Over the weekend it was learned that Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy was blocking quarterback Wes Lunt from transferring to Southern Miss, Central Michigan, Pac-12 schools, SEC schools, any schools whose names end in R or start with Q, etc.

Yesterday, we wrote that it was time for the NCAA to create a uniform transfer policy that — for the most part — would take the power from coaches’ hands in such situations.

Now, a day later, there’s yet another such situation.  This time Vanderbilt hoops coach Kevin Stallings is reportedly blocking sophomore-to-be Sheldon Jeter from transferring to Pittsburgh.  Jeter is a native of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.  Over the weekend, Stallings had said: “Sheldon has indicated that he’d like to play closer to home and we wish him the best.”

Not sure about your take, but Pittsburgh would indeed seem closer to Beaver Falls than Nashville.

According to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, however, Stallings — for an unknown reason — has decided to place a black-and-gold roadblock between Jeter and Pitt.  One would guess that Stallings feels someone in the Steel City has tampered with his ex-player.

If Jeter still wants to attend Pitt, he can transfer there and pay tuition for his first year or he can appeal Stallings’ decision to the Vandy athletic department (though it’s doubtful the Commodore brass with take the ex-player’s side over the current coach’s).

The irony here is that Vanderbilt was one of the schools OSU’s Gundy scratched from Lunt’s list of options.  Round and round we go.

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.”

Music City Bowl officials announced today that last December’s game between Vanderbilt and NC State had a $13.9 million positive impact on the city of Nashville.  The problem, however, is the fact that that’s the third smallest economic boom since the bowl began matching SEC and ACC teams back in 2006.

Why might the money have been down?  Uh, Vanderbilt is located in Nashville, of course.  Bowls were initially started as a means of bringing tourists into touristy destinations in non-touristy times of year.  To an extent, that’s still the goal for bowl and city officials.  And when it comes to tourism, grabbing a local team never makes sense.  Indeed, fewer than 30,000 out-of-towners traveled to Nashville to watch the Commodores and Wolfpack butt helmets.

Last year’s game ranked #3 on the list of least-profitable bowls for the city since ’06 and we bet you can guess which one finished dead last.  Yep, the 2008 Music City Bowl which also featured Vanderbilt.  That game brought in just $9.9 million for the city and just 17,000 visitors as the Dores were matched up with faraway Boston College.

Some bowls hold their nose on the travel numbers in exchange for creating a good television matchup.  What’s more valuable — bringing thousands of fans into Nashville for one game or promoting Nashville as a tourist destination in front of millions of television viewers?  But the television numbers for last year’s Music City Bowl were also lackluster.  Its 1.62 national household rating was the game’s lowest in seven years.

The problem for Vanderbilt is one of reputation.  James Franklin and the VU administration are having to build a program out of the ashes of dozens of failed football seasons.  Until Vandy gets a better name, it likely won’t become a major television draw (the school also lacks the massive alumni base of many of the nation’s larger state schools).  Bowl committees know what kind of television draw Vanderbilt is.  They know, too, about the smaller alumni base.  Those issues are largely to blame for the Commodores being trapped inside the Volunteer State — Music City Bowl twice, Liberty Bowl once — during their recent uptick in success.

To continue to move forward and grow Vanderbilt into an honest-to-God football program, VU officials need to loudly trumpet the fact that the school sold out its allotment of tickets for the 2011 Liberty Bowl.  Otherwise future bowl committees looking at sub-standard TV ratings and generic stories regarding low economic impact — even though its unfair to blame Vandy for not bringing fans into its own city — might decide to pass on inviting the black and gold to their party.

Northwestern has traveled the same road.  Ditto Stanford.

Franklin and Vanderbilt have made tremendous strides in the past two years alone.  But there are further issues to overcome before the school can start to land invitations to top-notch, out-of-state bowl games.  And until that happens, Vandy’s success story will remain more of a regional story than a national one.

Austyn Carta-Samuels is on his way to becoming the next starting quarterback at Vanderbilt.  How he’s gotten to that point is what pleases the transfer most.

Carta-Samuels transferred to Vanderbilt in 2011 after spending two seasons at Wyoming.  In between he passed 22 credit hours into six months of work at a junior college.  Last season he played in six games for Vandy, the school his grandfather attended.  Now the former Freshman of the Year in the Mountain West Conference is ready to lead the Commodore football team in his senior season.

Despite his past accomplishments, Carta-Samuels says nothing was given to him in Nashville.  The fact that he earned his way into the school and is now on the verge of earning the starter’s job is what makes him proudest:

“I think something that is great about Vanderbilt that I would love more people to understand is you don’t get gifts here as a football player.  Me playing football and me having started 24 games and being a captain in another conference, it didn’t matter to this school.  They didn’t care.  That was exciting for me because I did this all on my own.  I got here with no football help and got accepted academically…

Really, I hope nobody (at Wyoming) can fault me for where I am now — at one of the top schools in America with one of the best football opportunities in the country.  I had a lot of fun there with a bunch of great people in Wyoming and a good coaching staff.  I just decided there was going to be somewhere else better suited for me academically and football-wise.”

Carta-Samuels chose Vandy over Colorado and Arizona.  His promotion of VU and its football program sound like a recruiting pitch from head coach James Franklin himself.  Now, Franklin isn’t the first Commodore coach to tell recruits that they can get a first-class education and be a part of building a football tradition on Nashville’s West End.  But he clearly sells that message with greater success than his predecessors.

And the more players like Carta-Samuels echo their head coach’s pitch, the easier recruiting will become at Vanderbilt.

Speaking at the Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville, South Carolina earlier this week, Vanderbilt football coach James Franklin opened up about the warnings he said he received before accepting the Commodores head coaching job… and his method for turning things around in Nashville:

“They told me I could never win there; it was the toughest job in all of college football.  Over and over and over again, we heard that constantly…

I’m a guy that’s got a chip on my shoulder, so I like proving people wrong.  That’s part of our message about how we were able to turn the thing around, by trying to take that negativity and flip it, by bombarding our guys with the same consistent positive message over and over and over again.”

Franklin is 15-11 in two years at Vandy.  He’s led the Commodores to their first back-to-back winning seasons since 1974 and 1975.  He’s led VU to consecutive bowl games for the first time in school history.  His nine-win campaign this past season was Vanderbilt’s first nine-win season since 1915.

According to Rivals.com, Franklin also notched the 29th-best signing class in America in 2012 followed by the 19th-best class this year.

1. Time to go out West, Tennessee?  That’s the argument made by columnist John Adams, saying that “everywhere Tennessee turns in the Southeast, it’s running into flourishing programs: Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, even Ole Miss now. California is a different ballgame. There, you’re competing with Pac-10 schools. There, you would stand out.”

2. Jeremy Johnson is headed to Auburn after being named Mr. Football in the state of Alabama.  The Carver-Montgomery product is also a candidate for the state’s Mr. Basketball Award, a twin-feat that no one has ever accomplished. Johnson’s high school football coach Billy Gresham: ”He’s incredibly competitive, he’s a great passer, he sees the whole court very well, which I think is something he gets from being a quarterback.”

3. High expectations for Florida’s class this fall.  ESPN’s Edward Aschoff says “the pressure is on five freshmen receivers who signed this year.” by Will Muschamp and staff. ”If none of them set themselves apart, the Gators could be in real trouble this fall.”

4. Vanderbilt basketball’s loss could be Tennessee’s gain.  Darius Thompson committed to Vandy last month but now he’s decided to re-open the process.  The first team to visit the 6-foot-4 point guard?  A member of the Tennessee staff was at Thompson’s school in Murfreesboro, TN on Wednesday.  Thompsons’ father tells the Nashville Tennessean:  ”It’s wide open right now,” saying he expects his son to sign with an SEC or ACC school.

5. How SEC dominance has changed the recruiting dynamic in the state of Texas.

Vanderbilt added 26 players from 10 different states on Wednesday and Thursday.  A breakdown of the Commodores’ “target zone” is below:

Georgia = 7 recruits

Florida = 4

Tennessee = 4

California = 3

Alabama = 2

Illinois = 2

Colorado = 1

Kentucky = 1

New Jersey = 1

Virginia = 1

In-State Signees = 15.3%

Out-Of-State Signees = 84.6%

Observation:

Vanderbilt’s academics standards require the Commodores to recruit nationally.  James Franklin’s successes on and off the field have clearly made that job easier now than ever before.  Like most SEC squads, Vandy’s first turn outside its home state is toward Georgia and Florida.

Four-star receiver Jordan Cunningham from Fort Lauderdale has announced he’ll be heading to Vanderbilt over Florida State, Miami and Stanford.  The 6-3 Cunningham is widely considered to be one of the 20 best receivers in the nation.

Kudos to James Franklin and his ability to sell Vandy as more than just a football program.  Cunningham announced that he’s working on “a 50-year plan” that includes playing receiver in college and then becoming a professional engineer and entrepreneur.  “Football’s going to end at some point and you have to have a backup plan,” Cunningham said.

While Cunningham seemed a little nervous during his presser, it’s clear the young man is very intelligent and has a great deal of perspective for his age.  Thumbs up to Cunningham and to Vanderbilt.

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.