\nI 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.\n<\/p>\n
\nI 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<\/em> 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.\n<\/p>\n \nSo 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … <\/p>\n