Vols Make the Grades

It's safe to say that no national media outlets will be reporting anything but bad news for the Vols.  Therefore, I am both happy and compelled to post that there are no acamdemic casualties for the Vols football team heading into the Chick-Fil-A Bowl against Virginia Tech.  As usual around this time of year, both coaches and fans were scared that a few of UT's key players wouldn't make the grades to be eligible to play in their New Year's Eve bowl. 

Such casualties can really effect the outcome of a bowl game and the perception of the season.  For example, in 2006 the Vols had to sit 6 key players and ended up losing a close game to a Penn State team that they should've beaten.

However, there was some other news that came out today that is either fortunate or unfortunate depending how you look at it.  Junior DB Brent Vinson is no longer with the team.  Coach Lane Kiffin had stated during the season that  roughly 5% of the players weren't buying into the team's goals or philosophy.  Vinson appears to be the latest member of this group, as well as falling into the group of stud signees who never lived up to their hype on Rocky Top.  Vinson was rated a 5 star prospect by Rivals.com out of high school.

Kiffin addresses Memphis QB club as confident as ever

When Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin addressed the Memphis QB Club on Monday night, he didn't act like someone who is afraid of the outcome of a potential NCAA investigation.  As usual, Kiffin charmed the crowd and sported his normal bravado to Memphis Vols fans. 

Thanks to "Mike Hamiliton" on Volsbitch.com for providing a transcript of the nights high-notes.

The night started with some guy from South Carolina ripping Lane for all the bad stuff in the media from the 2 reprimands, the alleged pumping gas comments towards Alshon Jeffrey, the Pilot gas station attempted robbery and the use of recruiting hostesses. 

Lane gets up and first thing he says "It was actually 7 violations, not six, don't short me."  Not exact quote, but something along those lines. 

He talked about Dan Willimas was too fat and slow when he got there and how he is now going to be a 1st round draft pick.  Talked about a lot of senior leaders leaving, even Eric Berry.  As for next year's QB he said that there were 4 guys, two currentely there and two coming in at midterm to compete.  He talked about developing Crompton and how you can't listen to what the public wants you to do.

Former Mississippi State head football coach Jakie Sherril was there and he said the best coaches get the most reprimands.  Lane said he was just trying to chase his record.

Lane didn't allow the South Carolina fan to ask anymore questions because he had roasted him.  But said the next time we're up by 2 touchdowns in the 4th quarter against South Carolina that we were going to keep going-deep thanks to you. 

He said when he took the job and was watching film on Florida that the players looked scared.  So he said he had to do something to get their backs and started taking shots at Urban, etc.  That way the team wouldn't go to the swamp just to play them close, but to actually go in and win.

 Right now it looks like the weak spot on next year's team will be the offensive line, but that he's not too worried because he saw how well the coaches developed the line this year.  This year, UT led the conference in sacks allowed with 12.

He said to expect anywhere between 10-12 midterm enrollees and from the sound of it there may be some surprises. Kiffin also said that someone was flying into Memphis to interview for the vacant Running Backs coach position while he was in town.

NCAA's attention also on UT's use of recruiting intern

The Southeastern Conference is examining a new issue involving Tennessee's football recruiting, Mike Hamilton, the university's athletic director, said Friday.

Hamilton saidin a telephone interview that the SEC was looking into the actions of a Tennessee recruiting intern, Steve Rubio, who flew to South Florida with Coach Lane Kiffin recently and visited the athletic powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale.

Under N.C.A.A. rules, Rubio, who graduated from Aquinas and volunteered there, is not allowed to recruit off the Tennessee campus.  Hamilton said the concern was whether Rubio did recuiting work and contacted players while hew was at the high school. 

New York Times Full Article

Something Stinks In Pahokee

New York Times sports reporter Pete Thamel "broke" the story of the NCAA's investigation into Tennessee's football recruiting practices.  After initial investigation into his story, there seems to be a stink arising from little Pahokee, Fla., which drifts over to Gainesville and all the way north to a couple of offices in midtown Manhattan.

The Players-

• Pete Thamel- College sports reporter for the New York Times
• Connor Ennis- Sports department staff editor, New York Times
• Chirs Dunkley- Pahokee football prospect being recruited by Tennessee and Florida
• Ariel Alejo- Pahokee principal, Florida Alum
• Urban Meyer- Head coach, University of Florida

Lets start with a flashback to 1998.  In the first game of Tennessee's national championship run, the Vols narrowly defeated the Donovan McNabb led Syracuse Orangemen.  A Tennessee  loss looked eminent until a fourth down pass interference call allowed the Vols to move within range for a last second field goal for the win.  The pass interference call led to a fervent outcry of SEC referee bias by the Syracuse area media.  Connor Enis and Pete Thamel were both Syracuse students and writing for the Syracuse Post Standard and the Daily Orange at the time.  Getting Interesting?

Thamel was at the forefront of reports on the recruitment of Bryce Brown, the heralded running back who eventually committed to Tennessee and was seen as a major coup for young head coach Lane Kiffin.  It was a surprise when Brown was briefly declared ineligible by the NCAA roughly two weeks before the season began so they could investigate some reports they had gotten.  Brown was eventually cleared to play.  Pete Thamel has also written so many gushing stories about the Florida Gators and Tim Tebow that it led one Gators blogger to refer to him as the "program's most talented chronicler."  After Thamel's prediction of a Gator blowout over Tennessee in this year's contest didn't come to fruition, he met with Meyer in his campus office the following morning.  Here is the resulting article which blamed the lack of a blowout on the Flu and "Tennessee's apparent lack of interest in actually winning the game."  One thing is clear..Pete Thamel and Urban Meyer have a relationship. 

13PSI:

Pearl weighs in on Kiffin

Bruce Pearl has never been a man lost for words or one who blended in with the crowd. But even he can't compare to new UT football coach Lane Kiffin. But Pearl see's what CLK is doing and compared it to when he entered the league.

"My goal was to be the least popular coach in the SEC in a year," Pearl said. "He managed to do it in a week. "

"I know one of the biggest problems when I took over was the players didn't believe. What I'm saying is, your coach better believe. He's got something different ... I get him. I get him in the sense that, look at how they're recruiting. You have to do that with a certain confidence and a certain swagger. He's probably said some things that other people were probably afraid to say. I truly believe he's misunderstood. "

"There's nothing to dislike about him."

Coach Kiffin "was not hired to please fans of other schools"

Here is a great article from The Sporting News in which Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban were askedr about trash talking and the media attention that goes along with it. Not surprisingly the Tide's and Vols' top guys saw the issued differently.

Here is what Coach Saban had to say:

"I try to stay out of the spotlight. I don't try to sensationalize anybody. I'm not trying to entertain. I'm trying to give information and give access to me and tell about our program. I want to represent our organization in the first-class way and be the kind of role model and leader than other people can emulate.

"The way I look at it is, if you don't want somebody to know something, don't say it. If you don't want them to see you do something, don't do it.

"None of this (coaches' jaw-jacking) do I know a lot about because I don't pay much attention to it. What somebody else does, I don't have a lot of control over."

And here's what Kiffin had to say:

"All this stuff about media attention, well, look at the result so far. Top 10 recruiting class, #1 player in the country, first time it has ever happened at Tennessee. I don't think it's very hard to figure out, that if the other stuff didn't happen, our recruiting success doesn't happen.

"You don't go 5-7, you don't come in and not have your staff signed until one month before signing day and have the success we have recruiting without that national attention.

"I don't love the way that I've had to do everything. But I was not hired to please fans of other schools. I was hired for three people: the people of Tennessee, our current players and recruits."

[much more here]

Kiffin sends Tweet, reports secondary violation

Tennessee plans to self-report another NCAA secondary violation after a high school recruit was mentioned by name Tuesday on Lane Kiffin's Twitter page.

Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton said it wasn't actually Kiffin who penned the post in question but an employee in the football office who was updating Kiffin's Twitter page for him. The post was up for about an hour during the afternoon before being removed by Tennessee officials. It read: "It's a beautiful day in Knoxville, Tennessee today. I was so exited to hear that J.C. Copeland committed to play for the Vols today!"

NCAA rules prohibit coaches and athletic department employees from commenting about unsigned prospects or publicizing them in any way.

Copeland, a 6-foot-1, 245-pound defensive end from LaGrange, Ga., is an ESPNU 150 Watch List member. He chose Tennessee over Auburn, Ole Miss, Maryland, UAB, Central Florida, East Carolina and Southern Miss.

"It was one of Lane's personal assistants, and it was his first day on the job," Hamilton explained. "He posted the message on Lane's Twitter account without asking compliance. It was an inadvertent error, but it's still a violation and one of those things where you've got to know what the deal is. We'll report it." [more at ESPN.com]