Optional Musical Accompaniment
At some point around halftime, after watching a half of football where Vanderbilt trailed 20-10 and was basically getting screwed over by the referees — where Diego Pavia threw an interception on a deep ball with a flag in the backfield, surely he thought he had a free play because you don’t expect that the flag is for offensive holding when you’re getting chased by multiple defenders in the backfield, who the fuck is holding and also allowing multiple defenders to chase the quarterback — where the referees,
an SEC crew mind you, were flagging Vanderbilt for stuff like ineligible man downfield…
I said “fuck this,” went out for a four-mile run while listening to the above song on loop figuring that this was better than the ref show I was witnessing in Blacksburg.
And I came back and… welp, I’m going to have to do that again every time we’re losing, aren’t I? I came back just in time to see Sedrick Alexander punch in a touchdown to make the score 30-20 in the fourth quarter. While I was running around the neighborhood and listening to bubblegum pop, Vanderbilt had scored three touchdowns on the kind of clock-chewing drives that have become the Vanderbilt football identity in the era of Diego Pavia and Jerry Kill, and the defense had showed up in the second half and completely and utterly shut down Virginia Tech. The only blemish was Brock Taylor missing an extra point, and when your money kicker missing an extra point (after a five-yard penalty for a false start) is quite literally the only thing that went wrong in a half of football, on the road against a Power 4 football team…
…it’s safe to say this is not your older brother’s Vanderbilt football team. Or your father’s, or possibly even your grandfather’s depending on how old you are. (Look, my grandfather was alive during the Dan McGugin years.)
I mean, seriously, just look at this orgasmic perfection:
Vanderbilt drives, second half:
- 11 plays, 75 yards, 6:58 (touchdown)
- 7 plays, 75 yards, 5:26 (touchdown)
- 8 plays, 56 yards, 4:30 (touchdown)
- 3 plays, 72 yards, 1:39 (touchdown)
- 7 plays, 31 yards, 2:21 (touchdown)
Virginia Tech drives, second half:
- 3 plays, 9 yards, 2:12 (punt)
- 3 plays, -13 yards, 0:41 (punt)
- 3 plays, 0 yards, 2:29 (punt)
- 4 plays, 6 yards, 1:32 (downs)
- 4 plays, 19 yards, 1:13 (fumble)
I mean… well, that just means I’m gonna have to listen to “Manchild” every damn game, doesn’t it?
Diego Pavia finished the game 12-for-18 for 193 yards, 2 touchdowns, and an interception; Blaze Berlowitz also threw a touchdown pass in the closing minutes. Sedrick Alexander ran 10 times for 73 yards and two touchdowns; Makhilyn Young, though, was the bigger star out of the backfield, rushing 8 times for 95 yards and a touchdown. Brycen Coleman caught a 54-yard strike in the first half for his first career touchdown; Tre Richardson — who last season was playing for the (checks notes) Washburn Ichabods, a Division II school in Topeka, Kansas — had three catches for 54 yards and a touchdown.
This team is very good.
