Auburn is stressing better discipline after having issues off the field that players believe turned into discipline problems on the field. The Tigers had 68.9 penalty yards per game in 2014 (115th in the country), up from 40.6 in 2013 (30th) when they won the SEC. “That starts with the head coach,” Malzahn said. “Bottom line: We weren’t a very disciplined team in the second half of the season.” Quarterback Jeremy Johnson said the team has a new motto called “account on me,” meaning players trust coaches, coaches trust players, and players trust each other.

Malzahn is raving about Johnson at quarterback. Given Johnson’s success in limited action last year, the question has to be asked: How close was Malzahn to going with Johnson last year instead of two-year starter Nick Marshall? “That was one of our biggest challenges,” Malzahn said. “You’re talking about the year before we almost won the national championship and offensively Nick did everything he could and answered the bell every time. It was a real unique situation that our staff talked about a lot.”

Johnson is very close with Cam Newton, the former Auburn star and current Carolina Panthers quarterback. Newton’s best advice to Johnson? “When things are going bad, keep a smile on your face or have a good look on your face. Never let your teammates see you sweat.”

Muschamp’s defensive pedigree lives on. There may be a lot of issues for Florida’s offense, but its secondary could be elite this season. “Credit the coaches who were here,” first-year Gators coach Jim McElwain said. “They brought in some really good players — and there are some numbers.”

Standout cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III said he doesn’t watch much film each week to prepare. “I could try to make myself learn every scenario and every situation and what plays they like,” Hargreaves said. “That’s just not football to me.” He acknowledged that when he goes to the NFL “my film study will have to go up more because of the complex offenses in the league. But football’s still football. I’ll figure it out when that time comes.”

Wide receiver Brandon Powell sounds like he still stings over the circumstances surrounding his last-second decision to decommit from Miami in January 2014. “I was really upset like the whole time (during his recruitment by the Hurricanes),” Powell said. “Once I committed, it’s like they backed off, they thought they had me. Once they heard about Florida, I was already on my way up there. They was blowing my phone up, blowing everybody up trying to see where I was.”

In a nod to how disastrous Year 1 was for coach Derek Mason, he fired both coordinators in the offseason and made himself defensive coordinator. Mason admits now, “I probably made a mistake as a first-year head coach in assuming that my football team was a little better than what it was.” Mason said he interviewed several defensive coordinator candidates who all said, “I’ll do what you do, but I want to do what I like. I felt like right now, where our program was, it had to be a direct message and that message needed to come from me. … Nowadays, I think at a place like Vanderbilt, you can be what you need to be.”

Mason said he is enjoying being in defensive meeting rooms again and has to be more selective with how he uses his time. “I feel that’s a tough role for him,” Vanderbilt linebacker Nigel Bowden said. “Being a head coach in general is tough, and now being a D-coordinator too? It just shows how hardworking he is playing two tough roles like that. If he can do that, I feel like all the players on my team can put in a whole lot more effort than they did last year.”

“Buy food. It will help a lot.”

— Florida wide receiver Brandon Powell on what he’s going to do with his new cost of attendance stipend money.