Tuesday, October 18, 2011

James Franklin: Lose a Battle...Win Another Battle?

Since the "war" that is SEC football is never "won," I had to strain the saying a bit. Still, I thought this piece from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Michael Carvell was promising for Vanderbilt going forward.

The story deals with the fallout after Franklin's post-game exchange with Dawgs Defensive Cooridinator Todd Grantham.

Stephenson linebacker Darreon Herring:
“You know, Georgia won the game fair and square but they didn’t really show that much class about it. . . To be honest, I think Mark Richt should’ve handled the situation a little better than he did. The whole game, the Georgia DBs were talking trash, pointing fingers and taunting the Vanderbilt sidelines. I just feel like Georgia didn’t have that much discipline.”

“Yes, Vanderbilt was right to step up after all of that. They disrespected our head coach with all the taunting toward the sidelines and dancing on the Vanderbilt star in the middle of the field. Georgia should’ve just shook hands after the game and left it like that."
Tucker linebacker Jacob Sealand said:
I respected the way Vanderbilt played, even with Georgia having several personal fouls. Vandy didn’t react to any of them. They didn’t get any personal fouls. Coach Franklin said he is going to coach with class and if we’re going to win, we’re going to win with class. I think that’s something that everybody can respect.”

“Honestly, it got my heart pumping, and I know with a lot of the recruits around me, it got their hearts pumping, too. It gave me a lot of pride about Vanderbilt and made me realize how much I love that school already without being up there yet. Coach Franklin has won his players over, and has already won me over, too.”
Carvell writes that Sealand said he felt like running on the field in support of his future college coach. Now that's loyalty.

East Paulding defensive lineman LaDarius Banks said:
“Honestly, I liked the confrontation. I’m all for getting after it. At a certain point, though, it’s college football and you’re supposed to conduct yourselves accordingly. As of right now, there are a lot of players on Vanderbilt’s team from Georgia, and what happened on Saturday is going to stir up a good rivalry over the next few years.”

Banks, who met with Franklin after the game, went on to say “I can’t really explain how Coach Frankin was … OK, he was [angry]. All the other coaches were trying to calm him down. Everybody was fired up about what happened.”


Tucker defensive end Josh Dawson, who committed to Vanderbilt last summer, but is still being heavily recruited by Georiga said, are the game:“There were a lot of emotions from the game and when they got the two teams together afterwards, it got out of hand for a second but that was about it … I think it showed people that Coach Franklin and Vanderbilt are not going to back down from anybody."

While we didn't get the "W," it's hard to see how what happened Saturday doesn't help the Commodores going forward.

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