Kiffin, Pearl on a working road trip

KINGSPORT - As the Big Orange Caravan wrapped up the in-state portion of its tour Monday, Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin and men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl split their time between entertaining fans and alumni at stops in Sevierville, Greeneville and Kingsport and keeping up with their day jobs.

"Once we get back into the RV, there are probably a half a dozen phone messages and several e-mails and texts," Pearl said. "Once we get through an hour of work or something, then it's time to kick it a little bit."

Kiffin and Pearl, who teased each other during appearances along the way Monday, have gotten to know one another during the last three weeks on the road speaking to various alumni groups around the state and the southeast.

"It's like being with a rock star. Some interesting stories I can't tell on TV," Kiffin said of traveling with Pearl. "Being around our people, that's been unbelievable."

The tour will continue with three more stops for alumni groups in Charlotte, N.C., Cincinnati and Jacksonville, Fla. But as much as Kiffin has enjoyed meeting fans, he'd rather be on the road evaluating prospects, as his assistant coaches have been the last few weeks.

And even though head coaches aren't allowed by the NCAA to make in-person evaluations during the spring, Kiffin still has been breaking down prospects.

"That's what I really miss right now," Kiffin said. "As fun as this is, I wish I was out recruiting, and I wish I was out evaluating. The evaluation process is so critical."

Kiffin pointed to Southern California's recent run of NFL draftees as proof of the importance of the spring evaluation period.

"Somebody just asked me about all the Southern Cal guys getting drafted. Twenty-two guys in two years," he said. "Well, that's great players, but it's also great development and it's also the research that went into that. It's going to spring games and watching warmups and being there the whole time and going to a practice and not leaving early. The same thing our assistants are going through. I'm doing the best I can, which is getting tapes sent to me."

And watching them.

Running backs coach Eddie Gran, who returned to Knoxville over the weekend to visit his family, dropped off some tapes for Kiffin before returning to South Florida to continue evaluating prospects.

Assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron used the practice some at Ole Miss, and Kiffin said Southern California occasionally filmed prospects during the evaluation period while he was an assistant there.

"We used to do it a little bit at SC, but not like this," Kiffin said. "We'd do it for a certain guy, if we hadn't seen the guy before. But we didn't do it near as much. But also, the head coach was able to be out. He could go out and see for himself. We've kind of taken it to another level, all the guys having it."

Part of the reason head coaches are prohibited from evaluating prospects during the spring is an aggressive interpretation of the "bump rule" by Alabama coach Nick Saban. During the spring, assistant coaches are not allowed to visit with prospects beyond saying hello unless a recruit makes an unofficial visit to UT's campus.

Kiffin said he's not worried that the NCAA will put an end to using video cameras during the evaluation process.

"I can't imagine them changing that," Kiffin said. "What would be wrong with it? We're helping kids. The more that we tape and the more schools that we go to, we'll find someone that maybe wasn't going to get a scholarship to the University of Tennessee. I would be shocked if they did something about that."

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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