IF I HAD THE WINGS OF AN EAGLE<\/p>\n
IF I HAD THE TAIL OF A CROW<\/p>\n
I\u2019D FLY MY ASS STRAIGHT OVER KNOXVILLE<\/p>\n
AND SHIT ON THOSE BASTARDS BELOW!!!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t watch the game as it happened. I haven\u2019t watched much all year – largely because I didn\u2019t need the kind of trauma this team has given me the last couple of seasons. I just hosted the holiday party and trusted the guys to handle their business. And amazingly, it all worked out, in a way that I couldn\u2019t have expected when the year started.<\/p>\n
3-9 the first year, a disaster. 4-8 the next – almost worse in a way, because there was obvious progress that didn\u2019t translate into results on the field. And when this team limped through the first half of the season, getting blown away by Georgia Tech (thanks for nothing, cuz) and losing three SEC games by a touchdown or less, it began to look like the Dores just couldn\u2019t get over the hump. And then…<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be honest: we probably didn\u2019t deserve to beat Western Kentucky or Georgia. But we certainly didn\u2019t deserve to lose to Cocky AND to GATA AND to UK. So that\u2019s sort of a wash, far as I\u2019m concerned. We shouldn\u2019t have lost to Mizzou but definitely deserved to, we went toe-to-toe with Auburn\u2026and then in these last two games, against two rivals, everything clicked. We didn\u2019t back into it, we didn\u2019t fluke into it, we went out and beat Ole Miss and Tennessee convincingly. Hell, look at the way the UT game went: in the first half we traded punch for punch, went down 31-24 at the half, and then beat them handily in the second half, 21-3. The adjustments were made and they worked and we delivered the goods.<\/p>\n
So there it is, in the cold light of morning: Big Six. Lost one of the non-conference games the formula requires, but made up for it with three SEC wins – Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. The steady improvement continues, and now this team will wind up in a bowl berth on the merits instead of needing to leverage the APR loophole. Vanderbilt heads to its fifth bowl since 2008 under the third different coach to get them there. \u00a0In that time, of course, they\u2019ve also won two games in the season (twice) and three and four\u2026but since that 2008 season, we have more bowl years than sub-.500 years.<\/p>\n
You look at that\u2026and something has changed. After all, we didn\u2019t break the .500 mark once from 1983 to 2007. Lot of 5 win seasons, the occasional fluke over UT or Bama or Georgia (OK, usually Georgia), but mostly a whole lot of blowout losses and \u201csame old Vandy\u201d head-shaking. Sometime in the last decade, the bar changed. Yes, the Brigadoon era was an anomaly at the time, but if you look at the team from roughly 2004 to that 2008 season, you could see the slow progress. And now, three years on, the movement may not be quick but it appears inexorable\u2026hopefully.<\/p>\n
After all, on this pace, we\u2019re looking at the SEC title game in five years, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IF I HAD THE WINGS OF AN EAGLE IF I HAD THE TAIL OF A CROW I\u2019D FLY MY ASS STRAIGHT OVER KNOXVILLE AND SHIT ON THOSE BASTARDS BELOW!!! \u00a0 I didn\u2019t watch the game as it happened. I haven\u2019t watched much all year – largely because I didn\u2019t need the kind of trauma this … <\/p>\n