Monday links

Anyone else miss college football last Saturday? I did. Here are your Monday links with a look at Tennessee, which plays Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

While college football was absent from television screens last weekend (except for the Army-Navy game), Tennessee was busy on the practice field. The Volunteers had three practices in anticipation for their meeting with Virginia Tech on Dec. 31 in Atlanta. This week, the Volunteers are participating in conditioning exercises this week. "It's very structured," Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin said. "Every minute's accounted for when they get here."

Here's a nice profile of Tennessee safety Eric Berry. He was recently given the Thorpe Award as the best defensive back and is a Knoxville folk hero considered one of the best players to ever wear a Tennessee uniform. He should give Hokies quarterback Tyrod Taylor a handful in the bowl game. [See video, below.]

But Tennessee has lately been in the news because of the NCAA's investigation into its recruiting practices. As Dave Hooker of the Knoxville News Sentinel writes that Tennessee's Southeastern Conference rivals are going to try to use the negative attention on the Volunteers to help lure away recruits.