Nov. 27, 2011
It was a special day for Vanderbilt fans around the globe Saturday night. With a 41-7 throttling of Wake Forest, Vanderbilt secured a bowl berth for the fifth time in school history under its passionate first-year Head Coach James Franklin.
In only 11 months on the job, Franklin and his staff have turned doubters into believers, one by one, six seconds at a time. It has been a slow process, but one that continues to pick up steam. Skeptics are starting to understand why Franklin labeled his reconstruction ‘Brand New Vanderbilt.’
“People wanted to tell me all the things we can and can’t do,” Franklin remembered when first arriving on campus. “It’s the same things that people have been telling me my whole life, and that’s not what we’re all about. We’re about having a positive attitude, working hard, competing in everything we do, and we’re willing to sacrifice to get there.”
That confident mindset has resonated with the seniors, who are the first Commodores in school history to make two bowl games. This veteran group has experienced change, and then some. They blindly bought into Franklin’s plan from the beginning and are now reaping the benefits.
“This senior class has been through a lot,” senior tight end Brandon Barden stated. “We’ve been through three head coaches, and we’ve worked our butt off since we got here. This is what we dreamed of.”
Chris Marve knew last July that the Commodores would be in a bowl game, even though throngs of reporters at SEC Media Days didn’t take his words seriously. “We had no doubt in our mind,” the senior linebacker and co-captain said. “We worked entirely too hard to not get to a bowl game.”
But as excited as the team was to make it to postseason play, they’ll quickly tell you that they should have secured more wins along the way. Marve thought ‘it was a shame’ bowl eligibility came down to the final game. Barden felt the season didn’t go quite like they thought it would.
Their comments echoed Franklin’s sentiments on Day 1 on the job when he said, “No part of this program will settle. Everything we do will be about championships.”
And that’s the mentality Vanderbilt needs. There’s always work to be done. It should serve as a reminder to all of us as we do our part to help change the culture to build a Brand New Vanderbilt… six seconds at a time.
>>> As the final seconds ticked off the clock at BB&T Field, I tried to capture as much celebration footage as possible for Commodore fans that couldn’t make the trip to Winston-Salem or attend the welcome home party at McGugin. I hope you enjoy this five minute reel. Stay tuned for more videos on VUcommodores.com.
