Something could always pop up, but the potential controversial parts of SEC Media Days have now just about passed, apparently with no real bloodshed.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart got off light, with virtually no questioning about a troubled offseason that has seemingly put no damper on his back-to-back national championships.

Smart was able to twist his turn at the podium into a Driver’s Ed class, in response to the rash of speeding tickets by the Bulldogs. Not a peep from anywhere about the university’s demand for a retraction of a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution with far worse accusations including preferential treatment for players in domestic and sexual abuse matters.

Meanwhile, nobody directly accused him passing Nick Saban as college football’s top coaching dawg let alone GOAT.

This was just a day after Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, a lifelong play-caller, seemed to dance awkwardly around questions of how he might get along with his splash assistant hire of the offseason, controversial and caustic Bobby Petrino, formerly at Arkansas among many others. He’s always a flashy hire — which generally ends with a messy exit.

Fisher has supposedly given up play calling, but it never was clear if it was cold turkey. The two certainly have the potential to butt very hard heads.

Fisher’s mood did little to convince anybody the idea was all his or that he was all in. So it’s bears following.

But not much there, really.

Next up: Hugh Freeze.

What school is it now?

Right, Auburn.

Freeze at one time doubted he’d ever be back in the SEC. Not after he was forced out at Ole Miss in 2018 when, in the midst of an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations, a call he made to a call-girl service turned up in his university-issued phone’s history. The final straw was that it wasn’t an isolated incident.

Out of football for two years, he then did his penance with four successful years at Liberty University. You get Liberty to beat Arkansas, BYU, Syracuse and West Virginia, and you can even bypass the Nick Saban Halfway House before Auburn calls (he has, however, vacationed with Saban back in the day).

Freeze, who’ll be the only coach in the SEC who’s beaten Saban twice (yeah, that includes Smart), is also a proud and respected play-caller. He made no bones that he — wait — plans to … give up that role at Auburn.

But that’s not important now.

Freeze won the press conference, mostly with blunt honesty.

Yes, he was surprised to be at the media function as the media who’d written him off was.

Never thought he’d be in this league again.

“When the ending at Ole Miss occurred it was hard, truthfully, to process … so I would have to say at that point no. But as time passes and things tend to settle back in and you work through It.”

He’s owned to past mistakes, certainly paid his dues.

“I would be less than truthful to say after we started having success at Liberty, the thought didn’t start creeping in that certain opportunities might present themselves again,” he said.

And it’s not like you can’t win at Auburn.

Yet he enters a place known for a loyal and decent fan base, but one often plagued by a few big boosters who often hijack the program. Brian Harsin’s firing was the latest, opening the door for Freeze.

“I did sense coming in that the faith in the whole family of Auburn football was fractured somewhat,” Freeze said. “I think that is where I had to start in trying to repair that.”

Freeze didn’t have the luxury of being picky.

Now he has to put it back together, beginning with a roster well below Auburn’s standards.

But he’s making progress.

“We’ve sold more season tickets than in the history of the program, and while that speaks to their expectations and their excitement, hopefully they’ll give us a little patience.”