We have Steve Spurrier's assistant and the infinitesimal attention spans of sportswriters to thank for Lane Kiffin's calm, collected interview session with the assembled media hordes who would feast on the new kid's infamously loose tongue. The question of the mysterious Tebow ballot exclusion has overshadowed absolutely everything here this week, to the detriment of the mood of everyone who has somehow managed to refrain from asking about it. Instead of inquiries about Kiffin's motormouth (the subject of one roundabout question directed to fellow newcomer Gene Chizik and another to noted blusterer Spurrier), every coach in attendance has been bombarded with anywhere from one to five questions about which quarterback they voted for on the All-SEC team, whether they fill out their own ballots and what they think of Tim Tebow. In person, this is even more tedious than it sounds.

Before it leaves en masse, I assume the swarm of reporters will descend on itself to smoke out the three voters who left Tebow off their All-SEC ballot for the media's all-conference team. We will identify the culprits and we will string them up.

Kiffin, for his part, fielded questions that were overwhelmingly (and astonishingly) football-related. The laundry list of usual Tennessee topics (secondary violations, his own braggadocio, a recruit once convicted of a serious felony, Pahokee High) received exactly one question each, and in watching him answer with aw-shucks aplomb, it's clear the seven months in front of a mic have settled Kiffin down. The rest was largely recruiting, the new staff, and incoming players who remain unknown factors. It's going too far to say the media was ready or willing to move on from intangibles to talk of X's and O's, but for my part, all gratitude to South Carolina's erroneous ballot for presenting them with the next shiny object. Talking about football has been a welcome change.