Lane Kiffin has kicked to dangerous return men before.
The first-year Tennessee coach just isn't planning on doing it again this week.
Not all the variables are the same with Kiffin weighing the risk of punting the football to Chicago's Devin Hester in the NFL or Florida's Brandon James on Saturday (TV: 3:30 p.m., WVLT) at The Swamp. Even though as Oakland Raiders head coach he challenged the former, the Vols (1-1) won't be messing with the latter.
"I think (James) is phenomenal," Kiffin said. "I don't know what his real track time was - it's got to be somewhere in the 10.2 (second) range. As soon as you give him any crease at all, he's gone.
"There are guys that can run fast track times and guys that can carry it over to football, and he's one of those guys. I don't think there's another guy like him, except for Devin Hester."
Kiffin wasn't afraid to test Hester and the strategy paid off as the Raiders held him to 14 yards on six punt returns.
But the Vols won't have one of the most decorated punters in the game on their side, and history isn't either. James has already gashed UT twice in his career with game-breaking punt returns for touchdowns, and - with Chad Cunningham practicing his directional kicks out of bounds this week - it is trying to avoid a third.
But at least a few members of the coverage team wouldn't mind giving James a shot at it - or at least taking some at the senior speedster.
"Well, I don't know if I can speak for everybody about that," defensive back Dennis Rogan said. "But for me personally, I'd like to kick to him and see how we can all get down and see if we can make a play or two against him.
"That's always a big challenge, you know, but we're looking forward to it. We always want to compete against their best players and they definitely have some of the best players around."
The top-ranked team in the country also isn't scared to use them on special teams, a blueprint the Vols are using in the kicking game now as well. Both tackles on punt returns last week against UCLA were made by starters, and the coverage units are loaded with regulars with Kiffin trying to get his best players on the field as much as possible.
While that does come with an added risk of injury, not having them on the field against James could be just as painful.
"The good thing is that's been the emphasis since camp started - not giving up punt returns," safety Eric Berry said. "Special teams has been a big part of our whole program right now, and you can look out there and see a number of starters out there on kickoff and punt coverage and all those things, so that's been a big emphasis for our program.
"It's always big. I mean, you look at our special teams with all the starters out there, that's been the emphasis since we got into school. You can look at the NFL, you can look at Florida how many starters they have on special teams, it doesn't shock me at all."
The decision to avoid James isn't much of a surprise either.
Even with Kiffin's track record.
"We kicked to Devin Hester when I was at Oakland every time and did a phenomenal job covering him," Kiffin said. "At that point, nobody was kicking to him and we decided we were going to do it.
"Now, we had the best punter in the history of football in Shane Lechler, and that had a lot to do with it. We have definitely worked on kicking the ball out of bounds this week."
Kiffin has survived without doing it in the past.
But he's apparently not going to push his luck again.
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Comments » 14
1Big_Orange_Fan writes:
I have a feeling we will be punting often on Saturday. Just being realistic. I would much rather punt than turn it over. That said, if Cunningham doesn't kick it to James, ever, he has a realistic shot at being our MVP for the game. Field position will be our friend!
Down_The_Field writes:
why do we have to tell the world what we're planning to do?
tell the media punks to show up and find out or tell them that we're kicking it to him and don't.
rockytopatl writes:
It's hardly a state secret that you don't want to punt to Brandon James. Don't think we gave away the farm there.
I like playing starters on special teams. Fulmer got burned too many times in recent years playing benchwarmers in the kicking game. Sure, somebody might get hurt. But somebody might also make a game-changing play and that's more likely to happen with your best players on the field.
asleep#212036 writes:
Yeah, I can think of 4 possessions last week where a punt in any one of them would likely have won the game!
SmokeyHound writes:
seriously!?! dont tell the world!! thats the stupidest thing ever. hey guess what plays we are running florida? they are going to murder us anyway
Madkels writes:
Let Rogan hit him in the mouth. Maybe he'll swallow his chiclets!
2407westTN_VOLSfan writes:
I am excited to see our special teams play. Janzten has been the first down field in most every effort. Hopefully he will start making the tackle and not just breaking up the wedge. Speed will help against speed.
I support Coach Kiffin and feel he had to say what he did to get attention of the recruits w/o ever playing a game. IT WORKED! Get over it! I fully expect the VOLS will not quit against the Gators no matter what the score is! Past few years our team stopped playing after being behind. Our D has put a new meaning to the term SMASH MOUTH football!
xvolx writes:
I not worried about Cunningham's direction. I'm worried about how long it takes him to punt. Fla. will surely block one of his punts.
Cldvols1 writes:
Oh ye of little faith!
IBleedOrange444 writes:
Y'all should chill out. I don't agree with offering up information about the game plan either, but this really means nothing. We're talking about kicking it out of bounds on a punt. If the play is executed, it negates the defense's chance of using any prior knowledge of what you are trying to do against you. It's not like they're telling everyone, "We're gonna go out there and blitz up the middle with our linebackers out of the 4-3 all night" or "We're gonna establish the run even if that means running against 8 & 9 man fronts". I'd rather James think that there's no possibility that we will kick it to him. Maybe UF's punt unit gets lax and then we hit em in the mouth with something unexpected. Go ahead and get confortable Brandon, we're not kicking it your way. Also, great move by Kiffin to keep Crompton out of the line of fire this week. If they're hell-bent on playing the kid there's no sense in feeding him to vultures like Chris Lowe and John Adams. I'm not going into the weekend with any expectations but I will be rooting for the Vols until the clock hits triple zeros like always. Go Big Orange!! Go punish the lizzards. Make it the most physical game those guys play in all year and let the chips fall where they may!
pdhuff#552644 writes:
It will come down to turnovers and running the ball.
Not film study.
GBO!
Psychovol writes:
The Vols aren't as bad as they looked against UCLA. Kiffin told the truth when he blamed himself and that's a positive. I don't remember Fulmer ever doing that. Kiffin's young and he'll learn from his mistakes. I've still got his back. I might still have Fulmer's too if he owned his mistakes.
VolunteerLifer writes:
Not giving up a special teams touchdown will be a real improvement over Fulmer's teams. Kicking it out of bounds makes sense to me, unless we give up too much field position doing it. If one of the punts does get to James, I hope we take his head off on the return.
Go Volunteers!!
Vol_in_Mich writes:
Just hope the kickoff doesn't go out of bounds like last week. That sort of set the tone for the whole game.
I fully agree with not kicking to James. Now go kick some Gator tail.
GO VOLS!!!
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