Associated Press
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. ó Former Tennessee coach Johnny Majors says if Tennessee can play as well as it practices under first-year coach Lane Kiffin, the Volunteers should be an improved team.
The former Tennessee tailback and Vol coach (1977-’92) lives in Knoxville and occasionally stops by to see the team and Kiffin, who has welcomed Majors back to Big Orange Country.
Majors told a Murfreesboro audience Wednesday he likes what he has seen.
“I can tell you they know how to practice,” The Daily News Journal quoted him as saying.
“I think 70 percent of coaches don’t know what you can get out of full-speed coaching on the practice field. I strongly believe that they (Kiffin and his staff) know how to practice and are doing a good job teaching and have a lot of energy.”
Majors said Kiffin really has no track record yet. Kiffin’s brief tenure with the NFL Oakland Raiders “is not a good barometer of the kind of coach he may be because of their operation,” Majors said.
Before that, Kiffin was a successful assistant at Southern Cal. “But, you’d have to be pretty bad to not win at Southern Cal,” said Majors.
Tennessee may be the place where Kiffin makes his mark, Majors said.
“Sure, he’s under the radar,” Majors said. “But so was Nick Saban when he went to Alabama. And so was Urban Meyer at Florida.”
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Information from: The Daily News Journal, www.dnj.com