Moon Over My Hammy

"High Hit" Ranks Up There Pretty Close To The Phantom Excessive Celebration Call As Worst F### Jobs In Vandy History

Because I know no one else watches Vandy football, here's the scenario.

Vandy scores a TD with about 2:30 to go in the game.  Go for the two-point conversion to tie, don't succeed.  Kick off to Northwestern. 

With about a minute and a half left, we stop Northwestern on third down, by tackling the QB who was running for the first.  Now, keep in ind this was a designed running play, in which the QB is a runner, and this guy had been running around all game.

We stop him short of the first.   But then the BIG TEN official throws a flag.  WTF?  The call?  "High Hit."  Not helmet-to-helmet hit, because no such thing happened, as the video below clearly demonstrates.  High hit.  The problem is there is no such thing as a penalty for a "high hit."  The hit is either legal or it is not.  This one was legal.  But don't take my word for it:

This penalty ended the game, essentially. You just can't throw that flag, in that situyation. Actually, not in ANY situation, because it's a bullshit flag. Now, truth be told the game shouldn't have come down to that. Vandy certainly gave away chances to wini that game. All in all, this is symbolic of every close Vandy loss in the last 10 years. Played well enough to beat a superior opponent, but in the end we lost because we shot ourselves in the foot and got screwed by the refs.

Caldwell's humor disguises strong coaching skills - NCAA - SI.com

Great article on Coach Caldwell.

Caldwell's humor disguises strong coaching skills - NCAA - SI.com.

Earl Bennett Excessive Celebration Call - VU-Florida 2005

Having a Vandy Football pitty party this week, and this terrible memory came to miind. What a terrible call, and one that set the program back years. If not for this call, we beat Florida, go to a bowl game in 2005, and Bobby Johnson is probably still here. No wonder Bobby Johnson retired. I can barely handle these close, Bad News Bears losses as a fan. Can only imagine what it is like from the sidelines.

Updated: Vandy, SEC lose a lot as Johnson walks away

Good article from the AJC's Barnhardt:

Updated: Vandy, SEC lose a lot as Johnson walks away.

Coach Bobby Johnson Retires: What The . . . ?

Why now?

Why no specific reasons, other than it is "personal?"

Why would he do this and let his players and coaches find out through a freaking press conference, rather than meet with them?

What is going on here?

Vandy's Own David Price Will Start For The AL In The All-Star Game

Story

What a leap this young man has made this year.

In baseball, most of these highly touted pitching prospects never pan out.  In fact most of them you never hear from them again.  Congrats to Price for making the most of his opportunity and proving himself on the major league level.

RIP Rajaan Bennett

Man, this is terrible.  Recent Vanderbilt football signee Rajaan Bennett was the victim of an apparent murder-suicide in his home. 

This kid was not only a highly touted and sought-after athlete, but by all accounts was a great kid off the field.

This is terrible.

Vanderbilt STILL Alone On Top Of The SEC East

Vandy 85, EuTee 76.

Great road win.

Winning on the road in the SEC is tough (just as Kentucky), and Vandy has always struggled on the road in the SEC.  This year they are 3-0, with tough wins at Alabama, South Carolina, and EuTee.

Awesome start so far to conference play.

GO DORES!

Vandy And The Titans Hit New Lows

It's shaping up to not only be bad seasons for my two favorite teams, but historically bad.  Laughably bad.  Embarassingly bad.  "Time to break out the paper bags" bad.

Vandy reached its new low last week when it lost to Army, the shittiest of the service academies.  I like the army and all, but this was a terrible loss.  Vandy's offense may be the worst offense to be fielded in SEC history.  Perhaps the history of Division I.  Our QB has lost all confidence.  He was a young guy to begin with, and combine that with a beat-up, porous offensive line, and terrible WRs, and the results are predictable.  And when I say bad WRs, I am talking about two white kids and a guy from Africa.  Not exactly murderer's row there.

Then the Titans set their new low this week with the absolute roll over against the Patriots.  There is no where to go but up for the Titans.  I am not a knee-jerk kind of guy when it comes to coaches, but I really feel like it is time to move on from the Jeff Fisher regime.  Just re-boot the whole thing, clean house, and start over with a new everything.  There comes a time when it is time to make a change if nothing more than for the sake of change.  That time is now in Nashville.  The players are tired of Fisher, the fans are tired of Fisher, and Fisher looks like he is burned out.

The good news is I can just sit back and wattch football now, without all the angst of last season when Vandy and the Titans were both shooting for something special.  Of course, that's what makes sports interesting, but oh well.  At least I can still pull for the Saints.

WHO DAT?

Vandy's Upcoming Recruiting Class Now Ranked #26

Thought it was some sort of mistake at first:

http://vanderbilt.scout.com/a.z?s=189&p=9&c=14&yr=2010

And while some of these guys may change their mind, you know that, unlike with many other SEC schools, these guys are most likely going to all be academically eligible.