Chicken Bowl Blog, Volume 5 (Lil Wayne vs. John Wayne edition) ...

I’ve been typing and typing and typing all day ... on my bad wing, which is now seriously hurting ... so I need to pack it in, take a pain pill and get some rest (after first ingesting some Mexican food).

The two Chicken Bowl head coaches talked for a good while today, both of them providing a few laughs and a some good insides. In fact, there’s some very interesting stuff from Frank Beamer and Lane Kiffin on the stress of college coaching and Florida coach Urban Meyer’s recent problems. Beamer empathizes with Meyer, while Kiffin (shockingly) does not.

Beamer also elaborated on some comments yesterday about feeling ill just before Tech played at East Carolina this season. The Hokies had lost two in a row before that game, and apparently it took a toll. That’s a little scary, if you ask me.

Here’s hoping Frank – and every coach with a family – keeps paying attention to his health, resting when necessary and seeing a doctor when things continue to feel not quite right. And here’s hoping some of the fans on the fringe of sanity realize that sometimes the over-the-top reactions and outcries contribute to the head (and heart) aches for good, hard-working coaches.

Beamer asks a good question below: How much winning is enough winning? Once you get to the top, will anyone ever be satisfied unless their favorite program wins every game every year?

I’ll step off the soap box now and let Beamer and Kiffin – two very distinct personalities, about which I’ve written for tomorrow’s printed paper – take it away.

One notable before I go: The bowl folks apparently think it will be funny to watch Tech and Tennessee players try to suck down as many Chick-fil-A milk shakes as possible in a contest tomorrow night.

Linebacker Cody Grimm said, “We’ve got (lineman) Richard Graham, so I like our chances.” That’s funny and all, but it might not be so funny during Wednesday morning’s practice, when players are barfing curdled milk all over the field.

Am I crazy, or is this a potentially terrible idea?

Here are the Big Whistles ...

COACH FRANK BEAMER

ON HIS TEAM’S PREPARATION: “It’s been a good week. We’ve practice well. We went down to the Falcons’ facility for two days, but we’re going to practice here (in the Georgia Dome) the rest of the week. I think practicing in a dome helps you when it comes to playing in a dome. Back home, we were inside for just about every practice and down here we’ve been inside. I think that will help us. When we came down here against Alabama, we went in there and just worked out for a few minutes and started to punt the ball and had trouble judging the ball a little bit. That’s when it kind of hit me: you need to work in a dome here. I think that helps this time around.”

ON NEEDING TO WIN: “It’s been a good trip. To make it a great trip, we need to finish up well, play well here on Thursday night.”

ON THE LAST TIME TECH PLAYED TENNESSEE IN THE 1994 GATOR BOWL: “I’m not sure we were on the level of Tennessee. I think this time, I’m hoping, we are more on the level with Tennessee. We respect the Southeastern Conference ... but I’m hopeful that this time we’re more ready to play a Southeastern Conference team and to play a program like Tennessee.”

ON SEC SUPERIORITY: “No one has to convince me of the caliber of play in the Southeastern Conference. My son has coached at three different schools, including Tennessee, in the Southeastern Conference. They’re very tough, competitive, large-fan-base programs. But we’re proud of what we’ve done at Virginia Tech and we understand it’s going to take a great, great effort to beat a Southeastern Conference team, particularly Tennessee. They’re good.”

ON EMPATHIZING WITH FLORIDA COACH URBAN MEYER TAKING A LEAVE OF ABSENCE DUE TO STRESS AND HEALTH ISSUES RELATED TO COACHING AND SAYING HE FELT ILL AFTER LOSING TWO STRAIGHT EARLIER THIS YEAR: “Well, it’s just a tough profession. It changes very quickly. Coming out of the Miami game and then the Boston College game, we were hot (ranked No. 4). Then we got into two games we didn’t play well enough and we played some teams that did play well. So now you’ve got two losses – Georgia Tech and North Carolina – and now we’re going down to East Carolina, and you know how that is. We played them last year (and lost), and they’ve got a lot of players that look like they belong in the Southeastern Conference. So you know you’re going to be in a frenzy down there. We didn’t need to drop three in a row. ... After such disappointment, and our fans are panicking a little bit – some of them are; probably a lot of them are – and rightly so. It was disappointing to everybody. We were the ones that were most disappointed. ... That day (of the ECU game) it was a nervous time. Usually John Ballein (director of football ops) and I walk before a game. We walked, and I didn’t get very far. I needed to go back and lay down for a while. I just didn’t feel very well. That’s the way the profession is: Nerves will get you and everything is big.”

ON NOT BEING SUPRISED, THEN, THAT A GUY UNDER AS MUCH PRESSURE TO WIN BIG AS MEYER WOULD HAVE ISSUES: “I think when you get to the top – and we’ve been through this – you’re up there knocking on the door and it’s how many wins are enough wins? Every game, you’re supposed to win. It’s a lot of pressure in those situations. When you get good, there’s a lot of pressure. When you’re trying to get good, that’s one thing. But when you are good, that’s when every loss is a critical loss. That puts even more pressure on those situations.”

ON HOW HE MANAGES HIS STRESS: “I think staying even-keeled is the deal. If you get real, real high or you get real, real low in this business, you probably won’t last long. You’ve got to deal with what’s real. A lot of times, people deal with what they think should happen. They read you guys (media) and think whatever should happen. But I try to deal with what is real. ... Sometimes you play people or you get in situations where it just doesn’t work out. I’ve always said this: If your kids played hard and they gave it their best effort and it just didn’t work out, you’ve just got to be able to accept whatever takes place. I think having good family support is important. I know it is. And I think having a good staff, where you can rely on them and trust them and know they’re going to be doing what’s best, that gets into the equation, too. If you’re worrying about the guys that are working for you ... you need to be able to trust them. And I do. Having all those things around me certainly helps the situation.”

ON ALL THE MONEY COACHES MAKE THESE DAYS NOT HELPING WITH THE STRESS: “I think the paychecks have probably increased the demands. Everybody wants things quicker. Everybody thinks if they’re paying you that much, you should be able to get it done fast.”

ON HIS SON SHANE, A SOUTH CAROLINA ASSISTANT, HELPED PREPARE HIM FOR THE VOLS: “He told me we better go play well, and that Tennessee is for real and they really did improve. That wasn’t a hot tip, either.”

ON UT COACH LANE KIFFIN HAVING RAPPER LIL WAYNE IN HIS IPOD, SO WHAT’S IN BEAMER’S: “I don’t even have an iPod.”

ON WHAT WOULD BE ON HIS RECORD PLAYER, THEN: “I’m kind of into country music quite a bit. Sugarland. I like Faith Hill. I taped Faith Hill the other night and played it about three times Christmas Day. My daughter was home, so she taped it for me.”

ON TENNESSEE’S SPECIAL TEAMS COACH LEAVING BEFORE THE BOWL AND WHETHER THAT MIGHT BE AN AREA TEACH (AND BEAMER’S VAUNTED SPECIAL TEAMS) CAN EXPLOIT: “They got that field goal blocked (two, actually, against Alabama) but they do a lot of good things on special teams. But I will say this: When you’ve got two teams that are very close – and I think both of us are very tough football teams – the special teams play becomes a critical, critical part of the ballgame. I’ve read where they’re spending extra time on it. To lose a special teams coach ... everything has already been installed. I don’t think losing him at this point in time is as bad as losing him early in the year. So we expect them to play very well on special teams.”

ON THE BATTLE BETWEEN CRIS HILL AND JAYRON HOSLEY TO REPLACE STARTING CORNER STEPHAN VIRGIL: “We’re going to let Hosley and Hill work at it and see who ends up practicing the best all week. Hosley was feeling bad yesterday (Sunday), so he wasn’t able to practice the whole time. But we’ll make the decision on that later on.”

ON WHETHER BOTH HOSLEY AND HILL MIGHT PLAY AGAINST UT: “It depends on how they practice. Cris Hill’s got a lot of ability; He just needs to be a more consistent player. Hosley has got a great future, it’s just that he hasn’t played a lot. So after they practice this week, we’ll see how we feel going into the game.”

ON ONE OF THEM GETTING THEIR FIRST REAL TEST IN A BIG BOWL GAME: “You know, we had a couple guys last year (in the Orange Bowl) go in there and play for the first time. Barquell (Rivers) and Jaymes Brooks, both of them played well. It’s just one of those things, you wait for your opportunity and then you step up to the plate. I hope that’s what these guys will do.”

ON ROLES REVERSING SINCE TECH’S LAST MEETING WITH THE VOLS (TECH NOW BEING FAVORED AND MORE SUCCESSFUL OF LATE) AND WHAT A BIG WIN THIS WOULD BE FOR TENNESSEE: “Well, I think it would be a big win for Virginia Tech. The way I see Tennessee is that they’re a really good Southeastern Conference team. We need to win. You say it’s flipped around, but to absolutely say that I think we need to win.”

ON WHAT HE SEES AS THE KEY TO THURSDAY’S GAME: “I think taking care of the football is going to be critical. I think after you haven’t played in a month – and both of us finished well – who can come out there and keep their rhythm and take care of the ball, that’s the critical part. We’ll get our shots and we need to make some plays, but the overall thing is take care of the football.”

ON HOW THE HOKIES ARE HEALTH-WISE, BEYOND HOSLEY BEING ILL, AND HOW INTENSE TECH’S PRACTICES HAVE BEEN: “I think everybody’s going to be in good shape, health-wise. And I like the way we’ve practiced. You don’t know until you get out there, but I think our players understand this is a serious ballgame, against a quality team, and that in order for us to have a chance to win, we’re going to have to play really well. We’ve practiced that way so far. We’ve been good and the kids have been good around the hotel, taking care of doing things the right way. I think we’ve prepared right so far.”

TENNESSEE COACH LANE KIFFIN

ON WHETHER THE VOLS PLAN TO TEST AND ATTACK THE TWO YOUNG CORNERS WHO WILL BE REPLACING STARTER STEPHAN VIRGIL IN THE BOWL GAME: “Well, I think the scheme they play is not very demanding on the corners. They make it difficult to attack them. They’re not a press-man team, where he’s going to be out in the field all day long in man coverage. They run a very unique defense, a very unique coverage, and they don’t ask those guys to be matched up a lot one-on-one. So I think it’s kind of hard to go after one of their corners. As we look at it, if there was someone else to go out, it wouldn’t be a corner. It’s easier to attack someone else.”

ON BERRY’S NFL POTENTIAL: “I think what Eric has done such a remarkable job of is to do so many different things, and to be able to put that on film. As I talked to these guys about all the time: The film is your resume. When you play in our style of offense and defense, you’re going to be exposed to a lot of different things. You’re going to have to do things that the NFL wants to see when they come to watch your film. Eric has played man-to-man coverage; we’ve blitzed him; he’s played back, he’s played halves and he’s played down. To do all those things and then to play special teams for as many reps as he has, he has created a lot of draft value for himself. When you evaluate safeties ... the majority of safeties can only play one spot; they can only play free or strong because of how they’re set up. He’s very unique, because he can play free, play strong and play nickel corner. So I would think he’d go extremely high – whenever he leaves (grinning).”

ON WHETHER HE IS RECRUITING BERRY, IN A WAY, TO STAY FOR HIS SENIOR YEAR: “No. This may be the only conversations that I don’t recruit. This isn’t about me. This is about Eric and Eric’s family. So I told Eric, from my perspective, he’s done everything that he can do and if he wants to go, this is the time to go. I would never hold someone back. It would be real hard to live with yourself if you tried to convince somebody to stay and then something happened to him injury-wise.”

ON HAVING SO MUCH TIME TO SCHEME FOR A BOWL GAME: “It’s hard to manage a little bit. For myself, it’s difficult because you have so much time, you put in too much stuff sometimes. I’ve had to watch myself on that. We had the initial game plan two weeks ago, then you have the time off where these guys (players) go home for a few days and you’re at the office and coming up with more ideas. We understand all that, but it’s got to be about the players playing fast. It’s a difficult thing sometimes. I’ve probably put in too much stuff over the last two days, including today, so we need to edit some of that down.”

ON TECH D-COORDINATOR BUD FOSTER USING A LITTLE BIT OF TAMPA-2 AND WHETHER IT’S WEIRD TO SEE SOMETHING HIS DAD HELPED CREATE ON AN OPPONENT’S FILM: “You know, we don’t see that much. I think it’s overplayed a little bit, the Tampa-2. I don’t see that much of it in college football. You see it a lot more in the NFL. These guys (VT) do a little bit. It’s really not their base defense. They sprinkle it in. But it’s valuable for me when teams do it, obviously, because I’ve been around it so long. I always like playing teams that I know what they’re doing, that I have a background in. This is not one of them. This is a different defense. The only time we’ve really played this defense was Oregon used to run this defense and the one time we played Tech at SC.”

ON URBAN MEYER’S HEALTH PROBLEMS AND BEAMER TALKING ABOUT HOW STRESSFUL THE JOB CAN BE: “I had the question yesterday about Urban and the stress of this job. I was born into this, so I’ve never known anything different. You just go to work every day. That’s what you do. For me, it’s not very stressful. I knew I was going to be doing this for a long time and planned on it. The people around me know how I am and how I’m going to be, and it’s not going to change.”

ON BAD TIMING, JUST BEFORE PLAYING TECH’S VAUNTED SPECIAL TEAMS, TO LOSE HIS SPECIAL TEAMS COACH: “Them and Florida, those are the two teams that have done the best job on special teams over the years. They put a premium on it. So that was difficult on us and still is. Guys had to step up. (Assistants) Lance Thompson and Ed Orgeron have taken the lead role in that for us. We’ve really had to spend a lot of extra time on that. I feel good about our plan, but it was difficult losing Eddie (Gran) at this time and him not coaching the bowl game really set us back.”

ON HIS OFFENSE BEING ‘USER FRIENDLY’ FOR A NEW QUARTERBACK AND HOW CROMPTON HAS THRIVED IN YEAR 1: “As this offense was developed, it took in a lot of different offenses. It took in some Norv Turner, took in some John Gruden. And we developed this while we were at USC. What we wanted to make was a system where we could recruit the top players in America and bring them in and play them right away. We didn’t want them to sit and wait because they couldn’t learn the system. It really kind of focused on the receivers. We had some guys come in ... Mike Williams came in as a true freshman and shattered every record there was: 81 catches, 1,265 yards and 14 touchdowns. We had to create that system that guys could come in. We’ve seen it happen this year. We’ve seen our young receivers really take off in their first year in the system. What we did is say, ‘OK, as coaches, we’re going to spend all the time to figure out the easiest way to make it for the players.’ I think sometimes you can screw that up as coaches because you make the system for yourself. Because I can understand it, well it doesn’t do me any good if they can’t pick it up. So our system is all based around the players.”

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