HOOVER, Ala. (AP) - LSU's Leonard Fournette was putting up massive rushing numbers last season until opponents started changing their defenses to stuff the run.
That put the onus on quarterback Brandon Harris to make them pay.
He couldn't do it.
Fournette believes that's about to change and Harris can become one of the league's best quarterbacks. If so, LSU could quickly become the team to beat in the SEC.
"I think he's doing a tremendous job and I'm ready to see the new Brandon Harris on in September," Fournette said Thursday at SEC media days. "He has a new swag to himself. He's talking like a quarterback should talk. He's taking over at practice."
Expectations are very high in Baton Rouge after a 9-3 season that included a 5-3 mark in the SEC. The Tigers won their first seven games last season before a three-game losing streak to Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi derailed the season and nearly cost coach Les Miles his job.
But Miles is back for this 12th season and LSU returns 17 starters, including nine on offense and eight on defense.
Fournette - who ran for an LSU single-season record 1,953 yards and 22 touchdowns last season - is considered one of the Heisman favorites and the defense includes seasoned veterans like safety Jamal Adams and linebacker Kendell Beckwith.
The only real question is at quarterback.
The 6-foot-3, 206-pound Harris had some good moments last season, throwing for 2,165 yards, 13 touchdowns and six interceptions while completing about 54 percent of his passes.
"Certainly our play there will be significant," Miles said.
If Harris can keep opposing defenses honest through the passing game, it should leave a little more room for Fournette to run. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound junior was a Heisman candidate last season until his performance tailed off during the season's most important games in November.
He said falling out of the Heisman race wasn't disappointing. Instead, it was losing three crucial games that bugged him.
"I think we forgot our 'why,'" Fournette said. "Why we work so hard just to get here. We were on top of the world, 7-0 and we're in the SEC, the hardest and best conference to play in. We just had to get that back."
Miles also spent a few minutes Thursday discussing the recent shooting of Alton Sterling by a white police officer in Baton Rouge. He hopes the football program can be part of helping society change.
"You reach for others," Miles said. "You need to be respectful of their life and their opinion and who they are. You need compassion for people."
Muschamp trying to imitate Spurrier's success, not quips
South Carolina coach Will Muschamp didn't try to emulate the wisecracking Steve Spurrier at the microphone.
"There's only one Steve Spurrier in life, and I'm not it," Muschamp said.
He replaced Spurrier as the Gamecocks coach, not as the SEC media days' resident quip master, but Muschamp is hoping to build on what Spurrier started with the Gamecocks. And to do it quickly.
Spurrier proved during the past decade South Carolina can compete for SEC titles and win the Eastern Division. Muschamp isn't giving himself a time cushion to turn the program back around after a 3-9 season when Spurrier stepped down in October.
"There is no three-year plan, five-year plan," Muschamp said Thursday at media days. "They plan to win now. Ok? That's my mentality.
"We make decisions as far as who's going to be the quarterback, who's going to be the running back or who is going to play defensive end, (based on) who helps us win right now. That's the bottom line, and that's what we plan on doing."
That will dictate his choice between Perry Orth and freshman Brandon McIlwain as the starting quarterback.
Muschamp and the Gamecocks also must resurrect a defense that was last in the league in total, scoring and run defense.
Defense was never the issue for Muschamp during an up-and-down four years at Florida, where his teams struggled offensively. He spent last season as Auburn's defensive coordinator after getting fired from his first head coaching job.
Now that Muschamp is getting another chance in the SEC East, he's trying to avoid a repeat of those struggles in scoring points.
"Really, it comes back to offense to make sure we're practicing the right way, whether it's staff, scheme, decision-making, whatever," he said. "But that falls on my shoulders. So I'm taking full responsibility of that and making it better in this situation."
South Carolina offensive lineman Mason Zandi isn't worried about what happened at Florida. Muschamp was 28-21, going 11-2 in his second season and following that with four wins.
"I don't really look at coach Muschamp's past," Zandi said. "Only a fool trips on what's behind him. We're just looking forward. He came in here with a plan and he stated what he wanted to accomplish, and we're going from there."
The Gamecocks open with Vanderbilt, whose running back Ralph Webb predicted would "definitely" win the game in Nashville. That gives South Carolina bulletin board material even before preseason camp starts.
"Yeah, I saw it but we'll show up Sept. 1," Zandi said.
Now, that was closer to a Spurrier one-liner.
Ole Miss investigation hot topic at media days
Mississippi is coming off an impressive 10-win season, returns arguably the league's best quarterback and recently had three of its top players selected in the first round of the NFL draft.
Not many people wanted to talk about that at SEC media days.
Instead, the majority of questions focused around the school's long-running NCAA investigation into the football program that's approaching four years. Coach Hugh Freeze said Thursday he couldn't discuss details of the case and had no timetable for its resolution, but defended the program's reputation.
"I have zero interest in cutting corners to be successful, and our staff knows that very well," Freeze said. "I have a lot of things that I'm not very good at, but that is not a temptation."
The university has already self-imposed some penalties for football, including scholarship reductions and three years of probation. The NCAA can accept or add to those penalties.
The case could drag on for several more months. Ole Miss has asked to delay a hearing before the Committee on Infractions while it looks into draft-night allegations involving former left tackle Laremy Tunsil, who acknowledged NFL draft night he accepted money from a coach while he was at Ole Miss.
Freeze said he "can't comment on anything that's ongoing with the NCAA."
"There will come a day where we get to stand before the committee on infractions, which are the ones that matter, and we will be held accountable for any wrongdoing that is found, and that's the way it should be," Freeze said.
On the field, Ole Miss is expected to be a contender in the SEC's Western Division, especially if it can navigate an extremely difficult September. The Rebels open the season against Florida State and then host Alabama and Georgia in the season's first four weeks.
The Rebels have beaten Alabama two straight seasons.
One reason Ole Miss has high expectations is the return of quarterback Chad Kelly. The nephew of Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly threw for 4,042 yards, 31 touchdowns and 13 interceptions last season while completing about 65 percent of his passes.
His top receiver from last year - Laquon Treadwell - is off to the NFL, but he still has several experienced targets returning, including receivers Damore'ea Stringfellow and Quincy Adeboyejo, along with tight end Evan Engram.
Engram said all of the NCAA investigation talk hasn't been a problem inside the locker room.
"It doesn't matter, we have people taking care of that," Engram said. "We just worry about football. We show up to work every day to get better and work toward our goals, which are winning in Atlanta and competing for a national championship."