Caution: Generic Vanderbilt Football Rant

I've been talking to my boy CB Alan Strong lately, and from his report the 2008 edition of Vanderbilt football could be poised to surprise some people this season. Alan cited higher participation in summer programs as well as players working outside of mandated programs in order to improve their overall physical conditioning. This has to be music to any Vandy fans ears as it is slowly becoming apparent that Bobby Johnson is beginning to bring in more talented and hard working players than Vanderbilt has previously seen. Moreso than at any point in the modern college football era Vandy will be able to put a team on the field that can match up, or in some instances exceed, the level of athleticism other SEC teams possess.

Unfortunately, I think now that most of the pieces are in the place, the most difficult part will be shaking the "Vanderbilt" mentality. We have progressed from getting blown out by nearly every SEC opponent to regularly beating some, (Ole Miss) hanging with most, and upsetting one upper-tier team every year (South Carolina, UGA, UT). I'm thinking that at this point we should no longer accept close results and moral victories and instead demand a killer instinct from our team. A prime example of this would be the 2007 UT game. After completely dominating the Vols in the first half we went inside our shell and ended up losing on a missed field goal. I think this mentality of the coaches playing not to lose has a serious bearing on the team's mental approach. I am a firm believer in CBJ and Ted Cain opening up the offense and letting some of these atheletes we've never had before do what they do best, make plays. This would serve as a vote of confidence from the coaches to the players, letting them know that the staff has enough faith in our players and preparation to let them go out and win a game outright on the field, rather than relying on sneaking up on teams or getting lucky. Too many times I have seen Vandy go into halftime with a 14-point lead only to come out of the locker room with absolutely no energy and no creativity on the offensive side of the ball. There is no excuse for "working the clock" as much as we do, especially on the opening drive of the third quarter.

Looking ahead, I think the defense will be the strongpoint of this team, and as long as the offense can score between 14-21 points a game I have a feeling we will be in the position to win a lot of ball games. But therein lies the rub, as a program we don't know how to win. As fans we have come to expect coming up just short. We pat ourselves on the back, rattle off some statistic about graduation rates and being "boss" on Monday and pretend it's okay. But in reality, I'm really NOT OKAY with this. I look around the SEC and see the deep and rich traditions at each school, and I wonder what prevents Vanderbilt from fully participating in the pageantry of SEC football. Sure, there are plenty of excuses: we're an academic institution, we're half the size of the next smallest school, we don't have a concentrated fanbase, so on and so forth. So what? We have the smallest stadium in the SEC, and we rarely come close to filling it up with Vandy fans. I would be hard pressed to believe that there aren't 40, 000 people in the Middle-Tennesee area passionate enough about Vanderbilt football that they wouldn't come out on a Saturday morning in the fall, tailgate, and go to the game and make some racket. It's like not voting and complaining about the results. If you don't like where the program is going, what are you doing to change it? Honestly, season tickets are $99 and we're getting outnumbered in our own stadium 3-1. What kind of message does that send to the team: We don't even care enough to provide a neutral setting, much less anything resembling a homefield advantage.

Maybe I'm preaching to the choir, and maybe I'm preaching to no one at all, but I really think that for a University that prides itself on establishing excellence in every venture they undertake, it is rather contradictory that the poor level of achievement in football has been tolerated up to this point.

As I say this I am more than enthused about the rennovations and additions the administration has set into motion. But the administration can't just throw money at this problem, although it helps. It's going to take some effort from us, the students and alumni of the University, to show the administration that this is something we care passionately about, and that we expect the university to hold its athletics programs to the same standards of excellent that they hold their academic programs. If the School of Engineering perenially finished in the bottom two of programs in the SEC how long do you think Martha Ingram and Nick Zeppos would let that continue?

I'm positive I'm not the first Vandy student to get up on this soapbox and make this rant, and I surely hope that I am not the last (and if you're still reading, thanks), but this is how I feel and this is my blog, so what's up?


As Always,

Go 'Dores!