...And, We're Back

I'll be honest: I have absolutely no idea what CJF and the boys have been doing over the past two weeks to fix all the broken pieces that were so vividly exploited in Athens.  What I do know is we play Missouri tomorrow, and we're going to need something dramatically more cohesive than the effort that was on display in Athens.

I also know this: we caught a break this week.  Missouri has had to deal with the distraction of several freshman players being suspended for marijuana arrests, including freshman phenom wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham.  Although to date DGB hadn't produced on the field as much as many thought he would after coming out of high school as the #1 prospect in the nation, word had it the Tigers were planning to start targeting him a lot more.  So that's something at least.

More importantly, Vandy comes into this game with a couple things working in our favor.  First, we've had two full weeks to get our strength back, come together as a team, resolve the quarterback issues, and focus our efforts on game-planning for the other James Franklin of college football.  (Whether any of that actually happened is, of course, open to debate.)  Second, the schedule sets up pretty well on the other side too, as we catch Mizzou a week before their matchup against Alabama, which is as good as any time to catch a team in the position of overlooking you.

Remember: Missouri got blown out by Georgia too, and in their case it was on their home turf.  Granted, they were more competitive in that game than Vanderbilt even sniffed between the hedges, but we should also acknowledge that just about everything that could have gone wrong against UGA did.

Here's hoping we got the ugly blowout out of our system and come in angry and hungry tomorrow night in Columbia.  James Franklin, meet COACH James Franklin.  Our guy doesn't take too well to losing.

Go Dores.