The changes to the Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex are evident as soon as you walk in the door.
There, where former football coach Phillip Fulmer's picture used to be, is new Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin's portrait alongside athletic director Mike Hamilton's.
(And even though I'm pretty sure it's the same picture, Hamilton's gaze looks a bit more commanding than I remember.)
Walk a little further and there's another change, a hint of what UT is selling prospects as they tour the facility.
It lies in the middle of UT's football hall of fame, no more than 20 feet from those odd wax statues of legends of yesteryear: Peyton Manning and Tee Martin. (What, no Al Wilson?)
There on the main television monitor where Fulmer-era highlights once played are still pictures rotating in a rhythmic fashion.
First, it's former Vols sporting their NFL duds: Manning. Jason Witten. Jerod Mayo.
Then, it's some of UT's coaches in their NFL duds: Lane Kiffin. Monte Kiffin.
Then, it's UT's coaches with some of their former players as they are working towards their NFL duds: Ed Orgeron at Southern California. Orgeron with Patrick Willis of Ole Miss and his Butkus Award. Carson Palmer of USC winning the Heisman Trophy.
With two big official-visit weekends left before National Signing Day, the message to prospects is simple: This is your path to the NFL.
Smart.
Having interviewed a bazillion prospects in my life, I can't recall many that didn't think they'd make The League.
Perhaps one's chances for making a living at a game are better when he's being coached by those with professional experience? Makes sense.
However, I would also offer UT's coaching staff another sales tool: tradition.
Say what you will about Fulmer, but teaching his players about the tradition of UT football was one of his greatest strengths.
Prospects from Hawaii to Miami spoke of UT's tradition and, subsequently, had pride in UT's program.
Would modern-day prospects like to know a real-life general named Neyland? Ever heard of a team that never gave up a point?
How about a quarterback who crossed a racial barrier long before he ever crossed an SEC goal line?
Kiffin and company may know the words to "Rocky Top". If they don't, I wouldn't blame them. UT's coaches are busy working 80-hour weeks trying to pull together one recruiting class and lay the foundation of another.
Yet sometime in the offseason I'd recommend doing some research - if you haven't already. There are plenty of ways to sell UT. The NFL just happens to be one.
---
Chaney Says: If UT offensive coordinator Jim Chaney is half as entertaining in recruiting as he was on the News Sentinel's radio show, The Sports Page, UT has another solid recruiter on board.
Here are some of Chaney's thoughts on some key recruiting issues:
-- On UT's recruiters, including recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron and vaunted recruiter Lance Thompson: "It's absolutely fantastic to watch these people work. I just sit back in the corner and watch these guys roll.
"I try to be the calm guy in the room. Those guys are flying around 100 miles an hour. It's unbelievable. It's been fascinating to watch the speed they do things and the way we're attacking the top players in the country has been fascinating to me. I'm enjoying every bit of it. It's been fun to get back at it.
". . . Ed doesn't fly around the room. He's a bull. He just runs over everything. Lance kind of flies around the room.
"(Orgeron is) very well organized. He's decisive. I think the problem that happens sometimes is when you have a lot of gray areas in recruiting. Ed is definitely not that way. We make decisions on players and we move on with a plan of attack. It's organized. It's disciplined and it's just fun to be a part of."
-- On what he thinks about getting back in recruiting after his stopover with the St. Louis Rams:
"Well, actually it was interesting. My first flight to go out recruiting was two hours delayed, missed my connector and I thought 'Wow, now I remember why four years ago I contemplated doing what I did.'
"When I got into the homes visiting with parents and seeing how concerned they are with their kids, it came back to me very quickly. It was fascinating from my standpoint doing some observations personally about how much I did miss that and how much I have enjoyed relationships with parents and players in the past."
-- On how much UT is focusing on the 2010 class as opposed to the 2009 class:
"We owe it to the seniors in this class to put the best team on the field this upcoming season that we can so the 2009 season is paramount. We're working as hard as we can to get that done.
"All the while, while the staff is in office, when you're not on the road, you're doing the best you can to get organized for the 2010 stuff. You've got to move real fast on things. We're trying to mesh those two together but never neglecting this upcoming signing period."
Dave Hooker covers recruiting. He may be reached at hookerd@knoxnews.com.
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
Tennessee defeats Georgia 3-2 in…
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 36
rockytopatl writes:
As for the NFL push, why not show it everywhere? You already have shown it in your staff, so display the colors. I think it's a better selling point to these kids than the UT tradition and the General. We look almost as foolish pushing the General to an 18 year old as Alabama looked worshipping the ghost of the Bear.
Let's hope Orgeron knows what he's doing. Looks like the class pretty much depends on him and his plan.
mattlock writes:
Just win baby, then who cares what we're sellin'
utvol17 writes:
I/m not 20 or 30 years old. I do love UT tradition and hope our new coaches sell it as well, Use the NFL as the carrot if that's what it takes iin 2009 but once hooked instil the hritage of the VOLS. These kids can come back to neyland in 20 years and wlk back on the filed to 100,00+ rounds of thunderous appalause.
khelton657 writes:
Hooker is right..they need to be selling UT more so than themselves. That is definitely an odd sounding situation with picturs of players who attended other schools, not UT, on the walls...if I am reading it correctly...
txsvol#372416 writes:
Good article, Dave. Pose Al Wilson for another wax statue, and find him a GA position. He may even have to come back to complete his undergraduate degree first. That's OK--I'd leave it to him to teach our football players all they need to know about Tennessee passion, pride, and winning tradition. Go Vols! SAVol
NoogaVol55 writes:
Can I get an Amen......AMEN!
NoogaVol55 writes:
I think it is pics of our current coaches. I am sure it will change once they can actually get pics of our current coaches "coaching" our current players. I wouldn't be to worried, they seem to know what they are doing!
khelton657 writes:
...I totally agree with your last statement, they really seem to know what they are doing. Pretty slick to hear how calculating and focused they are on the recruiting mission...
NoogaVol55 writes:
Absolutly Bro....For most of them, this is not "their first rodeo". They have been through the recruiting process in one capacity or another. Not that they need it, but they have my complete confidence that they know how to sway recruits and get them to buy into their system, program etc.
volroadwarrior writes:
Hooker is trying soooo hard to knock the new guys. If all he can come up with is they don't sell UT tradition he doesn't have too much to indict them on. Typical negative media.
I believe these guys do talk about the tradition and all of the other selling points. Just because they don't yet have a movie playing with them decked out in orange doesn't mean they don't respect and sell the tradition. I heard LK say that the UT tradition is one of the reasons he is here. Coach O chided a recruiting consultant for not showing him top flight prospects. He said something like--don't show me these guys THIS IS TENNESSEE!!!! I for one think they get it even if they don't have their picture albums completed.
budd#207344 writes:
This is called "I gotta have something for the Sunday paper" story.
utang1602#204610 writes:
The inside of the Neyland Thompson Complex should be a Hall of Fame of Tennessee athletes, not random Joe-blows who happened to have been coached by one of the new coaches. While it is fine, and expected to have photographs of the new coaching staff posted, I think it's rather insulting to our former players, to those who gave their all for Tennessee each and every day, to put other players--even if they are with current coaches--in that section.
This is Tennessee. Not Ole Miss, and not Southern Cal. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If you remove enough of the Tennessee tradition, you're going to end up being just any old school.
MattDillon writes:
Won,t be long until we take the south. Then, my friend, will you "get it".
VAvolfanRON writes:
are you this negative in everyday like?...how do you live everyday just hating..when you you are on your deathbed....are you going to look back and say "wow, i wouldnt have changed a thing"? i dont think so..come on man.....the rollercoaster is fun.....take a ride!!!
daschmit#297884 writes:
The validity of your point stems primarily from the devaluation of the liberal arts, in general, and history, more specifically, in our educational curriculum. That intellectual "giant," Jamal Lewis, allegedly stated that the Vol Walk was rooted in "some Civil War general parading his troops around a hotel" prior to sending them into battle. The Lakota (Teton Sioux), on the other hand, beautifully encapsulated the significance of history--and, by extension, tradition--in the following maxim: "A people without history is like wind on the buffalo grass." In other words, empty and hollow, without a sense of connectedness to preceding generations. Tennessee is considered a traditional power precisely because its peaks have been more sustained and its valleys more shallow and of lesser duration than those of most programs. That tradition, which was established by Neyland, should not be deemphasized in the process of marketing UT as a training ground for the NFL.
newtonrail writes:
So did the Captain of the Titanic.
OrangeMagic writes:
AreYouKiffinMe and gatorzz are the same person, always talking the same stuff.
ScoobyDoo writes:
Wow, I have never seen anyone completely take a positive story and spin it like a few of the posters on here. We have a quality coaching staff. Before they can be either praised or denigrated, how about seeing what they put on the field? None of us knows how this is going to work out, but I haven't seen anything from Lane Kiffin yet that makes me doubt his focus and direction. As a Vol fan, I say let's let him do his thing.
GREATVOLSAFIRE writes:
AMEN BROTHER
hotrodvol writes:
You are not a hillbilly are you? lol
invisiblekid writes:
We've heard "pro-style offense" for years under Fulmer. I don't see where the big change is other than having some guys make that pitch who have actually been in the NFL.
As far as the tradition of the program goes, my hunch is that Kiffin and the staff he has assembled might have done a little research before coming to Knoxville.
"There on the main television monitor where Fulmer-era highlights once played are still pictures rotating in a rhythmic fashion."
One question regarding this statement though, where were the Majors era or Neyland era highlights under the previous staff?
golargeorange writes:
Please find another ticket. Not so deep down in your soul you are really a Bama fan get your tickets there and leave us be.
txvolsfan writes:
I have a little secret for you: They are all in it for the MONEY!!! Why do you go to your job, excuse me the mailbox at the first of the month!!! MONEY(welfare for you)
Vol43 writes:
Wow!...AREYOUKIFFINME and NEWTONRAIL show up in the same thread. That really makes for a pleasent day. Talk about two turds in a punch bowl!
bloodrunsorange writes:
I don’t post very often but although it probably doesn’t mean much, I enjoyed your post. It was well written, completely true, and a joy to know we still have UT Fans hoping for the best for UT! UT is bigger than all of us and I sincerely believe we do have GREAT Tradition and a family that is tough enough to back the Vols no matter what. Winning is adamant for money and good attitudes but loyalty is paramount! Again your post was very well said; I thank you for the entire diehard UT Family!
VOLFORLIFE writes:
Gosh, dash, we can't have your kind posting on here! You are actually able to put more than two coherent thoughts together and spell all the words correctly.
My guess, based upon your well thought-out comments, are that you are currently teaching (hence your concern with the "devaluation of the liberal arts"), or that you're a student who pays extremely close attention in class.
Either way, can't have that kind of sensible discourse on here!
GO VOLS!!!
JUGHEAD
daschmit#297884 writes:
I am four dissertation chapters shy of completing my Ph.D. in Anthropology.
lomas98 writes:
Putting a good amount of players in the NFL is a good sell. I don't think we have had that problem in the past, why would that be a problem now. I hope this staff realizes that UT is already a stop if you want to go to the NFL. Look at the NFL rosters with former vols on them. I hope they can concentrate on winning a few SEC East championships first and not how many recruits they have that can go to the NFL. I know Urban Meyer says come to FL if you want to win championships.
GhostofRobertNeyland writes:
Ditto!
Volumni writes:
The wrong part of Hooker's assertion is that Fulmer taught!
wtvol writes:
huh....
TennesseeTuxedo writes:
The only tradition that matters is winning championships.
Valuing horses and other fluff over winning championships is for the non-fans and weak-minded.
newtonrail writes:
The other fellow you mention is Mr. Negative on football and Basketball. If you think I am, have at it with your obscene( GVX violation) comments. I want the Kiffins to succeed because I won't be here forever, and have gone through a couple of wasteland periods of Tenn football. Dropping true history of Tenn FB is not good. IMO it's coming from Hamilton more than just Kiffin's. An 18 year kid out of Ohio or probably even Tenn knows little if anything about the General. Probably not even Majors. That doesn't mean they should be completely dropped. I wasn't a Fulmer fan, ever, but he contributed to Tenn FB, and shouldn't be shuttled off to a dark of the basement. If for no other reason, this staff could use former Tenn stars in recruiting, where legal, and other promotional areas. Many of them won't be as receptive to that if the eras they played in aren't recognized. If true that pics are up about non Tenn NFL players, that's just wrong. Have a nice day bub.
Chartervol writes:
If the NFL connection is why we got these guys, then let them sell it.
I did notice the new coaches weren't wearing the UT brand much when they were introduced at TBA Saturday. Couple of little power T's over shirt pockets was all. These guys haven't been aboard long enough to get all misty singing the Alma Mater.
These things come with time. The school and the tradition will sell themselves. They always have.
saveoursaints writes:
Are you the Witch Doctor?
saveoursaints writes:
daschmit, you cannot make this kind of post in this forum. It requires translation. Please, send everything through me before posting again.
Translation of Daschmit's post:
I'm a little pissed that Jamal Lewis got everything handed to him and has a ton of money and lots of women. I will probably starve for the first few years after graduation and haven't had time for a girl friend since middle school. I like UT football, but history is good too. The combination of history and UT football should not be overlooked.
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.