SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference will host its 2021 Football Media Day on Monday, July 26, at the Amherst at Deerpark at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. All nine league head coaches will be on hand to meet with the media and preview the upcoming season, while Southern Conference Commissioner Jim Schaus and ESPN senior writer and New York Times bestselling author Ryan McGee will speak at the event’s luncheon.
 
The ESPN+ portion of the afternoon media session will be moderated by Pete Yanity and will air on Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET.
 
The league’s preseason all-conference teams and polls will be unveiled at the event, which will also see first-year Western Carolina head coach Kerwin Bell make his SoCon Media Day debut.
 
Six of the nine SoCon programs appeared in the national rankings at some point last season, with VMI and ETSU finishing in the top 25 of both the AFCA and Stats Perform polls. The Keydets, who won their first SoCon title since 1977, finished 12^th in both polls and made their first-ever FCS playoffs appearance. Scott Wachenheim was named the national coach of the year by the AFCA and Stats Perform, as he became the fifth winner of the Eddie Robinson Award in SoCon history.
 
In addition to Wachenheim’s national plaudits, the league boasted finalists for several other major awards in 2020-21, with VMI linebacker Stone Snyder finishing third in balloting for the Buck Buchanan Award, presented annually to the national defensive player of the year, and teammate and wide receiver Jakob Herres finishing fourth in the voting for the Walter Payton Award, which honors the top offensive player in the FCS. Herres was a consensus first-team All-American.
 
Samford defensive back Chris Edmonds finished 16^th in the Buchanan Award balloting, while Bulldog quarterback Liam Welch was 10^th in the Payton Award voting and ETSU running back Quay Holmes was 13^th. VMI quarterback Seth Morgan and Mercer linebacker Isaac Dowling finished third and fourth, respectively, in balloting for the Jerry Rice Award, which annually honors the top FCS freshman.
 
Collectively, the SoCon returns 87 percent of its letterwinners from 2020-21, bringing back 553 of the 636 from last season.
 
The Southern Conference, which continues to celebrate its 100 years of history in 2021, enters the fall campaign seeking its ninth FCS title. The league’s eight are the second-most all-time in the division.
 
“This year’s Football Media Day will be a colossal event at the prestigious Biltmore in Asheville,” Schaus said. “We are an elite football conference whose vision is to compete at the highest level of the FCS and be in the mix for a national championship. We are hoping that we will be back to normal competition this fall and can ensure a safe and exciting season for fans.”
 
ESPN+ link (Tuesday, 10 a.m. ET):
https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=e4b54cc1-2c38-49d2-81cc-7747996770ca
 
Southern Conference Football Media Day attendees
The Citadel: Head coach Brent Thompson
ETSU: Head coach Randy Sanders
Furman: Head coach Clay Hendrix
Mercer: Head coach Drew Cronic
Samford: Head coach Chris Hatcher
Chattanooga: Head coach Rusty Wright
VMI: Head coach Scott Wachenheim
Western Carolina: Head coach Kerwin Bell
Wofford: Head coach Josh Conklin