SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference will host its 2022 Football Media Day on Thursday, July 28, at the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. All nine league head coaches will be on hand to meet with the media and preview the upcoming season, while Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens will be the featured guest at the event’s luncheon.
 
Owens, a Chattanooga alum who played in the SoCon from 1992-95, will participate in a question-and-answer session with WSPA Sports Director Pete Yanity at the luncheon, which will also feature comments from SoCon Commissioner Jim Schaus.
 
Yanity will also conduct one-on-one interviews with the league’s head coaches during the afternoon’s media session, with those interviews slated to air on ESPN+ on Friday 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 head coach George Quarles of defending SoCon champion ETSU make his SoCon Media Day debut.
 
Five of the nine SoCon programs appeared in the national rankings at some point last season, with ETSU finishing in the top 10 of both the AFCA and Stats Perform polls. The Bucs, who won their first-ever outright SoCon title, finished seventh in the AFCA poll and ninth in the Stats Perform poll and earned the No. 7 national seed in the NCAA Division I Football Championship.
 
Furman, Mercer, Chattanooga and VMI were also ranked for at least one week last season.
 
The SoCon produced 15 All-Americans last season, six of which return this year. Chattanooga defensive lineman Devonnsha Maxwell and VMI linebacker Stone Snyder, the reigning SoCon Defensive Players of the Year, are among the most decorated of the returning group, as they both earned All-America distinction from five different organizations last season. The pair, who shared SoCon Defensive Player of the Year honors on the postseason media team, finished 13th and 14th, respectively in voting for the Buck Buchanan Award.
 
The league also returns a pair of finalists for the 2021 Jerry Rice Award in defensive backs Dominick Poole of The Citadel and Andreas Keaton of Western Carolina, who finished 16th and 17th, respectively, in voting for the national freshman of the year award.
 
Former ETSU running back Quay Holmes, the 2021 SoCon Offensive Player of the Year who finished third in the Walter Payton Award voting, led the FCS in rushing yards per game last season with 119.5, while Samford wide receiver/return specialist Montrell Washington paced the subdivision in all-purpose yards with 176.18 per contest and was later taken in the fifth round of the NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. Chattanooga offensive lineman Cole Strange, a two-time winner of the SoCon Jacobs Blocking Award, was drafted 29th overall by the New England Patriots, becoming the SoCon’s first first-round NFL Draft pick since 1974.
 
The Southern Conference enters the 2022 campaign seeking its ninth FCS title. The league’s eight are the second-most all-time in the subdivision.
 
Southern Conference Football Media Day attendees
The Citadel: Head coach Brent Thompson
ETSU: Head coach George Quarles
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