Nov. 18, 2007
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Sunday Morning Quarterback
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Get your heads up, Commodore fans. No time for remorse. Hold them high for our football train is heading north. Are you on board?
Sure, we are allowed to hurt for these Black and Gold gladiators, who went into the big arena against heavy odds and played their hearts out. They left nothing – nothing – on that grassy field. What more could we ask?
We were tantalizingly close but close doesn’t count. History doesn’t remember close. History records a loss.
Such is a game. We got beat and that is important to understand as we make progress. The team knows that, the coaches do. This program is a long, long way beyond the days of moral victories. This was more like an immoral loss. This isn’t the same, sickening script you think you’ve seen before.
John Q. Public, which includes many in the media and, alas, quite a few veteran Vanderbilt fans, still has not realized that this football team believes – expects – to win each Saturday. Like accepting the facts of global warming, it takes time for revolutionary ideas to reach a tipping point with the public’s learning curve.
Most of us in the crowd follow the ball when we watch a football game. As long as the backfield remains intact, we have a tendency to ignore what else is transpiring. Too many players to follow. That goes for many in the media, who often are busy tracking other scores online, jotting notes or making sarcastic comments to nobody in particular.
The Commodores lost a bevy of brawn during this game. Linemen were limping off, receivers coming out and not returning. It takes a toll. We’re already playing with a gutsy quarterback that, we seem to forget, has only started a handful of games.
Yet we hear and read that our coaches “got too conservative” in the second half and, especially, the fourth quarter.
The offense “disappeared” with three and outs? There were reasons, some were wearing Orange. Too conservative? Horse feathers!
Our coaches are savvy. This isn’t their first rodeo. There were a dozen moving parts in this white-knuckler including those injuries that stole experienced play-makers and continuity from our offense and our underrated defense that had the Orange off-balance much of the afternoon.
If we had thrown that pigskin up for grabs and had one swiped for easy points or great field position, the pundit’s chorus would have been “what on earth possessed Vandy to throw the ball when two of three things that can happen are bad?”
When Bobby Johnson was handed the baton in this century long gridiron relay race, one could say he was more than a lap behind. Our talent level, our competitive ability compared to the elite of this brutal conference, was not close.
Bobby is running a spectacular leg in this race. The leaders are within eye sight but gaining ground is a daily struggle for the strong-minded. There is no “corner” to be turned, no hump to get over. It is a journey.
ESPN’s Lee Corso said Saturday that “80% of the time in college football the team with the best physical talent wins.” Anybody think he’s wrong? There are those who follow recruiting ratings as a sport. If we took those seriously, one would conclude we wouldn’t get a first-down in yesterday’s game.
Yet, conceding Corso might actually be right and realizing that few of the Commodores on the field yesterday were two, three or four star recruiting coups, how do we tally the equation?
Here’s how: we are fortunate to have a gifted coaching staff that identifies, teaches and motivates diamonds in the rough. They are tremendously competitive and tough as nails. It’s the best group we have ever had and that might include the legendary Dan McGugin.
The season is not over, all is not lost. We host the defending ACC champions Saturday. The fur will fly.
Hold your heads high, Commodore fans. We lost a heart-breaker yesterday but our time is coming…sooner than you may think. Momentum is wearing Black and Gold.
