I guess I have to say something about alma mater. I never expected, after the disaster that was California football in 2007, that I would replicate the same experience with Vanderbilt, of all teams, in 2008. Five straight to open the season, a couple of high-profile victories, an unprecedented national ranking and all kinds of attention at 5-0, and then a sudden and inexorable collapse leading to a loss over the underdog arch-rival and a final record of 6-6. But there you have it. The same team that owned Thursday nights, the team that took down Steve Spurrier in week 2 and got Auburn’s offensive coordinator fired within 48 hours of the loss – that team shat the bed against Mississippi State and Duke and Tennessee and Wake Forest and almost managed to piss away a 21-point halftime lead over Kentucky.
I know it’s meant to be some sort of breakthrough, our first bowl game in 26 years, but it’s 6-6. It’s one whole win more than we’ve managed countless times since 1990. It’s a team that by rights should be sitting on 8 or 9 wins – hell, in theory we should have beaten everyone bar Georgia and Florida and be ticketed for New Years’ Day, and we beat two teams that probably will play on January 1. And for those six wins, it looks increasingly likely that Vanderbilt’s bowl trip won’t even take them out of 615, let alone the state of Tennessee.
So yeah, dynamite, blah blah. It doesn’t feel like much of a winning season, because it’s not – yet. In fact, despite the bowl berth, the odds strongly favor Vandy posting their 26th consecutive losing season. And ultimately, that’s the reason I can’t get cised: we haven’t turned the corner, not by a long shot, and next year is going to tell a lot about what this program actually has.