Forecasts Vary: Predicting Vanderbilt vs. Northwestern

ESPN.com's SEC Blog by Chris Low has Vanderbilt beating Northwestern 21-17, while Adam Rittenberg who writes ESPN.com's Big Ten Blog, thinks the Wildcats beat the Commodores 23-17.

Here are their rationales:

Chris Low:

This battle of academic heavyweights is the only regular-season matchup between the SEC and the Big Ten this year. Northwestern’s strength is spreading it out and throwing the football. Vanderbilt’s strength is defending the pass. The edge goes to Jamie Bryant’s Vanderbilt defense.

Adam Rittenberg:

It'll be tough for Pat Fitzgerald's crew, but the defense comes up big against a Vanderbilt team that won't have star Warren Norman at 100 percent even if he plays. Northwestern's run game doesn't do much, but new starting quarterback Dan Persa earns his stripes in the second half to secure win No. 1.

Caldwell's Conundrum: To Star(t) or Not to Star(t)

OK, so Warren Norman's knee is on everybody's mind this week. He's practiced in shorts and shoulder pads the past couple days, but there is no doubt in my mind that on Saturday the carries will be split among the backs, including Wesley Tate (also coming off injury but apparently ready to go), Zac Stacy (coming off the MCL tear), and maybe Kennard Reeves. My money is on Stacy seeing at least a plurality of the snaps on Saturday. Nor-War has to be given a lot of credit for his toughness given some initial predictions that he might miss half the season or so.

The running game is an important concern against Northwestern, no doubt. But to me a potentially more interesting question is whether CRC decides to start Sean Richardson. Richardson is a punishing safety whose experience and center-field leadership could go a long way to stifling a Wildcat offense that returns 8 starters (admittedly not including the QB that made the whole thing go) from a squad that put up the #13 passing offense in the country and posted 621 yards in the Outback Bowl. Richardson has returned to practice, but at this point he's playing with a broken toe. It's still not entirely clear whether he'll play Saturday.

So the question is this: How important is Saturday? Important enough to start Sean Richardson even if he's not 100%? To call upon one of the two returning starters (along with Casey Heyward) from a secondary that -- for reasons some will dispute -- was the the nation's #9 ranked pass defense in 2009? Against a Northwestern team that many think will provide a litmus test for how the Commodores' season will go? When CB Jamie Graham is probable but likely not 100% coming off a groin injury? You tell me.

VSL Hotline: Climer's at it Again, Edition

Perhaps against my better judgment, I'll start today's Hotline with David Climer's column in today's Tennessean. Climer says the Commodores should look to Northwestern as a model to base their football program after and that the Wildcats have "cracked the code" when it comes to mixing success academically with results on the gridiron. I'm conflicted, because on the one hand, Climer is right, Northwestern has found ways to be successful while at the same time continuing to be one of the country's premiere institutions. He's also right that the genesis of Northwestern's resurgence was the hiring of Gary Barnett in the 1992 who fundamentally changed the culture. From there, the Wildcats have had a number of winning seasons led by a string of successful coaches. With all that said, Climer's column ignores a simple fact that, in my view, makes his column fatally flawed: the Big Ten vs. the SEC. I don't think I have to go into how much better the SEC has been than the Big Ten during the time of Northwestern's resurgence. Comparing Northwestern to Vanderbilt makes a lot of sense, but when it comes to football and the conferences they play in, it's not an apples to apples comparison (neither is such a comparison with Wake Forest or Stanford entirely fair given the disparity between the SEC and the ACC and Pac 10). FInally, I take exception to Climer's back-handed swipe at Bobby Johnson. There is no doubt that the Commodore program was not as successful as the team or the fans hoped during his tenure, but Climer ignores all the progress that was made, including a .500 SEC season, and a win in the Music City Bowl win, the program's first bowl appearance since 1982, and their first win since Eisenhower administration. For whatever reason, it appears the Tennessean's columnists (particularly Climer) have it out for the Commodores and will always take an opportunity to criticize the program. Here, Climer has a point, but he's still wrong.

Mike Organ writes in today's Tennessean about Jamie Graham and the fact he finally appears to have "settled" in a position: cornerback. The article goes on to say that while Jamie has a home now, the coaching staff will continue to avail themselves of Graham's versatility should the need arise, especially on the offensive end.

Mark Wheeler writes in today's Nashville City Paper about how the Commodores are looking to block out last season's 2-10 set back, and instead establish a new identity revolving around strength. According to Wheeler: "The current group of players insist that they identify much more closely with the squad of two years ago, and it starts with their mentality."

Looking ahead to Saturday's match-up, the Commodore ticket office expects at least 35,000 to attend the opener against Northwestern. The Tennessean's Mike Organ also delves into some news and notes, highlighting Safety Sean Richardson's recovery, the fact Warren Norman is back in pads and running a week after getting scoped, and the likelihood that sophomore Archibald Barnes will be the third linebacker in the Commodores 4-3 defense. Oh yeah, and Coach Caldwell was seen chalking the field yesterday.

Stay tunes to VSL, Stanimal is back from his honeymoon, and I'm sure will have lots to say.

Mike Minor Earns 3rd Win in the Bigs

Vanderbilt's own Mike Minor continues to get it done after being called up by the Braves a month ago. Tonight, Minor threw 5 innings, allowing just 2 earned runs, surrendering 7 hits, 3 walks, striking out 4. It's not clear whether the Braves had the lefty on a pitch-count, or decided to pull their starter because he say for a long time as the Braves plated 7 in the bottom half of the 5th. The Braves ended up beating the Mets 9-2 in Atlanta.

Vandy Lands Another Big-Ten Area Recruit

I mentioned the other day that the Commie football team had supposedly landed another verbal from a recruit in Big-Ten country, well ESPN.com and Rivals are now reporting that CRC and his staff have got a verbal commitment from Keith Heitzman, a DE recruit from Hilliard, Ohio. Heitzman stands at 6'2, 230 and is rated a 75 (138th ranked DE) by ESPN.com and a 3-star recruit by Rivals.

Heitzman is the 5th verbal for the Black and Gold. One from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Florida and Tenn each.

Jay Cutler Has a Girlfriend?

It's not often that Mrs. O'Shea sends tips into the VSL Newsroom, but this one was too good to pass up and required immediate action. According to Perez Hilton, Jay Culter and the Hills' Kristin Cavallari are dating (or at least PDAing up a storm). I look forward to reading your mocking comments below, but know that I know that everyone who reads this site has watched at least 1 MTV marathon of the Hllls.

VSL Hotline: Cool, Calm, and Collected, Edition

There's not much in the local papers about the Commodores, so like Otter, I'll be brief.

The Nashville City Paper's Mark Wheeler writes about Robbie Caldwell's first "week of" press conference and the seeming tonal change on West End. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of article's about CRC "firsts" this season. The AP's Tersea Walker's writes about Caldwell's "game week," while VUCommodores.com has the entire press conference available online.

Jeff Lockridge focuses on a welcome addition to this season's Commodore schedule in today's Tennessean: the bye. Last season, the Commodores played 12 straight weeks and were plagued by injuries. The hope is the Commodores' September 25th open-date, will allow the team to catch it breathe (and get healthier) as the season progresses.

Speaking of injuries, the Tennessean's beat-reporter writes that "Warren Norman had minimal swelling around his injured knee Monday after some light running Sunday, keeping the door open for a possible return this week." Lockridge also reports that X-rays taken Monday of RB Wesley Tate's foot suggest he is healing and will be able to play against Northwestern, welcome news for the Commodore coaching staff. Something else of note, Commodore place-kicker might be let of the leach and given the chance to kick field goals of 50 yards or greater. Given what missed, long field goals do for field position, I'm sure this is not something CRC and the staff would do if they didn't think Ryan Fowler had the leg.

VSL Hotline: Back to the Grind, Edition

The "grind" refers not to the Commodores, but rather to me, who starts a new job today. Meaning, VSL will probably not be as "current" as it could be. We're not falling off, but we do have mouths to feed.

Out with the Old, In with the New?

Two stories deserve the attention of VSLNation. The first appears in today's Nashville City Paper about why Bobby Johnson's face is still on the mural of Vanderbilt coaches that adorns the wall of what used to be U Greek, Me Greek on West End Ave. J.R. Lind pens the story that indicates the change is neither a "priority," or readily apparent who is in charge. Given the relatively modest expense associated with updating the mural ($1,500), and the visibility of the painting, I find it amazing it's taken this long both for an article to be written about why it hasn't changed, and for the thing not to actually be changed to include Coach Caldwell. Pleadge-drive, VSLNation? I've got a job now, I'm in for $50. Who's with me?

Jeff Lockridge writes a long over-due feature of Coach Robbie Caldwell in today's Tennessean that is a definite must-read. Going beyond the "lovable bumpkin" trope that permenated the coverage of CRC since SEC Media Day, Lockridge paints a great picture of a long-time assistant coach who is getting his shot at controlling the reins who is also a person beyond the gridiron. This is the kind of story you hope every recruits parents have read when wondering who will be looking after their son while he plays football in the SEC.

The Nitty-Gritty

Larry Smith named QB1 for the Commodores. The Tennessean and Nashville City Paper both have the story. For me, the more interesting aspect to the story is Jared Funk as #2 on the depth chart. Absent a catastrophe, we won't be seeing Jordan Rodgers this season, which, all things considered, might not be the worst thing in the world.

The City Paper's Mark Wheeler has a great story about Vanderbilt's best defensive player, Chris Marve, who is the anchor of a defense that the Commodore team will continue to rely on as the offense gets their feet underneath them. If you want to get excited about this team, read this story.

The Tennessean has a cursory preview of the upcoming season that you might want to take a gander at. For what it's worth, the Vanderbilt Hustler (the student Newspaper for the 3 of you on this site who didn't actually attend Vanderbilt) has a far better preview for the upcoming season in the form of "Do's and Don'ts." This is a very good piece from Daniel Marks that I recommend to VSLNation.

Our old friend, David Boclair writes about Commodore baseball and the likelihood of seeing another Vanderbilt hurler in the big leagues soon in today's Nashville City Paper. Basbeall Express also has a story worth a read about Vanderbilt baseball's mental toughness work-outs. Pretty interesting stuff, and certainly illustrative of why the Commodores are a tough out come the NCAA's.

Obviously Vandy Would Study The Best Way To Recruit Talent

Here is a very interesting and in depth article from ESPN.com's Jamie Newberg. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=5500041

Not often does Vanderbilt get a whole article devoted to its recruiting, especially one that portrays it in a positive light so you have got to love this article. The most interesting thing to me was talking about the study that Vandy put together which they have used to determine where to spend the most time recruiting. Vandy coaches do most of their recruiting within a 5-hour drive of Nashville, obviously focusing mostly on the southeast. However, it should be noted that of the 4 current verbals 2 are from Big Ten country, 1 from Florida and 1 from Tenn. Also there is supposedly another verbal about to be confirmed and he is from Big Ten country too.

I think the real thing that Vanderbilt football must do when it come to recruiting is be versatile. Last year they hit Georgia real hard, this year its Ohio and Michigan. Really, whatever works.

VSL Poll: Is the 2010-11 Men's Basketball Schedule Too Easy?

Here's the schedule. One of our readers thinks so, but I think I disagree. What do you think:

2010-2011 Men's Basketball Schedule Released

Here's the news from VUCommodores.com. The Commodores will play on ESPN or ESPN2 at least 5 times. Click here to view the complete schedule.

VSL Hotline: Scoping it Out, Edition

Vanderbilt's leading rusher, sophomore Warren Norman, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery yesterday morning to determine the cause of swelling that kept the All-SECer out of practice since Sunday. The Tennessean's Jeff Lockridge and the Nashville City Paper's Mark Wheeler both report that Warren is "questionable" for the Commodores' opener against Northwestern 9 days from today. Right now, beyond when the Stone Mountain, Georgia native will return to action, the mystery is when Norman sustained this injury. According to Coach Robbie Caldwell, that is unknown.

Mike Organ pens a story in today's Tennessean about the Commodores need to get more sacks this season. A pretty compelling state from the previous two season, in 2008 when Vanderbilt won the Music City Bowl, the team was 5th in the SEC with 30 sacks; last year, where the Commodores went 2-10, they only recorded 20 sacks, good enough for 10th in the league. The article focuses specifically on the DE's, who only recorded 8 sacks.

Coach Robbie Caldwell notes that it wasn't all the defense's fault: "Our defense played real well last year and obviously as an offense we left them on the field too long . . . [b]ut coming up with more sacks, putting some more pressure on the quarterback, is something we're stressing this year." As a point of emphasis, being too focused on sacks can be problematic if there is over-pursuit and missed tackles.

The article also notes the addition on the coaching staff of a position coach focused soley on the DE's. Previously, Rick Logo was coaching the entire D-line, however former Coach Bobby Johnson hired Mike Pelton in March to coach the ends, shifting Rick Logo's attention to the tackles. With this additional emphasis, it's possible Commodore fans will see improvement in both the team's pass pressure and run-stopping ability.

Jeff Lockridge's story from yesterday's Tennessean is worth a read, especially in light of the Commodores attrition at running back. A team that needed offensive production through the air, no matter what, will certainly need plays to be made down the field if the team is going to be successful with such a beleaguered running-back corp.

The Tennessean and Nashville City Paper both have stories about the Commodores (men's and women's teams) kicking-off ESPN's College Basketball GameDay in Knoxville on January 15th, 2011. VUCommodores.com's Brandon Barca is reporting the complete men's basketball schedule will be released sometime today. VSL will report the release as soon as humanly possible.

Commodore Men and Women Open up 2010-11 College GameDay with Doubleheader in Knoxville

The men will face-off on January 15, 2011 (thanks AD for pointing out the oversight) at noon eastern, with the women facing off at 8 eastern. I can already smell a VSL Brain Trust trip. Here's the story from USA Today. Here's VUCommodores' spin.

Vandy lands Another OL Verbal

Well its appears one good fact about CRC's promotion to head coach was that any OL target can feel even more confident in the future of the program. This was proven true when the Black and Gold got its 4th verbal commitment for the 2011 signing class. Vandysports.com and ESPN.com are both reporting that OL prospect Jake Bernstein, out of Crystal Lake (isn't that where Jason Voorhees is from?) Illinois has given his verbal commitment to the Commies. Bernstein stands at 6'4, 275 and ESPN grades him at a 78 (and the 69th overall OT prospect), while Rivals lists him as a 3-star prospect. Bernstein accepted the Vandy offer over offers from Cinci, Colorado, Minnesota and Memphis among others. He joins James Lewis (also rated 78 by ESPN) as the 2nd highly regarded OL prospect to give his verbal to Vandy. Bernstein is the 4th overall public verbal for 2011 (QB Damien Fleming and DE Connor Hart being the others).

I say it all the time that you build a football team from the inside out and having 2 real good and pretty big OL verbals early in the recruiting season and in a season when we lost our coach and are expected to bring in only 15 or so recruits, is huge.

Also just wanted to send my congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Stanimal! I had a great time at the wedding. Seamus doing the Twist was amazing, as was the spinach and artichoke dip....hmmmm.

Tales from the Stanimal's Wedding

I needed a 8 hour drive, plus another day to get my thoughts together on the wedding of the now newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Stanimal. The bride was beautiful, the venue was fantastic, and perhaps most importantly, the band was incredible. The VSL Brain-Trust was assembled where a lot of Commodore sports was discussed, although I'd say it was a 70/30 football to basketball ratio which shows there is already a hedge. Here are some highlights:

Stanimal's pre-game meal: The groom joined the O'Shea's, Douglas James, and other distinguished Vanderbilt alums for some Mexican (because apparently the BBQ joints in Columbia hate money and would rather not be open on the weekends). What was noteworthy about this meal was the fact that the groom to be ordered an inordinate amount of beans, even drawing a slight head-shake from the waitress.

What Do You Think the Ring Finger Is? This was an open question as Stanimal sought to make it official by slipping a ring on his soon-to-be wife's finger. An expert on breaking down Commodore offensive and defensive schemes, Stanimal was unable to immediately locate which finger the ring went on. The lovely bride helped him out.

C'mon Baby, Let's Do the Twist: Seamus O'Toole wowed the crowd with his sole twist show. Decked out in seersucker, as Mrs. O'Toole periodically averted her eyes, Seamus clearly internalized scenes from Pulp Fiction.

Douglas James is Mick Jagger: You wouldn't know by looking at him, by Douglas James can move. What got me, was that he can do a flawless impression of the Rolling Stones' front-man's moves on stage.





The Stanimal Fist Pump: Like myself, Stanimal is not the most gifted dancer, a fact that is OK when you are one of many on the dance-floor, but an inconvenient truth during the first dance and at other times during the reception. When the band called the wedding party up to individually break it down, I have to admit, I was a little nervous. The lovely Mrs. Stanimal and her bridesmaids had some moves; the groomsmen could also break it down. Then there was Stanimal...playing to his strenghts, the band played a little diddy of Van Halen's Jump where Stanimal led the crowd in fist pumping a la Springsteen's Born in the USA. To quote Rome, it was "EPIC," even if I wasn't able to do my patented leg-kick.

A great time was had by all, and on behalf of everyone at VSLNation, we miss the Stanimals the best of luck: may your marriage include many bowl games for both the bride and groom.