Make your plans to join us for our Smoothie King Signing Day Spectacular at Calhoun's Pellissippi Parkway. What a great deal and terrific time we will have ringing in another awesome signing class together. It's a day of hope. One of the terrific days on our sports calendar. I love every minute of giving those kids their day. For some young guys that Wednesday will be the pinnacle. That's okay. Congrats to them for their accomplishments. We will gather as a fan base in the upstairs of Calhoun's Pellissippi Parkway. Buffet upstairs. $13 per person (tip included). With a cash bar. Bring the kids! Bring the family! We'll be there from 10a till 2p Eastern time! Please come and join us!!!



Orange Throat leads things off on this Friday.




Throaty....I'll go riff for riff with you in a rather wordy manner.

I Like The QB's Coach Hire & I'm Not Alone: Rick Villarreal was terrific yesterday in discussing the impending hire of UT QB Coach Mike Canales. This is nothing but a formality. You will see this announced next week at the latest. The point is, it's done. Villarreal was the AD at North Texas. To say he's high on Mike Canales would be the understatement of the century. "I think this is terrific hire for Tennessee. And I mean a terrific hire. I'll tell you how highly I think of him. I tried hard to keep him as our Head Coach (at North Texas). One time he coached the team for several games and he won a couple, but he had his guys really ready to play. That's his strength. Players really respond to him." Villarreal said that there's more to Canales than just football. "We share a strong faith. I'll tell you how much I think of him. I've made calls for him on his behalf trying to help him land another job. I really think Tennessee got a great man," Villareal said.


Villarreal's comments aside, I really like the Canales hire. I realize it's in fashion to rip Butch Jones over everything. But he's upgraded his staff with every hire he's made. Canales is a hire over Nick Sheridan. No offense to Sheridan, but Canales has a time tested resume. Watch him do a great job with those young QB's.


Special thanks to Tom Marine for helping us land that interview with Mr. Villarreal. He was really tremendous. If you would like to hear that interview, you can do so in the second half of the second hour yesterday.


















In the first half of Thursday's second hour I went crazy on Rick Barnes. Why? Because UT hoops fans deserve better. Come to think about it, after last night, ALL UT hoops fans deserve better. Thank you Dave Hart. Everything we do (Softball is the exception) stinks. It's uncanny.



It's really neat that Rick Barnes is interviewing Josh Dobbs. Now, here's my question...Does Dobbs have a little brother, cousin or friend that's a top 150 player by any of the services in hoops? If not, then why is Barnes interviewing him? Who is Rick Barnes? He's a coach working on his second straight year absent of a berth in the NIT! That's who he is. Does he think he's Coach K or something? Because he's not. Look at the recruiting job other veteran coaches are doing in the league. Rick Barnes is and has been getting pantsed on the recruiting trail since he's arrived in Knoxville. Period. Look, we all love Josh Dobbs. We don't need Rick Barnes to shine the light on him. We need Rick Barnes to get players. We also need Rick Barnes to concern himself with this season. Why do I get the feeling that I care more about UT hoops than he does? Why do I get the feeling that it's been this way since he's been here? He's not amusing. Not at all.


Here's Barnes with Dobbs. Joshua Dobbs is such an affable young man. Rick Barnes seems like a class person. Link


Imagine if Butch Jones tried this with Robert Hubbs III in the middle of a disappointing September in his second year on the job. How do you think this would go over? I'll remind you that Barnes makes $2.4 million per year. Look, there's a time and a place for everything. You want to do something like this Coach Barnes? Do it before the season. Do it in the summer. Do it in the spring. What's the message when you do it now?









AD Fulmer: File This Unnamed Name Away:
If Fulmer gets the UT AD job, there's a name to file away as a potential football HC here if 2017 goes awry on Butch Jones. He's been in the headlines lately. The first to guess this correctly gets a Bearden Hill Field House gift card. Talk to me

I'm starting to wrap my brain around Phillip Fulmer and Butch Jones. I'm awaiting tremendous entertainment from this marriage. Something tells me this is going to be wildly amusing.




Credit the Lady Vols Kinda: They were down 23 with 5 min left and cut it to 16 only to lose by 18. Absent of Monday's win, this could've been an all time awful week when you combine the men and the women in hoops. Talk about the power of the late great Pat Summitt and her indomitable spirit. When you see how that Lady Vols team played last night, how do reconcile them beating Notre Dame? It's called "We Back Pat."



Can you imagine if this happened here? How does somebody get fired from a job like this? Are they trying to recreate the Junction Boys? Link



We will be live tomorrow night after hopefully a win over Miss State tomorrow night at 6pm. Download your Tony Basilio App now to hear the only postgame call in show dedicated to your basketball Vols.


Tony

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