{"id":27425,"date":"2015-09-22T12:50:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T17:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=27425"},"modified":"2015-09-22T13:08:25","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T18:08:25","slug":"looking-ahead-to-vandy-at-the-vaught-no-memorial-magic-for-the-2015-match-on-sept-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/looking-ahead-to-vandy-at-the-vaught-no-memorial-magic-for-the-2015-match-on-sept-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Ahead to Vandy at the Vaught: No \u201cMemorial Magic\u201d for The 2015 Match on Sept. 26"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve got to admire what <\/span>James Franklin<\/b><\/span> did in turning around a program like <\/span>Vanderbilt<\/b><\/span>, albeit for a short period. He took the toughest job in the toughest conference in America, and he far exceeded expectations. His defenses were legit. His offenses were all right. His team was smart, fast, and disciplined (on the field, at least).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And now he\u2019s gone. And in a way, I miss him.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In most other ways, I\u2019m so glad he\u2019s out of here.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Rebs\u2019 permanent interdivisional opponent can once again be tentatively circled as a W on our giant yellow posters. <\/span>Ole Miss<\/b><\/span> can once again look down on the \u2018Dores, and that gives me warm football fuzzies.\"0926-Game-PowderBlues\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Assuming that we already know how their game vs. <\/span>Austin Peay<\/b><\/span> will go\u00a0this Saturday\u00a0(not a safe assumption, I realize), we\u2019re left with their two home losses against <\/span>Georgia<\/b><\/span> and <\/span>Western Kentucky <\/b><\/span>to give us some clue of what to expect when they roll into <\/span>Vaught-Hemingway<\/b><\/span> next week. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And when you look at it, there are actually plenty of positives for Vandy to take away from these performances. But they\u2019re offset by plenty more offensive ineptitude.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Western Kentucky\u2019s a decent football program, but you cannot expect to lose to them at home and be viewed as an SEC contender. They were able to keep <\/span>Brandon Doughty<\/b><\/span> (last year\u2019s leading passer in all of college football) and his offense in check for a mere 14 points, let\u2019s give them that. But multiple red-zone turnovers and generally incompetent quarterback play throughout doomed Vandy to a last-gasp attempt at a game-tying 2-point conversion that fell a yard short.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Georgia, the favorite to win the SEC East at this point, was only able to gain 22 more yards than Vanderbilt from scrimmage. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The distressing thing for Vandy was the manner in which Georgia amassed their offense, opting to pound the ball on the ground for 281 yards while their passing game stagnated. Georgia starting QB <\/span>Grayson Lambert<\/b><\/span> didn\u2019t complete a single pass in the first half (let\u2019s do credit Vandy\u2019s secondary here), but with Heisman contender <\/span>Nick Chubb<\/b><\/span> hanging out in the backfield, he really didn\u2019t have to.\u00a0\"vandy_cv8\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Both Vanderbilt\u2019s and Ole Miss\u2019s defenses will match up well against the opposing offense, but unless something changes in a hurry, the \u2018Dores\u2019 crippling quarterback play will leave them with few options other than running straight at one of the deepest and quickest defensive fronts Ole Miss has ever had. And while the Rebs don\u2019t have a Nick Chubb-type playmaker at running back, <\/span>Chad Kelly <\/b><\/span>will be the best quarterback that Vandy\u2019s secondary (the strength of their team, I think) has seen to this point. So on paper and in my gut, I don\u2019t like Vandy\u2019s chances at pulling off the upset in Oxford.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And look, Vanderbilt, that\u2019s okay. We\u2019ve been there. We went through <\/span>Houston Nutt<\/b><\/span>. We understand that these things are cyclical.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes your upstart, world-beater coach can lead a dormant program to newfound heights seemingly overnight. Sometimes your upstart, world-beater coach can leave to coach <\/span>Penn State<\/b><\/span>. It happens. The winds of fortune are most fickle and cruel on the wide ocean of college football.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I just don\u2019t see those winds filling the Commodores\u2019 sails anytime soon.\"The<\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve got to admire what James Franklin did in turning around a program like Vanderbilt, albeit for a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":15910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/OMVANDY.jpg?fit=619%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}