Michael Odell (Former WR on Lane Kiffin's squad) AMA on reddit.

#1

zach0105

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#1
For those of you not familiar with reddit: Occasionally people will post AMA (ask me anything) threads on topics that people find interesting. It was posted about 12 hours ago, so I doubt he is still answering questions.

But anyway he was answering questions regarding his time at UT and I'm sure some about Kiffin as well. Thought some folks here might find it interesting.

Didn't see it posted already, feel free to merge if that is the case.

Was asked.. I played at Tennessee under Lane Kiffin. AMA : CFB
 
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#5
#5
Good post.I think you would get that from almost every player that played for Lane that he was a great guy cause I'm sure he was just wish he had not of done what he done makes it really really hard to like him for anything now.
 
#7
#7
There were some really cool things in that.

It was interesting to hear about the behind-the-scenes of the Kiffin era (how Orgeron was a big "teddy bear", confirming no shady-ness in the BB and Nu'Keese recruitments, Kiffin's offense, etc.)
 
#13
#13
I liked what he had to say about CDD:

I hung around long enough to get to go to 3 team meetings with Coach Dooley. The first meeting after he got hired we learned that he wasn't going to talk about Lane, and he didn't bull**** about that. First thing he said and he never mentioned it after that. He's a man of his word. Second meeting we learned he was very down to earth and wanted to get to know us personally, it was basically open questions toward him and he answered everything honestly. Third meeting he was already down to business on what we were going to do for workouts and spring practice a couple months away. From what I got to see in person, he gets to the point and has a plan.
I think he's doing as good a job as anyone could of handling the aftermath of Lanepocalypse, and I just hope some of those nailbiters turn his way in the next couple seasons (UNC bowl game, LSU '10). Lane had a bigger recruiting name that kids were looking for, but Dooley is doing the best he can with what he has. If they actually have some faith in Dooley I think he can bring them back up to being a contender.

This was funny:

Biggest jerk coach would be Mark "Black Iron" Smith, the strength trainer who started when Kiffin did. He demanded us to call him "Black Iron"... Yeah...

The thing about the player doing the "Colonel Reb is Crying" song during the freshman initiation event w/ CEO glaring at him from the back of the room almost had me in tears. :post-4-1090547912:
 
#14
#14
I copied and pasted some of the better parts for easier reading:

Q: How many girls did you have sex with that you probably wouldn't have otherwise because of your status on campus?
A: Three. There are girls who go to the sports dorm, Gibbs Hall, that get a reputation. They are called "Gibblets". Stayed away from those as soon as I found out why they were called that. I had two girlfriends who actually liked me for who I was, not the player. Now you ask some of the star guys... They'd probably not disclose that number haha.


Q: Any interesting on-field banter/trash talking that you'll never forget?
A: Against South Carolina in our homecoming game in 2009, I was on kickoff and got pancaked on a blindside block. He was a big linebacker on the front line who came back and crossed the field in their kickoff gameplan. He was standing above me and said "Welcome to the big leagues white boy!" ... After we scored on an interception, I was on kickoff again and the same guy took the same path and I ran like I didn't know he was there, until I stopped dead in my tracks, he flew past me onto his face on the ground, and I stuck my facemask square in the returner's chest on a cutback to where I was supposed to be blocked. I turned back around to the linebacker on the ground as I was running off the field and said "Might wanna take the grass out of your facemask, don't wanna look bad for the big league TV."


Q: We take a lot of pride in our Swamp (it's called that for a lot of good reasons)... did the coaches give you any preparation for what to expect in terms of both temperature and crowd? Did they bring along any special equipment to deal with the heat?
A: They just had **** tons of ice and iced water. Pretty much all they told us was get ready to feel like you're soaking sticky wet hot. As an Alaskan that sounds terrible.
As for sound they'd have gigantic speakers out on the practice field just pumping out absurdly loud crowd and band noises throughout the week to try to simulate the environment. It did a decent job, but was nothing like the real Swamp.


Q: Did you like Kiffin as a coach? How was the transition from Fulmer to Kiffin? Any truth to the rumors of Tennessee girls being sent to high school recruit's games?

A: I do like Kiffin as a person more than a coach. When you are his player, you like the guy. He is hard guy not to like when you get to know him personally. It's just how he handled telling the team "I'm leaving and going to USC, good luck" in the team room exactly one day after telling us he was looking forward to next season already.
The transition from Fulmer to Kiffin was rough. A lot of my teammates left to go elsewhere, a lot of the walk ons quit just because they grew up loving Fulmer. Kiffin did a great job getting us excited to play ball again. It finally wore off once winter workouts started in January... With the new strength coach.
Girls to high school games: We never heard about it from the coaches. We knew the girls though. And yes, they went all over the place. Dressed like skanks. In orange.

Q: As a Tennessee fan that feels betrayed by Kiffin because of the way he left the team, Am I allowed to hate him?
A: Certainly. He screwed everyone there over at the time. I am sure you remember Aaron Douglas... I will always remember him for standing up in the team room the day Kiffin left and basically told him "go **** yourself you selfish lying *******."
I don't hate him since he was my coach, but I don't have the best feelings for him anymore.

Q: Does he have a hands on approach to coaching? Or does does he have his assistant coaches do most of the work? And depending on your position, does Monte Kiffin's coaching style translate to the college game?
A: He is very hands on. He's more hands on then I thought he would be, he really liked to work with the QBs (obviously) and the TEs. He would come to individual position drills and have some input if he felt like the position coach was leaving something out. While practice was going on, he was on top of it. As for Monte, it took some transition for our guys to pick up his slang, but once they got it down, it was easy. His strategies were pretty much the same, and having Eric Berry helped him a lot since his Tampa 2 needed a stud safety. Monte was always the player favorite coach and if anyone had questions they'd go to him. Wise man Monte.

Q: Were you recruited out of Alaska? That state isn't exactly a hotbed of recruits haha
A: Amazingly enough, I was. I met a friend of Coach Fulmer's in the Kodiak airport and I told him to pass along a good word for me. Soon enough I had Coach Fulmer giving me a couple of phone calls. Apparently back in the 90s there was one Alaskan that played for UT... We are verrrry very few.

Q: Is Eric Berry as cool of a guy as he seems?
A: He's about as cool as they get. I talk to him regularly over text and he is the epitome of down to earth superstar. He's a light eyed black dude, how often do you see that? His face was on the back of the Neyland scoreboard and every time we'd walk down there he'd say "I still can't believe that's me up there." Humble guy, that ACL better be ready to rock this year.

Q: Do you believe college football players should be paid?
A: I'll tentatively say yes. We get stipends, but they are barely enough to buy anything with. It was like $100 a week. Yeah, we get a free education (the full scholarship guys at least) and a portal to a career where you COULD make millions... But there is zero opportunity to have a job and make any money. Playing football is the job. Wake up at 4:45am to work out from 5-6am every weekday except Wednesday, have meetings at 2:15pm, practice at 4, get out at 7. Then stack up to 3 hours of classes per day, that's more than an 8 hour work day. If young men are having their bodies run through crash courses every day for 8 months, I think they should get paid. But not a lot, just more than they do now.

Q: How would you describe Lane inside of the locker room where the cameras usually can't go? If you watch any of his press conferences, he comes off as a very reserved guy with lots of dry humor. But in the locker room, I know he loves firing up his players and just wanted to hear from a first hand account about how effective he is at it.
A: He loves to talk ****. You saw the press conference where he said we were gonna take it to Florida and Alabama... He always takes what everyone else is saying and throws it in our faces and uses it to his advantage. He gets to yelling at the end of his 'talks' and by then everyone's blood is boiling and it's time to go to battle. Him and Orgeron knew what they were doing. Pre-game we'd have a tunnel for Lane as he'd come out and get us ready, then Orgeron would go around slapping helmets and Lane would be telling us what's about to go down. We were all skeptical about what he'd be like on gameday... We'd been around him all winter, spring, and summer, but not gameday. Then opening day rolled around and he stepped out and said "You guys hear that? That's 100,000 people in orange waiting for you to kick some ****ing ass!! Let's not keep them waiting" he led the charge out of the tunnel about 15 seconds later. It was pretty cool.

Q: Can you confirm any of these Rod Wilks-isms ? Does the team know about them, or is this just a fan thing?
A: Hahahaha. I know Rod personally and that is ****ing hilarious. I can confirm that he actually does LOVE Mexican food as well as hot food, so the burritos thing is true. And I have no idea where people got the unicycle info from but he used to ride that thing to practice every day. I had never heard about them until now but those are awesome.

Q: What was Ed Orgeron like?
A: He's a teddy bear. Off the field at least, and when he's in a good mood on the field. Get him pissed off and good bye having a fun time though. We learned not to ask him anything about his time at Ole Miss after a freshman initiation team event (freshman have to do something, a skit, stand up, sing, do a talent in front of the team and the team has to applaud for them to pass) and one kid imitated Orgeron at Ole Miss. That kid ran for so long the next morning it was terrifying.

Q: Did you get free stuff from bowl games?
A: We got way more than $500 for a bowl game. In just spending cash we got over $1000. In gifts we got probably $600 worth. So in total we got about $1600 worth of stuff.

Q: Why did you transfer? How much playing time did you get at UT?
A: I decided to leave primarily because I didn't want to put up with another coaching regime change. **** luck that I decided to go to there during the most tumultuous time in the program's history. I was strictly kickoff duty for all of 2009 and I got to play WR for two series against Western Kentucky and one series against Memphis. No catches, but lots of good blocks!
Q: You said you were from Alaska. What was it like attending school and playing football so far from home?
A: Accents everywhere. Hot and muggy during the summer was ridiculous, especially when putting on the pads. First day of spring practice it was 40 and raining and it was just like home haha. It was surreal, grew up on an island in the North Pacific playing football on sand and dirt/mud fields going to a HS of 850 kids... To a university 5,000 miles away with 35,000 students and a 100,000 seat stadium. First time running through the T, I could've sworn I was in a dream.
Q: What was your greatest single moment as a Tennessee player?
A: Single greatest moment would be running through the T for the first time. Completely unreal and I didn't believe it was happening. You can prepare yourself for it as much as you want but the first time you slap the sign above the locker room and the wave of players in front of you goes forward... Had to pinch myself right before I ran out to see if it was real.
Q: How often did you or your teammates read about themselves on message boards and the like?
A: I read the message boards all the time. I know EB (Eric Berry) did too because we talked about some of the funny/dumb stuff people would say and we still talk about it to this day. EB was very famous in Tennessee but he just hoped nobody said anything bad about him. As for everyone else, the majority of guys don't but I wouldn't be surprised.

Q: What were some other big name recruiting stories you heard about that are interesting?
A: We never really heard anything about recruiting. Pretty much all everyone else hears. Nothing was fishy about Eric Berry, Nukeese, or Bryce Brown though, talked to those guys a bunch of times. Other than that, I don't have a clue.

Q: I was playing NCAA 12 with my roommate last semester, and he asked me how cool I thought it would be if I was an athlete and I was playing as myself in a video game. So....assuming you played an NCAA video game while you were at Tennessee, what is it like seeing yourself in a game? Do you ever edit the depth charts or anything to put yourself as the go-to guy and tell your QB, "This is what would happen if I was your man?"
A: It is still cool to this day that I was in a game. But when I put myself in to play I sucked ass haha. I had ratings in the 40s and 50s. It was fun trying to get myself to be Heisman as a 51 overall. I definitely played with our QB, Jonathan Crompton, and told him the only way he would win in real life and the game was to give me the rock. He was slightly better than me and won anyway haha.

Q: Anything that happens on the field or off the field that is a big part of college football that fans are not aware of?
A: It is still cool to this day that I was in a game. But when I put myself in to play I sucked ass haha. I had ratings in the 40s and 50s. It was fun trying to get myself to be Heisman as a 51 overall. I definitely played with our QB, Jonathan Crompton, and told him the only way he would win in real life and the game was to give me the rock. He was slightly better than me and won anyway haha.

Q: What was your favorite part of being a college football player?
A: Free clothes.. Team clothes. Shoes, shirts, pants, sweatshirts, socks, jackets, fleece, gloves, hats, you name it. Those adidas socks are my best socks to this day. Secondly I would say the services that are available academically. We had our own 3 story building specifically for athletes. I find it harder for an athlete to fail a class than to get an A

Q: did you or any player ever flirt/ hit on layla?
A: Better question would be who DIDN'T hit on Layla. She's a damn California barbie girl and Lane knows it.
 
#15
#15
For those of you not familiar with reddit: Occasionally people will post AMA (ask me anything) threads on topics that people find interesting. It was posted about 12 hours ago, so I doubt he is still answering questions.

But anyway he was answering questions regarding his time at UT and I'm sure some about Kiffin as well. Thought some folks here might find it interesting.

Didn't see it posted already, feel free to merge if that is the case.

Was asked.. I played at Tennessee under Lane Kiffin. AMA : CFB



My favorite part was him talking about Kiffin. Actually made me like him a little bit more.


Q: How would you describe Lane inside of the locker room where the cameras usually can't go? If you watch any of his press conferences, he comes off as a very reserved guy with lots of dry humor. But in the locker room, I know he loves firing up his players and just wanted to hear from a first hand account about how effective he is at it.
A: He loves to talk ****. You saw the press conference where he said we were gonna take it to Florida and Alabama... He always takes what everyone else is saying and throws it in our faces and uses it to his advantage. He gets to yelling at the end of his 'talks' and by then everyone's blood is boiling and it's time to go to battle. Him and Orgeron knew what they were doing. Pre-game we'd have a tunnel for Lane as he'd come out and get us ready, then Orgeron would go around slapping helmets and Lane would be telling us what's about to go down. We were all skeptical about what he'd be like on gameday... We'd been around him all winter, spring, and summer, but not gameday. Then opening day rolled around and he stepped out and said "You guys hear that? That's 100,000 people in orange waiting for you to kick some ****ing ass!! Let's not keep them waiting" he led the charge out of the tunnel about 15 seconds later. It was pretty cool.
 
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#19
#19
This is off topic , but there was a video of Lane with his face messed up looking like he ran into a fist. A friend of mine is a USC fan. Been one all his life because he was born there. He showed me the video on his phone. He knows I'm a Tennessee fan and thought I'd find it funny. It's from the end of March , but was put on the net a few days ago. I got home and was going to post it here (joking) asking which one of you did it. But it's gone. It was him talking to the press outside. His right eye had a huge lump on it and his cheek had a bruise about the size of a fist. I was thinking maybe he got hit with a football or something , but seeing how it's gone , I'm thinking he finally said the wrong thing to the wrong person. The person who shot the video might work for the school. I'm guessing he asked them to remove it.

Anyway , I know.... cool story.
 
#21
#21
This is off topic , but there was a video of Lane with his face messed up looking like he ran into a fist. A friend of mine is a USC fan. Been one all his life because he was born there. He showed me the video on his phone. He knows I'm a Tennessee fan and thought I'd find it funny. It's from the end of March , but was put on the net a few days ago. I got home and was going to post it here (joking) asking which one of you did it. But it's gone. It was him talking to the press outside. His right eye had a huge lump on it and his cheek had a bruise about the size of a fist. I was thinking maybe he got hit with a football or something , but seeing how it's gone , I'm thinking he finally said the wrong thing to the wrong person. The person who shot the video might work for the school. I'm guessing he asked them to remove it.

Anyway , I know.... cool story.

Nevermind , I found it.

Which one of you...:eek:lol:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxTmv4GPp40&list=UUFnDxyL6N0et_oM0wjACqzw&index=29&feature=plcp[/youtube]
 
#22
#22
Shane Bonham was from Alaska. Thought he was the only vol from there. Interesting read. GBO!!!
 
#23
#23
the best thing about that was that everyone behaved and stayed above board and didn't get crazy or pick a verbal fight. Volnation might want to take note....
 
#25
#25
Best thread on VN in a while. I actually have a little more respect for Kiifin and his crew after reading this.
 

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