Letters… we get letters… we get stacks and stacks of letters…
Question from PancoastTraumaticStressDisorder:
Two part question:
1: Since our guys have a bye week coming up, and Mississippi State getting softened up by Texas, what do you think are the chances that the ‘dores can pull out of Starkville with a win, and avoiding going 0 for the SEC?
2: I first saw Vanderbilt play football a little more than 50 years ago, ominously , the stadium was filled with fans wearing red, and the parking lots were filled with Oklahoma plates. During that game,
I was introduced to the quick kick. All three years I was on campus, we went winless in the SEC. It seems to me that we should be playing in a league where we can win approximately half our games. I don’t see this ever happening in the SEC. Is there any chance we could get realigned into a different conference?
Answers from AoG:
Tom Stephenson: I mean, yeah, Mississippi State is beatable without their quarterback. As to the second question… what? Why would we want that?
PatrickSawyer: I repeatedly said MSU was just Kamario Taylor when asked about “how does Vanderbilt find 6 wins” topics. I was not suggesting I wanted him hurt, but it does bear itself out. AJ Swann is not chopped liver. He is probably banged up though. The Dores have a chance if Jared Curtis can avoid the late-game, back breaking turnovers.
This question makes me hate you. No. We stay. We fight.
Cole The Mascot Head: KaMississippio Statelor is out. A.J. Swann is in. We will win.
As for this second question, since the start of the 2024 season we are 20-14. College sports fandom is a long-term thing, supported by your talking about a game from 50 years ago. We should not realign, we should continue to play in the best conference in the world because it truly does mean more. I would rather beat Alabama once every other decade than WKU or NC State or Samford every other year (and there’s no guarantee we maintain a strong program if we move down conferences). We have shown we can compete, it just takes time to build consistency.
Andrew VU ‘04: Bye week or no, Clanga’s entire offense went away once their do-everything QB got hurt. Because of that, we can absolutely win Saturday. Will we? Man, I don’t know. We might get to say “Stop looking at me, Swann” to Clanga’s QB in the comments a lot, though.
As for your second point, did we all collectively memory-hole our 10 win season just a year ago???
Question from Paleozoa1:
Looks like Vanderbilt tried only 8 running plays in which Curtis wasn’t the runner. Has the coaching staff concluded it’s hopeless to even try to establish a running attack?
Answers from AoG:
Tom Stephenson: Yes.
PatrickSawyer: Probably. And I don’t necessarily hate it … but I also do hate that the running play schemes and timing have mostly been overly simplistic and obvious. The fact Sedrick Alexander has not punched a coach yet is a testament to his character.
Cole The Mascot Head: The coaching staff has concluded they want to piss me off, I think? Run the ball!
Andrew VU ‘04: Tim Beck left his playbook behind, and written on the cover was, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
Question from VU1970:
Did my old eyes deceive me, or did we look like a pretty good SEC team until about midway through the 2nd quarter? Didn’t most of our penalties come after halftime? Despite the wretched outcome, didn’t we look as though we had gotten better since last week?
And finally, do you see us scoring more than 17 points in any of our remaining games?
Answers from AoG:
Tom Stephenson: There was a definite bout of cromulence for about a quarter and a half against Kentucky, no doubt. Was that sustainable? I don’t know. I’d expect a team with a true freshman at quarterback to improve as the season goes on. If there is no cromulence against Mississippi State, yes, torches and pitchforks.
PatrickSawyer: If my count is correct, 6 of the 8 penalties were in the second half. This game was still within reach until Curtis was forced into a fumble. The score was 24-17. The Commodores were even driving after that field goal and were down to the Kentucky 39 and facing 2nd and 4. Curtis threw an interception. If Kentucky is a legitimate Top 10 or Top 15 team as they appear to be so far, that is a very good performance compared to the rest of the season.
I would expect more than 17 against Mississippi State. Florida has also been leaky defensively a few times. And something about rivalry games…
Cole The Mascot Head: Curtis is extremely raw. I am skeptical if he can be fixed up. I think we are far and away a better team than we were at any point from the start of the 2019 season to the start of the 2024 season, and I will be happy if next year I am struggling to determine if 2024 or 2027 were the better year. Expand your timeline, basically. I think that’s gonna be the thread I run with for a while.
Andrew VU ‘04: I probably should have formatted and answered this mail bag before the bye week. Instead, I forgot about it until this Thursday afternoon, and have completely forgotten how we looked against The Wedding Jerseys in any meaningful way. So… umm… I’ll yield my time to Patrick, who, as a masochist, always rewatches these games. But yeah… we’ll top 17 points this weekend.
Question from Dinard’oh:
Are we at the point in the season where you just bench the chuckleheads who are responsible for all the penalties? Or, is this just such a widespread issue that it reflects more on team culture?
And, yes, I am aware you can’t bench the refs
Answers from AoG:
Tom Stephenson: I suppose it’s an instance of “yeah these guys get penalized like crazy, they’re still better than the backups.” If that can even be a thing. I guess it’s a question of “would you prefer a guy who’s good for two dumb penalties a game or a guy who gets the quarterback killed because he’s that bad?” Not that I know that the other guys would give you the latter, of course, but it’s worth pondering.
It sucks that that’s even a plausible discussion.
PatrickSawyer: Outside of the offensive line, it does generally seem like a “who will it be this week?” game with penalties. I think it is pretty clear they cannot go deeper into the OL reserves and keep Curtis from ending up in the medical tent. Being guilty of repeated penalties should get you benched, at least temporarily.
Andrew, shut up.
Cole The Mascot Head: Andrew, they are implementing a luxury tax. I would guess not long at all. I for one would love to trade away a bunch of players for picks protected commitments. But yeah, play the new guys. And just don’t foul, like what are we doing????
Andrew VU ‘04: I mean, many of them are upperclassmen transfers who are about to be out of eligibility, so yeah, I think we’re long past the point where we should focus on giving our young guys a shot to develop. Side note: How long before college feetball has a trade deadline and can move players with expiring contracts? It’s the natural endgame we’re moving to, is it not?
Question from VUAspen:
HCCL looks worn out… this new college game is rapidly becoming a show of shock jocks.
Is the rate of change just too fast for VU to keep pace, year to year? Or can we figure it out and thrive?
Answers from AoG:
Tom Stephenson: I am also worn out from watching this team play football. Have we considered that it’s now basketball season?
PatrickSawyer: Find any coach having a bad season who doesn’t look worn out. It is frustrating not being able to find answers, whether that is because subordinates keep doing the dumb things you have tried to train them out of OR your ideas keep failing. I do not think the “worn out” looks on game day have anything to do with the WWE-esque personas adopted by so many college football coaches.
I think the rate of change was too fast to be linear or even consistent. It does feel like there were some unforced errors at a coaching/organizational level for this season though.
Cole The Mascot Head: I am worn out too man, they still haven’t changed the logo back!
Andrew VU ‘04: Prior to the Beck/Marry/Kill bring all of New Mexico State era, I might have been inclined to agree with you, but again… the last two years did happen. Are we becoming the American voting public and losing all object permanence???
Question from DoreFanInDallas:
While this will be a miserable season, it’s hard to be too upset with HCCL who has given us two great years of Vanderbilt football. Nonetheless, what is the problem this year — do we not have SEC caliber players? Or is it offensive and defensive schemes that aren’t working? Or is it just poor in game coaching?
Answers from AoG:
Tom Stephenson: Look, I am not going to pretend to be a scheme guy, but the scheme guys on the offensive side of the ball were the same ones responsible for last year’s offense. They wouldn’t be the first group of offensive minds who have no idea what to do with themselves when they get handed a five-star legitimate NFL talent, though, just like you can be a perfectly fine automobile driver and not know what to do with yourself when handed the keys to a Ferrari.
I think, yeah, the lack of SEC-caliber players is pretty apparent in some spots. It’s that and I don’t really know why we’re having to pretend to debate whether the coaches know how to do their jobs.
PatrickSawyer: Clark Lea is, at his core, a conservative football mind. He loves low-risk football. I am not sure exactly who or how he was so influenced during the two years of Pavia, but it would be revisionist to pretend like 2024 was also not often plagued by the same conservative mindset. He sometimes gets broken out of it or has a grand idea of NOW being the time to be aggressive. Frustratingly, that is often when this program is most successful.
Cole The Mascot Head: I think the defensive scheme is the best we could do with what we have: we don’t have speed to catch guys so we need to contain them, which means sometimes teams get those chunk plays at the worst times for us. I see the vision on this, and think we just need way better talent on that side of the ball. On the offense, I think the scheme could use some work, sure, like sometimes we try too hard to force a type of play that I just don’t think Curtis is ready to run. Some more talent wouldn’t hurt either.
Andrew VU ‘04: We did not believe we would actually get a talent like Jared Curtis until very late in the crootin’ period, so were not able to put the pieces around him in the transfer portal, as they had all signed elsewhere. If we are this bad next year, especially on the lines, I’ll reevaluate this stance and take my torchforks out of storage.
Question from Jessecuster44:
Best game the ‘Dores have played all season. oof. plenty of bright spots. Plenty of dim ones as well.
… if they ever do a remake of The Empire Strikes Back, would Clark Lea and his secret notebook make a good Lobot?
Answers from AoG:
Tom Stephenson: What?
PatrickSawyer: Only if Lobot was programmed to treat anything longer than 60/40 probability as abjectly terrifying.
Cole The Mascot Head: This made me smirk. Yes, they’d make a great Lobot.
Andrew VU ‘04: As I said in the comments, this is more of a Parlagi question. As for me…
Question from WestEndMayhem:
Looks like MTSU’s coach will end the season with a better record than our Commodores. Should we put feelers out to this MTSU fella? He probably has middle TN connections.
Answers from AoG:
Tom Stephenson:
PatrickSawyer: I want you and whoever asked about leaving the SEC to be forced into a fight to the death.
Cole The Mascot Head: Please don’t make me break out the ban hammer.
Andrew VU ‘04: Slow clap.
