Kiffin ready for UT football baptism

“I’m most worried about our players, most worried about our freshmen and making sure they’re right because they’re out there. We have to remember that as coaches, even though we don’t feel it — they feel it."

Lane Kiffin

A veteran defensive coordinator is grinning like a child at the thought of the pageantry a return to the college ranks has provided.

A handful of true freshmen are impatiently waiting to make an instant impact on the biggest stage they’ve ever been on.

And an entire fan base is waiting for a glimpse at what new Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin can do when it really matters.

Now, it’s really time — but no matter how long the wait has seemed for Saturday’s opener against Western Kentucky, the one man seemingly unaffected by all the attention and excitement is the ringmaster himself.

“I’m really not around that to know that,” Kiffin said. “I just don’t really do much. There’s a ritual, and we do what we do.

“I’m most worried about our players, most worried about our freshmen and making sure they’re right because they’re out there. We have to remember that as coaches, even though we don’t feel it — they feel it.”

The pressure has been building for quite some time, and the Vols appear ready to burst at this point.

The grind of a physical preseason, the attention on Kiffin for his offseason headlines, the intense spotlight for a fresh start — all of those issues have piled up and worn down UT to some degree. But that frustration can also be fuel, and the trick is now to make sure the Vols don’t burn through it too quickly.

“Especially with such an unbelievable stadium and to have that many fans in there is a whole other level,” Kiffin said. “We have to worry about keeping our guys focused and maintained. We’re not going to have to get them excited and jacked up, that won’t be our job. They’re going to do that, (so) it’ll be our job actually to keep them down.

“As awesome as the Vol Walk is and running through the ‘T,’ there’s the other side to that in making sure we keep our players calm and ready for kickoff (and) that they don’t use too much energy before kickoff.”

That will be most important for the players who’ve never done it before, particularly since UT is relying on so many against the Hilltoppers.

Kiffin’s decorated recruiting class will be featured prominently and immediately on both sides of the ball, which can be both an encouraging sign for the future and a cause for concern in the present. The buzz for guys like Bryce Brown, Nu’Keese Richardson and Janzen Jackson seems to be justified, but there’s no definitive proof yet and the ride might not always be smooth.

“The pressure mounts, so we have a very hard job to do with those guys because those are always the guys you’re most scared of,” Kiffin said. “If you just let them go out at and play and they don’t have their mind right, they’ll play like freshmen do and make a ton of mistakes. That’s why most people don’t play freshmen.

“It’ll be an exciting day (personally), but I’m not really focused on that or thinking about that. I’ve got to make sure these guys are right, so the last thing I can do is go out of my focus and then all of a sudden they feel something different in me. That’s what we working so hard for them not to do.”

There’s only so much insulation that can be done though. And while one Kiffin is shielding himself from everything outside program, another is embracing the Orange Crush.

Defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin hasn’t had a full Vol Walk yet, hasn’t run out of the ‘T’ or coached in front of a crowd of this size despite his lengthy career. Considering how excited a 69-year-old coaching veteran has been about his UT debut, it might not be so easy to keep the 19 year olds under control.

“I don’t even know for sure how loud it gets in there,” Monte Kiffin said. “I think it’s going to be pretty awesome, I really do.

“I’ve been waiting for this a long time.”

He’s obviously not alone.