The Southland Conference is going video for its football Media Day this year, letting coaches and players work from home so to speak.

There will be no gathering of the group in one spot as each head coach will be on screen instead of in person like most leagues.

Just when you thought the days of working from home were over, we bring you the SLC.

It will make things easier on the travel budgets and won’t cut into much prep time for players and coaches. That could be a big plus for a league that has just as many new coaches as it does returnees.

“There is a lot of change for sure,” McNeese head coach Gary Goff said. “You don’t really know what to expect.”

Nor can you really predict anything just yet either.

Any “expert” prediction is more than a guess when it comes to the Southland. The preseason All-Conference team is much the same.

Throwing darts against a wall filled with team banners will get you just as close to figuring out the outcome of this conference race.

Consider this, Goff is in his second year as the McNeese top guy and he is already in the upper half of Southland coaches when it comes to longevity.

Four of the league’s head coaches are new. Ironically, all four of them are coaching Texas schools. Meanwhile, all four of the Louisiana head coaches return, though one of them flirted with heading over to Beaumont, to take over at Lamar.

As for the players, well you can all but figure on at least seven of the eight starting quarterbacks will be new. And that number could be low.

Thanks to the transfer portal a big number of the league’s top players from last season have left and an entire new crop of hopefuls have entered. So Monday, when the coaches speak, you can expect a lot of talk about remade rosters and fans needing patience in the early going.

McNeese is the perfect example.

Three of the four players who took snaps last season at quarterback are no longer with the program. One graduated and two transferred out after being in Lake Charles for just one season.

Of the six quarterbacks on the roster only two are back, Ryan Roberts and Cam McCalister. Both are redshirt freshmen though Roberts did start the final two games for McNeese last year, each one a victory.

Two others are true freshmen, Kamden Sixkiller and Davion Wilson. Sixkiller comes from Oklahoma while Wilson is out of Port Arthur, Texas.

And the two frontrunners for the starting job are out of the transfer portal. Nate Glantz is a junior from Iowa State while Tre Simmons, also a junior, is a transfer from Division II Tusculum University in Florida.

This is a scenario being played out throughout the league.

“I think every team has its questions,” said Goff. “It will make it hard to really scout the teams.”

League favorite Incarnate Word is no different. Cardinals’ new coach Clint Killough will have to replace Lindsey Scott at quarterback. He will be counting on Zach Calzada, a transfer from Texas A&M to do just that.

Perhaps the biggest question heading into the new season surrounds both UIW and Southeastern, which actually won the league last year thanks to its upset of the Cardinals.

Frank Scelfo was tempted to leave Hammond for Lamar but stayed after a late counteroffer from SELA. That led to a strange transfer portal offseason.

Somehow the Lions managed 17 players on the Southland’s preseason teams, which looks like a lot of guesswork by the coaches.

McNeese managed just five on the team, with only kicker Garrison Smith being selected to the first club.

Of course, none of this really matters once the games get started, or even when the coaches begin to talk Monday. It might have been a little more interesting in person, as maybe one or two questions might have been asked of Scelfo about his off-season job search.

But really, unlike the big conference, little news will likely come out of this event. With so many moving parts there might even be more questions than answers left about the Southland’s upcoming season Monday night.

Preseason All-SLC team

FIRST TEAM

OFFENSE

Pos. Name School Cl.

QB Zachary Clement* SE Louisiana Jr.

RB Collin Guggenheim Nicholls Jr.

RB Khalan Griffin Lamar Jr.

TE/HB Travon Jones* Northwestern State So.

WR Zach Patterson* Northwestern State Sr.

WR Karl Reynolds HCU Sr.

WR Brandon Porter UIW Gr.

OL John Allen* SE Louisiana Sr.

OL Evan Roussel* Nicholls Jr.

OL Jhy Orgeron* SE Louisiana Jr.

OL Jalen Bell SE Louisiana Sr.

OL Stanley Mark^ UIW Gr.

OL Mark Barthelemy^ Nicholls Sr.

PK Garrison Smith* McNeese So.

P Austin Dunlap* SE Louisiana Sr.

DEFENSE

Pos. Name School Cl.

DL Steven Parker* UIW Jr.

DL Perry Ganci* Nicholls Sr.

DL Jalyx Hunt* HCU Jr.

DL Arlen Willaims* SE Louisiana R-Sr.

LB Rodney Dansby* HCU Jr.

LB Donte’ Daniels* SE Louisiana Jr.

LB Eli Ennis* Nicholls So.

DB Jordan Jackson* Nicholls Sr.

DB Devion Hargrove HCU Jr.

DB Kevin Davis Northwestern State Jr.

DB Brandon Richard UIW Gr.

DB Tyler Morton Nicholls Jr.

KR Jaylon Spears Nicholls R-So.

PR Darius Lewis SEn Louisiana R-Jr.

SECOND TEAM

OFFENSE

QB — Eli Sawyer, SE Louisiana, R-So. RB — Rodeo Graham, Jr., SE Louisiana, So.; Scooter Adams, Northwestern State, R-Sr. TE/HB — Ivan Drobocky*, SE Louisiana, Jr. WR — Ke’Nard King, Northwestern State, Jr.; Sevonne Rhea, Lamar, So.; CJ Hardy, UIW, Gr. OL — Brockhim Wicks, SE Louisiana, R-Jr.; Cole Leclair, McNeese, So.; Christian Hood, HCU, Sr.; D’Andre Richard, Northwestern State, Jr.; Dylan Dauzart, McNeese, Jr. PK — Riley Callaghan*, SE Louisiana, So. P — Kylan Dupre, Nicholls, So.

DEFENSE

DL — Marcus Brown, UIW, Jr.; Garrett Crawford, SE Louisiana, Sr.; Welland Williams, McNeese, R-So.; Leon Young, Texas A&M-Commerce, Jr. LB — Kylin White, Nicholls, R-So.; Herman Christophe IV, SE Louisiana, Sr.; Anthony Britton, Jr., SE Louisiana, Sr. DB — Max Epps, Texas A&M-Commerce, Jr.; Javon Davis, McNeese, So.; Kristian Pugh, Lamar, So.; Ramond Stevens, Lamar^, Jr.; Tyrone Leggette, SE Louisiana^, Sr.; Daryion Taylor, Texas A&M-Commerce^, Sr. KR — Sean Krystoff-King, Texas A&M-Commerce, So. PR — Dekaylon Taylor, UIW, So.

* Automatic selection; returning all-conference and superlative player

^ Denotes tie in voting