UT Running To Weinke: Jeremy Pruitt moved quickly in filling his running back opening. Chris Weinke is an interesting hire. This is a great opportunity for him to be a full time assistant on an SEC coaching staff. Hopefully Weinke's recruiting prowess and ties to IMG academy will pay fruitful dividends for Tennessee.



Here's a piece on Weinke's quick hiring. Link



Our recruiting analyst 'X' likes the hire. Chris Weinke is a solid hire. As I said yesterday, he knows the Alabama way (so the long hours and level of expectation won't swallow him) and he will immediately help Tennessee's recruiting at the IMG Academy. There are 4 or 5 really good prospects at IMG that Tennessee is currently recruiting.



Interesting to see Phillip Fulmer not play semantics on the departure of Robert Gillespie. Good for him. Good for us. Fulmer didn't play footsie on Gillespie's departure. He called it what it was yesterday at the Big Orange Tip Off Club, a termination. Fulmer called the move part of a big boy business that college football has become. He alluded to Robert Gillespie not liking it very much as well. Here's his full statement. Link



Strange But True: Last night is only the 3rd time in 3 quarters of a century since Kentucky and Auburn have been playing that Auburn was ranked and Kentucky wasn't. Coming into last night Auburn had lost 33 of their last 35 games and 19 out of 20 to Kentucky.



Strange But True II: Auburn is looking to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003. The last time they were there, they beat St. Joe's in overtime before advancing to the Sweet 16. Auburn lost that year in overtime in the round of 16 to eventual National Champion Syracuse. And that was that for the better part of 16 years.



Strange But True III: Dan Dakich was talking about how impressive Bruce Pearl is in a film study with ESPN's crew. Then he added 'and Stephen Pearl was really impressive in breaking down the film.' Stephen F-in Pearl might just be THE secret weapon. Who knew.



Hey ESPN....Nobody Cares: ESPN did something the called 'The Crossover' last night by switching out analysts from NBA & College hoops. ESPN doesn't get it. They think people that watch hoops actually know and listen to who's doing the game. Tell the truth, who did the Tennessee-South Carolina game last night? Last night they kept deferring to PJ Carlesimo about the pro prospects of certain players on the floor. Here's reality. To most college hoops fans, the NBA is an irritant. These one and done guys don't belong in the sport and everybody knows it. This hasn't helped the game. Not one iota. And 'The Crossover' last night was mostly silly.





I Really Missed The Boat On Rick Barnes & UT: But I dead level called Kentucky this season. After Tennessee beat them in early January, I declared the Cats at least an 8 loss SEC basketball team. Kentucky is now 6-7 in the SEC with 5 games left. These guys are a long way from out of the woods. And I mean a long way.



Saturday: Bama

Tuesday : @Arkansas

2/24 Mizzou

2/28 Ole Miss

3/3 @ Florida


The way I see it, Kentucky is losing At Arkansas and probably at Florida. That will give them 9 conference losses. This might put the Cats in the danger zone NCAA Tournament wise. We can always hope.



I Keep Waiting For Auburn To Wake Up: Now I think they already have. Auburn has 23 wins to go with a gaudy 11-2 record in the SEC. They buzzed last night on Kentucky like a pack of bees. It's fun to see Bruce Pearl with his mojo back. I for one will never forget what he did here for Tennessee hoops. The first 4 years of his era were more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.


Jalen Rose Last Night on ESPN at Halftime of Kentucky-Auburn: 'How about Coach Cal? His players have made almost a billion dollars cumulatively that have played for him at Kentucky'


My Wife Said: 'That's almost as much as they made at Kentucky during that time.'



One Foot Out: Call me crazy but Cal's Cats have lost 4 straight games for the first time in his tenure and he looks resigned. He looks like he has a foot out the door. Really strange body language from him.



College Hoops Crazy Train: Vandy beat Miss State in a killer loss for the Dawgs down in Nashville last night. Meanwhile Villanova lost to Providence.





Wednesday Was The Day Of Love...Saturday Is A Day Of Hate? Valentine’s Day is the day of love. Sure it's overly commercialized and all that but it's always seemed kind of harmless to me.



What isn't harmless is what could potentially unfold on our University of Tennessee Campus.


By now I'm sure you've heard that a white supremacist group TWP led by a clown named Mathew Heimbach will be spewing their hatred Saturday at Buehler Hall on UT's hallowed Hill. To which I say, SO WHAT? In my mind these people are the lunatic fringe and should be treated as such. They should be treated like the mushrooms that they are. Mushrooms are Fungi and so are these people. Keep these human fungi in the dark and feed them manure and nobody will even know they're there. Groups like this came to UT in my day and so did radical speakers on both sides of the aisle and nobody cared. We didn't have a 24 hour news cycle then. Social media and all its insatiable ills weren't a thing. A few decades ago, the freaks would come, yell themselves out and that was that. The news media mostly ignored them and they went away. In my mind if we let these merchants of hatred spew their venom to their narrow audiences they will talk themselves out and go home. These people aren't gathering in any numbers, real numbers, as the national media wants you to believe.


Hatred is as old as mankind as is racism. You're not going to change these people. So, why bother showing up to shout them down? Most of us see hate for what it is and we revile it. These people could be (and should be) nothing but a minor nuisance on Saturday but they're going to be so much more than that as a source inside of UT close to the President told me last night UT officials are on high alert with word that left wing radical group ANTIFA is planning on gathering near this TWP gathering and this 'could get really ugly'. Here's what ANTIFA is saying on social media to gin up counter-protestors for the weekend.

'*!ACTION ALERT!* THIS Saturday *Feb. 17th* @ NOON in front of BUEHLER hall on University Of Tennessee Knoxville campus. MATTHEW HEIMBACH & TWP members to be on the grounds. Show of force needed!'




I'm not taking sides here because I think both of these groups are out to lunch but it seems to me that Tennessee and all institutions of higher learning are in a real tough spot in this environment because there's so little capacity to ignore as we used to. If you don't pay attention to the fringe groups they'll eventually shout themselves out.



Here's an idea...How about if Mathew Heimbach and his freaks from TWP (Traditional Workers Party) get their time at UT on Saturday and then ANTIFA can take center stage next week. Both of these organizations on campus at the same time on Saturday could be huge trouble. None of us need this.



Here's a call for the media to ignore this activity Saturday. Don't report on any of this. Both of these groups want and need attention. Let them both stay in the dark on Saturday where they can spew their manure on each other.



Now you could say, what's this doing in your sports blog? Well UT is my school and Knoxville is my community and I don't want to see a repeat of the Charlottesville deal here. Both of these groups need to be ignored. If you have a child on UT's campus, please encourage them to stay away from this 'event'. If they're not there, they shouldn't be in harm’s way. I wouldn't want my child anywhere near that sea of crazies.



Prayers up to Parkland High School and everybody in that community.



Tony

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