For about an hour Friday morning, Norm Chow had everyone's attention.

High school coaches scribbled notes.

So did Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer and offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe.

It's not often you're given the chance to get inside the mind of a bona fide football "guru."

Chow was the featured speaker at the annual UT coaches' clinic at Thompson-Boling Arena.

"I've never been in Knoxville before," Chow said. "But when you're driving in here, and you see that stadium and these facilities, it's impressive."

So is Chow's resume.

He recently completed his first season in the National Football League as offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans.

Prior to that, he helped orchestrate a national championship at Brigham Young in 1984 and back-to-back national championships at USC in 2003 and 2004.

Among his list of quarterback protA(C)gA(C)s: Steve Young, Jim McMahon, Marc Wilson, Gifford Nielsen, Ty Detmer, Robbie Bosco, Philip Rivers, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

Detmer, Palmer and Leinart each won a Heisman Trophy after working in Chow's system.

He's a three-time national assistant coach of the year in the NCAA

All that success on the collegiate level didn't translate into instant success in the NFL.

A young, injury-prone Titans' team went 4-12 in 2005. Still, they were 17th in total offense (320.1 yards per game), just one spot behind Super Bowl winner Pittsburgh, and ahead of playoff teams Carolina, Tampa Bay and Chicago.

Chow is spending this offseason trying to redefine what a specific philosophy the Titans can hang their hats on offensively.

"What happened with the Titans last year is we didn't have that offensive philosophy," Chow said. "We thought we did, but we really didn't.

"We wanted to have that specific philosophical stance, but we missed the boat a little. For whatever reasons, it didn't come together."

Tennessee coaches could relate.

A 5-6 season and inept offense eventually led to a reshuffling of the entire offensive coaching staff.

That's why Cutcliffe and Fulmer were taking notes. That's why they corralled Chow as an entire staff during the lunch break for a chalk-talk session.

"You can't stop learning," Fulmer said. "The game is constantly changing.

"There are certain things you could do five years ago that are really hard to do now with all the zone blitzes and things you see defensively."

Somehow, Chow made it seem easier than it really is.

"It's about the football and saying we're not going to give this up until we hand it to the official in the end zone," he said. "That's about as simple as you can get."

Chow's basic mantra learned by a large contingent of high school coaches from around the state is a five-step process.

* Protect the quarterback.

* Control the football.

* Take what the defense allows.

* Make sure your run/pass formations complement each other.

* Kiss it. Keep it simple.

"What you do is you run plays over and over and over again until you master it," Chow said.

Easy, right?

"He's absolutely a tremendous man to visit with," Cutcliffe said. "He's a tremendous man of character and he has been around some great ones — coaches and players."