Q&A with Tennessee writer

We return to one of our more popular segments, going behind enemy lines (to borrow a phrase) for an interview with a counterpart on the opposing beat. This week it’s Wes Rucker, who has for several years now covered Tennessee for The Chattanooga Times Free Press.

I also answered questions about South Carolina for Wes, and those will be found on his blog here. As you’ll see below, Wes was very generous with his time, giving the longest answers since I started doing this. Here you go:

So do people in Knoxville think Lane Kiffin is a crazy genius, or just crazy?

As someone who lives in Knoxville, and just a stone’s throw from campus, I see Lane Kiffin as an immensely popular figure with UT’s younger fans, and someone whose popularity with the older fans is growing. I think for every fan who rolls their eyes when Kiffin makes an outlandish statement, there are two putting their fists in the air. This is a proud, proud program, and I think fans grew tired of teams that seemed too tight in big rivalry games the past few years and were often blown out of the building in big situations.

For all the controversy that’s surrounded Kiffin — much (but not all) of it justified — there are two undeniable improvements he has already made to this program. Nearly every player on the field is playing as physically as possible nearly every week, and no arrest reports have surfaced since he arrived in December. It’s been a long time since both of those statements could be said in the same year around here. These players genuinely fear the wrath of coaches who didn’t recruit them, and the ones still here are, from most accounts, doing what they’re told when they’re told to do it.

These Vols are tougher than last season’s Vols, so far, and that’s the biggest difference I’ve noticed. They have holes, and they were never going to be serious SEC contenders this season, but Kiffin’s hand and footprints — from slaps on the back and kicks in the tail — are already all over this program.

More than 10 players have left the UT program since Kiffin arrived in January. There were myriad reasons for the partings of ways, but most boiled down to this: Quite simply, things go Kiffin’s way when he’s in charge, or they don’t go anywhere. That’s why his past few years have been so consistently controversial, in my opinion. Kiffin has a plan, and he follows that plan, and he has little use for dissension. He’s wired a lot like Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and other super-successful, type-A-personality coaches, from what I’ve witnessed — but he’s also a lot younger and a lot less experienced, so he handles things differently in public than other in similarly high-profile positions.

Few would argue that Kiffin’s players play hard, though. They practice hard — too hard, some have argued — and they play hard. The Oakland Raiders were consistently physical and generally competitive despite talent deficiencies in Kiffin’s short tenure, and the same could be said of these Vols. Kiffin was hardly given a chance to start the rebuilding process in Oakland, though, much less finish it. He was hampered from the beginning, regardless of who or what caused that highly-public divorce. That hasn’t been the case at UT. Kiffin has gotten nearly everything he’s asked for here in Knoxville, so we should get the chance to see whether his plan will work.

Kiffin had nothing but nice things to say about Steve Spurrier this week — just like he did about Nick Saban last week before playing Alabama, and before that Urban Meyer during Florida week. So I assume if my flag football team scheduled Tennessee next week, he would call me the next Pop Warner?

I averaged one touchdown catch per game my senior year on the intramural field, and Kiffin has never complimented me for being the weekend warrior I was.

But seriously, Kiffin’s respect for Saban and Spurrier has been sincere the past two weeks, in my opinion. He (not surprisingly) loved the swagger from Spurrier’s Florida teams, and he wants to build his physical, run-oriented offenses in the same mold as Southern Cal and Alabama’s.

Kiffin complimented Meyer, too, albeit in a more backhanded manner. Kiffin has taken shots at Meyer since taking the job here, and I don’t see him stopping anytime soon. He’ll have to be more clever about it, but I think he’ll keep trying.

Count Kiffin among those who think Florida high school football is the best in the nation, and he wants to recruit more there than anywhere else, and a major part of that is going to be poking fun at the Mighty Gators. Whether that’s the smart thing to do is up for serious debate — and that’s putting it politely as possible — but that’s what he’s going to do.

The Vols plan to maintain their typically strong recruiting presence in the Carolinas, too. They have plenty of fans in that area, and they’ve generally recruited very well there, including this season. They’re currently holding three Class of 2010 commitments from South Carolina kids, including highly touted defensive line duo Corey Miller and Brandon Willis from Duncan.

Tennessee gained a measure of respect by playing Alabama and Florida close, while blowing out Georgia. But it has also lost at home to UCLA and Auburn and was lackluster against Ohio. Is it still hard to get a true read on this Volunteer team?

Some see it that way, but I don’t — at least not at the moment. I give this first-year program the benefit of the doubt for some early-season struggles, though UCLA was simply not a good team and had no real business winning that game in Neyland Stadium.

For the sake of fairness, this defense has played rather exceptionally all season, except for the four quarters immediately following junior middle linebacker and Nick Reveiz’s season-ending ACL tear against Ohio (which was the second half against the Bobcats, and the first half against Auburn). Eric Berry and others have starring roles on this defense, but the former walk-on son of UT kicker Fuad Reveiz was the heart-and-soul leader, and the player who lined up the defense every play. The Vols have since adjusted to his injury, though, and they didn’t allow an offensive touchdown the past two weeks against Georgia and Alabama — a rather impressive feat, when you really think about it.
As for the offense, well … I’ll answer that for the next question.

Has Jonathan Crompton truly turned a corner? And do the Volunteers have any chance of passing against USC is pass defense?

Crompton is finally starting to win over teammates and fans here, and I honestly wasn’t sure that would ever happen.

He has played well the past few weeks, but I think a big reason for that has been junior receivers Gerald Jones (wrist, ankle) and Denarius Moore (foot) returning to better health. Getting your top two wideouts back will do wonders for any quarterback, and Crompton has been a different player. The return of Jones and Moore has also opened the field for junior tight end Luke Stocker, a 6-foot-6 talent who has finally emerged as the player former coach Phillip Fulmer thought he’d flat-out stolen from tiny Berea, Ky.

Plenty of praise is due Crompton’s way, though. It would be hard for those outside the SEC to understand the pressure and negativity surrounding him the past two years, and his steadfast faith in his abilities has helped him finally (or at least temporarily) turn the corner. He’s thrown a few passes the past few weeks that I’m honesty not sure many quarterbacks in the country could duplicate.

That said, it’s still hard for me to assume he’s turned this around for good. It’s too soon to completely disregard his past.

Do you expect Tennessee to run, run, run against South Carolina, given that Hardesty and Brown have done well and USC’s rush defense has been a weakness?

I watched the Alabama-South Carolina game during UT’s off weekend, and I’d be completely stunned it the Vols don’t line up and try smashing the Gamecocks.

For starters, that’s what the Vols do. Hardesty has been great this season — his first injury-free campaign in five college years — and Brown look like he’ll eventually be a big time player in this league. Young UT tailbacks David Oku and Tauren Poole would also be playing a lot right now for other teams in the conference, in my opinion, but who could blame coaches for sticking with Hardesty and Brown?

As special as South Carolina is on the edges of the front seven and in the secondary, I would anticipate seeing plenty of power football from the Vols on Saturday. They rarely use the shotgun, and they have two sneaky-good fullbacks, so they typically stick with the run early against all opponents. That will especially be the case against South Carolina, though, considering the Gamecocks’ strengths and weaknesses.

Can Monte Kiffin’s role in coaching the Tennessee defense be overstated?

No, it really can’t. The man is a legend for a reason. He inherited some great players, and a nice (but not deep) collection or role players from former coordinator John Chavis, but his work with this unit has still been impressive.

I still don’t understand how a 69-year-old man has that much energy, but he does, and he’s the same every single day. His relentless optimism and excitement is unusual, to say the least.

Of course, having Eric Berry helps, too. So does having an assistant like Ed Orgeron, who clearly wasn’t ready to be an SEC head coach but has been as good as advertised as a defensive line coach.

The other assistants have done well, too — and that was the expectation, given their gaudy salaries — but it’s all started with Monte Kiffin. UT’s defensive players would run through a wall for the man.

Finally, what do you think this game will ultimately come down to?

Special teams and turnovers will be the difference, in my opinion. I would imagine that both coaching staffs, smart as they are, will trust their defenses and try making just enough plays on offense and special teams to win the game.

If the game comes down solely to special teams, though, I won’t like UT’s chances. Daniel Lincoln, who was named an All-American as a freshman in 2007 but struggled with injuries last season, was having a nice bounce-back start as a junior before another round of leg injuries resurfaced in the past three weeks. He hasn’t been the same since, especially in a dismal day at Alabama. The Vols have also been inconsistent at best in kickoff and punt coverage, as well as the punt-return game. South Carolina hasn’t excelled in special teams, either, but the Gamecocks looks rather Beamer-Ballish compared to the Vols.

UT will probably hope to ride Hardesty and the defense Saturday night, and few would blame the Vols for trying that route. I made eerily similar remarks before the Georgia game, but South Carolina’s defense looks like it has 13 players on the field when compared to the Bulldogs.

The two most likely scenarios I see Saturday night are South Carolina winning by a field goal or less, or  UT winning by 7-10 points. I keep going back and forth on my final decision, though I’m leaning toward the Vols after watching them man up in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s crushing loss to their top rival.