The once-promised video of today's preseason media briefing is yet to materialize at UTSports.com, but if it does we'll have it for you (Edit 1:19 PM - and here it is). The Knoxville News-Sentinel was on hand at the briefing this morning, and they've covered a variety of topics, including:
- The importance of calling plays quickly. Kiffin says he wants to get the play call in as quickly as possible, citing the importance of every second for the quarterback at the line of scrimmage. Kiffin will be on the sideline, Chaney in the press box to assist.
- Kiffin did vote for Tim Tebow for All-SEC. At least that's what he says...seriously though, the way he goes on about Tebow's future in the NFL, I'd start looking elsewhere for the culprit.
- The aforementioned Eric Berry For Heisman campaign is underway.
UPDATE 1:36 PM - adding in additional information from the video feed:
- As mentioned in the comments, the first question was about new uniforms. Kiffin said he hasn't even thought about that, that it may be something they get to eventually, but scoffed at the notion that black was his favorite color by asking if people had seen the last two years of his life.
- Marsalis Teague will play offense. Kiffin said this determination was made before the injuries to Austin Rogers and Denarius Moore.
- Quarterbacks will split reps at the start of fall camp. This has been mentioned before. Later he mentioned that he doesn't believe in rotating quarterbacks and would never do it (which he did in Oakland). He mentioned specifically with Crompton that his past here was like a bad relationship, and you could see how he still freezes up sometimes with mistakes, and that he was working with him to improve that.
- "Bryce Brown looks like a guy who's been in the NFL for a few years...he's got that superstar walk and swagger about him." He mentioned that Brown is a vegetarian, but ate a steak at Coach Gran's house...
- Kiffin closed the press conference by speaking on his team having its highest GPA in four years during the spring semester, and that there have been zero arrests in his eight months on the job.
Kiffin will head to Birmingham for SEC Media Days, which begin tomorrow, with the Vols going in the Friday 10:30 AM slot. Joel will be there covering the event live, so we've got a ton of stuff coming your way in the next three days.