Vandy Bowl Wrap And New Year’s Day News
January 1st, 2009 ║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Vanderbilt
Congratulations to Bobby Johnson and Vanderbilt this morning. The Commodores have their first bowl win since 1955 and their first winning season since 1982.
Here are links to just about every bit of coverage out there:
“We wanted to be called winners,” said Johnson. “We wanted to be called champions. We will have a winning season. All those things are extrememly important for a team trying to move up.” The Commodores 16-14 win over Boston College certainly didn’t come easily.
Vandy co-captain Bradley Vierling summed up his teammates thoughts after the win: “I just kept saying, ‘We did it, we did it.’ We were expected to win two games (this year) and we went 7-6.”
Redshirt freshman quarterback Larry Smith provided a bit of a passing spark to the Commodores’ offense yesterday as he was part of a three-man rotation under center. We say a “bit” of a spark because VU never actually found the end zone on offense.
Vandy didn’t commit a penalty or turnover all day, but they did benefit from BC miscues at the end of the game. Hey, you gotta take advantage when the breaks come your way… and Vandy did.
Senior kicker and Nashville native Bryant Hahnfeldt provided the winning points with a 45-yard field goal that ended Vanderbilt’s long bowl drought.
In fact, the ‘Dores special teams units played a big role in the game from start to finish.
Here’s a report card on Vandy’s performance from The Tennessean.
There was some disappointing news for Vandy fans yesterday… star cornerback DJ Moore said after the game that he would be heading to the NFL.
And in basketball news, Vandy ripped St. Francis 84-55 yesterday without the services of AJ Ogilvy. Was this St. Francis of New York or St. Francis of Pennsylvania? I’m too tired to look it up.
