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Thursday, September 22, 2011

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Issue 27

E D I T O R I A L L Y

PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com

Vol. 118

I N D E P E N D E N T

S T U D E N T

N E W S P A P E R

O F

T H E

Campaign seeks to aid charities Campus Chest looks to encourage more donations; widen philanthropy health are eligible to receive donations through the Campus Chest. A complete list of requirements can be found at News Editor http://web.utk.edu/~ccampus/agencies.html.

All contributions to Campus Chest must be designated to a The Campus Chest Campaign has officially begun at UT. specific agency or agencies. More than 115 each agencies Hoping to show the true spirit of the Volunteers, the charitable received donations from more than 10 individuals during the campaign is seeking to top last year’s donations with the expec2010-11 campaign. tation of reaching more organizations and making a greater Though the Campus Chest Campaign is facilitated and fundimpact on the community. ed through UT, all of the profits received will go directly to desAll members of the university, including students, are urged ignated charities. to participate in an effort to help those less fortunate.

“The campaign is UT’s way of formalizing the process of “I strongly encourage students to get involved,” Dr. Jeff donating and covers all costs of labor and material,” Browning Chapman, director of said. “Some students might McClung Museum and see ‘Campus Chest’ and chair of Campus Chest assume UT is asking for Campaign, said. “If every money from students, but in student gave a dollar, this fact all money goes exactly to would continue to be a huge a specified organization.” success.”

Facilitators of the camLast year’s goal of paign hope that all students $580,000 was actualized will at least be aware of the with total donations equalprogram and where donations ing more than $618,000. actually go. Once students are The goal for this year has aware, it is their decision increased by $10,000 to whether to donate or not. $590,000.

In an effort to alert stuThough the Campus dents to the ongoing cam– Dr. Jeff Chapman, director of McClung Museum Chest is one single campaign, coupons for free food and chair of Campus Chest Campaign, paign, multiple organizawill be distributed on campus on raising awareness through the organization tions and charities are affectwith included details of the ed. The process of streamlinprogram. In addition, collecing the campaign has helped tion bins will be set up throughout campus and in dining halls to target as many donators and reach the widest range of nonfor convenient donations. profit organizations.

The Campus Chest Campaign and its member agencies have “Prior to the start of the campaign, the different agencies all a local focus of East Tennessee but do not limit donations to spehad their own fundraising campaigns that happened at various cific regions. times throughout the year,” Brian Browning, senior associated “The Campus Chest Campaign has been a great way to raise vice chancellor of finance and Campus Chest Campaign viceawareness by supporting the community and a myriad of agenchair, said. “Soliciting a wide range of students and faculty cies that are doing great work,” Chapman said. proved difficult for these organizations and we decided to bring According to Chapman, the evidence for needed support is all of the campaigns under one umbrella where individuals can readily available. pledge funds to any non-profit social service or health agency.”

“All you have to do is look in the newspaper and see the stress Donations can be designated to the United Way of Greater people are under in Knoxville,” Chapman said. “As a part of the Knoxville, the United Way for your individual community, community, you should help if you can. It is the proper thing to Community Shares or any member agency of those three orgando.” izations. Other agencies with a focus on social services and The 2011-12 Campus Chest Campaign will run to Oct. 27.

U N I V E R S I T Y

“

has been a great way to raise awareness by supporting the community and a

myriad of agencies that are doing great work.

”

O F

T E N N E S S E E

Council’s decision supports local business owners; denies church Jamie Greig Staff Writer

Kyle Turner

The Campus Chest Campaign

PAGE 6

On Tuesday, the Knoxville City Council unanimously denied an appeal by Grassroots Ministry to move their church into the North Broadway Business district, after emotional speeches from residents and business owners concerned about the impact of increased homeless in the area.

Amy Broyles, 2nd District Commissioner, described the church’s proposal as being detrimental to the area and condemned them for requesting to “provide a service to the homeless,” when there are “already services in that area that have been working.”

Over 30 concerned citizens turned up to city hall, some brandishing signs such as “Vote NO for new Homeless in Knoxville.”

At one point Melinda Whetsel, past president of the Fourth and Gill Neighbourhood Organization, asked for those against the rezoning application to stand up.

“We feel like we have reclaimed these neighborhoods for the city,” Whetsel said. “Our opposition is against dedicating another piece of property to a service where so many other pieces of property are already dedicated.”

Whetsel also described how there are currently seven churches within four linear blocks of the proposed site, all offering homeless services.

The church originally

applied to the Metropolitan Planning Commission on Aug. 11 and was unanimously denied.

Parker Bartholomew, representing Grassroots Ministry, told the Council last night that it was against legislation to deny an application for re-zoning based on the property being a church.

“There is a fear that we will be encouraging a homeless area. We are a church and ministry, not a social service group.” Bartholemew said.

Brandon Clark, representing North Broadway business owners, expressed the anger of a community having to deal with increasing numbers of homeless.

Clark told the council how Knoxville currently offers fantastic services to the homeless and this in turn brings more into the city.

“We’re just not going to take it anymore,” Clark said.

“You’ve no idea what it’s like to walk to work with your threeyear-old Daughter and have to pick condoms up off the floor.”

Clark’s speech raised cheers from the large group who had come to protest against Grassroots appeal.

Zack Luze, sophomore in economics, supports the council’s decision, “If the business owners really believe there is a homeless issue. However, I think it seems a bit harsh. I mean from what I’ve seen, and maybe this is just from a campus perspective, I don’t see a big homeless problem.

Certainly nothing like somewhere like Chicago” Luze said.

George Richardson • The Daily Beacon

Jack Willard, junior in music, plays cello in an open area of Melrose Hall on Monday, Aug. 22. Students from the music department continue to practice and have classes in a number of buildings around campus as a brand new facility is constructed in the location of the old facility.

Vols have to ‘step up’ to replace Hunter Matt Dixon Sports Editor It’s no secret Justin Hunter’s season-ending injury is a big blow to Tennessee.

It’s also no secret that replacing the 6-foot-4, 195-pound sophomore receiver who had 16 catches for 302 yards and two touchdowns through the Volunteers’ first two games this season is nearly impossible.

“Justin, there’s no replacing that,” fellow sophomore receiver Matt Milton said. “When you can just throw it anywhere and get a touchdown, there’s no replacing that.”

Instead, the rest of UT’s offense and wide-outs must improve their play.

“We are going to have to step up as a whole offensive unit.

It shows everywhere,” sophomore quarterback Tyler Bray said.

“From my decisions, to the (offensive) line, to the running backs, to receivers, we didn’t play well (against Florida). If we don’t step it up, there’s going to be more games like that.”

Da’Rick Rogers, who was expected to complement Hunter

and form one of the best receiving duos in the SEC, now becomes Bray’s go-to target. Against Florida, Rogers caught five passes for 62 yards and a touchdown while garnering more attention from the Gators’ defense with Hunter out; a scenario he’s likely to see going forward.

“The defenses might shade me a little more, but I have to come out and work hard,” he said. “I have to show the other guys that that is how you have to play the game, because you are only a play away.”

Those other guys include junior Zach Rogers, who most likely becomes a starter now, freshmen DeAnthony Arnett and Vincent Dallas, and Milton.

Zach Rogers was the Vols’ No. 3 option at receiver, playing in the slot, before Hunter’s injury, but the junior’s experience will allow him to play more on the perimeter.

“I’ve worked more inside over the summer because that is what I wanted to play, but since everything has changed I could play outside or inside,” Zach Rogers said. “I know the playbook, so I will be ready to roll.”

When Zach Rogers moved to the outside against Florida, Arnett replaced him in the slot and caught a game-high eight

passes for 59 yards, the most by a UT freshman since 2001. He didn’t record a catch in the Vols’ first two games. The same goes for Milton, who nabbed his first career reception, a 12-yarder, in the fourth quarter.

“I liked it, it was pretty cool. My family finally got to see me catch a ball in a game,” Milton said. “I’m just ready to get out there and be productive for the team, especially in situations where we really need a big play. I feel like I can get out there and make those plays.”

But for big plays to happen in the passing game, and for UT’s offense as a whole, the Vols’ running game, which ranks last in the SEC and 105th out of 120 teams nationally, must improve.

“Ultimately, the biggest change we have to make is we have to run the football better with or without Justin Hunter,” UT offensive coordinator Jim Chaney said. “He’s a heck of a good football player, and don’t misunderstand me, he will be sorely missed, but at the end of the day, until we run the football better and attack the line of scrimmage better we are going to struggle. That’s ultimately the point of emphasis.”

See REPLACING HUNTER on Page 8

2 • The Daily Beacon

InSHORT

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Matthew DeMaria • The Daily Beacon

Ralph and Karen Weekly, co-head coaches of the UT Softball team, speak at the dedication for the University Family Physicians $2 million Phase I expansion for the Graduate School of Medicine. The expansion will allow Family Medicine’s ambulatory clinic room to set up a more personalized facility to better suit the needs of patients. occurred. Victim stated that plumbing supplies had been stolen.

1828 — Shaka Zulu assassinated Shaka, founder of the Zulu Kingdom of southern Africa, is murdered by his two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, after Shaka’s mental illness threatened to 12:34 p.m. — Victim Sunday, Sept. 18 reported that his wallet was destroy the Zulu tribe.

When Shaka became chief of the Zulus in 1816, the taken from the top of a 6:13 p.m. — Officer sent to locker as he was working tribe numbered fewer than 1,500 and was among the TRECS intramural fields in smaller of the hundreds of other tribes in southern Africa. out in HPER. However, Shaka proved a brilliant military organizer, response to a theft. forming well-commanded regiments and arming his war1:05 p.m. — White male riors with assegais, a new type of long-bladed, short spear Monday, Sept. 19 disobeyed officer’s orders that was easy to wield and deadly. The Zulus rapidly conto vacate a crosswalk at quered neighboring tribes, incorporating the survivors 9:34 a.m. — Theft reported Volunteer Boulevard and into their ranks. By 1823, Shaka was in control of all of in Buehler Hall. Victim Andy Holt Avenue. After present-day Natal. The Zulu conquests greatly destabireported that $95 had been walking against the light lized the region and resulted in a great wave of migrations stolen from a locker. and repeatedly disregarding by uprooted tribes. the officer’s instruction, the In 1827, Shaka’s mother, Nandi, died, and the Zulu 12:10 p.m. — Officer dissubject was charged with leader lost his mind. In his grief, Shaka had hundreds of patched to Nielsen Physics disorderly conduct.

Zulus killed, and he outlawed the planting of crops and after a possible theft the use of milk for a year. All women found pregnant were Compiled from a media log provided to the Daily Beacon by the University murdered along with their husbands. He sent his army on of Tennessee Police Department. All persons arrested are presumed an extensive military operation, and when they returned innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. People with names similar exhausted he immediately ordered them out again. It was Tuesday, Sept. 20

or identical to those listed may not be those identified in reports.

the last straw for the lesser Zulu chiefs: On Sept. 22, 1828, his half-brothers murdered Shaka. Dingane, one of the brothers, then became king of the Zulus.

1961 — President Kennedy signs Peace Corps legislation In an important victory for his Cold War foreign policy, President John F. Kennedy signs legislation establishing the Peace Corps as a permanent government agency.

Kennedy believed that the Peace Corps could provide a new and unique weapon in the war against communism.

During the presidential campaign of 1960, Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy promised to reinvigorate U.S. foreign policy. He charged that the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower had become stagnant and unimaginative in dealing with the communist threat, particularly in regards to the so-called Third World nations. Shortly after his inauguration in Jan. 1961, Kennedy made good on his promise for a new and aggressive foreign policy. On March 1, 1961, he issued an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. As described by Kennedy, this new organization would be an “army” of civilian volunteers--teachers, engineers, agricultural scientists, etc.--who would be sent to underdeveloped nations in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere to assist the people of those regions.

— This Day in History is courtesy of History.com.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Daily Beacon • 3

NEWS

US prisoners released from Iran The Associated Press

Hannah Cather • The Daily Beacon

Faculty of the UT School of Music play at a performance as part of the Faculty Chamber Series in the Cox Auditorium of the Alumni Memorial Building on Sunday, Sept. 11.

Alaskans receive yearly payout The Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska — Most Alaska residents will soon be getting a check for $1,174 simply because they live there.

Each person’s share of the state’s vast oil wealth was announced with much fanfare in Anchorage Tuesday, with Gov. Sean Parnell ripping open a gold-colored envelope to reveal the number. This day is so widely anticipated in Alaska that the announcement of the Permanent Fund Dividend amount was carried live on television statewide, and dozens tuned in to watch a live webcast by the governor’s office.

This year’s check is the smallest since 2006 and $107 less than last year’s amount, which was $1,281. Parnell warned the amount could diminish more in the future, given market volatilities and the fact that oil production in the state is declining.

Nonetheless, he called this year’s amount “healthy.”

State Revenue Commissioner Bryan Butcher said 647,549 Alaskans were deemed eligible to receive dividends, and

about $760.2 million is expected to be paid out.

Most Alaskans will get their dividends by direct deposit Oct. 6; the rest will receive checks in the mail.

The 2010 U.S. Census put Alaska’s population at 710,231.

Already, Alaskans are making plans for how they’ll use their dividends, from paying bills to putting the money toward a new car to buying sled dogs. Retailers are advertising “PFD” sales. So is Alaska Airlines, whose offer is popular in a state where few communities are connected to a road system and the cost of going to the nearest city to shop — or just get away — adds up fast.

While the extra money is a great perk, it doesn’t always go far in a state where some rural residents pay $7 or more a gallon for gasoline and one study showed food costs for a week could run into the hundreds of dollars for a family of four.

Vern Weiss owns Moochers Bar and Grill in Nenana, a community of about 380 people 55 miles southwest of Fairbanks. He said he spends about the amount of last year’s check in

a week on food and beverages for his business. Still, every bit helps. The economy in that area is tough, and he said he has barely been able to make sure his employees are paid. A dividend check, he said, can help pay a lot of little bills.

Voters passed a constitutional amendment in 1976 to establish the Permanent Fund as a way to stretch out the state’s oil wealth for future generations. At the time, Alaska had just experienced a construction boom spurred by a $900 million bonus payment from energy companies for oil discoveries.

Today, state government relies heavily on oil revenues to run, and most Alaska residents receive a dividend check; people have to live in the state for a year to be eligible to apply. The amount of investment earnings allocated to dividends is based on a five-year rolling average of the permanent fund’s performance.

The market hit from the U.S. recession and ensuing economic slump are factored into the most recent period.

Still, Tuesday was “a happy day for Alaskans,” Butcher said.

TEHRAN, Iran — Two Americans jailed in Iran as spies left Tehran on Wednesday, closing a high-profile drama with archfoe Washington that brought more than two years of hope then heartbreak for the families as the Islamic Republic’s hard-line rulers rejected international calls for their release.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA said Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal left Iran just as darkness fell in the capital. An Omani official told The Associated Press the men were flying to the capital, Muscat. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He did not say how long the two men will stay in the Gulf state before heading home to America.

The case of Bauer and Fattal, who were convicted by an Iranian court of spying for the United States, has deepened strains in the already fraught relationship between Washington and Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was first to mention last week that the Americans’ could be released, is in the United States and is scheduled to speak at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.

The release came just minutes before President Barack Obama addressed the U.N. General Assembly. There was no direct evidence that Iran timed the American’s freedom to overshadow Obama's speech, but Iran has conducted international political stagecraft in the past.

Most famously, Iran waited until just moments after Ronald Reagan’s presidential inauguration in January 1981 to free 52 American hostages held for 444 days at the former U.S. Embassy after it was stormed by militants backing Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

The timing was seen as a way to embarrass exPresident Jimmy Carter for his backing of Iran’s former monarch.

Associated Press reporters saw a convoy of vehicles with Swiss and Omani diplomats leaving Evin prison on Wednesday afternoon with Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal inside, heading to Tehran’s Mehrabad airport.

Switzerland represents American interests in Iran because the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Tehran and the prisoners are expected to be flown to Oman now.

The two men, both 29, were driven out of the prison compound just minutes after their Iranian attorney, Masoud Shafiei, said he had completed the paperwork for their release.

“I have finished the job that I had to do as

their lawyer,” Shafiei said. He obtained signatures of two judges on a bail-for-freedom deal.

A $1 million bail — $500,000 for each one — was posted.

Police vehicles escorted the convoy of Swiss and Omani vehicles, carrying the two Americans to Mehrabad airport, which was once Tehran’s main gateway to the world but is now used for domestic flights. The airport is near the massive Azadi Square, which Iran uses to hold military parades but also was a temporary hub for protesters after Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009.

The release of the two Americans removes one point of tension between Iran and the United States, but suspicions still exist on both sides and no thaw is in sight.

Washington and European allies worry Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as cover to develop atomic weapons and have urged for even stronger sanctions to pressure Tehran.

Iran denies any efforts to make nuclear weapons. Iran, in turn, is deeply concerned about the U.S. military on its borders in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sharply denounces U.S. influence in the Middle East.

Bauer and Fattal were arrested along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 and sentenced last month to eight years each in prison. A third American arrested with them, Sarah Shourd, was freed last year on bail.

The London-based rights group Amnesty International called the release of the Americans a “long overdue step.”

“Iranian authorities have finally seen sense” and have agreed to release Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa. “They must now be allowed to leave Iran promptly to be reunited with their families.”

The three Americans — friends from their days at the University of California at Berkeley — have maintained their innocence and denied the espionage charges against them.

Their families and the U.S. government said they were just hiking in northern Iraq’s scenic and relatively peaceful Kurdish region when they may have accidentally strayed over the unmarked border with Iran.

The last direct contact family members had with Bauer and Fattal was in May 2010 when their mothers were permitted a short visit in Tehran.

It was not clear where the two men will be reunited with their families after their release.

Phone messages left for Fattal’s mother and brother in Philadelphia were not immediately returned Wednesday.

4 • The Daily Beacon

Thursday, September 22, 2011

OPINIONS

Going

Somewhere... Hopefully Life experiences require balance

Preston Peeden Managing Editor Zaxby’s or Subway.

How can I even choose? On one hand, you’ve got Zaxby’s, which can offer one of the best possible combos on the Strip. Very few places can match the deliciousness of their chicken fingers or the tantalizing Zax Sauce. But on the other hand, you’ve got Subway, which almost guilt trips me into “Eating Fresh” and forcing me to come face-to-face with one of my greatest demons: my caloric intake. What should I do? Should I go heavy or light?

This question has plagued me for my entire life.

While the parameters of its answer usually extend past my weekend lunch habits, I often find myself struggling with the mysteries of my life in a simplistic “one way or the other” form. And ultimately, this question is forced into a dualist template of “should I be/want/do Option A or Option B?” The “A” and “B” can be anything. It can be good and evil, light and dark, or even Coke or Diet Coke; it doesn’t really matter what the problem is. What is important, though, is that I somehow always end up forcing every question in my life into an all-or-nothing situation.

With my own personal tendencies in mind, I would like to pose a question asked by author and philosopher Milan Kundera in his novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” In the novel, Kundera asks the same question I pondered over with my lunch choices. Instead of his wonderings being over the weight of food, Kundera focuses on the weight of society and a person’s place in it.

He says, “The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life’s most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become. Conversely, the absolute absence of burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we

choose? Weight or lightness?”

In short, Kundera asks if someone would rather be held down by the burdens of life, which allows one to truly experience life — both the good and the bad — or instead be unfettered and free of it, thus being immune to its problems, but also untouched by its positives.

At first, the question is simple to answer. There seem to be only two possible answers to this question, heavy or light. And originally, I admit that I too fell into that trap of simplicity. For the longest time, I accepted what I was taught and told without a second thought. It was easy to take the absolute answer to every question. There were only “yes” and no” answers, “black” or white” positions, never a “maybe” or any “gray areas.” But that’s not the whole story; nothing in life is ever that simple. No question or dilemma in life that can be answered that easily is even worth asking. But rather, every answer in life is complicated. There are so many layers to every truth, fact, event, feeling and person that no simple blanket answer can suffice. To fully answer any question, there needs to be a qualifier, or a modifier. In short there needs to be that gray area.

Going back to Kundera’s question, I find my answer not at the two markers he designates, but rather in between them. I don’t want to be forced so close to the earth that every experience continually crushes and molds me, but I don’t want to be so “unbearably light” that I float away without any significance. I want to be in the middle. I want to be like a balloon tied to the ground, so that I can, as Kundera’s explanation of lightness puts it, “soar into heights,” but at the same time be tethered to the ground, thus allowing everything to become “more real and truthful.”

So here I am, like the Stealers Wheel’s song, stuck in the middle. Everything in life can be seen from more than one perspective. One can’t answer in a broad absolute term and expect it to do the question any justice. But rather, there needs to be recognition and an acceptance of the middle path in life. It’s with this viewpoint that I try every day to understand my surroundings.

And as for lunch, I think I’ll go for a nice compromise. Firehouse might do the trick...

— Preston Peeden is a junior in history. He can be reached at ppeeden@utk.edu.

SCRAMBLED EGGS • Alex Cline

THE GREAT MASH-UP • Liz Newnam

Columns of The Daily Beacon are reflections of the individual columnist, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or its editorial staff.

Concessions made in preferences C ommit tee o f I n f ra ct i o n s by

Greg Bearringer I have to admit something: I have a disease.

O.K., I have something very much like a disease.

It’s not the kind of disease that anyone has made a ribbon for, there is no funding for research and there is not any particular reason that anyone should care that I have it.

I am an old curmudgeon.

Back story: In high school, I thought that I had really good taste in music. I did. I also realized that having a position and defending it passionately will often confuse people into thinking I am right, even if what I am arguing sounds incredibly insensitive, or ignorant, or close minded, or just kind of makes me sounds like a jerk. Just think of a Republican debate (zing!).

I now realize that I could only do so because I lived in a world where everyone I interacted with generally agreed with me at least some of the time. Also, that what I was saying meant nothing to anyone. Also that silk boxers and cross-country practice don’t mix.

(That really happened; I was about to say ‘that’s a story for another time’ but that was the story ... Not that I won’t bring it up again; I pretty much have to recycle material because I have no idea what I am doing; for instance, I don’t know how to properly punctuate parenthetical run-on mumblings, but I am pretty sure that has a lot to do with the fact that they themselves are grammatical no-no’s; let’s move on.)

Anyway, I got to college, met other people who had different opinions, and a big shock came to me.

It wasn’t that other people had other opinions. The shock was that I just don’t like a lot of things that a lot of people — and a lot of like-minded people — like.

Music was the first area where this affected me.

Outside of Nickleback and Creed, I realized that no one could muster up the sheer hatred I can over bands which in this digital age I can simply ignore and ignore hard. In essence, I thought that my taste in

music was “good” or even “refined” and that other people should want to be so noble. When I realized no one wanted to be that noble, I also realized that there were two possible theories about why this was the case. One, it could be that I am so original that my ideas are 15 years ahead of my time and that history would come to prove me right; two, that I am a jackass. If I have learned nothing, “I am a jackass” is always true and often relevant.

TV shows were next. Many friends of mine were assaulted with a “‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ is totally deep and underrated” attack; I thought it sucked. I also think “Firefly” was canceled for a reason — and I am fully prepared to defend myself against the hoards of irrational fan boys and girls; bring it, yuppies.

Sometimes, the disease manifests itself in reverse; I think that “The Critic” is just about the funniest show ever. No one else thinks this. This happens a lot with movies; I get real pleasure in watching Ingmar Bergman movies; most other people get some combination of drowsy and depressed; kind of like when there is a Democrat in office (political balance zing!).

It all culminated a few weeks ago when I watched “Mad Men” and thought, “meh,” and then I thought, “I need help.” “Mad Men” was the warning sign, the last straw, the breaking point. It told me that I am indeed an old curmudgeon, all too set in my ways.

It’s kind of like wearing silk boxers: It feels good until you want to interact with other people.

Luckily, there is a cure. The first step is admitting the problem. The second step is to lower my expectations. I don’t mean that to sound snooty, for I know that my expectations aren’t exactly the industry standard. I just mean that if my standards are keeping me from enjoying things then the easiest thing to do is to lower them. The third is, of course, that I probably need to stop thinking quite so much.

A healthy adult reaction to social experiences is to experience then process them both inside of and separate from the social context. The disease really has to do with the fact that I process things before I really understand them. You know, kind of like politicians of any kind.

— Gregory Bearringer is a graduate student in medieval studies. He can be reached at gbearrin@utk.edu.

Appreciate unique Southern charm F r ac tur ed Consciousness by

Brittany Vazquez

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I have always been vehemently against anything Southern. Despite being a child raised in the South, my parents were not from here, and I never learned any of the traditional Southern lessons. I was never really exposed to country music, biscuits and gravy, or admiring the Confederacy. I know that these three things are not necessarily defining characteristics of Southern ways, but I think these are what most people think about when they think about the Southern part of the United States. Whether it is an unexplainable passion for the local university’s football team or the Sunday breakfast with the family, I never had it. In fact, looking back on my childhood, I hated every part of that style of life.

It is no secret to anybody who has met me that I want to leave the South. My body longs for a particularly cold climate, a big city to get lost in and all the other joys found in the North. These past couple of weeks I have started my applications for post-graduate studies and jobs.

All of these applications are going to locations that are above the Mason-Dixon line. I am finally about to achieve my childhood dream of “fitting in” with the people around me.

Alas, as my time in college has passed, however, this condescending opinion of “Southern ways” has begun to evaporate. Looking back on the 18 years I have been in Tennessee, there are a lot of great things I have experienced here in the South.

Whether it is the kindness of a neighbor or a stranger, the absolutely fantastic relationship Southerners have with football or the fantastic, fattening food, I have come to terms with where I am from.

The last real cultural marker of “Southern-ness” I didn’t want to adapt to or like was country music.

Any time it was on the radio, I would immediately change it. If I was in my friend’s car, I was not raised with enough Southern manners, and I

would change the radio station. As it turns out, perhaps I should have learned my manners earlier.

This month, due to the lack of good music on the radio stations I usually listen to, I decided to give country music another chance ... more like a first chance.

Turns out, I absolutely love it. I love it for the same reason I have come to terms with all the things that characterize the South: It reminds me of home.

So many of my intellectual friends share my desire to leave the South. To escape the stereotype of Southerners and prove themselves worthy of a Northern school or job, many intelligent students will claw their way to the top of their small town to give themselves the biggest opportunity to leave. I can’t scold anyone who feels that way because I have always felt the same way. As my time in the South dwindles by the day, I think I spent many of my best years here not only mischaracterizing the area, but selling it short.

If only I had opened myself to the greatness that is the South, I feel like the past 10 years would have been so different.

For everyone who feels the same way I did, spend today indulging yourself in a little piece of the South that you probably take for granted on a daily basis. Who knows, you may find yourself slowly realizing that country music is not that bad and country fried steak is perhaps the best dish ever served.

At one time I was that kid who hated Dollywood, SEC football, country music and everything that could ever possibly be associated with the area where I grew up. I frantically ran away from many of the defining features of the South. Now that I am so close to finally escaping it all, I am becoming tender toward what I now realize is my home. I love the mountains. I love Dollywood. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I do cheer for the Vols every weekend that I can (even if it is only on the television). I love eating Southern food. If anything, I could never escape the accent the South has given me. Even if it is only a minimal accent, any true Northerner would know I do not fit in up there. To them, I will always be a Southerner.

— Brittany Vasquez is a senior in anthropology.

She can be reached at bvasque1@utk.edu.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Daily Beacon • 5

ARTS&CULTURE

Korean pop stars spawn movement

Cartoonist faces murder plot

Music, soap operas permeate fashion, hairstyles across Asia The Associated Press MANILA, Philippines — How did Seoul become Asia’s capital of cool?

Even here in the Philippines, once an undisputed bastion of American pop and Hollywood movies, South Korean pop music, soap operas and fashion are now all the rage.

“I want the same brown, but slightly blonde color, as Sandara’s hair,” says 22-year-old hotel worker Kins Wu, referring to girl band singer Sandara Park as she sifts through color samples at a Manila branch of a Korean hair salon.

The phenomenon, known as “Hallyu” in Korean, took off around the start of the millennium with TV soap operas that became huge hits with Asians of all ages. Then came K-pop music, with its flashy choreographed dance moves, now imitated by teenagers from Beijing to Bangkok.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak ranks the overseas success of “K-pop” among his country’s top achievements, and the government operates a “Korean Wave” index to gauge the fever for its cultural exports.

Taiwan took the top spot in 2010, nudging out Japan.

China, Thailand and Vietnam are also on the list, and the state-funded Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange says Malaysia will be added this year and the Philippines, as early as 2012.

“The Republic of Korea is making young people all around the world wild with K-pop,” Lee said in an Aug. 15 speech marking Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule.

The success is not by accident. South Korea has developed an entire industry to take attractive actors and singers and turn them into larger-than-life stars, carefully managing their look and every move. The polished productions caught on elsewhere, and a few bands such as TVXQ and 2PM are now being created with overseas markets partly in mind.

The music is modeled on American and European pop, said University of the Philippines professor George Fabros, who taught in South Korea in the 1990s, but with crisper performances and flashy hair colors and fashion that appeals to Asian youth.

“They train for years before their debut, and for every album they have different concepts so you won’t get bored with them,” said Daren Lazaro, a 20-year-old management student in Manila.

For some, it is also easy to identify with stars and story lines from another Asian culture.

The downside may be a stifling of individual creativity, but the TV ratings, DVD sales and screaming fans at K-pop concerts show it’s a formula that works.

Almost all the leading drama channels in Taiwan show at least two South Korean soap operas a day at peak evening hours, and music video programs carry the latest on the Kpop scene. For TV stations, it’s cheaper to buy the Korean hits than develop their own programs — that have no guarantee of success.

“Korean entertainers have a superior body language for comic effects, while they also avoid crude language, unlike Taiwanese programs,” said Vivi Ko, a 30-year-old govern-

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ment worker who is studying Korean.

Screaming fans pack K-pop concerts in Thailand, waving homemade, backlit support signs, and Korean stars endorse products aimed at children and youths, from candy to scooters.

In the Philippines, the themes in South Korean TV dramas of love for family, enduring romance and destiny are familiar ones.

Networks make it easier to identify with the programs by dubbing them in Tagalog and giving the characters Filipino names. When Kwon Sang-woo visited Manila some years ago, fans called him “Cholo” — his Tagalog name in the popular drama “Stairway to Heaven.”

But there’s also an element of the exotic — the settings in South Korea, whether brightly lit bridges along the Han River or cherry blossoms fluttering to the ground — that seems to appeal to many Filipinos’ wanderlust. The writers for Sparkling, a glossy magazine devoted to K-pop, flew to Seoul earlier this year to map out an itinerary of “Hallyu hotspots” for Filipino tourists.

The craze has spilled over into other areas. Thai teens trying to achieve the Korean look snap up cosmetics from South Korea. Also popular are contact lenses that make one’s eyes look bigger, like the cute characters in Japanese and Korean comics.

Yoo Kyung-yeon, a Korean hairstylist working in Manila, said that clients recently started requesting a hairstyle similar to actress Ha Ji-won’s after her drama “Secret Garden” aired in the Philippines. Men want a haircut like that of actor Lee Min-ho, who rose to fame in the hit series “Boys Over Flowers.”

Christine Rodriguez, a 24-year-old social media analyst in Manila, gets together with friends once or twice a month for “noraebang,” as karaoke is called in Korean.

That they don’t speak the language doesn’t stop them from singing in it and mimicking the dance moves of boy band TVXQ. They often end the night at the Korean restaurant next door, where they snack on “gimbap” rice rolls and “ddeokbokki” rice cakes, popular street foods often seen on South Korean dramas.

Rodriguez belongs to a TVXQ fan club that has 1,000 members and is one of more than 40 clubs that participated in the second annual Philippine K-pop Convention last year.

The event drew 5,000 people, and more than 60,000 “like” its Facebook page.

That’s a leap from the 50 or so K-pop fans Rodriguez said she would meet in online chat forums and email groups in 2001.

Miki Acuna, a 21-year-old nursing graduate from Manila, has traveled to Thailand and New York to catch TVXQ concerts. She said she likes the way the singers sound, move, look and dress, and the slick packaging by their promoters.

“The youth today are looking for spunk, the new look,” said Schedar Jocson, a University of the Philippines lecturer who has written a paper on K-pop’s influence in his country.

“They are looking for their own niche or their own identity,” he said, and both the TV shows and pop music give them something more expressive and experimental than homegrown alternatives.

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murder. The fourth suspect was released by a court, citing insufficient evidence.

Metro said the classified evidence includes references to a pocket knife and telephone conversations between the suspects. One of them is also supposed to have visited the arts center to inquire about Vilks. Metro didn’t disclose how it had obtained the material.

The artist had mentioned on his blog that he planned to visit the exhibition, which runs for two months, but he did not attend the opening ceremony.

Vilks told AP he still planned to visit the exhibition at some point but dropped plans to attend an event at a separate book festival Friday because of “the incident in Goteborg and the attention surrounding it.”

The 65-year-old artist has faced numerous threats over his 2007 sketch, which rekindled a debate over free speech and Islam that had raged a year earlier after a Danish newspaper printed 12 cartoons of Muhammad. Images of the prophet, even favorable ones, are considered blasphemous by many Muslims.

A Pennsylvania woman earlier this year pleaded guilty in a plot to try to kill Vilks. Two brothers were convicted of trying to burn down Vilks’ house last year in southern Sweden. Also in 2010, angry protesters shouting “God is great” in Arabic disrupted a university lecture by Vilks when he showed a film about Islam and homosexuality.

The Associated Press STOCKHOLM — Swedish prosecutors suspect three men arrested in an anti-terror sting this month of plotting to kill an artist who depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Citing classified material from the investigation, newspaper Metro said the target of the plot in the west coast city of Goteborg was Lars Vilks, who lives under police protection due to death threats over his drawing of Muhammad in 2007.

Authorities have remained tightlipped about the case and prosecutor Agnetha Hilding Qvarnstrom declined to comment on the report.

Vilks told The Associated Press he had not been given any details about the plot and didn’t know whether he was the target. But he said Swedish authorities had advised him to cancel a planned visit Friday to a book fair in Goteborg because of it.

An art gallery celebrating the inauguration of an exhibition was evacuated in connection with the arrests on Sept. 10, sending jitters through Sweden on the eve of the 10-year-anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S. Police arrested four men, originally from Somalia and Iraq, and initially suspected them of plotting a terror attack.

Those suspicions were later dropped and three of them are now being held on preliminary charges of conspiracy to commit

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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD • Will Shortz ACROSS 1 Traditional keikogi accessory 4 Apple types 9 Manic 15 One regulated by the F.E.C. 16 It’s enough to take you for a ride 17 “Sleepers” co-star, 1996 18 Literary source of “Bless us and splash us, my precioussss!”

20 With force and much noise 21 Memorable ship 22 Literary inits.

24 City on the Rhône 25 Peeling potatoes, perhaps 27 Env. contents 29 Nature worshiper, of a sort 31 Onetime NASA booster 33 Pill bug, for one 35 Stop: Abbr.

36 Anticipate 38 Call, in a way

39 Part of an Asian capital’s name 40 Often-cited distance between things … or what’s hidden in this puzzle 43 Collections 46 Geom. figure 47 Epithet for the mouse in Burns’s “To a Mouse” 51 Nav. leader 52 State of Grace 54 Judo move 55 Apparel 57 Jim Beam product 59 River of York 60 China ___ 61 Lacto-___vegetarian 63 Creature in Dr. Seuss’s “If I Ran the Zoo” 65 From where 67 Writer featured in the memoir “Dream Catcher” 71 Reduced 72 Narnia hero 73 Center start?

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74 Cool red giants 12 Notable violinist 75 Himalayan legends 13 1990s Mexican president 76 Many an old T-shirt, Zedillo now 14 Its rising signaled the DOWN flooding of the Nile 1 Reject, with “out of” in ancient Egpt 2 “Pshaw!”

19 Cool factor 3 Source of some 23 News deliverer cubes 25 Ox 4 Folder, 26 Vietnam’s ___ Dinh sometimes Diem 5 With 52-Down, 28 Connected with English-born 30 Free cabaret singer 32 “___ was saying …”

6 Hit Brit sitcom 34 Assn.

7 Announcers 37 Parolee, e.g.

8 ___ record 39 Tuba 9 Modern records 41 Period of years 10 Fixed, as tiles 11 and a leg 42 Take in

43 44 45 48 49 50 52 53 56 58 62 64 66 68 69 70

Writes poorly ——— Most overused Weary walker Aegean island near Naxos Farm milk provider See 5-Down Game stick Noted test provider Zhou ___ August 15, 1945 One from Germany Some TV drama sites, for short PC key Green grp.

Fix

6 • The Daily Beacon

ARTS&CULTURE

Thursday, September 22, 2011

What: Movies on Market Square — “Lady and the Tramp” Where: Sundown When: Market Square Price: free to the public Our take: Disney’s 1955 canine classic remains a relevant allegory for class divides and a reminder of the romantic qualities of spaghetti.

Bring a date or your kids.

Friday, September 23 What: UT Film presents “Tree of Life” Where: 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m.

When: UC Auditorium Price: free to UT students Our take:Terrence Malick’s most recent film “takes on the meaning of life by delving into the wonders of the universe, peppered with semi-autobiographical instances from a family growing up in 1950s Texas.” It also features a break-out performance from future film queen Jessica Chastain. Check it.

What: Horseback with Hellbender and Ocoai Where: 10 p.m.

When: Pilot Light Price: $6 Our take: While the promise of revolutionizing the electric guitar is, at this point, a somewhat vacant statement, Horseback’s blend of trance and psychedelic guitar at least gives a warm feeling of hazy stoner rock you can get behind. Ocoai takes a doom metal approach to post-rock, with often surprising effect.

What: The Meat Puppets Where: 10 p.m.

When: Barley’s Price: N/A Our take: Legendary psychedelic college rockers gained a second life thanks to covers by Nirvana and an appearance on that band’s “MTV Unplugged” episode. Almost 20 years later, these pioneers are still driving the belief in sonic Manifest Destiny to crowds in barrooms and festival fields alike.

Saturday, September 24 What: Allison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas Where: 8 p.m.

When: Tennessee Theatre Price: $49.50 - $64.50 (SOLD OUT) Our take: Venerable bluegrass fiddler and her equally gifted road dog backing band are a local favorite, and their shows have been known to stretch way past curtain time. Scalper prices will likely be upwards of $100, so get your haggling boots on before heading down to Gay Street.

What: M. Ward with Dawes Where: 8 p.m.

When: Bijou Theatre Price: $26 Our take: Mumbly acoustic virtuoso and sideman of Zooey Deschanel often seems off in the wings, but his solo sets during the original Monsters of Folk tour often eclipsed better known companions Conor Oberst and Jim James. An appropriate alternative to brotastic bygone strummers such as Jack Johnson and John Mayer.

• Photo courtesy of Allison Krauss

What: Johnny Astro and the Big Bang with Caleb Where: 10 p.m.

When: Pilot Light Price: $5 Our take: Student band takes throbbing rhythm section and throws in equal dashes of frantic lyricism and driving guitar.

Sunday, September 25 What: Allison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas Where: 8 p.m.

When: Tennessee Theatre Price: $49.50 - $64.50 (SOLD OUT) Our take: Venerable bluegrass fiddler and her equally gifted road dog backing band are a local favorite, and their shows have been known to stretch way past curtain time. Scalper prices will likely be upwards of $100, so get your haggling boots on before heading down to Gay Street.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Daily Beacon • 7

SPORTS

No clear-cut favorite in SEC Rangers closing in on AL West title The Associated Press If someone survives the Southeastern Conference gauntlet unscathed there’s little doubt they’ll get a spot in the national championship — and a shot at winning the league’s sixth consecutive title.

That’s a big if, especially without a clear-cut favorite in the SEC. There are plenty of contenders, including LSU, Alabama, South Carolina, Arkansas and Florida. All are ranked in the top 15. Others like Auburn, Georgia and Mississippi State have been previously ranked and hope to be a factor in November.

But there will be many potential season-breaking showdowns before then.

This weekend the thirdranked Crimson Tide hosts No. 14 Arkansas on Saturday while second-ranked LSU plays in yet another contest with championship implications when the Tigers travel to No. 16 West Virginia.

Alabama linebacker Dont’a Hightower prefers starting conference play with such a pivotal game.

“It’s cool to open that way

because you know you have two teams that will fight to the end,” Hightower said.

“Ain’t nobody gonna give up.

So whoever comes out the best man in this situation here you have a good chance of going to the SEC championship.”

Just as it was last season, the Western Division is loaded.

“If you win the SEC West, you’re the best in the country,” Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen said.

LSU and Alabama are the front-runners. They have the vintage formula for winning the SEC — terrific defense coupled with a sound running game. But both teams have questions at quarterback.

LSU’s Jarrett Lee and Alabama’s A.J. McCarron have shown the ability to do good things, though at some point they might have to prove they can put their team on their backs and lead them to a win if needed.

That test could come during their showdown on Nov. 5 in Tuscaloosa.

And while Arkansas has arguably the league's best offense, the Razorbacks haven’t been able to get that big win. The Tide has won

four straight in the series, including a 24-20 victory last season.

Arkansas safety Tramain Thomas said this is their chance. The Razorbacks, led by first-year starting quarterback Tyler Wilson, are scoring 47 points per game.

“Pretty much since last year’s game we’ve been wanting to get back at these guys,” Thomas said. “We have the opportunity, and we have to seize the opportunity.”

South Carolina, Florida and Georgia are the early favorites in the Eastern Division.

The 12th-ranked Gamecocks have star running back Marcus Lattimore, who already has 534 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. But coach Steve Spurrier hasn’t been impressed with the Gamecocks.

“We keep reading about all these NFL guys we’ve got on defense and we’re not stopping people," Spurrier said.

“Statistically, we’re near the bottom in about everything.

We need to go do it on the field.

“If we’re going to be a good team, it’s about time we started looking like one,” he said.

Florida can relate to that.

George Richardson • The Daily Beacon

A UT swimmer perfects his kick during a paddleboard portion of practice in the Allan Jones Aquatic Center on Wednesday, Sept. 21. The Vols open the season with the Orange and White exhibition meet on Thursday, Oct. 13.

The Associated Press OAKLAND, Calif. — Adrian Beltre and Michael Young have one number in mind, and it has nothing to do with their own impressive hit or home run totals.

The Texas Rangers dropped their magic number to clinch the AL West to four.

“That’s the most important number of the day,” Young said.

Beltre hit a three-run homer in the first that held up for 15-game winner Derek Holland, and the division-leading Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics 7-2 on Tuesday night.

Texas maintained its five-game division lead over Los Angeles after the Angels won 10-6 at Toronto.

“That’s what we’re working for. We’re trying to win every day and give the Angels no chance to do something crazy,” Beltre said.

Young hit an RBI single in the third that gave him 200 hits in a season for the sixth time and drove in another run in the eighth for his career-best 104th RBI, Mike Napoli also singled in a run and Texas won for the seventh time in eight games and eighth in 10.

This Texas bunch is committed to making another deep October postseason run after losing the World Series to San Francisco in five games last fall.

Rookie Michael Taylor hit his first major league home run in the fifth — his 18th career at-bat — for Oakland’s lone run against Holland (15-5), who won his fourth straight decision.

Elvis Andrus singled in the eighth to extend his hitting streak to 13 games for Texas, which moved to 24 games over .500 for its best mark since sitting 31 over in 1999.

Reigning AL champion Texas is 12-5 in September.

Young topped his 2006 RBI total of 103.

The 200 hits are always special, too.

“I want to find ways to be a run producer,” Young said. “It feels good. I know I’ve been healthy and I know I’ve been consistent. I’ve gotten to a point now where I know what it takes to get there. ... I’m happy it's over with now and I can focus on the last eight games of the regular season.”

Texas is 90-65 for its second-best record in franchise history through 154 games. The ‘99 team was 91-63 at this stage.

“The fact that they got on us early and got us in a little bit of a defensive mode, it can get you on your heels a little bit,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “I think we’re all tired of getting beat by Texas.”

And the Rangers won this one by beating a familiar face.

Rich Harden (4-4) lost consecutive starts for the first time this year, done after a seasonlow three innings in which he was tagged for six runs — five earned — on seven hits, struck out three and walked one.

Harden, who pitched for Texas last season, is winless in five straight outings since beating the Blue Jays on Aug. 19.

Beltre drove a 1-1 pitch over the centerfield wall with two outs in the first as Texas immediately jumped ahead on an uncharacteristically warm night in the Bay Area. Firstpitch temperature was 74 degrees.

The slugger had batted just 2 for 16 against Harden before connecting for his 28th home run of 2011. It was Beltre's 20th career homer against Oakland and seventh in as many games. The last eight have come off seven different pitchers.

“Their approach up there, they don't swing at a lot of bad pitches and they work the count a lot, too,” Harden said.

A wild pitch in the second allowed Nelson Cruz to score after he doubled leading off the inning.

Texas scored twice more in the third to make it 6-0 and chase Harden, whose start was his shortest since the Rangers knocked him out after only 2 1-3 innings on Aug. 7, 2010.

Holland allowed one run and two hits over seven innings. He struck out seven and walked three while earning his second win in three starts against Oakland this season.

Coco Crisp homered in the ninth for the A’s against Michael Kirkman.

Texas came out swinging a night after Rangers manager Ron Washington attended the “Moneyball” premiere and reminisced about his special days as Oakland’s third base coach.

Washington is eager for his team to wrap up the division.

“You talk about determination, we’ve been determined since February,” Washington said.

“Each and every day we've got to go out and play until they say we've got a spot in the playoffs. ... When we got defeated by San Francisco, we were determined to come back and try again.”

Cruz remained in the designated hitter role while he nurses a strained left hamstring.

Washington said Cruz would likely DH again Wednesday night and then the manager would decide whether to use him in the outfield as soon as Thursday's series finale with the A’s or wait until back home in Texas.

8 • The Daily Beacon

THESPORTSPAGE

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Miller strives on football field, in classroom Patrick MacCoon Staff Writer For UT sophomore defensive lineman Corey Miller, the No. 80 on his back is not just a number he had to take because that was one of the few jerseys left, but it is a number that has a great significance to him.

“Two athletes that stood out to me while growing up were Julius Peppers from a defensive standpoint and Jerry Rice,” said the 6-foot-3, 265pound Miller. “He (Rice) is actually the reason why I wear No. 80 and have been since I was 10 years old. Starting out as a young kid, I was playing running back and receiver and I watched him and I wanted to play like him. He is a great role model and he did everything on and off the field right, and I wanted to wear his number and try to emulate him.”

It seems the Welford, S.C. native has gained a great sense of competitiveness and ferocity from watching Rice and Peppers play football, as he made a strong impression in his first year in orange and white by recording 13 tackles and notching his first career sack against Ole Miss.

He is currently putting together another solid season.

Through the team’s first three games, he has contributed eight tackles, one coming in the opponent’s backfield. However, Miller acknowledges that he came to UT to do more than just play football.

“On the football field, I want to contribute as much as I can for the team, and off the field my goals are to do well in the classroom,” Miller said.

“I’m here for a degree as well as to win championships.”

Although Miller’s dream is to one day make it to the NFL and make a living by playing the sport he loves, he has kept other options open in the sports world by majoring in sports management.

“In case I don’t make it in football, I hear sports agency has a nice agency field to it and it’s something I’m interested in, but I want to explore the field more,” he said.

Miller is fun to watch on the football field, but he also has some very interesting and unusual things to him off the field regarding what he likes to do and the food he eats.

“Off the field, I’m a really laid-back guy,” he said. “I really like to eat food. I have what you could say is a hot wing fetish, and everyone on the Strip knows me as ‘the hot wing king.’

“Something that a lot of people don’t know about me is that I’m a big Hannah Montana fan.

It just kind of started out as a joke at first, but then I started to like her music and have ever since.”

One of Miller’s close friends on the team is sophomore defensive end Jacques Smith.

“On the football field Corey is a beast,” Smith said. “For him to play football at Byrnes High School, I think says enough.”

In his four years at the high school powerhouse, Miller finished with 388 tackles and 38 sacks, and lead his team to state championships in his sophomore and junior years.

Smith also has much praise for his friend from an off-the-field standpoint.

“Off the field, he is a great guy and he is very characteristic,” Smith said. “His favorite cartoon character is Spongebob and he is always wearing funny and random shirts. He is a very interesting person and is one of my best friends.”

Despite growing up a Florida State fan — his father’s favorite team — Miller has enjoyed everything that UT has had to offer to him.

• Photo courtesy of Wade Rackley/UTADPHOTO “There isn’t a thing I don’t like about being a Corey Miller helps tackle Montana wide receiver Bryce Carver during a game on Tennessee Vol,” Miller said. “We have an aweSaturday, Sept. 3. Miller has a wide variety of talents, accruing eight tackles through some fan base, amazing teammates and a great three games, looking at keeping in football through a sports management major, as coaching staff.” well as attaining the self-appointed title of “hot wing king.”

REPLACING HUNTER continued from Page 1 Bray was sacked three times and pressured on seemingly every snap against the Gators and UT finished with -9 rushing yards.

“It definitely looked like they outworked us,” sophomore right tackle Ja’Wuan James said. “That was the disappointing part. Even myself, at times it looked like they were getting away from us at the end of blocks, guys scraping away at the end making tackles.”

Another obvious problem UT’s offensive line had was snapping the ball to Bray when UT was in shotgun formations. Sophomore center James Stone struggled on many occasions, often with the ball rolling on the ground back to the Vols’ signal-caller.

“It’s a product of losing a

little focus on that part of your fundamental and that when things get crazy and you’re making calls, you’ve got to always get back to the basics and get back to the snap and everything starts with you,” Vols’ offensive line coach Harry Hiestand said of Stone.

“He’s just got to make his call, deliver the ball and play football.”

With four sophomores and a junior having started the first three games of the year, the unit is still gelling together and working through the expected growing pains.

“The important thing is that we all take accountability for what we need to do,” Hiestand said. “I, obviously, need to do a better job of coaching them. They need to do a better job playing.”