Thursday, October 25, 2007

Jason Talks about Focus Going into Saturday's Game Aganist Miami of Ohio

Jason sent this email to the VSL inbox earlier this week imploring us to discuss focus. That's all well and good, but why would WE discuss focus, when Jason's already done it for us?

Jason's thoughts appear below:


OK, so we're all jazzed re: the ownership of SC, but that's over. I'm betting you guys are going to have a post recommending focus for VU faithful on the task at hand (looks like Jason lost that bet, huh?).

Miami kind of scares me:

1) Syracuse had a big upset win over Louisville earlier this year...Miami beat them the following week.

2) They have scored 40+ points in four games this year...their offense can definitely move the ball. Miami's running game favors a standard man blocking scheme with the fullback picking up the unblocked LB (BTW, Vandy's defense specializes in confusing those blocking schemes with shifting pre-snap fronts, not to mention that Goff sheds blocks extremely well)...I caught 30 or so minutes of the Miami-Syracuse game on Gameplan and RB Austin Sykes could play anywhere. He's something like 6' and 225+, a load with decent wheels.

2a) The QB Raudabaugh is big, played well last week against Temple and has decent mobility...He's from Texas, which personally means he's pissed that all the TX schools passed him over and he's at Miami...something to prove.

3) Offensively, Cain, Earl, CJG/Hawkins and the O-line should be licking their chops to get at this defense. However, Miami's LB corps, as a unit, is pretty athletic.

4) They took a Big 10 team (MN) down to the wire before losing. Granted MN is the Ole Miss of the Big 10, but Miami undoubtedly saw a chance to beat a team from a better conference...just like they're watching film right now and getting hungry to win in an SEC stadium on the road.

Jason seems to be doing a great impression of Lou Holtz here. The only difference is, after you've finished reading Jason's thoughts, you don't need to wipe the spit off your face...the game is only available on the radio, so I imagine those of you who aren't making the trip will be spending an afternoon with the Voice, Joe Fisher.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

BTW, Great Lou Holtz story:

A guy I played with in HS (2 years older than me) played for ND when Holtz was the head coach, got this story from him:

Holtz has this nice guy, Joe Torre-esque persona, don't believe it:

Against Air Force, AF runs the option and an ND def. back absolutely blows up the RB on the sideline...he's not getting up.

While the AF trainers are running across the field, Holtz leans down to this kid and yells:

"This ain't the WAC, son!!!"

Seamus O'Toole said...

So not only is he my all-time favorite analyst, he's a class act to boot?

Anonymous said...

VU played crappy and still beat the redlarks. (not "american idol" crappy, but still plenty to work on)

Their band did a decent "Westside Story" halftime show (like a glorified high school band) - their uniforms made them look like toy soldiers out of the nutcracker or something. Very unoriginal.

Stanimal said...

We got 4 votes in the coaches poll for the top 25. That's the first time I've seen that.

Anonymous said...

The 2nd biggest win of the season.

Why?

I once had the honor to "talk football" with Bo Schembechler for a few minutes. He was no longer MI's head coach, and MI just had a close victory against Ohio State. He told me that the mark of good teams is that they will find ways to win regardless of the circumstances.

Which is just what VU did. 4 turnovers, an ejection, key players with minor injuries. Joe Fisher mentioned more than once that Miami tried to get down and dirty with us...he said there was a lot of "extra stuff" going on after several plays.

CBJ's squad responded by stuffing the ball down the heart of Miami's defense for 290 yds. rushing and 2 critical second half touchdowns. Everyone in the stadium knew that we were going to run the ball, and we could not be stopped.

The defense was good all game, and stellar in the 2nd half.

By contrast, you all know what happened in Lexington and Jacksonville this weekend.

The mark of a good team is that they find a way to win.

Douglas James said...

Anybody else dissapointed with the incredibly small amount of coverage Earl is getting in national press for setting the SEC receptions record?

Aaron said...
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Anonymous said...

Preview for next week's discussion:

Which team will be healthier? The way I see it is this: if Adams returns healthy, we have a shot. Further, if Tebow's shoulder is worse than he's letting on (as it looked in the Georgia game) we have a legitimate shot. Earl, remember, referees in Florida treat dancing like John Lithgow's character in Footloose. These are the main things going into Saturday's game. Discuss.