Orgeron not afraid to talk shop

Ed Orgeron, Tennessee's assistant head coach/recruiting coordinator/defensive line, isn't short on titles. Nor was he short on one-liners at Monday's meeting of the Knoxville Quarterback Club.

Here's some examples:

On UT's 2010 signing class:

"We have 20 commitments right now. We plan to sign a full class and more. I'll sign a 100 if they let me. I don't think they will. We have a lot of guys interested in us."

On UT's weekly recruiting meetings in which head coach Lane Kiffin talks to every prospect along with other coaches:

"I'll talk to the mother. I'll talk to the father. I'll talk to the mailman if he's still there, the guy that mows the grass, the brother and the sister. We recruit the whole family. I think that we're going to have an excellent recruiting class."

On recruiting a quarterback for the 2010 class:

"We feel good about the guys that we're recruiting at quarterback, which is the No. 1 position that we had to go out there and find.

"We've got some that are committed to other schools that we still really like and that we're still going after. We will never stop.

"You've got to have a quarterback to win a championship."

On recruiting offensive linemen:

"We've got some big offensive linemen. We're going to be the Green Bay Packers when we get off that bus."

On offensive prospects taking notice of UT's recent offensive success:

"Now that we're making progress on offense, we have upper-echelon skill players that want to come.

"We're very close to a lot of great players on offense. It's just taken us a little while longer to get those guys to commit because they kind of want to see what kind of offense we're going to run."

On the University of Florida's recruiting:

"I don't know why you would take an airplane to go recruiting. I don't know why you would ever go out of the state for recruiting."

On the UT's recruiting affecting special teams:

"You're going to see in the future where we have better special teams because we have better special-teams players with speed."

On head coach Lane Kiffin's brashness:

"People would love for you to be quiet and stay put and let the powers that be be the powers that be.

"You've got to go out and you've got to attack. That's our philosophy."

On the helicopter pilot that flew Orgeron and Kiffin around Atlanta to recruit:

"The helicopter driver was almost just like Chevy Chase. He's kind of a California laid-back dude. He said Coach, 'Now where's this stadium at?'

"We went to three different stadiums before we found the right one."

"It worked out great. It was great publicity for us."

On the response from prospects to the helicopter flying Kiffin in:

"The players loved it. When you bring Coach Kiffin somewhere it's like bringing Elvis. People are just attracted to him. They love him."

On finding his helicopter pilot, who waited at a private residence where he had landed while Orgeron and Kiffin recruited:

"I think they were having a little party . . . I look at the house, there's the party and there's my helicopter driver. We got to the airport O.K."

On recruiting tough guys:

"We're not angels and we're not going to recruit a bunch of angels."

Jesse Smithey contributed to this report.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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