With the dust settled on the second-annual Gulf Coast Media Day, football fans learned plenty about their favorite teams as the 2023 season approaches.

While actual football was discussed and will be expanded upon in GCM's Fall Sports Preview Magazine, which publishes Aug. 25, some of the most memorable takeaways came from the non-football questions. Questions such as how football coaches and players put on their socks and shoes, what kind of ketchup strategy they have with fries and who is going to win the Iron Bowl.

Find Gulf Coast Media on Facebook for the full versions of each interview and get yourself prepared for the upcoming football season.

What is your team bringing to the barbecue?

Maybe the most thought-provoking question of the day surrounded a hypothetical barbecue that invited all the Media Day participants. This is also where arguably the best answer of the day came from when Robertsdale head coach Kyle Stanford said whatever his wife Rebecca says they’re taking.

“If I tell my wife we’re going to a barbecue, whatever she makes, that’s what we’re going to take, and I’m OK with it,” Stanford said. “It’s honest. I don’t know whatever everyone else has told you, but whatever Rebecca says we’re taking, that’s what we’re going to take.”

The Media Day barbecue spread included a wide range of delicacies from baked beans to cornbread to banana pudding to brisket to bacon mac and cheese to chicken and dumplings to ribs to mashed potatoes to squirrel to conecuh sausage with plenty more in between.

Other notable specialties included stuffed jalapeño poppers from Nolan Phillips’ father and deviled eggs made by Elberta head coach Nathan McDaniel.

Don’t worry, plates and napkins were handled by the Elberta Warriors, and both Snook Christian and Gulf Shores had the sweet tea and drinks locked down.

"Sock-sock, shoe-shoe, or sock-shoe, sock-shoe?"

In one of the more polarizing questions, most everybody was in consensus that both socks go on before both shoes go on. However, it was not unanimous.

Out of the 38 coaches and players asked, only three proclaimed they’ll put one sock on then one shoe before putting a sock on the other foot. While they won’t be outright named, go watch the interviews with Elberta, Bayshore Christian and Spanish Fort to find the culprits.

Do you dip your fries in ketchup or pour ketchup onto your fries?

In another nearly unanimous decision, most everybody was content to keep their hands clean while eating french fries with ketchup. Still, some chose to opt for the pouring method that gets ketchup directly onto the fries.

Representatives from Baldwin County, Orange Beach and Foley were among the only four to confess to pouring ketchup on their fries as opposed to the 29 respondents who said they’re dippers.

Brownies: edge cut or center piece?

The dessert table hosted a much more hotly contested battle when discussing what part of brownies is more desirable, the edge or the center.

Teammates’ answers were met with nods of approval while those who disagreed were adamant the other was wrong.

At the end of the day, the edge pieces won 21-14, but Foley head coach Deric Scott said his sister-in-law’s shop in Mobile, Saddity Sweets, would end the conversation altogether.

“I’m telling you, she’s got the best brownies in the world,” he said.

Who wins the Iron Bowl?

The biggest college football rivalry in the state was a similarly heated battle where many respondents needed less than two seconds to announce what side of the line they resided on.

Some players and coaches had to mull it over and weigh their options before giving an answer, although coaches from Orange Beach and Elberta chose to abstain from voting since so many of their former players have been on either side of the Iron Bowl.

All four Foley Lions also did not pick a side but instead hoped for a tie and for both teams to have fun. Alabama commit Perry Thompson was the first to answer (to which he responded with a 23-23 tie) before his teammates and head coach agreed with him.

Once the votes were tallied, Alabama held a 16-11 edge over Auburn where Bayshore Christian head coach Phil Lazenby gave possibly the most relatable answer: “It’s hard to bet against Coach Saban.”

Follow Gulf Coast Media on social media for more highlights from the second annual Gulf Coast Media Day and stay tuned for more coverage from the sports fields around Baldwin County.