— Bo Mattingly (@SportsTalkwBo) July 12, 2017"

Ethan Triebsch‏ of Rock M Recruiting provided wide receiver J'Mon Moore's thoughts on last year's struggles:

Blake Toppmeyer of the Columbia Daily Tribune noted the Tigers carry an added burden of trying to help boost the school's enrollment issues. Quarterback Drew Lock thinks football can make an impact.

"We win, you see more of us everywhere on TV, you see an awesome culture of football. Football is huge in the SEC, and this is an SEC school," he said. "If we're successful, I wouldn't doubt [enrollment will increase.]"

Texas A&M

Kevin Sumlin could find himself firmly on the hot seat if the Aggies aren't able to compete with the SEC's best teams season, but that's not going to change his approach.

Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle noted the A&M head coach said there's nothing the outside noise can do to create more pressure than he already puts on himself.

"There's nobody who puts more pressure on me than Kevin Sumlin. We all want the same thing. I'm here to do a job and to win a championship, and we haven't done that yet," Sumlin said. "Now, that being said, we won more games than anybody in the last 20 years (at A&M). Are we better at Texas A&M than when we got there? You bet. Is it where we want to be? No. Nobody wants to win more than me."

Corey Miller‏ of WACH noted offensive lineman Koda Martin expressed support for Sumlin:

Wide receiver and special teams ace Christian Kirk will likely need a monster year for the Aggies to contend. He spoke with TexAgs about being more of a leader, too:

Texas A&M started 7-1 last season with its only loss coming against Alabama. But a 1-4 finish changed the year's entire outlook. But defensive back Armani Watts doesn't think the late struggles were due to a lack of talent on either side of the ball, per Matt Smith‏ of Southern Pigskin.

"Wear and tear," he said. "Injuries."

Kentucky

The Wildcats have shown noticeable progress during Mark Stoops' four years in charge. Now it's time to see whether the program is truly prepared to make a leap forward in the highly competitive SEC.

SEC Country passed along remarks from Stoops, who set an optimistic tone.

"It's an exciting time," he said. "Our players have worked extremely hard. I just mentioned our consistency through the winter. We're more mature. We're a stronger football team. Things are going exceptionally well through the summer. We're optimistic. We're excited. And we're ready to get going."

Quarterback Stephen Johnson confirmed the coaching staff informed him he'll be leading the offense when Kentucky kicks off the season against Southern Miss on Sept. 2, per Rick Bozich of WDRB:

Perhaps the most light-hearted moment of the day came courtesy of Wildcats junior safety Mike Edwards, who had a wardrobe malfunction, via Kentucky Football:

Back on the topic of football, Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald noted linebacker Courtney Love said the team's earned more respect, but there's still a lot of work to do.

"There's definitely a lot of respect that we've earned. It's not just given to us, we had to earn that," he said. "I think we can just keep on building off the momentum we had last year."