Vandy...they are who we think they are

Just a couple points and ponderings:

• This game isn't about respect, it's about reminding one team of their lot in life.
• It's not about last year's post game, the chop blocks or the war of words either. It's about one thing and one thing only: the SEC East.
• It's business. If some dumbass in tinted glasses wants to make it personal, that's on him. If he's got his panties in a wad because a 17 year old football player chose Athens GA over Nashvegas, what the hell ever.
• Play assignment football and we win. Comfortably.
• Pretend this game is about anything other than what's been stated above, and it becomes the typical Vandy team playing better against Georgia, and playing better at night...for some damn reason.
• Pretend this game is about anything other than the SEC East, and it becomes the typical Georgia team playing down to its opponent.
• Run. The. Damn. Ball.
• Tackle them. Hard.
• Get After Their Asses.
• They're Vandy. We're Georgia.

Win.

Some weekend homework

We're going to talk about this in more depth later, as soon as Tuesday. However, for now just read this article in its entirety. No...right now. Go.

DICKSAMIV...making awesomez.

SEC Kickoff with Coach Dooley

Coach reviews last weeks action and previews this week's action. This episode includes a one on one interview with Kentucky's Joker Phillips.

Friday Misery - Anchor Clown!

Knock knock.
Who's there?
James Franklin.
Get the f*** off my porch before I rip off those fake glasses with the transition lenses and shove them where the sun will never see them again.

The NEW Vandy reality
Who is James Franklin? First, let's list the places where he's coached (and I'll pause a moment while you pull out some reference books...): Kutztown Univ., East Stroudsburg (his alma mater), Roskilde Kings of the Danish American Football Federation (no seriously, they have the forward pass, shoulder pads and everything), James Madison, Washington State, Idaho State (not the Vandals), Maryland, Green Bay Packers, Kansas State and back to Maryland.

An actual image from a Roskilde Kings game. (via)

First off, don't become too enamored with that Green Bay gig as their wide receivers coach too much. He was there one season before Mike Sherman was fired, presumably for hiring some dipshit from Maryland who complained about how the coffee was too strong and the tone in which the players were talking to him. So truly, Franklin's greatest contribution to a tackle football sideline thus far has either been as Kansas State's offensive coordinator or in his ambassador's role for Denmarkians teaching them how to punt, pass and kick. What an effin' troubadour. 

Vandy, you had a legend in Robbie and you kicked him to the curb for this douchesnozzle? You're Vanderfrigginbilt for God's sake. The apex of your coaching echelon is a Steve Martin lookalike. You have a hole in your campus' athletic history where there was no actual athletic department. Franklin has ideas of putting y'all on the college football map. When all you really need is an actual college football stadium.

This is perhaps the best way to sum up the SECs most proficient blowhard...he's the former "head coach in waiting"...at Maryland! Maryland doesn't even play football. They have a bunch of male volleyball players and JV wrestling guys that put on "uniforms" once a year on national television. People don't watch for the tackling and the scoring and the blocking, they tune in to see how ugly the jerseys are going to be. And the rest of the season the students and alumni just go to the football field to buy hotdogs and talk about how much they hope they crush Duke in lacrosse the upcoming season. 

If you like kids running around with sticks, go read Lord of the Flies again. But you don't fire your favorite Uncle Bobby to make room for creepy second cousin Jimmy with the over-inflated ego and the bright future selling steaks door to door from the back of his pickup.

There's no easy way to put this Vandy. You once had a coach in Widenhofferererer that no one wanted to face. Then you got Steve Martin's brother and that was at least good for a few famous lookalike shout-outs on Sportscenters and the local news. He stepped down and you could've gotten someone cool to run the ship. Instead you passed on Captain Sully and took Stubing. Captain Phil was passed over for the Skipper, or maybe even Gilligan. You could've easily had Captain Crunch and instead you went with Tennile's bitch keyboard artist. You might have even been able to land an actual pirate to steer the ship, instead you chose a rudderless, sack of fail.

Walks the walk, not the plank.

Harvard of the South? Please. Your Mascot is an abandoned rank in the US Navy, thrown in the trash in 1899. EIGHTEEN NINETY-NINE!! You're an after-thought. A historical reference to years gone by, or that were never there in the first place. To say you're the new Vandy is like saying the musket is going to once again be a weapon that revolutionizes modern warfare.

Get over yourselves Vanderbilt. You can't even get Lionel Ritchie to sing the National Anthem...in 2012. TWO THOUSAND TWELVE!!!

Blogging prophetically Last year I recounted to my reader the story of me demanding a Dandy Vandy get down on all fours and bark like a dawg. Let's recap that shall we?

I like Vandy but some of their fans sure can be pompous. I mean, here we were in Athens GA and this kid wants to act like his football team is the best thing since sharpened #2 pencils. I asked him what his SAT score was and he said it was too high for me to count. Yeh, he was a witty sumbitch. Though after two fisting drinks for a couple hours he was probably right. At the urging of Fred and Nama I then insisted he get down on all fours and bark like a Dawg. When he refused, I insisted he meet me at Stegeman that February and sit with me while we watched Hugh Durham's boys dismantle his precious round ball team.

Durham and the Hoop Dawgs came through. CommieDouche didn't.

Y'all probably just see me as some dipshit with a keyboard connected to wifi, but I believe this proves I have super bloggin' powers. Mere hours before the game that ended with lil Jimmy Franklin becoming a household name across the DawgNation, I introduced his illegitimate brother, the CommieDouche to the Dawgosphere. I think his actual name was Francis however.

The resemblance is remarkable. Check this out: both have over-inflated impressions of themselves, both stir up confrontations, both lack the manparts to put words to action, in 3rd grade recess both spent more time mouthing off about future accomplishments than playing an actual game, both clip coupons to use each week at their local tanning salon, and both wore diapers long after aging out of Johnson and Johnson's size chart.

So well done, all you Vandy fans. With your SAT scores in your back pocket and your sparkling class attendance record. Congrats on your amazingly exaggerated self-image and the coach who has the talk like swagger but can't fight his way out of a wet paper sack. What a perfect representation of your student body and alumni.

Anchor down? Sure, right into the cellar with KenSucky.

And as the rules of Friday Misery state, let us bow our heads in prayer: Lord, we ask that you one day rid our fair, respectable conference of douchesnozzles like Jimmy Franklin and return him to that Scandinavian nation with the cute uniforms. Bless the Vandy students and their cute little GPAs. And please protect our players from chop blocks. Amen.

Respect and Coach Bobo

It's been a really long time since we've had the collection of talent on the offensive side of the ball that we have today. Granted, it's still a little early in their careers to be saying these freshmen are SEC ready. But I think we've seen enough so far to know that they can be something special. And without getting into the debate of whether it's the coaching or the talent that makes good teams great and great teams dominant, let's just agree that it takes a good dose of both to run the table or even make it to the SECCG. At some point in the season there is going to be moments where a player has to make a play and a coach has to make a call that has the potential to be the difference in the outcome.

So...with that I'm just going to explain the lenses through which I'm looking at our offense.

• QB's rushing stats.^* Each of his previous seasons Aaron Murray has had 87 rushes for between 1-2 yards per carry. If Bobo can improve on those numbers it adds a whole other dimension to this offense. One that can keep a defense on their heels.
• QB rating. This should exceed the previous six seasons Bobo has been the OC because he has a quarterback that's been in the system for three seasons and four springs.
• Points per game. Self explanatory really. Each of the last six seasons we've always been around 32ppg. The exception was 2009 when it dipped below 29ppg. This season should be an exception as well, yet in the other direction.
• Rushing yards per attempt. We need to get back to the 4.5 and above area where we haven't been in two plus seasons. 
• 3rd down conversions. In the Bobo era, we've never cracked 50% for the season. If we can average around 5 yards per rush (currently we're at 5.76), this should go way up.
• Red zone conversions. In 2010 we finished 12th in the nation in red zone scoring. Last season, all the way down to 60th.

To be clear, this is a big season for Bobo. Talk to me about the inexperience at offensive line and how many draft picks on offense we lost off last year's squad...that's garbage. There's no excuses. Bobo has to be licking his chops. With a three year starter under center, talent at running back that don't tap their helmets, good size and depth at fullback, incredible depth at wide receiver and at least one tight end that can block AND catch, our offensive coordinator has never had it so good.

^* This of course hinges a lot on Murray playing the entire season and not getting injured. We'll only cross that bridge if we're forced to. 

Nail the Score! EA Sports NCAA Football 13 contest

If you're an avid gamer that wants a copy of EA Sports NCAA Football 13...AND you think you know what the score of the Georgia-Vandy game will be tomorrow night...I might just be able to hook you up.

All you have to do is comment on this post with your score prediction (BEFORE KICKOFF!!!) and then for tiebreaker purposes also tell me how many yards rushing Todd Gurley will have. Closest to the actual score wins a copy of the game! Easy, right?

And if you don't win, you are still eligible to get a copy of it. Here's the directions for the giveaway Coke Zero is doing all season long.

Each Monday for the first 13 weeks of the college football season, Coke Zero is giving away one copy of EA Sports NCAA Football 13 (XBOX360/PS3) every 13 minutes. That’s 111 copies each Monday – 1,433 copies this season.  

The rules to enter are simple: Follow @CokeZero on Twitter and look for messages including the hashtags #GameOn and #ad as well as the URLhttp://bit.ly/EANCAA. Once you retweet the message originating from @CokeZero, you’re entered.

Georgia - Vandy pregame trailer

"Momentum is hard to stop if you keep stoking it."

Follow up on Murray

Didn't quite finish my post on Coach Bobo and the offense as I had planned. I'll have it ready tomorrow. But as a follow up to yesterday, I wanted to share this piece ($) by David Ching on how Georgia has re-developed a vertical passing attack.

“If you have a quarterback that you have enough confidence to drop back and sling it, you’ve got a chance to make some big plays. We do like a vertical passing game,” Richt said. “There’s a lot of people that love to throw it sideways a lot, and we’ll throw it a little bit sideways here and there, but we want to get it down the field. And if we get some matchups that we like to go deep, we will.” 

Through three games, Murray and the Bulldogs have already utilized the deep ball effectively -- an area where he excelled as a freshman in 2010, but regressed last season. 

According to ESPN Stats and Information, Murray is 11-for-20 (55 percent) for 429 yards and three touchdowns on throws of 20 or more yards this season, with an average of 21.5 yards per attempt. 

Fifty-five percent is insane, regardless of the opponents. Considering this was a part of the offense that was missing last season (just a 28% completion percentage) this bodes well moving forward. There were numerous times last year that even though a deep ball was caught, if the throw had been better it would've gone for more yards or even for points. Part of that probably had to do with getting used to life without AJ Green. But as I mentioned yesterday, it's clear Murray feels quite comfortable with his receivers this season. 

Sure hope to see more as the season progresses.

1980 Dawgs promotion at Red Zone Saturday

Last year we spent a lot of time talking about the newly released DVD 1980 Dawgs. Well, those guys are at it again!

For Immediate Release - 9/19/12

Members of the 1980 National Championship Bulldogs will be joining Filmmaker/Director, Lenny Daniel,  in Athens this weekend to promote the "1980 Dawgs" Documentary Film project.  They will be talking with fans and signing autographs at the Red Zone in downtown Athens, Saturday, 1pm - 4pm.

So far,  confirmed are 2-time All American, Rex Robinson #5 and All American Freddie Gilbert # 90, one of the best UGA defensive players of all time.   Other members of the 1980 Dawgs team have also been invited.

Fans, their families and kids really enjoy these events.  The former players from this special group show a humble graciousness about their past and enjoy meeting fans, talking football and joking around.  The 1980 players  are now at the age where they remember their playing years well and they don't mind "letting their hair down" and talking with fans about what it was really like to be part of that special team.  They will also give their views on current Bulldogs football.

For more info and movie trailers:  www.1980Dawgs.com

Where:  The Red Zone, 155 E. Clayton Street, downtown Athens

When: 1pm - 4pm,  This Saturday

 

What time is it?

Time to waste some of it watching an oldie goldie. Like as in the 1984 Cotton Bowl. Because it's always 10 to 9 in Texas.

SEC Audibles - Richt and Franklin

Respect and Aaron Murray

via

Yesterday Corbindawg laid out some pretty good reasons why we should be proud of our quarterback. Closing in on a list that includes some big time SEC legends is impressive. And there's no reason (outside of injury really) to think that Aaron Murray won't surpass David Greene in yards and touchdowns. His coach has raised the bar in terms of completion percentage, and thus far Murray has nearly hit that mark. Back in May I compared Greene and Murray's careers in terms of Greene being the last quarterback we've had with as much experience as Murray has. Just three games into the season, our guy is well ahead of Greene's marks in 2003 as a redshirt junior.

Indeed, two of the areas Murray gets criticized for the most are two of the things he has the least control over: the schedule and his height. (And yes, we'll get to the interceptions in a moment). It's true that Murray is still looking for that big time win. That moment when he gets that one signature play by which he will always be remembered. 

For Greene it was the lofted pass to Michael Johnson on the Plains. What will it be for Murray? I would circle the trip to Columbia as the biggest matchup left. But there could be a moment on the Plains again this year where the SEC East is on the line. After getting treated like a sock puppet there two years ago, how sweet would that be?

Down to brass tacks though, Murray is an emotional leader. He's put up touchdowns by the boatload and seems prone for the inopportune mistake at the same time. Even Saturday night when there was no reason to take any chance whatsoever he lofted one into the endzone that had a minimal chance at getting caught. It was a freshman type mistake from a redshirt junior. But it was a very minor blip on a radar full of highlights. It was the lone outlier on what was Murray's best performance as a Bulldog.

So what I'd like to do is check in every few weeks on how Murray is doing. Is he earning more respect? Has he cut down on costly mistakes? Perhaps most importantly, does he have that signature moment in that signature win yet? (And I'll be doing the same with Coach Bobo incidentally, starting tomorrow.) I'm looking to use mostly statistical data complimented by some anecdotal observations each time. For Murray I want to look at his rating, yards per attempt and percentage of interceptions and touchdowns (ie. INTs divided by total attempts). So here's our starting point:

Year	Rating	Yards per attempt	Int %	TD %
2012	180.16	10.5	2.5	10
2011	146.41	7.8	3.5	8.6
2010	154.48	8.9	2.3	7

Observations:

• First and foremost, terrific start for Murray. There've been some protection issues early with the new offensive line. But his footwork is much improved and there is an obvious comfort level with his receivers.
• The competition has been weak, and untested in the case of Missouri.
• Would love to see what more rollouts and waggles did for Murray's production. He's fleet of foot and is underused in that regard. If things were covered down field on a rollout, I bet there'd be plenty of room to run.
• The Missouri win was a big road test for the early season, but there was no defining moment and it doesn't come close to a signature win.

Perhaps we'll explore that moving the pocket bullet in Bobo's post. But for now this is what we have three games in for Aaron Murray. He's not only one of the team's greatest leaders off the field and in practice, he also is doing just that on the field. I'm eager to see what he can do with the meat of the SEC schedule.

*all stats courtesy of cfbstats.com

John L. Smith...meets Stuart Smalley

The insanity will continue until morale improves.

The resemblance is slight. At best. (seriously, click the link above and witness the intensity in motion picture form firsthand. You'll probably laugh, at least a little. But there's more than a little creepiness to it.)

Tuesday Pressers: Richt and Murray

Coach and his QB recap last season's close win and preview this week's next SEC matchup.

h/t Mike Reiter

Swearinger evading Spurrier's interwebs?

Suspended Gamecock safety DJ Swearinger is trying to voice his displeasure at the consequence that has been levied by the SEC Office. Despite the fact that the Head Cock has banned his players from using Twitter, Swearinger is insistent that his 1st Amendment voice be heard read. Here's what he posted misspelled on Instagram.

Once you get past the mastery DJ has for the English language and the cool background he's chosen for his cute prose, you can't help but see he received quite a few "likes" for his work here. Even before this was copied from his feed, he had 98 positive votes.

But what are they liking?

• his spelling?
• his suspension?
• two hand touch over tackle?
• the evolution of SEC football into an all aerial league?
• his apparent youthful jungle-like swagger?
• or simply his 3G service?*

For my money it is the one masterful sentence in the middle: Football a neva b da same no mo!!! 

Tru dat DJ! Tru dat!

*Yes, I know the 3G service comes from whoever screen-captured his post. I'm familiar with Instagram. But who doesn't like a good cellular data plan joke?

Two more things from the weekend

This is what happens when I don't sit down and do a Sunday Thoughts post. I forget stuff.

First, congrats to the crowd Saturday night. There were some empties, but for a game against an opponent like FAU I thought it was very well attended. Of course, there weren't many that were still around to see the final score. But to have most everyone ready for the opening kick (with probably a large hat tip to Russ' collar ceremony) was refreshing. Hope we're trending in that direction.

Secondly, if you tried to comment on a post recently and were unable to then I apologize. I always leave the comments open. Somehow the Blogger setting switched back to blog moderators only. I corrected it once it was made known to me. If that kind of blogger nonsense happens again, always feel free to email me - berniedawg  AT  gmail  DOT  com.

Sometimes mysterious things happen on the interwebs. And they don't always involve engiNerds on STINGTALK.

Bulldog Hotline Redux, FAU

Not a lot on last night's call in show to really sink your teeth into. Richt did sound dead in the middle of being pessimistic and optimistic about Jarvis Jones returning to the lineup. It sounded overstated at first. But he did add that you have to be cautious about these types of injuries to the groin. It could end up keeping a player out for the season.

That being said, Jarvis ain't missing this game.

This episode of Fake Juice lasted nearly a full three minutes.

So, onto fake juice!

From Twitter, Danielle Vido (sp?) asks if we’ll ever have another blackout. Richt laughs a little. “Well, ever is a long time. But I don’t see one anytime soon right now.” Haven’t had much luck with those kinds of things. And sometimes it does take the focus off where it needs to be. Have had some success with it, have had some fun times and some not so fun times. Doesn’t see it happening anytime soon, at least not in a “sneak attack mode”. Could see in the future laying out some basic red, black and white jerseys and maybe even do some things with the helmet. Just say that this is our wardrobe for the year. Then they can mix and match as we like. It’s not some kind of secret weapon. We might see something like that in the future. Doubts we do some kind of surprise jersey any time soon. Although at Scott prompting, says the fans are always welcome to do a blackout.

So if we organize a stadium blackout once a year, will Richt just leave the uniforms the hell alone? I think he had a great answer until he starts talking about mixing and matching, then messing with the helmet. I swear, our road uniforms are one of the best looking uniforms in college football. Leave these types of things alone Coach. Just get the team ready. Have them put on what's in their locker. And win the game based on the merits of the team's hard work.

Do those things and I'll wear whatever the hell you want me to on Saturdays.

Monday's Meatloaf - from Athens to Atsugi

It's a small world ladies and gents. And there are Dawgs all over it.

Have had the pleasure of communicating with Jason the last week or so. He's in the middle of a two year stint while stationed in Atsugi Japan. What's in Atsugi Japan? Glad you asked. Just some badasses in a squadron whose colors are red and black.

They're the HSL-51 Warlords to be specfiic. In Jason's words HSL stands Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light. They "fly the SH-60B out of Atsugi, Japan and deploy on cruisers and destroyers from Yokosuka, Japan, all in support of the carrier USS George Washington. We will soon be upgrading to the MH-60R airframe, our newest, most advanced attack helicopter". Check out this entry from Wiki on the Warlords and their helicopter:

The "Warlords" are the US Navy's only forward deployed Sikorsky SH-60B "Seahawk" LAMPS Mk III helicopter squadron. Home ported in Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan, the "Warlords" provide combat-ready armed anti-surface and anti-submarine helicopter detachments to ships deploying in theKorean, Western Pacific and Persian Gulf regions, as well as Executive Transport for Commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet home ported in Yokosuka,Japan.

The SH-60B carries a complex system of sensors including a towed Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) and air-launched sonobuoys. Other sensors include the APS-124 surface search radar, ALQ-142 Electronic Support Measures (ESM) system and optional nose-mounted forward looking infrared(FLIR) turret. It carries the Mk 46, Mk 50, or Mk 54 torpedo, AGM-114 Hellfire missile, and a single cabin-door-mounted M240 7.62 mm (0.30 in) machine gun or GAU-16 .50 in (12.7 mm) machine gun.

The squadron performs a diverse set of multi-role missions:

Primary missions include:

• Anti-submarine warfare (ASW)
• Anti-surface warfare (SUW)

Secondary missions include:

• Search and rescue (SAR)
• Executive Transport (With SH-60F for SEVENTH Fleet)
• Medical evacuation (MEDEVAC)
• Vertical Replenishment (VERTREP)
• Special Operations support (SPECOPS)
• Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS)
• Communications Relay (COMREL)
• Logistics support

Holy crap! And these guys read my blog. Nothing against any of the rest of you, but I ain't ever heard of any of y'all controlling an attack copter with one hand while navigating towards my non-sensical mess with the other. Pretty cool. And just like your average Dawg fan, Jason bleeds red and black. But with maybe a bit more sushi in his system. He watched the game the other night from the ESPN app on his iPhone. He won't be home again until well after the season but says the television coverage there is pretty good considering.

What's just as cool is that these guys train in Jacksonville. I took the liberty of asking if they could do a flyover during a WLOCP and take care of some business on the opposing sideline, but evidently my ranking is not nearly high enough to bark those kind of orders. But seriously, thanks for all that you do guys. Keep flying those colors and thanks for reading. Go Dawgs!

Today's Ingredients
- And while we're saluting our brothers and sisters in the military, ecdawg found a Marine that stood up to a hotdoggin Longhorn. It's the greatest thing I've seen on the periphery of a football field since the state trooper fistbump.
- Weiszer's FAU wrap up includes some quotes from both Richt and Grantham.

Hey lil Jimmy! Brush your teeth bro!

- Meanwhile, Ching gives the gameball to two freshmen.
- Like Martin Van Dawgin, I'm a big fan of the pistol that we saw a lot of Saturday night.
- Here's Streit's week three wishlist results. And here's Hamp's wrapup as well.
- Emerson previews what this week will be like: a lot of players and coaches focusing on the game, with last season's Grantham-Franklin midfield exchange as the elephant in the room.
- Tyler whistles some Shania Twain in response to watching Saturday's meteor game.
- In his weekly post putting persons on notice, vineyarddawg tells of some scheduling news right from the AD's mouth.
- cocknfire finds two quarterbacks in Mizzou and Carolina that are limping into the game Saturday.
- A young coed screaming vulgarities in Kiffybaby's ear on a Saturday is just part of the magic of college football. (h/t Blutarsky)
- This was an interesting read by Chris Brown that talks about how Mike Shanahan is adapting his offense to the talents of his Heisman winner.
- Lastly, The Lady Sportswriter reminds us that the "journey has just begun".

So it's a good time for a temperature check. I'll start off as well by reminding myself that it's September. Sure, there's concerns. Many are concerned that the defense gives up 14 points to some owls right off the bat. Others are concerned about play calls, or attitude. Or even turnovers.

To some extent I get that. But at the same time, there is something different about this team. Hang in there. Take each game one at a time. I think this is going to be a fun ride.

The reason I think we get upset about things such as being late to the game and attendance overall is that we recognize the effort on the field and want the effort in the stands to come as close as possible to matching that each time Sanford's gates open. These guys are working hard. And these home games only come around a handful of times a year. And again, something different about this team.

Listen. I don't know if something different is going to equal being able to compete with an Alabama in Atlanta. I don't even know if something different means we win the East. Again, it's September. But I hear the rumblings. But I don't foresee an earthquake. Like Lenny, I'm not afraid. 

I feel fine.

And if any other servicemen and women out there happen across this little blog, please know that we greatly appreciate your effort and your sacrifice. And if you want just a little recognition, I will always be happy to oblige.

The rest of you, as you were dawg. Have a great Monday!

Bernie

(not) Getting chippy (yet)

It's Vandy week. Which used to just be known as the time to stock up on Halloween candy. Now it's got a little more teeth to it however.

–On the impact of last year’s chippy game that ended with the James Franklin-Todd Grantham confrontation: “I think the big thing is to make sure we concentrate on playing football and not all the extracurricular because those things turn into penalties. I don’t want to take anything off of executing, take focus off of doing the right things fundamentally and knowing your job and taking care of your responsibilities. That’s what we’re going to focus on.”

–On the Commodore program: “I don’t think there’s any doubt that they’re the most talented Vanderbilt teams these last couple of years that we’ve played in a while. Coach Franklin’s really got them revved up and ready to go. They’ve got a lot of belief. They’re playing to win and they’re doing a good job of it I think.”

That's one punter reference away from a Dooley 5-star presser right there. It's going to be a fun week.

Movin' on up!

via the AP Top 25 Poll