I've made no secret of the fact that we, the collective SEC FanHouse blogger contingent I admire Vanderbilt. Despite being a small, privately-funded university with a heavy emphasis on academics, they field a football team which plays in the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference. Vandy might not win a lot of games, but they're competitive against some of the nation's best teams in more than their fair share.
Frankly, they've got no business even making a game of it most of the time. Vanderbilt gets the leftover scraps when it comes to D-IA talent. Yet they routinely take powerhouse schools like Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee to the wire, and beyond.
Bobby Johnson is a superb coach who gets little recognition for his accomplishments. As much as I admire and respect this coach, I have to wonder if he'll ever get his team to a bowl game.
In 2005, the 'Dores had Jay Cutler, a first round NFL draft pick and consensus All-SEC quarterback. The Commodores came maddeningly close to postseason viability, but fell short -- losing, unbelievably, to Middle Tennessee just one month prior to taking the Gators to overtime in the Swamp.
In 2006, Chris Nickson showed a lot of promise, leading Vanderbilt to a "nominal" 4-win season which included an upset of No. 16 Georgia.
Ridiculous. I realize Vandy is a private school and they provide a valuable service to the SEC in helping with the conference graduations rates. Still, if they aren't going to actually pay their football coach over $1 million dollars, there's a problem. Sylvester Croom just got his pay pushed into the seven figure zone. Now Bobby Johnson is the only SEC coach still earning a paltry 6 figure salary. Keep up.
Les Miles, LSU, $3,750,000 Nick Saban, Alabama, $3,750,000 Urban Meyer, Florida, $3,250,000 Bobby Petrino, Arkansas, $2,850,000 Mark Richt, Georgia, $2,800,000 Tommy Tuberville, Auburn, $2,800,000 Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee, $2,050,000 Steve Spurrier, South Carolina, $1,750,000 Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State, $1,700,000 Houston Nutt, Ole Miss, $1,700,000 Rich Brooks, Kentucky, $1,600,000 Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt, $950,000
Then again, Johnson is the only SEC coach not to be automatically placed on a hot seat after a losing season.
On This Week In Schadenfreude we explore the sputtering rage, gibbering condemnation, and resigned ennui of the college football fan who has recently undergone humiliating defeat. Because even in your darkest hour, someone else is suffering too, and probably worse than you. Unless you are a Michigan fan who has just finished watching the Appalachian State game.
It's been a bang-up year in the laugh-at-your rivals department. As a fan, there's nothing more painful than seeing your team's shot at the ever-elusive mythical national championship go out the window because you can't beat some pissant like Stanford or Arkansas or Oregon State or Appalachian State or ... well ... not Oklahoma. But still. There was a large swath of the season in which unranked teams had a winning record over the #2 team. The most enormous upset in college football history was topped, then topped again* within a month of Appalachian State's blocked field goal.
And we tried to cover it all at the Fanhouse, at least after the two week period at the beginning of the season during which I huddled on the floor and tried really hard not to die. In the interregnum between the season and the bowls, then, let's review the year in pointing and laughing. Because the Motor City Bowl just isn't that interesting. After the jump: This Year in Schadenfreude.
On This Week In Schadenfreude we explore the sputtering rage, gibbering condemnation, and resigned ennui of the college football fan who has recently undergone humiliating defeat. Because even in your darkest hour, someone else is suffering too, and probably worse than you. Unless you are a Michigan fan who has just finished watching the Appalachian State game.
LSU lost its shot at the national championship this week, losing to Arkansas in triple overtime. Normally this would make them a slam dunk for this week's Tears of Unfathomable Sadness, but you know what? This happens every week. Some team, MNC game bid in hand, gacks it up against a markedly inferior opponent (or, I suppose, a markedly uh ... ferior opponent if you're Kansas. No offense, Jayhawks) and sends their fans into a tailspin of recrimination.
It's still fun to watch, but it's getting to be old hat in this season of infinite improbability. Anyone who was even a little surprised that Arkansas ran past LSU just hasn't been paying attention. So, how about something completely different?
OUTRAGE Commodore Nation should be incensed right now. We didn't just get beat by Wake Forest, we got destroyed.
Commodore Nation? No. Surely it couldn't be ... it is! Ladies and gentlemen, Vanderbilt (Vanderbilt? Vanderbilt!) is your Tears of Unfathomable Sadness victor this week.
The ACC gets called a lot of things as far as being a football conference, but "executioner" is most certainly not one of the most oft-used appellations. But as of this past Saturday, that's where they stood as two of its teams stood in the way of their SEC equivalents' dreams. South Carolina had fallen off with a velocity that suggests that maybe the earth is flat after all and was looking to salvage a disappointing season with a scalp against a bitter rival. And as far as Vanderbilt goes, they stood on the precipice of having their bowl bid equation fail once again. You know the math: a couple of OOC gimmes, some wins against the Mississippi schools, and odd upset here and there, voila- 6 wins and a possible postseason berth for the first time in over two decades.
Perhaps it was a minor slap on the wrist for the SEC advocates' incessant superiority complex, but Clemson and Wake Forest managed to get the job done, bolstering their bowl profiles and all but relegating USC and Vandy to December couch potatoes. Clemson, on the strength of Mark Buchholz's game-winning field goal, bested the Gamecocks by the score of 23-20 and Wake had a subtly dominating performance against the Commodores that resulted in a 31-14 victory. South Carolina, now possessing a victory that likely robs UGA of a shot of a national championship has lost five in a row and stands in grave danger of missing the bowl season altogether. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt has performed in a manner that suggests that they could likely sniff at breaking their 23-year itch in 2008, but against possible Nebraska coaching candidate Jim Grobe, they appeared overmatched.
While the Tigers appear headed to either a Gator Bowl or Chick Fil-A Bowl appearance, Wake is a primo candidate for the Meineke Car Care Bowl...which has to constitute the most overlooked 8-4 season from a school with less than 4,000 enrolled undergrads.
Didn't think so. The game wasn't exactly easy to watch. If you're an ESPN Gameplan subscriber not living in a blackout area, you could have grabbed it, but with games like Michigan-Ohio State running, it was hard to pay much attention, wasn't it?
Well, you missed a great game. First, you missed Vanderbilt, a perennial SEC doormat, building up a 24-9 lead against their hated in-state rival heading into the 4th quarter.
Then you missed one of Tennessee's greatest, and perhaps most significant, comebacks of the Fulmer era, scoring 16 unanswered points to take a 25-24 victory.
Significance Factor 1: it kept Tennessee in the driver's seat for a berth in the SEC Championship game. Had they lost, Georgia would have represented the East.
Significance Factor 2: Phil Fulmer probably keeps his job if he wins the division, which as unthinkable as it sounded weeks ago, now seems quite likely unless Kentucky can pull the upset.
Enjoy the highlights.
(Vandy fans: sorry about the lack of quarters 2-3. Apparently this Vol fan didn't think much of your 3 quarters' worth of domination. And, uh, sorry about whole "losing a game you had in hand" thing. God must love torturing you guys.)
Phil Fulmer likes to keep things interesting. By cleverly allowing Vanderbilt to build a 15 point lead going into the 4th quarter, the Vols' head coach had the Commodores right where he wanted them: prematurely celebrating a win over their hated in-state rival.
Vandy head coach Bobby Johnson realized that he'd fallen into a trap, but it was too late. Tennessee scored 16 unsanswered points in the 4th-quarter to win 25-24.
Vandy actually had a chance to win the game after Tennessee took their single-digit lead. DJ Moore returned the ensuing kickoff 55 yards, but with :30 remaining, Bryan Hahnfeldt's 49-yard field goal attempt breezed just outside the left upright. Ain't it always the way with Vanderbilt?
The Vols' resurgence has been amazing. Since their awful 1-2 start to the season, Fulmer and co. have won seven of their last eight games. Only Kentucky now stands in the way of an SEC East title and a date with LSU in the Georgia Dome.
Tennessee probably can't beat Bayou Bengals, although stranger things (by far!) have happened this season. Still, just having the opportunity to return to the SEC Championship Game has to feel great for Vol fans. If the Vols beat the Wildcats next weekend, Phil Fulmer might have earned himself a ticket off the coaching hotseat.
The Gators completely rolled Vanderbilt in the Swamp, 49-22. In a surprise performance -- bordering on shocking, really -- Florida's defense played well, holding the Commodores to 254 total yards and 22 points.
Once again, Tim Tebow was the shining star of this show. The sophomore quarterback threw for 281 yards, completing 22 of 27 passes for 3 TDs and 1 INT, and also rushed for 2 additional TDs on the ground. He now holds the record for number of rushing TDs for an SEC quarterback in a single season.
Tebow's favorite target? Percy Harvin. Urban Meyer stated after Florida's loss to Georgia that he wanted Harvin to have more touches, and he delivered as promised: Harvin had 11 carries and 9 catches, gaining 223 combined yards for 2 TDs.
This definitely wasn't Vandy's day. Although they're only two weeks removed from the biggest upset in school history, knocking off former #6 South Carolina 17-6 in Columbia, the Commodores never seemed to find any rhythm on offense. Defensively, they were helpless against Florida's balanced attack, allowing 490 total yards.
A bowl still lingers as a possible objective for Vanderbilt. They're now 5-4 overall with games against Kentucky, Tennessee, and Wake Forest remaining. One win out of three gives Vandy their first bowl berth in over a quarter century.
Florida, meanwhile, is likely playing for a January bowl at this point. An SEC title isn't statistically impossible, but is highly unlikely.
The #6 team in the country losing to unranked Vanderbilt should be surprising, at least. Shouldn't it? Losing to a team which was pounded by Auburn 35-7, lost to a very weak Georgia team by a sliver, and showed up for a game on the Cocks' own turf, bringing a 1-3 SEC record with them? Yeah, that should be a shock.
Brandon from Garnet and Black Attack did not respond well to the Head Ball Coach's post-game sandbagging session. He writes:
I'm not quite sure how to put into words what an amazing season 2007 has been in terms of upsets, close games, and instant classics. We're in uncharted territory here, folks. We've never seen a season like this, at least not in the modern era, and we might never see it again.
The SEC race is still wide open; oddly enough, only two SEC teams ride on the one-loss coach, and one of them is Alabama. Alabama... who just torched the SEC East's former leader, Tennessee. Yes! Alabama... who lost to 4-3 FSU... who just lost to Miami in a game not many people cared about and even fewer watched.
Yeah, figure that one out. It goes without saying that we'll start our trading day in Tuscaloosa, AL:
Buying: Alabama and Nick Saban. 41-17 over the rival who's owned you most of the last decade-point five has got ta stir echoes of past old greatness for Bama fans. We've seen what can be accomplished by this team when their quarterback has his act together. Also: Alabama was short five players, incuding starters on the OL, and it didn't phase them a bit.
Selling: Tennessee's defense, Phil Fulmer, and DC John Chavis. The Vols didn't have what it takes to win on this particular day, but the defensive unit helped Bama's offense -- and JP Wilson in particular -- sparkle. They allowed 17 second half points to get stacked on top of a 24-17 halftime lead. This is one of the worst defenses Tennessee fans have ever had to suffer. It begs the question: does this team give up when they face a two-possession deficit in the 3rd quarter?
I've made no secret of the fact that 
The ACC gets called a lot of things as far as being a football conference, but "executioner" is most certainly not one of the most oft-used appellations. But as of this past Saturday, that's where they stood as two of its teams stood in the way of their SEC equivalents' dreams. South Carolina had fallen off with a velocity that suggests that maybe the earth is flat after all and was looking to salvage a disappointing season with a scalp against a bitter rival. And as far as Vanderbilt goes, they stood on the precipice of having their bowl bid equation fail once again. You know the math: a couple of OOC gimmes, some wins against the Mississippi schools, and odd upset here and there, voila- 6 wins and a possible postseason berth for the first time in over two decades.
Phil Fulmer likes to keep things interesting. By cleverly allowing Vanderbilt to build a 15 point lead going into the 4th quarter, the Vols' head coach had the Commodores right where he wanted them: prematurely celebrating a win over their hated in-state rival.
The Gators completely rolled Vanderbilt in the Swamp, 49-22. In a surprise performance -- bordering on shocking, really -- Florida's defense played well, holding the Commodores to 254 total yards and 22 points.
