'Basillville:

There is a coach at a great southern traditional football power that wears orange who has been described as the following:


glorified wide receiver coach. if he ever lost his head coaching job, no one would hire him as a coordinator.


great recruiter and promoter but not an X's and O's genius by any measure.
needs a great staff around him.


extremely goofy, consistently says goofy things.

has struggled to beat the best team in his conference.


his fan base was dubious when he got the job and has doubted him several times since.


Ladies and gentlemen: meet .....


Dabo Swinney

The affable Swinney sits atop the college football world after vanquishing his alma mater in the national title game in January, the hated, despised Alabama football machine. After many years of trying, he has at least temporarily gained the upper hand on fellow ACC power Florida State, and of course is dominating the instate rival Gamecocks. His program is battling the elite powers in college football for the top recruits and is winning more than a fair share of those contests.

It wasn't always so.

Swinney became Clemson's accidental interim head coach when HC Tommy Bowden's 2008 Tigers went down the tubes in October and lost 12-7 at Wake Forest. Swinney wasn't even the offensive coordinator at the time. He was the wide receivers coach. OC Rob Spence also was shown the door at the same time.


The Tigers wobbled along most of the rest of the season but did beat Steve Spurrier's Gamecocks and that big win over the instate rival was more than good enough for Clemson to take the interim part of the title away. It wasn't all wine and roses after that.


There was a 6-7 season in 2010 that ended with an embarrassing bowl loss to South Florida. The 2011 Tigers won their first eight, then limped home with four losses of the last six and were tattooed by West Virginia in the Orange Bowl, 70-33. That loss caused Swinney to cut DC Kevin Steele loose, but the former Tennessee Vol has rebounded nicely, most recently at Auburn.


After the 2008 win over South Carolina, it took Swinney six years to beat Spurrier again, in 2014. He didn't get over the hump against Florida State and Jimbo Fisher until 2015. That team lost to Alabama in the national championship finals, but gained the experience needed to beat the Tide in the 2016 championship rematch.


The point of this entire recap on Dabo is, to paraphrase the great John Lennon, we need to "give Peace and Butch a chance."


We are in agreement with our colleagues at tonybasilio.com on all of Butch's shortcomings, but we would point out there was probably as much doubt of Swinney after four years as there is with Butch and our fan base now. The similarities are striking.


So, as the 2017 Vols prepare to start preparations for a new season tomorrow, take a breath fellow Vol fans and let's find our happy place. Let's go into the Mercedes-Benz Dome on Labor Day night with high hopes and enthusiasm.


There will be plenty of time to moan and groan if things don't go well this season. You can be assured that snark and sarcasm will flow from this keyboard if things go badly and the program looks irretrievable, but we're not going to go down that rabbit hole quickly. Let's let things develop. As the legendary John Majors likes to say: 'let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst."



Orange Throat'

'5 STAR “DUNKIRK” IS A LOCK FOR A
BEST PICTURE OSCAR NOMINATION


Don’t plan on going to the Concession Stand during the movie Dunkirk. The 5-star World War 2 film, directed by Christopher Nolan, begins in dramatic fashion on the coast of France and never lets up for the entire movie. You’ll have a tough time taking your eyes off of the big screen.


Dunkirk may very well be the best war movie since Saving Private Ryan. The cast is also 5-star, led by Fionn Whitehead and Harry Styles (One Direction singer). In his big screen acting debut,
Styles is fantastic as a British soldier, who finds himself stranded on Dunkirk beach along with 400,000 British military comrades.
The Germans had pushed the Allies to the sea at Dunkirk and were bombarding them from the air and by land.


Winston Churchill and the British military leaders put out the call for civilians with boats to travel from England across the English Channel. Their mission was to pick up as many of the stranded British military men as possible and ferry them back home. The civilian naval force would have to navigate around German dive bombers, U-boats, and other obstacles though.


The bravery of the civilians, combined with the success of the Royal Air Force, eventually rescued over 330,000 men. This likely gave Churchill and the British the strength to continue their fight against the ever-expanding forces of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.


The movie shifts scenes throughout, detailing the activities on Dunkirk beach, the air battles, and the civilian naval force. Director Christopher Nolan pulls this off to perfection. Great performances from Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, and others make Dunkirk a film to be reckoned with when it comes time to announce Oscar nominations in January.


Dunkirk will keep you focused throughout, right down to when young soldier Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) reads Churchill’s famous speech. Those words leave you feeling hopeful, but they also brought tears to my eyes as they were calmly read. Part of that speech I’ll quote here……”We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER!”


The free world was near the breaking point. Thank goodness for the bravery and strength of the British, French, and other allies.
Dunkirk is a film that you won’t soon forget.



See you in the back row!

Jack Tate'

Tony B Needs You For Gate Twenty Won & Vol-Scars!!! I'd like to get your personal stories to include in our Gate Twenty Won and VolScars audio podcasts! Here's a link to the contact number and a list of all of the games.

FAQ's Asked Of Tony Per Our Relaunch Announcement:

Q: Tony, you didn't say anything about your daily show yesterday. Will you continue to do this?

A: Absolutely. I'm looking forward to year #24 with you.


Q: Tony, you used the word 'subscribe'. What Am I subscribing too?

A: Great question. 'Subscribe' is a misnomer. What you actually are doing if you choose to help us monthly (and we need this for budgeting reasons) is actually acting as a patron. The goal is to keep the content (ALL CONTENT, from postgame offerings to various podcasts) free for all.


Q: So, if I'm not subscribing and I'm already reading this, why give?

A: Because you value the content and our contribution to the market and you want to help us keep this stuff free for everybody.


Q: Are you going to beat us up for money all the time here?

A: Absolutely not. I will bring this up a few times heading into the football season as we attempt to meet our financial goals and create new programming. I'll also mention it in the post-game format as well as the regional programming. I will not however wear you out with this. Either you feel the need to help us or you don't. This is why I'm taking today to field some question I received after day one.


Q: What happens if this doesn't generate the revenue you're seeking?

A: We will scale back our online offerings accordingly. The blog itself could even disappear. I really don't want this to happen but will be forced to spend my time in the most profitable way necessary. That's why we're having the conversation. All my cards are on the table here.


Q: When will we be able to hear these new podcasts, like that X-Cast?

A: It's all coming soon. We premiered a new Gate Twenty Won yesterday after the Basilio Show live on the app and will debut one today from the 1980 Georgia game. As for the 'X'-Cast....I'm going to upload these in real time with minimal production. Therefore I'm hoping to get one of these up in the next 10 days. It all depends on 'X's schedule.


Q: When will Southeastern Sunday debut?
A: We're shooting for the Sunday after the first full weekend of the football season.

'TB,

Listening to yesterday's show and reading the blog...I agree with your overall premise that ACC coaches currently outshine the SEC. I do take a bit of a different view why. You said something like "Coaches are running from Saban...". Which I think is a not accurate.


I believe I am right in saying that when Nick came back to the league from the Dolphins the SEC had 5 sitting coaches with National championship rings. That is STRONG! Can we find another league in college history with the same strength? At the same time, UGA, Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Candy had some of the best coaches in their last 30 year period. A truly Golden Era for coaches in the SEC.


Fulmer and HBC ran out of gas, lost fire, stopped recruiting and got out worked by Saban. They both were fired/quit/resigned what ever...because they were not getting the job done. Same with the Hatter..he didn't run, he was run off. Same with Richt, same with Tubberville, same with Cutcliffe. Urban cryer ran away to what he wanted. But the rest of the coaches got old physically or just were old and stale to their perspective fan bases and thus run out of town...because that diminutive dictator in T--town is the devil and he sucks the life out of rival schools.


I propose that when other schools are looking for the next guy...the really big names don't want to take him on. They'd rather go somewhere that has a better sight line to the BCS/ playoff opportunity. Saban has set up such a road block...if the money in a weaker conference is almost as good, and chances of glory were seemingly better...wouldn't you go ACC rather than SEC?


And..the reality is...no matter the generation...there tends to be 8-10 Great coaches at a time. 10 years ago we had 4 or 5 in this one league. Now we have 1. We lack great coaches in the SEC because they are few and far between and when a job opens, they look and see the prospect of beating the best and they shy away. When he retires, I would not be surprised to see the cycle swing back to the great coaches taking SEC jobs.

Go Vols!

Ward
Houston, TX'

'Tony:

I enjoyed your list of top games in modern UT history. While I went down the list it was nice to see that I had attended half, the 1999 NC game, 2001 at Florida and 1991 at ND.

Wow!!

Tim'