In this day and age, all it takes is one dimwit, loser, scumbag with no manners, no shame and no brain to make an entire fanbase look bad.  Twitter makes everything, oh, so easy.

Before diving into this one, let me make a few things clear:

First, I don’t understand people who use Twitter to curse left and right.  I was raised in such a way that I wouldn’t want the whole world to see me tossing F-bombs around left and right.

Second, I don’t get fans who feel that part of the “fun” of sports involves insulting other people.  Likewise, I’ve never understood why some fans are jerks to visiting fans.  I’ve never understood why fans attack rival fans in parking lots.  As a Patriots fans, I was once angered to see fellow New England fans tossing snow (and ice) balls at Jets fans during a snow game I attended in Foxboro.  I’m unable to comprehend how that attitude is created, where it comes from.  What, some people can’t watch a game without trying to hurt someone else — typically whom they don’t know — either with words or fists (or hurled objects)?  What does that say about those folks’ upbringing?

Third, I sure as hell don’t understand fans who take to social media to send nasty comments and messages to athletes or coaches.  If given the chance to spew such garbage in a face-to-face manner, the cowards on Twitter would more likely wet their pants than verbally abuse a coach or player.

And all that brings us to a recent Twitter exchange between a Tennessee fan and a Vanderbilt assistant football coach.  The Vol fan — someone named Julian Bucio — tweeted to Commodore O-line coach Herb Hand the following (edited) message:

“@CoachHand dude I think your wife is f****** someone while you coach your pathetic football team #Slut”

Now that’s class.  That’s someone I’d want to hire to work for my business.  That’s someone I’d want dating my sister, daughter or friend.

Wisely, Hand took the matter to the next level and guaranteed that the over-the-top tweet from a UT fan was seen by people far and wide.  Hand retweeted the message to Volunteers head coach Butch Jones.  Brilliant.  And he included this message:

“Here is what one of your fans sent me on Twitter today about Deb.  Just thought you’d like to know.  If any of our fans were to say something like this about Barb, please let me know so I can personally whip their ass.”

Boom.  Outta the park.

Why?

Hand has taken one rube’s tweet, turned it around, and made it a positive recruiting tool for Vanderbilt.  Now, will anyone be swayed to sign with VU over UT — or vice versa — because of a few tweets?  One would hope not (though coaches sure as heck try to use Twitter to recruit, don’t they).  But every program has an image.  Small things help to build up or tear down that image.  And for one day at least, UT’s image has been slightly tarnished by one of its own fans.

Who comes across with more class?  Hand or the fan?  Naturally, then, it looks like the Vol fanbase is made up of juvenile punks while VU’s coaching staff features men willing to try and hush such nonsense in his own ranks.  We live in a world where everything is oversimplified — e.g.: Twitter = 140 characters — so if Harvey Updyke poisons a tree, Alabama fans are all viewed as being nuts.  If a Tennessee fan says nasty things about a coach’s wife, all Tennessee fans will be viewed as classless.

Jones hasn’t yet responded to Hand’s tweet, but Bucio responded by mocking the coach for responding to him.  (Personally, this is a favorite cowardly out of mine.  Someone writes something insulting to me, I insult them back, and then I’m called thin-skinned for not taking a goofball’s insult like I should.  So the obnoxious person holds the upper hand while the public figure has his hands tied?  I think not.)

Bucio also claimed via Twitter that Vandy fans have tweeted him “physical threats,” as if anyone cares.  Dumb fans tweet dumb things to other dumb fans all the time.  A few dumb fans also tweet ugly, dumb things to coaches and players.  But rarely is a coach wise enough — or calm enough — to simply expose the initial tweeter as a no-class buffoon as Hand did by re-tweeting Bucio’s message straight to Tennessee’s head coach.

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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.

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. SEC Bowl Observations: VU, LSU, MSU, USC And UGA

2. Missouri A.D Mike Alden On Expansion: “There’s More Coming. It’s Not Over.”

3. Observations On Florida’s Nightmarish Sugar Bowl

4. As Memphis Fights To Keep Schools Out Of Its Backyard, Hogs And Vols Should Sneak In/ D’oh! Memphis-UT Talking About New Hoops Contract

5. A Conference-By-Conference Look At Bowl Success

6. Huskers’ QB Says Big Ten Defenses Better Than SEC’s

Just a few thoughts that ran through this writer’s head while watching the SEC’s first five bowl games this week:

*  Vanderbilt won its ninth game of the season on Monday.  As you know by now, the Commodores’ win in the Music City Bowl secured the program its best season since way back in 1915.  But the win over NC State did something else, too — it produced James Franklin’s first win over a solid FBS opponent.

Going into Monday’s game, Vandy under Franklin had gone 0-10 against FBS teams with winning records, 11-1 against FBS teams with losing records, and 2-0 against FCS foes.  (If 6-6 Ole Miss wins its bowl game against Pittsburgh, VU will have won two contests against FBS teams with winning records.)

Now, heading into Monday’s game, North Carolina State was a 7-5 team that had just gotten its coach fired.  So this was not akin to Vandy knocking off Alabama or Florida.  But just as Dan Mullen had to finally beat a West Division team not named Ole Miss to keep people from repeatedly bringing that criticism up, Franklin has now silenced one of the barbs lobbed at him by rival fans.

*  Not only did Vanderbilt finish 9-4 this season, but the Dores won seven games in a row to end the year.  That’s currently the longest winning streak in the SEC.  Just let that one roll around in your head for a bit.

Matter of fact, after an 0-2 start to the season, Vandy finished 9-2 the rest of the way.  The Commodores also scored 38 or more points in five of their last six games.

Regardless of schedule strength, those are some solid accomplishments.  Fantastic accomplishments for a traditional cellar-dweller like Vanderbilt.

*  With every step forward, there’s always a new challenge.  After a 6-7 first year, many wondered if Franklin could build on his surprising start.  He did.  Now he’ll have to start winning with the guys he’s been recruiting.

Bobby Johnson — as we’ve noted several times before — deserves credit for leaving Franklin a roster stacked with redshirt juniors and seniors.  Now those players have had their run and the recruits Franklin and his staff have brought in will have to take their place.  Franklin has been able to get more out of Johnson’s leftovers than expected, so he should do well with some of the higher-profile recruits he’s wooed to Nashville.  But his team will be a bit younger moving forward.  Winning with a less experienced roster will be his next challenge.

*  Say, did you see our prediction for the Chick-fil-A Bowl?  We had Clemson edging past LSU 24-23.  Turns out they edged past them 25-24.  Currently we’re 5-0 picking SEC bowl games and 3-2 against the spread.  Hey, we’ll take 60% against the spread.  The rest of our SEC bowl picks (minus the BCS title game) can be found right here.  

And in case you’re wondering, we’ve got Florida to cover even though we think tonight’s Sugar Bowl will look a lot like last night’s Orange Bowl… with the deeper team pulling away late.

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When you become bowl eligible in back-to-back years for the first time in school history, there’s reason to celebrate.  And celebrate Vanderbilt did last Saturday after it’s 27-26 win at Ole Miss.  At 6-4, the Commodores are the leading candidates for the Music City Bowl and could actually rise higher — doubtful, but possible– in the bowl pecking order with a very possible 8-4 finish.

As usual, the VU athletic department leads the way in pumping out videos to promote its football program.  Below you can watch the pregame, game and postgame highlights from Vandy’s win… or you can skip right to the 5:30 mark where James Franklin picks up and carries the Commodore mascot into the jubilant Vanderbilt locker room.

“This Vanderbilt team overcomes adversity.  This Vanderbilt team wins on the road.  This Vanderbilt team finds ways to win, no matter what.”

Whether you believe the message or not, you gotta hand it to Vandy, Franklin and the school’s promo department for knowing how to sell an exciting message to recruits.

With the exception of the cheesy song from The Script, this clip’s about pitch perfect.

North Carolina State head coach Tom O’Brien has his team at 6-4 and — at least publicly — he still has a job.  Unless the coach has been told behind the scenes that he’s finito, it wouldn’t be kosher for NCSU athletic director Debbie Yow to be making contact with any coach… not even the coach she once named Maryland’s coach-in-waiting before she left for Raleigh.

Still, VandySports.com — the Rivals site covering Vanderbilt — is reporting that Franklin has been approached by someone on behalf of NC State and that he’s shown no interest in the Wolfpack job:

“According to a source close to the Vanderbilt athletics program, VU head football coach James Franklin has turned down the opportunity to speak with North Carolina State about its head football coaching position.”

You’ll need to buy a subscription to the read the rest of VandySports’ report.

As we noted yesterday, Franklin should think long and hard before leaving Vanderbilt (if he’s given that chance).  The knee jerk response from most folks is that a coach should jump on the first train out of Nashville the first time the first time a bigger program comes calling.  But the reality is that a coach who has any amount of success at a school like Vanderbilt, Northwestern or Duke can stay put and be a hero there for quite some time.

Gary Barnett left Northwestern and Gerry DiNardo left Vanderbilt only to find that the expectations are a lot higher elsewhere.  Steve Spurrier — who left Duke for Florida — is an example of how moving on from a school with high academic standards might work out in one’s favor.

At the very least, Franklin should — and, of course, would — weigh all his options before blindly hitting the eject button at Vandy.  He and Bobby Johnson before him have led the Commodores to three bowl games in five seasons.  That should prove that VU can be competitive even in the SEC.  How much easier/better would life be at a school like NC State where the Wolfpack has been bowl eligible five times in the last eight years?

Somebody cue James Franklin, ’cause you know Vanderbilt’s feisty coach is going to have a retort to this one.

Yesterday it was learned that VU officials sent letters — didn’t call, mind you, sent letters — to Northwestern and Ohio State backing out of football games with both schools next year.  Ohio State AD Gene Smith wasn’t happy about that as we told you earlier today.

Well, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald is roaring mad, too:

“I’m disappointed.  We thought that were peer institutions, and obviously we were mistaken.  I think it just shows where our program is heading in comparison to theirs…

I’ve had a lot of respect for their coach and what they’re trying to get done there, but obviously we are in totally two different places as a program and to have them do it the way that they did, which I’ll let (athletic director) Jim Phillips handle all that, he’s the boss.  I’m just disappointed.”

The podium is yours, Mr. Franklin.

James Franklin has pushed so many right buttons since his arrival at Vanderbilt a year ago that many folks forgot just how many buttons needed to be pushed to steer the Commodore football program from troubled waters to tranquil seas.

In 2011, he won over a fanbase that was tired of being treated like a doormat each fall.  His post-game comments after last year’s tight loss to Georgia were for Vandy fans a cross between Tim Tebow’s Promise and Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.  There were six wins (granted against Elon, UConn, Ole Miss, Army, Kentucky and Wake Forest) and those victories brought a bid to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.  Along the way, the Dores came within five points of Georgia, three of Arkansas, five of Florida and six of Tennessee.  VU was giving even big-name SEC foes all they wanted.

Off the field, Franklin sold his program to starved fans, recruits and the media.  Recruits responded in historic fashion for VU last February and his list of commitments is above average again this year.  Media members have responded even more positively than the recruits.  After a single 6-7 season at Vanderbilt, Franklin’s name was attached to much higher-profile jobs all across the US fo A.  Matt Hayes of The Sporting News put the icing on the cake by ranking Franklin as America’s 25th best football coach.

But now people are starting to remember just what kind of job lies ahead of Vandy’s fiery, energetic, salesman of a coach.  The Dores are 1-3.  They’ve lost to South Carolina and Northwestern in come-from-ahead-to-lose fashion.  And after a route over tiny Presbyterian College, Vanderbilt was dismantled on national television by Georgia 48-3 in Athens on Saturday.

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