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 Lane Kiffin leads the Volunteers through the 'T' before the start of his first-ever game as head coach in Knoxville. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge] |
Tennessee had quite the audience for their season-opening 63-7 shellacking of Western Kentucky on Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
Offseason comments by new head coach Lane Kiffin and a staff plucked from various levels of football had both fans of the Volunteers and curious onlookers providing all the opportunity they could ever ask for to leave a first impression.
Listening to player after player in the postgame press conference, it was more than evident that this team was prepared for anything and everything Western Kentucky could throw at them.
"Coach Kiffin came in the first day and said, 'No one is going to out-prepare us, we're never going to not be ready,'" Vol linebacker/captain Nick Reveiz said. "That was true. We were so prepared. We'd seen those looks a million times in practice, and I really feel like our defense played well and adjusted well."
The UT defense allowed a grand total of 83 yards and came up with three takeaways.
Was that showing just luck? Hardly, at least not by Webster's version. But, the Vols definitely took advantage of the opportunity afforded them by SEC TV and the preparation was relentless.
"Our coaches put in numerous hours in the office getting the game plan ready. All we had to do was buy in and do what they told us," UT safety Eric Berry said.
 Tennessee tight end Luke Stocker comes down with a 6-yard touchdown pass in traffic despite taking a lick from Western Kentucky linebacker Thomas Majors. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge] |
"Our mindset was very good," said Thompson, who had three tackles for a loss, a sack, forced a fumble and recovered a fumble. "We were very mentally prepared. We went through a ton of walkthroughs, a ton of runthroughs, so we could execute and play very fast."
The attention to detail in all facets is quickly becoming commonplace yet again with this program, and it doesn't stop on defense.
The Orange and White racked up 657 yards of offense. For those keeping score at home, that's more yardage than the output from the Alabama, Auburn and Georgia games in 2008 combined.
"We strive for 550 (yards). So, we obviously achieved that goal," said quarterback Jonathan Crompton, who had a career day by connecting on 21 of 28 passes for 233 yards and five touchdowns.
"We're not satisfied at all because we know we can do better."
Kiffin didn't exit the locker room to address the media with a glow or a smirk. He was business as usual. In fact, the first words out of his mouth referenced the team's sluggish first-quarter start. When asked to comment about the offense's production, it didn't turn into a "rah-rah" session with the 34-year-old coach patting himself on the back.
"It's one game. It's one game and this is the way we expect to play," he said. "We have high expectations here. That does not surprise me the way these numbers are. That's the way it should be."
Much-heralded freshman tailback Bryce Brown gained 104 rushing yards on only 11 attempts and bowled over two defenders for the game's first score.
 Freshman tailback Bryce Brown finds room to roam for the Vols. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge] |
Kiffin echoed Gran's sentiments: "He was not finishing in the style that we play with here. So, that was disappointing, but he'll learn from that."
However, Kiffin did say Brown "had a great hit on the tip-ball interception" in the first quarter.
Scalding a prized recruit for letting up with his team leading by four scores? Welcome to the Lane Kiffin Era at Rocky Top.
These coaches are relentless, but the team appears to be passing around the orange Kool-Aid. Even life on the sidelines is different.
"One word is intense," Reveiz said. "As soon as you get to the sideline, there's no watching the JumboTron and seeing what the offense is doing. You sit down. You're going to get the adjustments.
"You have to adjust every single play, every single drive when you come off the field. You're not going to quit adjusting till the end of the game."
Danny Parker is sports editor of the Times-Gazette. He can be reached at dparker@t-g.com.
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please 
I am glad to see Danny has the Shelbyville, I mean Knoxville Times Gazette covered. Why do we always see a story about UT or Vandy or the Titans in the Shelbyville paper? Not just a story written by the AP or a wire story, but we have to send a reporter there to cover it. On the other hand, these reporters have been told to cut back on both middle school and youth sports coverage for cost cutting. I see a problem here. If I am going to pick up a LOCAL paper, I want to see LOCAL stories. Not a regurgatation of the same thing i find on ESPN or the Tennessean.
No wonder their sales have slipped. No one wants to see all that regional stuff....Go back to doing LOCAL stuff or you will find yourself in the same boat with all the other sinking papers. The local stories kept the T-G alive for a long time. Now when you stop covering them you wonder why you lack readers...duh! I am going to buy a paper if you put Little Johnny in it rather than UT or whatever else you put in there.
Don't get me wrong. I applaud Danny, Gary, and Jimmy on their coverage of High Schools like Cascade, Shelbyville, and Community. But that is it. Just the high schools are covered unless they just happen to show up at a home game every once in a while. Be lucky if you get a paragraph in the paper.
A friend of mine went to a youth football game Saturday but saw no sign of the paper...where was he??? Oh, that's right....in Knoxville covering an already overcovered UT football program.
Sorry, I am on my soapbox. It is just a problem that I have with local papers thinking they are ESPN and cutting out local stuff. Pick up a paper sometime and count not just in sports, but even in news, how much local news there really is in your LOCAL paper.
I think it can be covered, but very mildly and it should never take precidence over local stuff. Period. I'm guessing personal preferences, like being a fan, may be a determining factor there. In other words, the desire to go and be up close and personal with their favorite college players and teams trumps some of the local sports in their mind. Just a thought and I don't know what their policies are and what they are thinking.
The Times-Gazette always has and always will have some coverage of college and pro sports for our readers to enjoy. Thank you for your concern and thank you for reading our newspaper. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend.
Take a look at the T-G sports site. There are 25 articles listed. 24-of-25 of the postings are about Bedford County teams.
There are three of us. We cover four high schools, four middle schools, racing, various youth baseball, soccer, and softball activities and that includes youth football played at three different locations on any given Saturday.
It is disengenious at best to suggest that your youth football games were not covered because one of our guys was covering college football. There are at least two leagues that simply do not provide us schedules or send game results as we have requested on numerous occasions. You may want to get with your league and volunteer to be the liason to ensure the results are turned in. They will be published shortly thereafter.
You are correct about one thing though, we are more than just sportswriters, we are fans as well.
We care about our community and about our athletes-it is why we do what we do 60-70 hours a week.
We are the first to admit that covering the Vols, Blue Raiders, Vanderbilt and the Titans is indeed a priviledge or a perk if you will.
It is also a welcome respite from the daily grind. We never, I repeat never, place coverage of college or pro sports as priority over Bedford County events.
As you can imagine, it is simply not possible to please all the people all of the time no matter how hard we try. I don't mean to sound haughty, but sometimes the people we have to please is ourselves.......
I generally try to avoid responding to issues concerning sports, but as a wife to one of the three a fore mentioned sports writers, I feel the need to interject in this instance.
My husband, Jimmy Jones, has been writing for the T-G for approximately four years now, that's in addition to his position as the Complex Safety Manager at Tyson Foods--a full-time job that requires him to be on call 24/7--and he also freelances for College Baseball Insider during the season.
In a typical work week Jimmy can expect to put in a minimum of 80 hours, and the other 80 or so hours are spent sleeping. Over the years we've learned that if we want to spend time together as a family, our three girls--ages 3, 9 and 14--and myself must accompany Jimmy to his games. Even then we aren't truly together, since most of his time is spent on the sidelines and we are seated in the stands.
Certainly if anyone should be upset that Jimmy chooses to spend his summers covering Vanderbilt baseball, and the occassional Vandy football during its season, it should be his family--especially since the paper no longer pays him to do so (that would be part of that "cost cutting" that "bedfordcounty08" refers to).
T-G sports writers are not enticed by, nor rewarded with a large pay check for giving up their nights at home with their families and driving sometimes as far away as 130 miles to watch a 52-0 "blow-out" game. So if the chance to watch the "big boys" play is an incentive to keep them writing up columns about "Little Johnny" who sat the bench most of the game, then you should be thankful for it, rather than disparage one of the biggest reasons that they are still willing to give up THEIR nights for YOURS.
It should be obvious to any of you who have observed Jimmy at one of the local games, that he enjoys watching the kids play and is impassioned by their determination and "heart," even when faced with a 52-0 "blow-out." Jimmy and I both love photographing and watching the local kids play, especially the younger group. But it's unrealistic to expect that 3 or 4 writers who are faced with the current economy-forced budget cuts can cover all of the many sporting events that this county has to offer.
So if Danny Parker chooses to attend a UT game on his own time and expense, rather than cover a youth football game for no pay, then that's his decision. He at least has the courtesy to write-up an article about what he experienced and include some pictures as a kindness for those of us fans who do enjoy reading about our state's "pro" teams. Instead, Parker could have simply attended the game purely for the fun of it, and not spent hours jotting down stats, plays, shooting pics, etc., and then another hour or two writing about it and uploading the photos.
Don't get me wrong, I would personally like to see some [occassional] youth game coverage as well, and perhaps "bedfordcounty08's" comment will get the "big-wigs" at T-G thinking about it, but I do not believe it is fair to try and judge our lone sports writers for an occassional personal indulgence.
My beef has never been with the sports writers. They cover what they can as often as they can and do a good job. My problem is that the newspaper has chosen to give more space to regional coverage at the expense of covering more local stuff like Bo did when he was around. Granted he was a full time sports person, but the TG used to be full of local baseball, soccer, etc. Now anything outside of the three high schools is lucky to get a paragraph in the paper. And that is only if the sports organizers call in with stats, info, etc.
Bedfordcounty08 is incorrect. Come by the Times-Gazette and ask to look at our binders of newspapers dating back four years or so. The office hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. You'll see that there is as much or more local content in there now than there has ever been. The comparison is apples and oranges though. The landscape of sports is completely different now from how it was 40 years ago. Soccer didn't exist in this county then, nor did the Titans exist in Nashville, football in Unionville, youth football at Liberty, several of our middle school spring teams, etc. One constant still exists as when the great Bo Melson was employed here...one full-time sports reporter/photograher/editor/web producer at the Times-Gazette.
Saying anything other than the local high schools is lucky to get a paragraph is nothing more than an untruth and a direct shot at our award-winning staff of writers and photographers. The sports editor had 96 action shots of youth baseball/softball published this past summer alone. Get your facts straight before tossing out anonymous accusations.
Instead of pointing fingers, how about asking for an application or offering any reasonable ideas? Tell your spouse and friends you won't be available Saturday afternoon for their cookout and be prepared to sleep at your computer. You'll be asked to work afternoons, nights and weekends, along with being readily available come press time early four mornings a week. You're going to want to learn how to sleep in increments -- two hours here, four hours there. Hopefully, your baby daughters will understand like Jimmy Jones' does. There is only so much space allotted to sports, so keep that in mind as well. Oh, and if you think you're going to make enough money to send your son/daughter to Motlow State comfortably while paying the rest of the bills, think again. Newspapers still only cost 75 cents-$1. Condition yourself to enjoy sandwiches and water.
But, as always, we thank you for reading the Times-Gazette. Have an amazing Tuesday!
Danny, Jimmy and Gary. Thank you for what you do. T-G has the best online sports section I have ever read. I hope there is a write up this weekend when MTSU host Memphis. All three of these gentlemen do a great job. It seems like most of them do it for free or pay out of pocke to cover "non-local events". I would tell any of the bloggers on here who have concerns of local coverage to email, call, or write a letter to the T-G and say I want to help, I can write, I can make phone calls for interviews, etc... If squeaky wheels are so upset why don't they do something about it to help out rather then complain.
As a father of children that have played in various local youth sports leagues, travel leagues and various levels of school sports, I have to more than commend the sports staff of the T-G.
As a former board member of the Cascade Youth Football League, I can state as fact that Danny and staff do their best to include coverage of not only our league but those of Community, Liberty (which are also both part of our governing league, Duck River Valley Youth Football League) and Shelbyville each and every week of our football season. All that is asked is that scores and photos (if room permits) are submitted to the T-G in a timely manner in order to be included each week.
There is no possible way that even the entire sports staff could cover the entire day of each of these individual leagues on Saturday. The DRVYFL plays a 4 game schedule each Saturday. This equals a total of 12 games for these 3 leagues alone and does not include the games that Shelbyville Youth Football League plays on Saturday.
As long as each league turns in their scores on a timely basis and has their games mentioned each and every week, what else can we as parents/coaches/board members ask for? I don't think we should expect any more.
As far as other youth sports coverage goes, they, too, must submit their scores and highlights (again, if space permits these will be included) in a timely fashion so they can be included on a regular basis. I can speak from experience that there a couple of the different youth sports leagues in Bedford County, other than football, that do not furnish scores on a regular or routine basis and are not published regularly as they should be, but at no fault of the T-G sports staff.
I, myself, also enjoy the articles about UT, Vandy, Tennessee Titans and any other sports features that are covered in the T-G. I enjoy the "local flavor" in their write ups more so than that of syndicated sports writers.
GREAT JOB! Danny and Staff!
KEEP IT UP!
So you are telling me that if i volunteered to cover a certain school or sport or organization that the TG would run it in the paper...highly doubt that!
ORIGINAL COMMENT:
"So you are telling me that if i volunteered to cover a certain school or sport or organization that the TG would run it in the paper...highly doubt that!"
-- Posted by bedfordcounty08 on Wed, Sep 9, 2009, at 12:57 AM
RESPONSE:
Instead of being so cynical, why not make the time and effort to volunteer one Saturday and see what comes of it? It could be that you are right, and the t-g doesn't run what you send them. In which case, you can take satisfaction in having made the effort and you will be armed with "ammunition" to use against its staff. But it has been my experience that the t-g will eventually run things as "space allows."
Rather than browbeat Danny Parker for choosing to attend a Vols game at his own expense and on his own time, why not take his advice, "how about asking for an application or offering any reasonable ideas?"
Now it is my turn to apologize for being "on my soapbox."