First, what’s said at a booster club probably shouldn’t make national news.  But in a world with social media, cell phone cameras, and booster events attended by media members, what’s said at those luncheons and dinners does make national news.

For that reason, Florida offensive line coach Tim Davis probably shouldn’t have said this in front of a Gator fan club yesterday:

“I’ve always wanted to work with Will (Muschamp).  Will’s got a plan.  Will coached under the devil himself for seven years.  I only did three.  He did seven.  And his DNA is not any different than Nick…

Will’s like the other guy, only he’s got a personality.  He’ll smile at you.  He’ll talk to you.  You understand?  that’s what he’s all about.  That’s Will.  I’m proud to work for him.”

Right.  And here comes Prince Charming now:

Davis is the second SEC coach to make a Luciferian reference to Saban this offseason.  Vanderbilt’s James Franklin called Alabama’s coach “Nicky Satan” at a high school awards banquet in Georgia back in January.  He later called the Tide’s coach to apologize.

At least Davis made his comment in front of Florida fans.

Of course, the fact that Davis actually worked with Saban in the NFL and for a year at Alabama makes his comment seem a bit more serious than Franklin’s poorly-timed joke.

James Franklin might be the most popular man in Nashville… and the least popular man in the state of Tennessee.  Vanderbilt fans love the man who’s taken the school’s football program to back-to-back bowls and locked up a nine-win season.  They also love him because he had the Commodores go toe-to-toe with the rival Vols — losing in overtime — in Knoxville two years ago… and because his team mopped the field with Tennessee 41-18 last year on the West End.

Tennessee’s fanbase hates Franklin for pretty much those exact same reasons.  Well, that and Franklin also has no problem stepping on the occasional toe.  From the Todd Grantham dust-up during his first season to the “Nicky Satan” episode earlier this offseason, Franklin hasn’t been afraid to do what he feels needs doing or to say what he thinks needs saying.  Love him or hate him, you can’t question his fire.  Fire that most believe burns hottest when it comes to the Vandy’s chief rival.

But in a short Q&A with The Tennessean, Vandy’s coach quickly shot down the idea that he had a “disdain for all things orange.”

“That’s not really accurate.  I’m trying to build our pride in the black and gold, and in the Star V, and in Vanderbilt. I have tremendous respect for the University of Tennessee, their history, their traditions, the state as a whole.

I’m trying to fight for the respect of our program. So it’s really not about anybody else’s colors. It’s about me demanding respect for Vanderbilt, the Commodores, the black and gold, the Star V and for our football program. That’s it.

I’m trying to get everyone in our stadium to wear black and gold. I’m trying to get everybody in Nashville to wear black and gold. I’m trying to get all of our alumni and fans all across the entire country to be proud to walk around wearing their black and gold and wearing the Star V and throwing the VU (sign) up to each other.

It’s a sense of brotherhood. It’s a sense of pride. I hear it all the time. I hear people tell me all the time that I see more Vanderbilt gear in stores. I see more Vanderbilt gear walking around in the community.”

The more Franklin has won, the more pride Vanderbilt fans have taken in their program.  Granted, Tennessee was at a low point when the Volunteers traveled to Nashville last season, but the stadium still featured more black and gold and less orange than anyone had seen in decades.

Moving forward, Franklin knows that the Commodore fanbase will have to continue to prove itself if VU is to land in better bowl games:

“… There’s no doubt that bowl games and cities at locations that want to sell tickets to their game, sell the place out, and bring people in that are going to bring revenue into their town, so teams that travel well (are considered).

That’s why I’m constantly talking to people about how we’ve made great strides, but the next step is we have to show everyone through our support and our fan base and our alumni and our students that we love our program and that we support our program.  That’s why we’re going to sell out every single game next year.  I think that’s going to be a good statement to the country of what’s going on here, and also to the bowl people about what’s going on.”

Franklin is only stating the obvious.  And hey, if we wrote it on Tuesday it had to be obvious, right?

The 41-year-old coach has Vanderbilt on the uptick.  From on-field results to recruiting wars to comments that sometime rub opposing fans the wrong way, Franklin is the first Vanderbilt football coach in years to elicit real emotion from the Dores’ rivals.  And that wouldn’t be the case if he weren’t doing something right.

You swat an annoying gnat.  You moan, scream, and complain about a bee that stings.

Franklin has given VU a stinger.

UPDATE – Speaking of stingers… Franklin was taken to task on Nashville radio yesterday for suggesting in a tweet last month that players who don’t sign with Vanderbilt “want 2 settle in life.”

Perhaps James Franklin should smile more when he’s joking.  Maybe he should pause after delivering a punchline and allow time for laughter.  If he had done so earlier this week, maybe everyone who saw the video of him referring to Alabama’s Nick Saban as “Nicky Satan” would have ha-ha’d and realized it was just a big ol’ joke.

Now, we didn’t think he was firing a particularly vicious shot at Bama’s coach, we just couldn’t figure out — still can’t — his purpose for saying he would outwork “Nicky Satan” while speaking at a Georgia high school’s banquet.  Why not just say he would outwork Nick Saban?

Whatever the reason, the comment made news on sports sites across the country.  And Franklin said yesterday that he dialed up Saban once the video clip of his comment started to spread.  He must’ve been worried that Bama’s coach wouldn’t get his grand jest either:

“Obviously, tremendous respect for Coach Saban.  I just got off the phone with him.  Tremendous respect for them.  I’ve got tremendous respect for what they’ve done.  Everybody is chasing them.  The guy has won three or four national championships.

I was really talking about the work ethic that he has a reputation for, and that we’re going to outwork them.  I made a joke.  And in today’s society with all the media and social media and people with tape recorders and things like that, that doesn’t come off that way.  I know people have tremendous pride in Alabama and their fans are fanatical, so I understand.  But it was a joke, and I didn’t mean to offend anybody.”

OK.  So Franklin pretty clearly has “tremendous respect” for Saban and Alabama’s program.  But to blame the media for this?  Hold on a second.

Franklin wasn’t captured surreptitiously by a cell phone camera or a Nixonian tape recorder hidden in the rostrum before him.  There was at least one television camera with at least one WMAZ-TV employee in the room shooting video of him.  If he didn’t think his comments could/would be broadcast then he’s still got one or two PR lessons to learn.  Like: TV cameras usually suggest that something will be televised.

As for Alabama’s fanatical followers, what does that have to do with Franklin’s joke?  Media outlets from well outside the Yellowhammer State ran with the story because it’s not often one coach calls another coach “Satan.”  In fact, if Saban had called Franklin by a name it would have gotten just as much if not more press.  So this really had nothing to do with Tide fans (though they are fanatical).

No, this comes down to a silly joke.  A joke that drew no laughs judging from the sound on the video.  And it was Franklin’s silly decision to make the silly joke.

Whether it’s calling another coach “Satan” or suggesting he chooses his assistant coaches based on their wives’ looks — another knee-slapper — Vandy’s coach needs to figure out what will and what won’t start folks talking.  Better yet, maybe he should just stick to football and leave the smarm to pros like Steve Spurrier.  Only good things have been said about his football program since he’s been in Nashville.  The same can’t be said for his jokes.

SEC Fan Truth #311:  If the coach of my favorite team says something brash and jerkish, anyone calling him on it is an ass (and probably a fan of some other team, too).  But if another school’s coach says something brash and jerkish, anyone not calling him on it is an ass (and probably a fan of that coach’s team, too).

We know then that Vanderbilt fans will rip into us for taking the Dores’ brash, mouthy coach to task… just as we have done in the past with Steve Spurrier, Dan Mullen, Lane Kiffin, Urban Meyer, etc, etc.  Doesn’t mean Franklin’s a bad guy.  Doesn’t mean we at MrSEC.com hate him.  Just means Franklin has a history of saying things that rub everyone — everyone but Vandy fans — the wrong way.  Kinda like Spurrier, Mullen, Kiffin, Meyer, etc, etc.

While speaking at a high school in Macon, Georgia — with television cameras in the room — Franklin said the following about Alabama’s coach:

“There’s this guy down at Alabama.  I think his name is Nicky Satan.  You guys have probably heard of him before.  I’m going to outwork him.  I’m gonna outwork him.  And that’s kind of our plan every single day.”

Franklin’s done a tremendous job in Nashville.  He’s taken the Commodores to back-to-back bowls, he’s won nine games in a season, and he’s recruiting better than Vandy’s ever recruited before.  But to steal a line from the movie, “Patton,” sometimes he doesn’t know when to shut up.

Is calling “Nicky Satan” the worst insult ever tossed?  No.  And VU fans will be quick to say that their coach was only japing.  (If you have to look up japery, you didn’t go to Vanderbilt.)

Perhaps he was just joshing, but like all those folks listed above who’ve flapped their gums in inappropriate ways at inappropriate times, we ask: “Why go there?”

And for the record, no, Alabama is not Vanderbilt’s schedule next season.  So unless Franklin meets up with Satan, er, Saban in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, this was about as safe a barb as Vandy’s coach could have tossed.

Who knows?  Maybe Franklin’s been following the button-pushing act of Ole Miss’ Marshall Henderson and wanted to get in on the act.  But to call a guy “Nicky Satan” at a high school banquet?  Grow up.