Trooper Talk Part I

Q: What was the May recruiting period like for you?

A: I was out four weeks myself. I missed Mother's Day, missed the anniversary and missed a whole lot of baseball games for my little kids. But it's good for us to get out and go see those kids and start evaluating them early, especially looking at their academics, trying to check on their character and that kind of thing while you're out.

I think it's a good deal for all the coaches to get out and see their area and see their top guys and really try to evaluate them, not just athletically, but social wise and academically.

Q: With combine style camps, is there too much on prospects during the spring?

A: I think there is because when you go, it's really hard to evaluate them anyway. As a college coach, you can't go and watch 500 kids. It's just not humanly possible. When they have those things it's tough because the kids go there with the expectations that, 'I'm going to go get noticed by a major college coach.' But what they don't understand is that most of the major college coaches know exactly who they want to go see that day and those are the guys that they watch. You don't watch all 500 kids. You may watch six kids out of the 500 or eight kids out of the 500 at best.

It makes it a little easier on us because you get all these kids in one spot. You might have kids from Florida, Tennessee and Georgia, all at one clinic, so that you're not going to all those different schools at one time. You get them all in one spot. It really doesn't help the kid that is a borderline kid that thinks that because he's going to this clinic he's going to get a scholarship.

Q: What if you discover a kid who runs a 4.37 40-yard dash?

A: If he runs a 4.37 at that clinic there, I promise you, he's probably already on that list or you haven't done your job. If you don't know about a kid that runs a 4.37 in your area, you're probably down by seven before you got off the bus. You normally do a pretty good job evaluating that before you ever get there. Every now and then, maybe there is a sleeper that jumps up. The chances of that happening are slim and none, and slim just left town.

Q: Do you still sense that UT's momentum from last season has continued?

A: I really do. They (NCAA) allow you to have the one phone call in May. From being able to talk to the kids, they're definitely excited about the program. They know a lot of the kids that we signed, they played with or read about or watched them in the All-American game. Those are things that really help carry momentum. Then the expectations of our team; they read the magazines to see who's ranked where and those kinds of things. That all helps.

I think one of the things that a lot of kids look at is the stability of the program. Are you going to be able to be coached by the guys that are recruiting you? I think that makes a big difference as well. The biggest deal really for our team is our players when we get guys on campus and they get around our guys, they have a special time. Here at Tennessee it's not a hard sell to make. I think the hardest thing about it is we don't have that surplus of athletes in one area like all the other teams do.

I use that to our advantage. I tell kids all the time, 'If you come to Tennessee, it's like being on an all-star team or an NFL team because most NFL teams may be lucky to have two guys from the same school or the same area on a team. If you go to Florida or you go to Georgia or you go to Texas, 90 percent of their guys are from that area. When you get ready to go home with somebody or hang out with somebody, they're probably doing the same things you did. But if you come here and you can go home with a kid from Miami and be from Memphis or be from Atlanta and go home with a kid from Florida, those things make a difference and you experience more things. They start to get you ready for the NFL if that's what you choose to do.