Chris Walker
Lane Kiffin

KNOXVILLE -- Lane Kiffin likes to call his young Tennessee football players "pups."

In that sense, UT's 34-year-old head coach is Puppy Chow.

The Volunteers will square off Saturday against UCLA and Norm Chow, Kiffin's mentor as an offensive coordinator.

Kiffin served under Chow at Southern California for four seasons before replacing him in 2005, when the Hawaiian mastermind departed for the NFL's Tennessee Titans.

Chow, who spent one season at North Carolina State following a 1973-1999 stint at BYU, returned to the Los Angeles college scene by donning UCLA's baby blue last year.

Kiffin said Chow "was a very big part of my development as a coach.

"I sat next to him for four years every day in the box," Kiffin continued. "I got to see him call plays for four years, and see how he did it. Obviously he's had an unbelievable career and unbelievable success, and I've learned a tremendous amount from him."

Kiffin used those lessons during his quick rise up the football ranks. In 2007, just 10 years after becoming a graduate assistant at Fresno State, Kiffin became the youngest head coach in modern NFL history. He's now the youngest head coach in major college football.

And he maintains high regard for Chow.

"He's the best offensive coordinator in college history," Kiffin said. "He's a legend."

Chow, 63, became well-known during his four-year stop at Southern Cal, but he had befuddled college defensive coordinators for nearly three decades at BYU. The quarterbacks he helped develop include Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Philip Rivers and three Heisman Trophy winners: Ty Detmer, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

Kiffin closely studied Chow's play calls and often marveled at his mentor's ability to dissect and eventually expose opposing defenses. While watching the tape of UCLA's upset victory over former the Vols last season, Kiffin saw the Bruins overcome four first-half interceptions and prevail for an overtime victory.

Riddled with injuries, the Bruins operated last season essentially as a collection of freshmen, junior college transfers, walk-ons and career backups. UCLA won four games and UT finished third nationally in total defense, but Chow found one clear weakness -- soft zone coverage -- and consistently, methodically marched his Bruins down the field in the second half.

"I respect (Chow) a lot," Vols junior All-America safety Eric Berry said. "He's a very good offensive coordinator. The way he called those plays and just drove the ball down the field on us was very, very impressive."

Unlike last season, Tennessee played an opponent before the Bruins this year. But the Volunteers did a lot of UCLA preparation during spring practice and preseason camp, and not just because their season opener was a sure-fire win against Western Kentucky.

Every time UT's defense played the first-team offense, it looked across the field at the same sets it will see this Saturday.

"That's our offense," Vols junior defensive end Chris Walker told teammates while watching UCLA video.

UT's Puppy Chow offense scored 63 points against Western Kentucky, but it also enjoyed some success in preseason camp against more comparable talent.

Walker said some of UCLA's plays are "pretty much identical" to UT's.

"I don't think they shift as much as our offense does or give as many multiple looks as our offense does, but they do a lot of things that are really similar to our offense," Walker said. "We've been going against this same offense since (the new coaches) got here, so we'll be used to it."

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