University of Tennessee Athletics
Inside the T Mailbag - Flying Away
October 16, 2014 | General
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
Mary, via email: Before the Oklahoma game, I saw pictures on Twitter for the airport. Does the football team have to go through security at the airport for road games?
Yes and no. Here's how it works: Security screeners come to the Anderson Training Center and screen the players and staff in the building. After going through the screening process, they are taken down a secure staircase directly to one of the buses to the airport.
Bags are screened the same way, although the players typically only have a small duffel bag because most of the gear needed for the trip is provided to them with what is packed on the equipment truck.
The buses pull directly onto the tarmac at the airport, where the players load up directly on the plane.
The pictures you saw from inside the airport are from the support staff, administrators and cheerleaders that meet the team at the airport. We all get a Delta boarding pass for the charter flight and go thru the regular security line.
On the way back, the team is screened at the airport, typically at the private aviation terminal.
Ryan, via Twitter: I'd like a detailed description of the cheese pizza policy at Neyland.
Pizza without toppings isn't really pizza.
Craig, via email: I'm used to you being a full-on homer on softball broadcasts, why are you toned down so much during soccer?
Great question. While I fully embrace my complete and total homer role on the radio broadcasts of Tennessee softball, the new SEC Network and its online component SEC Network+ have turned up the broadcasts we have done several notches for soccer and volleyball, a process that will continue as the calendar rolls over to basketball season and in the spring for baseball and softball.
Where in the past for soccer we would do a broadcast on our site with one or two cameras that was heavily slanted in favor of Tennessee, we can now do a full five-camera, TV-style broadcast that airs in HD through the Watch ESPN app. The trade-off is that we have to be completely neutral, in that TV style.
That will carry over to the spring when baseball and softball are presented the same way. It means a lot more exposure for our programs and a much better viewer experience for fans at home, but it means being much less of an over-the-top homer for me.
Zack, via email: Is Lil' Jon making any more appearances?
The "Third Down for What?" phenomenon continues in Knoxville, highlighted by the surprise appearance by Lil' Jon on the video board.
The rapper sent Tennessee a package of video clips that the VFL Films staff was able to weave into some really awesome video features.
As far as the future, all I can say is that they haven't used everything he sent quite yet and Lil' Jon is scheduled to be in Knoxville for a concert later this year, so we may not have seen the last of new content.
Danny, via Twitter: Had fun watching the Google Hangout from basketball media day, any plans to do more in the future?
Response to it, despite the short notice, was strong. I know I had a lot of fun hosting the event and our players had a lot of fun interacting with the fans.
As far as future plans, that's to be determined. The idea of a Google Hangout entered our little corner of the internet Wednesday, so there isn't currently a long-term strategy to do more. But with the response we received and how easy it was to do, it's certainly something we'll look at in the future.
I'm always in favor of doing new and interesting things to give our fans an inside look at the teams and athletes that they cheer for. It's why my job exists at Tennessee, and I'm happy to do it.
