The CheckerBoard

Went to the signing day celebration in Memphis, and let me just say, it was amazing.

I met Jay Graham and Butch Jones before the event started. We were just eating breakfast when my buddy says, "Hey that's Jay Graham!". Jay and Butch were out working the crowd along with the rest of the staff. Got my picture taken with Butch and Jay.

The presentation was great. They went over each recruit player-by-player. Butch was very entertaining and funny. Every one of the coaches introduced their recruits that played the position they coached. They had a highlight film of each recruit.

Let me say Tommey Thigpen is absolutely hilarious! He had the crowd laughing the entire time.

I firmly believe in Coach Jones and this staff after seeing them speak (I did before but this reaffirmed what I already thought). Coach Jones said 3 different times how he was going to make it his personal business to lock down the state of TN and especially the city of Memphis.

I also had about a 5 minute conversation with Coach Jake the O coordinator. He is a very intelligent guy let me say. I asked him specifically about Josh Dobbs possibly going to the MLB and he said "I don't see that being an issue. He's very excited about playing here.". I also asked him about our current QBs Worley and Peterman and he said he knew Peterman very well from previously recruiting him. He said he didn't know a ton about Worley yet but looked forward to getting to know him better. Also, something that was kind of interesting to me was he said he will have a starter and 3 backups. There will be no 1st string 2nd string ect. That was kind of interesting to me; I've never heard a coach use that before.

Anyways, I had an amazing time in Memphis. The staff was unbelievably friendly. Coach Jake even called me by my name at the end of our conversation. I shook Dave Hart's hand and said hello to him. And, as a bonus, Memphis Grizzlies' GM Chris Wallace was there and I got to speak with him (which is a big deal for me being a HUGE Grizz fan).

I hope everybody that goes to Nashville and Knoxville has as much fun as I did. Go Vols! Rise To The Top!