Thursday, July 2, 2009

Let the Previews Begin

We'll start with our VSL previews in the weeks to come, but to get the ball rolling, we wanted to let y'all know about some previews that are starting to pop up on the web. ESPN.com's Chris Low Previews the Commodores and thinks this will be a year of "Hope and Concern." According to Chris' analysis, the "hope" comes from the teams "experience, coaching and belief," while the "concern" comes from a lack of offensive firepower. I've got to say that I think this concern is premature. I am confident that with Larry Smith (hopefully) stepping up as QB1, the emergence of UConn transfer Terrance Jeffers, a healthy Jared Hawkins, and an experiences offensive line that this team can move the ball. The biggest thing standing in their way is the offensive play-calling of Ted Cain.

Other previews worth checking out: SECRivals.com and the New York Times' Quad Countdown, which has the Commodores ranked as the 65th best team in the country. While I think Paul Meyerberg is giving Vanderbilt short-shrift, the fact he put Vanderbilt Sports Line on blast will cause us to hold our fire (for now).

What do you think, VSL Nation?

5 comments:

Anything but Gatorade said...

Maybe the "concern" part comes from the fact that none of these guys, except Jared Hawkins, have much game experience? I think maybe "Hope and Hope" is more accurate. It is for me, anyway.

Stanimal said...

I gotta go with Bob on this one. As the resident VSL downer at football season, there are about 1,000,000 question marks on offense. Frankly, "concern" is far from "premature", and I'll go on record here as saying that you should temper your expectations a little bit on Smith. He only played in 1.5 games last year and has thrown less than 50 passes. Plus, it's not guaranteed yet that he beats Mac out for the starting job. On top of that, Vanderbilt is installing a spread offense, which is new, and as you saw last year with Auburn, may not end up being so great.

There is no slam dunk here and we could just as easily go 4-8 as 8-4 (especially with that schedule).

Douglas James said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Douglas James said...

While I think the offense should improve I def think it will be a question of how much and therefore Low is right in his concern. I also could see us take a slight step back defensively (as well as in the kicking game w/ Freshman Ryan Fowler), not to mention I think we have a tougher sched this year. All around I think we will be a better team but that might not translate into more wins. Either way I think this will be an exciting team and I think we are legitimately in every single game and I think there is a good chance we steal one AT LSU to begin the SEC sched.

Anything but Gatorade said...

Douglas, if VU manages to do that I'll make sure I find you at the Georgia game and hand you a fifth of Makers for that ballsy prediction.