Chicken Bowl Blog, Volume 1 (Surviving Snow edition) ...

It’s beginning to look a lot like ... a blizzard.

So I traveled down I-81 to Knoxville early this morning for Tennessee’s bowl media day to take the pulse of Virginia Tech's opponent for the Dec. 31 Chick-fil-A Bowl. I was joined by a few other scribes who cover the Hokies. We were all intrigued by the chance to talk to the Volunteers’ Big Whistle, Lane Kiffin.

That prospect, to those of us who love a great quote, was enough to travel 7 hours round-trip for 1.5 hours of interviews – in the face of an impending snow storm the likes of which Southwest Virginia has not seen in some time.

We thought we could race down to the Land of Orange, grab some riveting material for bowl preview stories and blogs, and hustle back to Blacksburg before the bad stuff hit. We were half right. We got some great stuff from the Vols and their bold leader ... but we didn’t make it back before the bottom fell out.

By the time we hit Bristol at around 4:30 p.m., there were a few inches on the ground and snow flakes the size of golf balls piling up by the minute. After passing a car that lost control and rolled over onto its side on the Interstate ... then watching a slow-moving vehicle slide helplessly down into a steep ditch ... we brave hacks headed for a hotel in the border town divided over allegiances to Tech and Tennessee. Kind of fitting, I suppose.

So here we are, bundled up, watching the white fluff grow deeper and more dangerous, wondering when the heck we’re going to get home. But there’s a movie theater across the street and a Red Lobster next door. Garlic-cheddar biscuits, shrimp and buttered popcorn will thaw me out.

And in the meantime, here’s some good stuff from Kiffin and one of his top offensive linemen to snack on. Several topics are covered, but one notable one is where they both try to compare the coach’s controversial style to that of low-key Hokies head man Frank Beamer.

Enjoy. More later ...

TENNESSEE COACH LANE KIFFIN

ON THE BOWL MATCH-UP WITH VT: “We’re very excited about this match-up. ... I view this as a BCS bowl, from the excitement and energy around the game, where we get to play it, the stadium ... and most importantly who we play, Virginia Tech, ranked 11th in the country. They’ve been to back-to-back BCS bowls and are coming off a BCS win. With a win, this would be their sixth straight 10-win season. Only Texas has done that over the last six years. So this is a big-time match-up for us. We love every part of it. We love going to Atlanta. It’s very critical for us in the state of Georgia recruiting, especially Atlanta. And then to play Virginia Tech on national TV on New Year’s Eve, it’s perfect.”

ON WHETHER THERE’S BEEN ANY FOLLOW-UP FROM THE NCAA ON THE HOSTESS CONTROVERSY: “As far as the one situation with the Hostess, I’ve never been asked anything. We have heard back on the Rubio situation (where recruiting intern Steve Rubio went with Kiffin to his old high school in Florida and reportedly helped recruit, which is a violation) and what I’ve been told is we’re not allowed anymore, I guess, for close to a year to bring interns on the road with us, to travel with us.”

ON SAFETY ERIC BERRY AND HOW NFL-READY THE JUNIOR IS: “I think Eric is extremely ready. One of the best things he does is his preparation throughout the week before the game. That’s very critical. You see a number of players struggle in their first year in the NFL because they’re not used to that. A lot of times in college, you can get by playing on your speed and your ability. When you get to that level, preparation is so important because everyone’s really fast and everyone’s very talented. The difference between being good and great there is the preparation so that you can play extremely fast because you know what’s going on around you. If he chooses to go (early into the NFL), he’ll do a great job. I talked to Eric this morning. We were going to have an announcement today. But after talking to him, we’ve just decided to wait until after the bowl game. He wants to focus on winning this game and playing extremely well, especially since it’s in Atlanta, and he’ll have an announcement for you guys after that.”

ON HIS FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BERRY WHEN HE TOOK THE JOB: “I did know a little bit about Eric (previous to taking the UT job). Eric was in high school and we (USC) flew out here and went to one of his practices trying to recruit him and stayed around the school for a while talking to his coaches. I thought he was a fantastic player, thought he could play on both sides of the ball. What I didn’t know at that time is how competitive he is. He’s such a great competitor and he makes the players around him so much better by the way he helps them. One of the best stories to me is as Janzen (Jackson) was going through some things this year, Eric went and got him right in the middle of that stuff (Jackson was initially involved but later cleared in the armed robbery involving two other Vols) and took him and let him stay at his house so Eric could kind of mentor him and keep him away from stuff that was going on and all the people that were asking questions. We didn’t ask him to do that. He did that on his own. I think that describes who Eric is.”

ON HIS TIME AS AN NFL COACH, AND IF HE WERE STILL IN THAT JOB, WHICH PLAYER FROM VIRGINIA TECH HE WOULD DRAFT IF HE COULD ONLY TAKE ONE: “Boy, that’s a good question. The tailback (Ryan Williams) is only a freshman so he’s not eligible. But if he was, it would be the tailback. Watching him, his mixture of speed and power, is really incredible to see for a freshman. There’s a reason, obviously, he was Freshman of the Year in the conference and I think he had 1,400 yards (more than 1,500 actually) and that doesn’t usually happen for a freshman. So I think I would take him knowing how young he is and how much he can develop.”

ON HIS OWN STAR BACK, MONTARIO HARDESTY, AND WHAT A BIG SEASON HE HAS HAD AFTER MODEST NUMBERS UNTIL NOW: “I think our system lends to guys playing extremely well in their first year. Go back to when we got to Oakland (Raiders) and Justin Fargas ... I don’t think he’d had maybe 500 yards combined in four years in the NFL and he went for over 1,000 yards in his first year. Hardesty, I think the most he had was 380 in a season and now he’s nearing 1,400. I think system, because we don’t do very many runs, guys can get really good at it really quick. Hardesty is an example of that. Instead of running a bunch of runs he has to get good at, we primarily run zone. So he’s very good at that. He’s very decisive with his reads and that’s why he’s done so well – and also the way he’s taken care of the ball. I don’t think he’s had a fumble on a rushing attempt all season long.”

ON HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR ‘WHO WANTS TO BE HERE THE MOST?’ IS IN A BOWL GAME: “There’s a lot to that. In this case both teams are extremely excited ... I don’t know what they are. We are extremely excited to be in this game. This is a huge game for us to be in. In our first year, to be in a big-time bowl like this against a BCS opponent that’s been to back-to-back Orange Bowls and 17 straight bowls, we’re very excited about it. I think that can play into it, but I don’t think in this case it matters, because I think both teams are very excited.”

ON ONE OF HIS PLAYERS SAYING BEAMER IS OLD SCHOOL AND KIFFIN IS NEW SCHOOL, AND HOW HE’D COMPARE HIS OWN STYLE TO BEAMER’S: “Well, first I’d say I think he’s one of the top five coaches in all of college football. What he’s been able to do – 17 straight bowl games, possibly six straight 10-win seasons – to do that, and to do it there, is just unbelievable. We have great respect for what he’s done. I’ve said it before: Anybody can do something once in a while, but if you can do it continually, year after year like he has ... is unbelievable. He’s done a great job and we have great respect for him. As far as old school and new school, I don’t know, but whatever he’s doing, we’d love to do because it’s obviously working.”

ON BEAMER COMING ALONG AT A DIFFERENT TIME, WHEN HE COULD WIN JUST TWO GAMES IN HIS SIXTH SEASON AT TECH AND KEEP HIS JOB ... BUT KIFFIN COMING IN AT A TIME WHEN WINNING NOW IS WHAT MATTERS AND NEEDING TO MAKE A BIG SPLASH QUICKLY AND WHAT ROLE THAT HAS PLAYED IN KIFFIN’S BEHAVIORS AND CHOICES: “I’ve said it before: I think each job, you have a specific plan for. This job, I felt that we had to get recognition right away. We had to get Tennessee out there. Because, as you said, it’s a different time. You can’t have a long-term plan and take your time and say, ‘Oh, well, we didn’t sign very many players our first year because we didn’t have enough time.’ We don’t believe in excuses like that. So part of the plan was to get exposure, get ourselves out there, so we were able to go sign a top-10 class in our first year. We were able to sign the No. 1 player in the country. I don’t believe that could’ve happened without doing the stuff that we did.”

ON HOW MANY, THEN, OF HIS CONTROVERSIAL MOVES IN YEAR 1 HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY CALCULATED: “(Grinning) That’s kind of the question everybody wants to know. I can’t give that to you. I’m going to put that in a book some day. I’ve said it before, I don’t love everything that we’ve had to do or that I’ve said, but I think that needed to be done, in my opinion, to do what we needed to do – and do it fast and put us on the map right away. In my opinion, if you’ve watched us, you’ve seen that slow down some because now we have something to talk about. Now we have a quarterback that had a great year to talk about. Now we have the 17th-ranked defense in the country. We have a tailback that went for 1,300 yards. We’ve showed individual improvement with older players to help their draft status. Dan Williams (DT), Chris Scott (LT), Hardesty, Crompton. We’ve shown that now. Now we can talk about those things. When I we got here, I wasn’t going to sit up here and talk about what we did at USC or what Monte did at Tampa forever. That didn’t matter very much. So we directed it a different way. But now we don’t really need to say the things we said before because now we can focus on showing people: This was our plan; This is what happened; This is why you should come now.”

ON GETTING SOME MAJOR RECRUITS RIGHT AWAY, INCLUDING RB BRYCE BROWN (460 YARDS) AND FS JANZEN JACKSON (35 TACKLES, 3 BREAK-UPS, 1 FORCED FUMBLE) WHO CONTRIBUTED THIS SEASON AND WHETHER TENNESSEE WINS SEVEN GAMES WITHOUT THEM: “I don’t know. I doubt it. But you never know who’s going to step up. I think those guys have played a big role this year. Janzen has played a huge role when he’s been out there, not just by the numbers but by the presence that he brings. When Janzen Jackson is in our huddle, we are a completely different defense. I can feel it in practice and I obviously feel it during games. When you have a guy like that, that knocks people out, that hits people the way he does, it builds confidence in the whole huddle. We’ve seen when we’ve taken guys out in the second half and Janzen’s not in and Eric Berry’s not in, we’ve seen our confidence go down.”

ON JACKSON BEING SUSPENDED FOR A SHORT STINT BECAUSE OF HIS INVOLVEMENT IN THE ALLEGED ROBBERY (CHARGES AGAINST HIM WERE LATER DROPPED): “The first week he was suspended and wasn’t playing, we put him down on the (scout) team. He was with a bunch of walk-ons and some redshirts. He went down there and played just as hard on (scout) team for us as he plays during games. That shows you how much he loves football. He was all over the place. He was intercepting Crompton. He was knocking out Hardesty. He was giving us a great look. That’s very unusual. Most kids would’ve gone to kind of a pouting mode. ... That (he didn’t do that) describes who he is. He loves playing football.”

ON JACKSON GROWING UP AND AVOIDING THE WRONG PEOPLE: “We’re in a continual process with all of our young kids to get them to mature to the level we need them to be. Janzen is one of them. I do see him improving, but he still has a ways to go.”

ON QB JONATHAN CROMPTON AND HIS RESURGENT SEASON: “From the day we got here, he’s been here with notebooks. He’s spent countless hours of preparation. He had great spring practices, great fall camp practices. I think the biggest thing that happened to him is that we got healthy. We got healthy around him – and not just getting healthy for a game. It’s about having a few weeks with your guys. In spring, he was playing extremely well for us and I got up here and said I thought he was going to have a great year and be one of the best quarterbacks in the league, because I saw what he was doing. Then all the sudden, he has injuries to the receivers. Now all the sudden the timing’s off and we’re throwing a bunch of freshmen in there with him. We’re moving people from different spots and then we’re forcing guys back (early from injury). A lot of that goes back to my fault – just trying to get the guys back sooner, playing Gerald Jones versus UCLA when he wasn’t ready. Jonathan had the terrible game against UCLA. Then I got better. I got better around him and called a better game for him because I got to see what happened when he made mistakes. I got to see what he does. You can go through practice, but until you’re with a guy in a game as a play-caller, you don’t necessarily know how to put him in the best position all the time.”

ON WHETHER HIS TEAM MIGHT HAVE ANY ACADEMIC CASUALTIES FOR THE BOWL AFTER FINAL EXAMS: “I’m extremely excited about our team. ... The information I have right now is every single player that played for us this season is eligible going into this bowl game. That may not seem like a big deal to some people that don’t follow it, but to those of you who’ve been around here, that’s not been the case (in the past). So I’m really excited about what our academic people have done and what our players have done to put us in that situation.”

TENNESSEE GUARD JACQUES McCLENDON

ON HIS KNOWLEDGE OF VIRGINIA TECH: “Obviously, they’re a very good special-teams team and Frank Beamer is one of the best coaches in the nation, so they’re a very stout program. We’re going to have to come out ready to play.”

ON THE HOKIES’ DEFENSE: “Their defense is very athletic, especially up in the front. We’ve been watching film on them for the past week and a half and they definitely create some problems. So we’re going to have to make sure we’re on top of everything so we can handle those problems.”

ON WHETHER TECH’S DEFENSE REMINDS THEM OF AN SEC DEFENSE THEY’VE SEEN: “I think they remind us a lot of an SEC team. Most people try to say the SEC is the best conference; other conferences aren’t as talented. This Virginia Tech team can play with anybody in the SEC and is definitely one of the best teams in the country. It’s definitely no drop-off from playing an SEC team to this team. We’ve got our hands full for sure.”

ON WHAT HE KNOWS ABOUT BEAMER: “I think he’s one of the most recognizable coaches in the nation, especially after what he did with the tragedy they had at Virginia Tech and how he handled that, made sure that program stayed afloat. He’s been doing it a long time, so he’s definitely one of the most respected coaches in the game. I don’t think there’s anyone on our team that’s not familiar with him.”

ON HOW HE’D COMPARE/CONTRAST BEAMER AND LANE KIFFIN’S PERSONALITIES: “Uh ... uh ... I’m going to have to plead the fifth on that one.”

ON DESCRIBING, THEN, HIS OWN COACH’S PERSONALITY: “I can do that. I think Coach Beamer is more of an old-school type of coach: Come in, let’s go to work. Coach Kiffin, you know, is new-school. He’s a younger guy, obviously. He’s closer to our age than to Coach Beamer’s, so he knows what it takes to motivate kids our age. And he’s doing it different ways, obviously. Those different ways are working and he’s going to be very successful here. We’ve had a little bit of success this year. There’s a lot more to come in the future. Coach Beamer, obviously, his style has worked for a long time, too. His old-school style. He’s been the head coach at Virginia Tech for as long as I’ve been alive – or as long as I can remember. They have two different styles, but they both are working. They’re definitely two different coaches, but not everybody can do the same thing to win.”

ON WHAT KIFFIN DOES DIFFERENTLY: “Warming up in practice, we’ve got rap music blaring. I don’t know if there’s about anywhere in the country you can go see that. It’s just to make sure everybody’s in tune. It gets your mind off everything. You’re sitting there bobbing your head, listening to the music. It’s just a little thing, but for those eight minutes, you’re not thinking about anything but what you’ve got to do. It just kind of takes your mind off if you had a bad day or you had a great day. It’s football time. It’s kind of like a transition from your regular day to practice. But there’s probably not a lot of places in the country with that.”

ON WHO PICKS THE MUSIC: “I think it’s our video guy, Joe. I think it’s his iPod rolling. It’s usually some good stuff. I have to give him props on that. We listen to Lil’ Wayne. Got a little Journey on there – old school, too. We’ve got it all, Bob Marley. Just depends on what day it is.”

ON THE INCLUSION OF JOURNEY: “Oh, yeah, old school. Gotta stay true. Any time you here that ‘Small Town Girl,’ that’s good stuff.”

ON WHETHER HE HAS WATCHED TECH ON TV MUCH: “I’ve watched them a couple times. I definitely watched that first game when they played Alabama. They gave Alabama a great fight. I’m definitely familiar with the team.”

ON RB MONTARIO HARDESTY’S DESIRE TO HAVE A BIG SENIOR SEASON: “I’ve been with Montario since he’s been here and one thing with Montario is he’s always been a hard worker. He was named team captain last year as a junior, so obviously he was respected with our whole team already. And last year there was a game, the Wyoming game, where he physically couldn’t take carries, but he came out and played special teams just to be there for the team. Montario’s always been a hard worker. He had some bad luck early on in his career, but his hard work is finally paying off. He came into this season knowing he had something to prove – and I don’t think there’s any doubters anymore.”

ON HAVING A CHANCE TO BREAK UT’S SINGLE-SEASON RUSHING RECORD (WHICH IS HELD BY, TRAVIS STEPHENS, WHO I TUTORED IN BIOLOGY IN HIGH SCHOOL): “He’s something like 158 yards away from the record and we’d love for him to get it because he’s been the backbone of this team. Any time we needed a first down, needed a tough two or three yards, we depended on Montario Hardesty. For him to be able to break that would be the best compliment to this offense and to this team and to himself – how he has persevered through his adversity.”

ON WHAT HARDESTY WENT THROUGH, PLAYING HURT, IN THAT WYOMING GAME LAST YEAR: “He barely could warm up and he still came out there and played for us and showed that it’s not about him; it’s about the team. That’s obviously why he was voted a team captain when he wasn’t even a starter. He’s a team-first type of guy. He lays it on the line. He takes those 38 carries, takes that beating, takes it for the team. He knows its more than just that No. 2 that he wears on his chest.”

ON WHETHER HARDESTY’S RUNNING STYLE HAS CHANGED AS HE MATURED: “Montario has always been a dynamic back, but I think we changed offensive philosophies this year when we went to this outside zone-read system. For him, he had to go through his reads and progressions a lot differently. So I’m sure he changed a little bit, but for the most part he’s always been a one-cut, foot-in-the-ground type of back that’s going to run right at you but is still a home run threat. I’d say he’s changed a little bit, but I’d also say this system really fits him well.”

ON MENTIONING THE TECH TRAGEDY ON APRIL 16, 2007, AND WHAT HE REMEMBERS ABOUT THAT: “I remember hearing about it in class and just how scared everybody was. For their team to be able to still be on top, still be a top program in the nation after something like that, with no drop-off, just shows the type of character and players they have in their program. That’s just a compliment to what they do up there. They are class-act people, great coaches and great players, and they come to work.”

ON HEAVY ATTRITION ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE HEADING INTO THIS SEASON AND HAVING TO PLAY SOME WALK-ONS AND A CONVERTED TIGHT END, AND WHETHER HE WAS WORRIED: “No concerns at all. Coming into the season, you know, I’ve been here the whole time with the Sullins (Cody and Cory, the No. 1 and No. 2 centers), the two walk-ons, and I don’t think there’s anybody that’s had to earn respect like they have. And they’ve had it since Day 1. Since I’ve been here, they taught me everything I knew. I’d never played offensive line before. I didn’t know any plays, didn’t know any blocks, and they’re the people I went two when I had problems. They’re very smart, obviously, and they’re hard workers. They come to work and they put their all on the line for Tennessee. They’ve been doing that since they’ve been here. I’m glad they’re finally getting the respect and earning the playing time they’ve deserved here for a long time. And I can’t say enough about Aaron Douglas (freshman and starting RT). Playing beside him this year has really humbled me. He’s only been playing the position six months, never played offensive line in his life, and he’s an All-American. He comes to work every day. Obviously it’s in his bloodlines – he’s got great bloodlines – but he’s had to put in the work. I remember back in the spring, he was frustrated. He’d come to me like, ‘Jacques, man, I don’t know about this move.’ I just told him, ‘You don’t understand.’ We saw the potential in him. So it was just great to see him in that Auburn game and play against probably an All-American, their defensive end ... and go blow-for-blow with him without hesitation. To see Aaron Douglas and see him mature like he has this year, the sky is the limit for him. He’s going to be one of the best linemen in the SEC before it’s all said and done.”

ON KIFFIN CALLING ALL THE NCAA INVESTIGATIONS A COMPLIMENT, BECAUSE IF OTHER TEAMS ARE TURNING THE VOLS IN, IT MEANS UT IS HAVING SUCCESS AND OTHER PEOPLE WANT TO STOP IT: “I’ve got to go with Coach Kiffin: There’s no such thing as bad publicity. When your name is out there and you’re always in the media, you can always be out there and market your school. Now obviously you’ve got to go about it the right way; You can’t be doing bad things. But I don’t think there’s nothing going wrong here. You see there’s an investigation and there’s nothing happening here. We’re just happy-go-lucky, recruiting people. We’re out here trying to get players.”

ON WHETHER ALL THESE CONTROVERSIES AND RULES ISSUES HAVE BEEN A DISTRACTION TO THE TEAM: “It’s not a distraction to us. We come out here and practice. We watch film. There’s always going to be stuff that happens and as a player and a team, you’ve got to be able to handle that. I think we’ve done a great job of handling that.”

ON LOSING THE OLE MISS GAME (AND PLAYING VERY POORLY), HOWEVER, RIGHT AFTER THE ARREST OF THREE PLAYERS FOR ROBBERY: “I don’t think that was a distraction as much as it was a depth-chart issue. We’ve had a lot of injuries. Once you get so far down your depth chart, once you lose so many starters, it’s hard to be able to deal with that. We didn’t have much time to game-plan without (the three involved players). It wasn’t a distraction. We were ready to play. Just at the end of the day, we’d have liked to have had a couple more bodies out there.”

ON QB JONATHAN CROMPTON’S IMPROVEMENT OVER LAST SEASON AND THE REASON FOR THAT: “I think the coaches have done a great job of focusing on Jonathan’s strengths. Jonathan’s a big-time player and you’ve got to make sure you put Jonathan in the right position to make those big-time plays. This coaching staff has done a great job of making sure Jonathan is in the winningest opportunities, and he’s done a great job of leading this offense. I can’t say enough about how many times in the huddle he’s made sure we know we can depend on him.”

ON WHETHER CROMPTON’S PRESENCE IN THE HUDDLE HAS CHANGED: “I just think when a coach backs you like they have and have shown him he’s been the man since Day 1, that has to do something to your aura, to your morale. He has taken it and run with it. He has to have one of the most-productive seasons for a quarterback in the nation. I’m just proud to block for him and I’m proud that we’re an offense that’s able to have the passing and run production that we do.”

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