ATLANTA — South Carolina’s first two SEC opponents — and four of the eight total on the conference schedule — took to the podium on Wednesday at SEC Media Days. The day started with Sam Pittman and the Arkansas Razorbacks and continued on with the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs in the morning, with Florida’s Billy Napier and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops rounding out the afternoon session.

South Carolina will make its first trip to Fayetteville in nine years on Sep. 8, opening up the conference schedule with an early kickoff against the Razorbacks. Pittman’s Razorbacks won nine games last season including all three rivalry trophy games against Texas A&M, LSU, and Missouri.

Still though, the schedule is not going to get any easier this season with a loaded SEC slate and non-conference battles against Cincinnati and BYU.

“All 12 of this year's opponents made post-season play last year,” he said. “Our crossover games are with South Carolina and Missouri. South Carolina, obviously, Coach Beamer has done a great job there. A lot of enthusiasm.”

Now the challenge for Arkansas will be similar to the one South Carolina will go through this year — following up a surprisingly successful season.

"I feel like we have to go even harder this year,” defensive back Jalen Catalon said. “It’s 2022 now, so it’s a new year and everybody is looking to start off right and make it to the top just like we are. So I say we have to go attack every day and get better, and if we do that, we can progress off of last year.”

On the topic of following up success with another strong season, nobody will have a bigger task on this front than Georgia. The Bulldogs won their first national championship in 41 years last season when they finally overcame Alabama by a 33-18 score. Georgia will travel to Williams-Brice Stadium on Sep. 15 for another noon kickoff. But after losing five players from his defense to the first round of the NFL Draft, Smart will be undertaking a large-scale reloading project for his unit early in the season.

“I'm excited about this team because there's a lot of opportunity,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “People say, ‘do you have the talent? Do you have enough talent within your program?’ We have plenty of talent. What we lack right now is experience. That's our job as coaches, to put those guys in a position to be successful and react in the calm manner and have the experience they need to play well against Oregon. That game will help set us up for the SEC gauntlet we have coming up after that.”

All the way on the other side of the SEC East spectrum is Florida, where Napier is just trying to get his program launched after the Gators hired him from Louisiana. One of the highlights of South Carolina’s 2021 season was a 40-17 win over the Gators in Columbia, turning around a game where the Gamecocks were 20-point underdogs to win in a rout.

The gap between Florida and Georgia is as wide as it ever has been in Georgia’s favor, but the incremental steps he has to take on the way to Georgia are still very real in front of him.

“But year one, new staff, new place, new group of players, new roster, I mean, we're a work in progress,” he said. “I would tell you this: Every team in the country's got its own set of issues and problems, right? We're all working through that. That's exactly where we're at.”

Florida will get its shot at a revenge game against South Carolina on Nov. 12 in Gainesville.

Almost completely at the other end of the SEC coaching experience spectrum is Stoops, who is entering year 10 in Lexington. Stoops is only behind Alabama’s Nick Saban in terms of tenure in the SEC and has revived Kentucky’s program.

“We're always going to be a team that's going to be physical, that can pound the football,” Stoops said about his offense. “But where we are falling short (for) a couple years ago — we got better a year ago — I want to continue to build on that, is with the success of the running game pushing the ball down the field. When you have a quarterback (Will Levis) like this, there's not a throw he can't make. Very excited to build on that and continue to grow.”

The Wildcats defeated South Carolina 16-10 in Columbia last season, and the return game at Kroger Field is set for Oct. 8.

Check back in on the Insider's Forum tomorrow for live updates of Day 4 of SEC Media Days from Gamecock Scoop.