SINCE WE LAST SPOKE: 11-27-14
BRIGHT SPOT FROM MIZZOU: Though wanting to see the Vols get a signature win at home and simultaneously prove they can compete with the SEC East’s best I did draw some solace from the disappointing outcome. That being if Missouri is at or near the top of the heap why not us? The Tigers run a spread-finesse attack, have a non-descript -yet solid- Head Coach in Gary Pinkel, do not have an overly-fertile recruiting area, are not an automatic Top-15 entry, yet they are on the precipice of consecutive SECCG appearances. Sound familiar? It should because I believe in theory Butch Jones might as well be using Pinkel’s playbook in his attempt to resurrect the Volunteer Program. It certainly hasn’t always been this rosy for Pinkel and Mizzou. In his first five years at the helm following a successful run at Toledo (winningest coach in Rocket’s history at 73-37-3) Pinkel’s teams finished 4-7, 5-7, 8-5, 5-6 and 7-5. In the 9 years since his teams have won less than 8 games only once (the 5-6 injury-plagued first SEC season in 2012) and with one more win this season will log his 5th double-digit win year of that period. I’m not suggesting we should sit idly by if Jones’ tenure devolves into a run of losing seasons. What I am saying is we should be tolerant enough to allow the program to incrementally improve even if the process takes longer than desired. I can live with positive momentum and a win Saturday followed by a bowl victory represents a step forward. Who knows? Small steps such as that may soon lead US to the precipice of consecutive SECCG appearances.
ON THE OTHER HAND: Saturday’s game is non-negotiable. Under no circumstances can you lose to a wretched Vanderbilt team with a bowl game appearance riding on the outcome. Though I see no signs that it will turn ugly, the Vols find themselves in a similar situation and Butch Jones is at the exact same tenure spot Derek Dooley was when his second team in 2011 completely mailed it in and lost to Kentucky for the first time in 26 years. That loss portended the ugly ending to come and I believe losing Saturday will do the same for the Butch Jones era.
WHAT WE LEARNED IN WEEK 13:
NATION:
BC DOES NOT SPELL RELIEF Turns out BC does not provide relief for
even college football fans toughest aches and pains. Though valiant in defeat the Eagles allowed the only points Florida State could manage in the second half be the deciding ones in a 20-17 Seminole victory. Robert Aguayo hit a 26 yard FG with only three seconds remaining after BC had missed a 43 yarder that could have given them the lead four and a half minutes earlier. The suddenly hated Seminoles have now won 26 consecutive games and the Nation turns its lonely eyes to an unlikely hero. The Florida Gators? What a mess we’ve made of our lives. And what a missed opportunity for BC; the headache powder that is. The advertisement campaign would have been one for the ages.
BC Powder; Curing Headaches Everywhere but Tallahassee.
GEORGIA TECH TO CHARLOTTE North Carolina not only won the Victory Bell they rung Duke’s in the process. In a 45-20 thrashing that wasn’t even
that close the Tar Heels turned uncharacteristic Blue Devil turnovers into 21 points, scored three first quarter TDs and led 37-7 at one point. The thumping was so complete it was felt all the way to Atlanta where the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are now assured of a trip the ACC CG to be played in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium on December 6th at 8 PM.
PELINI ON THE CLOCK Nebraska fans I feel your pain; you’re in Fulmerville. You have a solid coach who wins 8-9 football games per year but rarely the ones that truly matter and you know in your heart there is something better. Your Huskers have fallen from 8-1 to 8-3 in the last two weeks, out of the frame of the Big-10 Championship picture and completely off the radar of the CFB Playoff. Your coach is adamant that he knows the problem and can fix it. He’s 0-3 versus ranked opponents this season and 9-17 in his tenure yet he frequently reminds anyone that will listen that Nebraska has won “a lot of football games”. Adding insult to injury Wisconsin and now
Minnesota have beaten you in the same way that your teams of old used to do it; with a punishing, no-mistakes, will-taking, running game. The clock is ticking on Pelini and the alarm will eventually go off. The question is how much longer will you suffer until you get some relief?
HE AIN’T ALONE: Brady Hoke took one step closer to an extra’s role on
The Walking Dead. He should be wonderful since he’s been seemingly auditioning for the last two seasons. This one is more cut-and-dried than Nebraska. Hoke has to go. Barring a miracle win over Ohio State Saturday the Wolverines will miss a bowl game for the third time since 2008. In a column for
M-Live Nick Baumgardner quoted Hoke as saying:
We just didn't, uh, execute at times when we had opportunities, and, uh, at times we did," Hoke said Saturday night. "We had some mistakes in the kicking game that, uh, obviously hurt us as a football team. Some of those were very aggressive mistakes and you appreciate that kind of effort and aggression. At the same point, we've got to be a little smarter.
"If that's the right word for it."
When writers refuse to remove the “uhs” from a quote they are essentially assuring that an embattled coach looks less like Bo Schembechler and more like Elmer Fudd and are alerting the lynch mob that they can get the rope and find a tree limb without rebuke. Hoke’s Wolverines had already lost to an average Notre Dame team, got drubbed by Michigan State, somehow dropped a game to a Rutgers team that has now totally mailed it in and lost consecutive home games to Utah and Minnesota. My guess is being run over by an Edsall in the Big House is something that Hoke cannot survive
SOMETHIN BRUIN IN THE PAC-12 SOUTH UCLA’s 38-10 victory over USC Saturday night –their third in a row over their cross-town rival- set the stage for the Bruins to claim the PAC-12 South Division Championship with a victory over Stanford on Friday afternoon. Combine that with Arizona’s surprisingly one-sided win over Utah and only UCLA, the Wildcats and their hated rival Arizona State remain in play. More on that below.
SEC
MEANWHILE DAWGS STILL WAITING: While the small group of Georgia Tech fans within Georgia’s borders and beyond celebrate the remainder of the state waits. Tech is in the ACC Championship Game while Georgia fans quickly drop Rocky Top for “Wooooooooo PIG Sooie” as they become the biggest Razorback fans in the Deep South. With Missouri setting up a win- and-we’re-in matchup with Arkansas, Dawg fans will know if they are going to Atlanta prior to their game with the Yellow Jackets. The Tigers and Arkansas will meet Friday in Columbia.
CHANGING SEASONS Even the ever-fluctuating world of CFB doesn’t usually see such seismic shifts as Ole Miss and Arkansas have experienced over the last few weeks. Ole Miss has gone from National Championship contenders to a team that has lost three consecutive SEC games, their most dynamic playmaker (LaQuon Treadwell) and the positive mojo so prevalent in Hugh Freeze’s early tenure. Arkansas on the other hand has won their last two SEC games after losing the first 13 of the Brett Bielema era and have done so in a physical, bloody-your-nose manner that I’m sure has conference Defensive Coordinators losing sleep over how to defend the spread 11 times a season and Brett’s battering ram the other.
WHAT WE WILL LEARN IN WEEK 14:
OREGON’S OPPONENT As mentioned above UCLA is the lone PAC-12 South team that controls its own destiny. Should they stumble however the Arizona State-Arizona contest becomes more than just the battle for the Territorial Cup. Coupled with a Bruin loss the winner will take on Oregon in San Jose on December 6th. The game shares a Friday 3:30 start time with the Bruins and Cardinal so you know scoreboard watching will be in vogue throughout the Rose Bowl. With both the Sun Devils and Wildcats at 9-2 Friday marks the first time both teams come into their regular season finale ranked since 1986. Word of warning to the Wildcats; defending the home turf has not been easy of late in the series with the visitor winning the last five.
OHIO STATE’S OPPONENT: Good for Jerry Kill and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. After dispatching a wounded Nebraska team this past Saturday they now travel to Madison Wisconsin for a Big-10 West winner-take-all matchup with Wisconsin. Kill has battled physical challenges, climbed the coaching ladder (Saginaw Valley St, Emporia St, S Illinois, N Illinois, Minn) and now his team continues to climb the Big-10 Standings. His first Gopher team (2011) was 3-9 followed by 6-7, 8-5 and now stands at 8 wins with at least two more opportunities to reach 9. Large odds are nothing new for the perennial second-tier Big-10 program and Saturday will represent another large hurdle with Wisconsin winning the series last 10 games.
ACC-SEC SHOWDOWN SATURDAY: The last weekend of the regular season -usually played in conjunction with Thanksgiving- means big brother shows up and takes their smaller sibling in the backyard and shows them they’re still the man. So goes the annual matchups between the SEC and their ACC rivals. Georgia-Ga Tech; South Carolina-Clemson and to a lesser extent Florida-Florida State are fun finales with lots of fanfare but recently little or no intrigue. Why? Because of the SEC’s dominance of the series. Clemson won three of the first four after Spurrier’s arrival in 2005 but the Gamecocks have since run off 5 straight victories. Georgia Tech has beaten a Mark Richt coached Georgia team once in 13 tries (45-42 in 2008) with the Dawgs average margin of victory being two TDs (33-19). The Seminoles –though faring better than their conference brethren and taking two of the last three- still trail in the all-time series with the Gators by 11 games (34-23-2) that has seen Florida win 8 of the last 13.
SCRAMBLED OR SUNNY SIDE UP? The Egg Bowl has always meant everything to the Magnolia State but rarely have the eyes of the nation been so focused on it as well. Though Ole Miss’ late season woes have diminished the big-picture stakes for the Rebels, Mississippi State remains an odds-on favorite to make the four-team CFB playoff with a victory. Realizing we have yet to see how the committee handles the true selection process and Ohio State’s drawing and political pop may yet become a factor I still believe a one-loss (to current #1 Bama) SEC West team will get the nod over the Buckeyes whose brutal loss to a wretched Virginia Tech team left a mark that won’t heal in the 2014 season. It will not be easy for the Bulldogs. With the Rebel’s season tanking at the wrong time nothing would heal their wounds more than dealing a devastating loss to their hated rival. History says the odds are good to do just that; the visitor has lost 13 of the last 15 contests.
IRONED OUT: Funny how both Alabama and Auburn’s seasons changed directions following a meeting with Ole Miss. The Tigers are 0-2 in the SEC (41-38 vs A&M; 34-7 @ Ga) since their hard-fought 35-31 win at Oxford while the Tide has reeled off five straight conference wins (14-13 @ Ark; 59-0 A&M; 34-20 @ Tenn; 20-13 OT @ LSU; 25-20 Miss St) since their stunning 23-17 loss to the Rebels on October 4th. It will take a yeoman’s effort for the Tigers to reverse both teams’ current streaks this Saturday in Tuscaloosa. After losing in his first season at the helm –the last of six straight won by Tommy Tuberville’s Tigers- Nick Saban is 4-2 versus the team that he –or any other Alabama coach- must beat. Auburn not only has their recent failures to overcome but their latest success against Bama as well. The last time –prior to last season- that the Tigers beat The Tide Bama won the next two games 42-14 and 49-0. My guess is they would like nothing better than to administer another thrashing of that nature this Saturday in the 73rd meeting (Bama leads 41-30-1) between the teams
TROPHIES FOR EVERYONE This Saturday alone -and I’m sure I’ve missed several- someone will win the Heroes Trophy (Neb @ Iowa), Territorial Cup (Ariz St @ Arizona), Commonwealth Cup (Va @ Va Tech), Governor’s Cup (both Ga Tech @ Ga and Ky @ Louis), Land Grant Trophy (Mich St @ Penn St), Paul Bunyan’s Axe (Minn @ Wisc), Jeweled Shillelagh (ND @ USC), Platypus Trophy (Oreg @ Oreg St), Old Oaken Bucket (Pur @ Ind), Apple Cup (Wash @ Wash St) and my personal favorite the James E Fox V-ODK
Sportsmanship Trophy that goes to the winner of the Iron Bowl. They
really need to rename that one after Harvey Updyke.
WHAT WE MUST SEE FROM VOLS vs VANDY:
SNAP AND CLEAR: The regular season has been reduced to one game and there will not be another without a win. Let the fans worry about what could have been if Dobbs would have played the entire season; if A.J Johnson had gone to bed –alone- the night of the Kentucky game; if Derek Dooley realized the SEC requires you field five offensive linemen and if there is a man alive who could lead Tennessee to a win over Florida and just focus on beating Vandy.
DON’T PLAY GIVEAWAY: Keep the penalties and turnovers to a minimum as we have for most of the season (30.4 ypg #1 in SEC; 0 TO Margin #9) and this Vandy team cannot beat you
DRIVE SAFELY AND AVOID INJURY GETTING OFF THE BUS: This Commodore team is putrid even by Vandy standards. They lost by 30 to Temple, beat U-Mass and Charleston Southern by a total of 4 points and have lost every SEC game by double-digits. The rank last in the SEC in Scoring Offense, Rushing Offense, Total Offense, Red Zone Conversions, Scoring Defense, Opponent’s 3rd Down Conversions, and Turnover Margin. They are next-to-last in Passing Offense, 3rd Down Conversions, Field Goals, Tackles for Loss and Interceptions. It would take their best effort to beat Maryville in Cookeville next weekend.
WHAT VOLS FANS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE DORES
OFFENSE
Vanderbilt's leading passer, rusher, and receiver are all 1st year contributors:
Johnny McCrary (R-Fr., QB) leads the squad with 967 passing yards and nine touchdowns.
Ralph Webb became Vandy's all-time Fr. rushing leader with 83-yards vs. Fla on Nov. 8. Webb, (Gainesville Fl.) has 857 yds, surpassing Kwane Doster’s record of 798 yards set in 2002.
C.J. Duncan (R-Fr., WR) tops the team with four touchdown catches and ranks second with 441 receiving yards.
TE Steven Scheu’s (R-Jr.) 36 receptions, tops all Commodore receivers and also paces all TEs in the SEC. Scheu's 463 receiving yards ranks second among TEs in the conference
Vandy’s O-line
(Sr C Joe Townsend, Jr Gs Jake Bernstein and Spencer Pulley, Sr T Andrew Bridges and Soph T Andrew Jelks) has 137 career starts, third highest total in the SEC behind only South Carolina (145) and Texas A&M (143)
DEFENSE
Nigel Bowden (R-Fr., ILB) leads the Commodore defense and all SEC freshmen with 74 total tackles.
Vandy’s other LBs are solid contributors: Stephen Weatherly (R-So., OLB) tops the team with 7.5 tfl and ranks 2nd in sacks with 3.5 while Caleb Azubike (Jr., DE/OLB) ranks first with four sacks and second with six tfl
Taurean Ferguson (R-Fr., CB) leads the squad with two interceptions
Torren McGaster (R-So., CB) leads the squad with 44 solo tackles.
Oren Burks (R-Fr., safety) tops the unit with six passes defended.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Soph Darrius Sims returned two kicks for TDs against South Carolina on Sept. 20
Vanderbilt special teams are responsible for 4 TDs this season. Sim’s two returns, a poor snap on a punt recovered for a TD vs Temple and a blocked punt return against U-Mass
PK Tommy Openshaw is 7-10 on FGs this season with a long of 48
P Colby Cooke has punted 60 times for as 42.0 avg. and a long of 68
OTHER FUN (or maybe not) STUFF:
The Vanderbilt-Tennessee series, which dates to a pair of games in 1892, ranks as the SEC's 4th most played rivalry. It trails only Aub-Ga, Ole Miss-Miss. St and Ky-Tenn.
Twenty-one Commodores will be honored prior to the regular finale versus Tennessee as part of Senior Day activities
Since defeating Wake Forest in the 2011 finale, the Commodores are10-2 in November games. A loss to Florida earlier this month ended a10-game November win streak.
From 2001-10, Vanderbilt was 3-32 in games played during November
IN A PERFECT WORLD: "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." -- Charles Dickens
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
