Talking season is here.

Today marks the start of talking season in college football as SEC Media Days kick off in Birmingham, Alabama.

Locally, things will kick off here at Clemson on Tuesday morning as Dabo Swinney hosts his annual media outing. It’s the only time until the College Football Playoff the media gets to talk to Clemson’s seven other on-field coaches. Once fall practice begins, only Swinney, co-offensive coordinators Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott and defensive coordinator Brent Venables represent the coaching staff during the season.

On Wednesday, the focus turns to the ACC, where it will host its annual football media event in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Atlantic Division’s head coaches and select players will speak to the media on Wednesday, while the Coastal Division’s will do the same on Thursday.

Clemson will be represented by left guard John Simpson, safety Tanner Muse and of course, Swinney. The conversation for Clemson football this week should be plenty.

Here are some of the topics to keep an eye at both events involving the Tigers.

At Clemson, the talk will mostly be geared on the Tigers’ defensive front and the tight end position. They have to replace all four starters on the defensive line, which many believe was the best assembled defensive front in the history of college football.

Clemson’s tight end position is even more peculiar. Due to the NCAA upholding its year-long suspension on tight end Braden Galloway over the Ostarine incident, the Tigers return just one player—reserve J.C. Chalk—at the position from last year’s team.

Garrett Williams has not officially left the team yet, but Swinney was almost certain Williams was leaving the team when we last spoke with him back in May. Of course, Milan Richard and Cannon Smith both graduated after last year’s national championship run.

The ACC Football Kickoff will not be headlined with as many star players as its SEC counterparts, but the event should still be interesting considering the league has four new head coaches and it is a month away from launching its own network (the ACC Network) on August 22.

A lot of the conversation in Charlotte will be geared to the ACC Network (ACCN) as the league continues to promote its network as it gets closer to its launch date.

The media will be anxious to speak with North Carolina head coach Mack Brown, who came out of retirement, and his cushy job as a television analyst, in hopes of reviving the program he once led to prominence back in the 1990s.

Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins will also be a guy the media will want to speak to. Collins replaces longtime head coach Paul Johnson, who retired after 11 seasons in Atlanta. Collins will ditch Johnson’s triple-option offense for his up tempo spread attack he used at Temple.

Manny Diaz takes over at Miami after being its defensive coordinator the last couple of years under Mark Richt, who retired from coaching last January. Diaz takes over a program that has talent but is still lacking leadership at the quarterback position.

Some wonder if Diaz is the answer for the Hurricanes inability to stay consistent.

Scott Satterfield takes over at Louisville after the school fired Bobby Petrino after the Cardinals dropped to 2-10 last season. Satterfield, who came to Louisville from App State, might have the hardest task of turning around a program. Petrino left the cupboards empty in the talent department as he and his staff lacked the ability to recruit at a high level and develop players in his last few years there.

The league’s media will also be asking the coaches and players if anyone can catch Clemson in the league. The defending national champions should be the runaway favorite, if not a unanimous selection, to win the ACC Championship for a fifth straight year. The Tigers are 34-2 against ACC competition the last four years, including four wins in the ACC Championship game.

However, there are a few other topics Commissioner John Swofford and the head coaches will have to address as well. Like the issue with players profiting off their name, image and likeness, which currently the NCAA does not allow.

An NCAA committee began studying this issue back in May.

Playoff expansion will also be a topic of conversation, especially with Clemson and Alabama continuing their dominance of the College Football Playoff. Other leagues, in particular the Big Ten, has been asking for a change to the current system, which is supposed to stay in place through the 2026 season.

Clemson has made the CFP in each of the last four years and as won two national championships, while Alabama has been all five years and also has won two national championships. Some would like to see the CFP expand to eight teams, to give more teams and leagues opportunities.