Morrow: Visiting MTV star Nick Lachey says he backs Kiffin

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by Terry Morrow (Contact)
Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Nick Lachey knows he’s stepping into Vols country on Saturday, and he’s prepared for it.

The singer/ MTV star will be attending the University of Tennessee game on Saturday, when the team faces the University of Georgia. He’ll be on the sidelines and get the full all-star treatment. So who’s he rooting for?

“I’ll be pulling for the Vols,” he says during an interview on Wednesday.

Is he just saying that so we’ll visit his new online bidding site, www.winnit.com, sort of a reverse ebay in which low bids are encouraged? Or is he merely trying to get into our good graces because he’ll be in Knoxville to visit Second Harvest and bring attention to one of his favorite causes, Feeding America?

No, Lachey, who is best known for his days with 98 Degrees and his widely publicized marriage to Jessica Simpson, has a more personal reason to back the Vols. They stem from his college days.

“I’m kind of a Lane Kiffin fan,” Lachey says. “I went to (University of Southern California) where he was our (offensive) coordinator so I still follow him and pull for him.”

Lachey will tour Second Harvest on Saturday before going to Neyland Stadium and handing out promotions items for Feeding America. Part of the proceeds from winnit.com goes to Feeding America, which focuses on the hunger problem in the United States.

“Clearly, we are in a time when more and more people are needing those (food) banks,” he says. “When I heard the statistic like one in every eight Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from, I (realized) this problem is in every city and every state.

“Frankly, it’s one problem every one of us can do something about and try and solve.”

Lachey is not exactly tech savvy. He’s never bought anything off ebay and doesn’t do a lot of shopping online. It’s almost ironic he co-founded winnit.com, admitting this is a whole new world for him. He doesn’t do Facebook or MySpace and has only recently gotten into Twitter, though he’s yet to get the hang of it.

“The whole online world is kind of foreign to me,” he says. “I have learned a lot over the last couple of years about it ... I’m not very technologically gifted.”

Terry Morrow may be reached at morrowt@knoxville.com or 865-342-6445. His blog can be found at http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/telebuddy/. He contributes to “Live At Five At Four” on WBIR, Channel 10, and “The Marc & Kim & Frank Show” on WWST-FM, 102.1.