KNOXVILLE — Several of us media types were surprised two weeks ago, when coach Lane Kiffin stood at Haslam Field moments after his first University of Tennessee football practice and praised his offense’s execution.

Wait a minute.

UT’s offense?

The same Volunteers who couldn’t find the end zone with government-quality GPS equipment?

And their first day in a completely new system?

I briefly contemplated sprinting toward the indoor complex, because Kiffin’s words made me wonder whether pigs would start flying over downtown Knoxville.

Seriously, though, UT’s offense was pretty good before last week’s spring break, especially considering the circumstances.

It wasn’t as sharp Tuesday, during the team’s first post-spring break practice.

Here is the transcript of post-practice interviews with Kiffin, junior-to-be quarterback Nick Stephens and junior-to-be wide receiver Gerald Jones.

UT will practice again Thursday afternoon.

LANE KIFFIN

OPENING STATEMENT:

KIFFIN: “Practice 4, coming back after the spring break, I was a little disappointed. I didn’t think our execution was very good at all on offense, but I was very pleased with the defense. I thought the defense set the tone for practice, especially the live portion early, which was full-tackling. I thought they really came out ready to play and executed a bunch of new install stuff really well. But the offense fell behind today. We went to the red zone, and the production was not very good down there. We’ll get back to work in the morning and find a way to get better on offense, and hopefully our defense will keep getting better and play as well as they did (Tuesday).”

Q: Did you expect some rust, considering this is the first practice after spring break?

KIFFIN: “If you were to expect anything — which I wouldn’t — it would be that they would come back and not be very good. But one side was great. One side brought it. That coaching staff and those players outplayed and outcoached the other side of the ball.”

Q: Was the timing of spring break a bad thing, then?

KIFFIN: “No. It was good. Some guys were banged up, and they got healthy. Like I said, one side came out and played great, so I don’t think it had anything to do with having a week off. I just thought (the defense) prepared better and practiced better.”

Q: The wide receivers dropped a few passes today. What caused that?

KIFFIN: “The timing just wasn’t very good. We had a lot of new routes in the red zone thrown at them, but we want them to come out and execute no matter how many plays we put in. We’ll go back and look at the tape, and hopefully, as they said, it’s never as bad as it seems or as good as it seems. Hopefully that will be the case, but I thought it was pretty bad today.”

Q: Were you surprised to get Nick Stephens back so relatively soon after fracturing his throwing wrist?

KIFFIN: “I expected him to be back this week. He was throwing it around a little bit (Tuesday), and hopefully by Saturday, he’ll be ready to go.”

Q: Do you expect the offense to struggle on a day where you install so many new things?

KIFFIN: “We put a lot on them (Tuesday). We want to see them come out and execute when we put a lot of plays in, but that just showed us we weren’t ready for it yet, and we’ve got to do a better job of coaching it.”

Q: What are your thoughts on your quotes being posted all over Florida’s locker room?

KIFFIN: “Somebody showed me a couple of pictures of it, and some recruits told me they’d seen it. The fact that our logo is in their locker room and recruits are seeing it, that’s a pretty powerful thing. Their logo won’t be in our locker room.”

Q: Do you like all the hype that is surrounding a game that won’t take place until September?

KIFFIN: “We’re not thinking about that game or worried about that game. We’re trying to have good practices, and (Tuesday), only one side of the ball did. We’ve got to get our guys better. That game’s a long ways down the road, and I believe we play two teams before that.”

Q: Was the offense bad all day, or was it simply inconsistent?

KIFFIN: “We just weren’t very consistent. We didn’t take advantage. It was disappointing, and I guess the field goal team kind of took after the offense and had a poor day. We’ll give them another chance when we get back out here Thursday.”

NICK STEPHENS

Q: How are you, Nick? (Reaching to shake hands on the right side).

STEPHENS: “Yeah, let’s go with the left hand.” (Laughter).

Q: Seriously, how is the wrist?

STEPHENS: “My grip’s a little weak right now, and my wrist is a little weak. Hopefully things come back pretty quick. I’ll be (100 percent) for next Tuesday, for sure.”

Q: What were you able to do out there?

STEPHENS: “I threw a little bit. I did the warm-up throwing, and I threw with the running backs a little bit, but it’s just day-to-day. The plan is to be full go by next Tuesday.

“Like I said ... the grip’s a little weak right now, and the wrist is a little weak. It’s just going to be about me getting some rehab and getting it stronger.”

Q: Is it hard not to try rushing yourself back out there, considering the open quarterback competition?

STEPHENS: “I’m going to do as much as I can. Obviously, I don’t want to land on it and re-break it or mess it up even more. I’m just going to try to stay off the ground, and just do whatever I have to do to be full-speed before next Tuesday.”

Q: Have you been focused on lower-body workouts and learning the playbook the past few weeks?

STEPHENS: “Yeah. I’ve done everything as if I didn’t have a cast on except throw the ball. That’s what we tried to do. I feel good there. I’ve been on top of everything. I’ve been in the film room. I’m out there behind Coach (Lane) Kiffin, listening to everything they’re saying. My reads are in my head when the play’s going on. I feel like I’m ready to go mentally.”

Q: Does the timing of this setback frustrate you?

STEPHENS: “Obviously, it’s going to be frustrating for anybody in my situation. The competitor in you is going to want to play, but you have to put that aside and just try to get better as best you can, even though you can’t play.”

GERALD JONES

Q: You and some other receivers dropped some passes today. What happened out there?

JONES: “I think I caused it, and I’m still mad at myself about it, because I didn’t get to catch the ball after that. I dropped a little drag, and (Denarius Moore) dropped a 20-yard comeback after that, and it just got contagious. That’s hard to deal with. Me and (Moore), when we drop a pass, we do a lap or 10 pushups.”

Q: So how many pushups did you do today?

JONES: “Twenty.”

Q: So it could have been worse?

JONES: “That’s two too many.”

Q: Coach Kiffin was disappointed with the offense overall. Do you agree with his assessment?

JONES: “I thought that we did OK. I thought the receivers should have won a lot more one-on-ones, but I thought for the most part, for the first red-zone day, we did pretty good. But when the head man said he was not pleased with it, then you’ve got to back that up.”

Q: Did spring break rust cause some of the problems?

JONES: “I actually thought I was a little rusty and not exactly where I need to be. After a week off, and guys not having school or football, guys tend to get lazy a little bit — me included. It’s rust, but the coaches don’t want us to use any excuses. It’s, ‘OK, you had your time off, now it’s time to get back to work.’ I hope they don’t feel like we wasted a day, but we do have to be better.”

Q: How is former tight end Brandon Warren looking at wide receiver?

JONES: “He’s a big receiver who can move, and he’s shifty, and we can use him in a lot of ways. He runs pretty good routes, and we can use him a lot in the red zone with the fade ball. He’s going to be a big part of this offense.”

Q: What were your thoughts on Nick Stephens returning to practice today?

JONES: “It was a great thing to have Nick back out there, because he has a chance to earn the starting spot. He’s going to push (Jonathan) Crompton, and he’s going to push B.J. (Coleman) to get better. That’s the best thing about that. I feel like he’ll make them work harder and work better.”

Read Thursday’s Times Free Press for more UT coverage.