Score one for the road teams as Ole Miss surprised collapsing Arkansas in Fayetteville last night.  In Nashville, the Commodores sent their seniors out as winners and pulled into second-place tie in the SEC with downtrodden Florida.


Ole Miss 77, Arkansas 75

After opening the season 17-0 at Bud Walton Arena, the Razorbacks dropped their third straight home game last night in a battle of teams likely fighting for an NIT bid.  Making matters worse, Mike Anderson’s team blew a 15-point second-half lead.

The Rebels needed Terrance Henry’s three-point play — a bucket and a free throw — with 8.2 seconds remaining to steal the victory.  Henry finished with a game-high 19 points.  Ole Miss blew out LSU on Saturday and is suddenly riding a two-game winning streak after having dropped three in a row.

If you’re looking for consistency in the SEC, only Kentucky (good) and South Carolina (bad) offer it.



Vanderbilt 77, Florida 67

Florida’s struggles continued last night in Nashville as hot-shooting John Jenkins — six 3-pointers — gunned Vanderbilt to victory.  The Commodores have now won five of their last seven with both losses coming in single-digits to top-ranked Kentucky.  Translation: Vandy is playing its best basketball late.

The Gators are not.  Florida had won three games in a row until Will Yeguete — so important to UF’s front court — broke a bone in his left foot.  Since then Florida has fallen at Georgia in a bad 14-point loss Saturday and at Vandy.

Florida did show fight in last night’s game, twice getting within a point at about the five-minute mark, but Kevin Stallings team pulled away in the end


The Battle for the #2 Seed

The second seed in the SEC Tournament remains up for grabs at this point and there are still three team that can claim it, depending on tie-breakers:


* Florida can win with an upset of Kentucky at home on Sunday.  If the Gators win and Vandy loses to Tennessee, the Gators will grab the #2 seed outright.  If Vandy wins at Tennessee, both schools would finish with 11 SEC wins and the race would go to tie-breakers.  The schools went 1-1 against each other head-to-head, so their records against top-seeded Kentucky would be taken into account next.  UF would have beaten UK once while VU lost to the Cats in both their matchups.  Bottom line: Beat Kentucky and Florida grabs the #2 seed.

* Vanderbilt can win the #2 seed with a win over Tennessee on Saturday coupled with a Kentucky win over Florida the next day.  In that scenario, Vandy would finish with 11 league wins while UF would have only 10.

* Tennessee got the help it needed last night.  For the Volunteers to grab the #2 seed — and it’s still shocking that the Volunteers can even talk about this at this point of the season — they needed Florida to lose twice.  Vandy took care of the first one.  If the Gators lose to Kentucky, the UF will finish with 10 SEC wins.  If Tennessee beats LSU on the road tonight (tough) and then beats Vanderbilt at home on Saturday (tough), UT and Vandy would both close with 10 league wins as well.  In a three-team tie-breaker, the winning percentage amongst the tied teams would decide the race.  Tennessee would be 3-1 against UF and VU while those teams would 2-2 (VU) and 1-3 (UF).  Also, the Vols would still grab the tie-breaker even if Alabama matches the other three with 10 league wins.

Maryland coach Randy Edsall isn’t going to allow three ex-Terrapin football players — quarterback Danny O’Brien, O-lineman Max Garcia and linebacker Mario Rowson — to transfer to Vanderbilt.  They can pay their own way if they want to go to Vandy.  They can appeal the coach’s decision.  But he’s not going to give them a pass to go to VU, any ACC school, or any school on the Terps’ upcoming schedule.

Yesterday, we suggested that Edsall likely felt O’Brien in particular had contacted ex-Maryland offensive coordinator and current Commodore coach James Franklin about a move to Nashville’s West End.  Now Edsall himself has opened up about the stipulations he placed on the players and indeed it sounds like he thinks there might have been some tampering:

“We had stipulations in there, the same schools for all three of them.  And so neither of the three were treated any differently than the other guys. And again, I’m not gonna get into the names or anything like that [of] the schools that we put on there, because as we talked to the players, it was a situation where we said that we would keep that amongst ourselves.

But usually what’ll end up happening is there’s gonna be schools on there that you might compete against, or if there’s things that you feel might have taken place, you might put schools on that list. So we have that prerogative, to put those schools on the list. The players have the prerogative that if they want to appeal that, that they can appeal that as well.”

The most-important line: “… or if there’s things that you feel might have taken place.”  This kind of hanky-panky is nothing new.  No player will transfer from School X to School Y without having some knowledge of what his role on his new team might be.  In this case, Edsall must feel that Franklin went a bit too far in chatting with his former Maryland protege.

But this is a PR battle Edsall can’t win.  Ultimately, he’s not going to be playing Vandy.  Maryland fans will back him, but the rest of the populace will view him as being too punitive toward three kids he didn’t recruit to College Park in the first place.  And he doesn’t help his cause by providing generic statements like this: “I think there’s always a feeling that ‘Hey, we have the right to do what we need to do, and the player has the right to do what he needs to do, in terms of the appeal process.’  And you know, that’s how it goes.”

O’Brien has been mentioned in connection with a number of other schools — Ole Miss and Wisconsin among them.  Garcia — a Georgia native — is being pursued by UGA, Florida, and South Carolina.  There’s no clear word on Rowson’s plans.

After signing day last week, Vanderbilt coach James Franklin told a group of Commodore backers that those players who decommitted from Vandy were “not men of honor” and “not men of integrity.”  He did not mention anyone by name, but most assumed that he was referring to defensive end Josh Dawson who decided on the eve of signing day to stay in his home state and attend Georgia rather than VU.

As a result of his words, Franklin took some heat.  Now, he’s backtracking a bit… and blaming the media (of course):

“First of all, it really wasn’t written the way it was delivered. I think the biggest thing is when a kid commits to Vanderbilt, I go into great detail and make sure they understand what they’re doing – that they understand ‘commitment’ and ‘what commitment means.’ That I’d say if five other schools come in and offer you, would you change your mind? We make sure everybody is on the same page: the kid, the parents, and the high school coach. We explain it in real detail. I would just rather a kid not commit to us than commit and not be completely sure what he’s going to do. When you lose a kid, it hurts your heart. You feel bad, like all college coaches do, because you feel like your institution is the best possible place for that kid. So when you lose them, it hurts.

I think I probably would’ve worded some things differently [that I said that day]. And I think it would’ve probably been reported a little differently than it was intended. But it is what it is. I have great respect for all the young men that committed to us. I have great respect for some of the men that changed their minds and went in another direction. They thought it was in the best interest for them and their family. But it hurts when you lose a guy when you’ve been recruiting him for a year.”

So Franklin wishes he’d said things differently.  And clearly he still thinks those players who decommitted from Vandy don’t understand “what commitment means.”

Then how exactly is any of this the fault of Jeff Lockridge of The Tennessean who initially tweeted the coach’s exact words?  Franklin tries to blame the press for not putting his words in context but he admits he chose the words poorly and that the context — turns out — looks pretty dead-on correct.

Michael Carvell of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked several coaches about Franklin’s “not men of honor” comments and Vandy’s coach didn’t get a lot of support.  Especially from new North Carolina coach Larry Fedora who lost quarterback Patton Robinette to Franklin at the last possible moment (Robinette actually left orientation at UNC to sign with Vandy):

“What does [Franklin] say about the kids that were committed elsewhere and de-committed from their places to go to his place? That’s my comment. What is his comment on those people? He’s got someone in his recruiting class that did that very thing. He’s saying those guys are not men of honor? Basically, he’s saying he has got kids in his own recruiting class that are not men of honor. He said that, and I didn’t.”

We pointed out as much last week when writing of Franklin’s clear double-standard.  The AJC asked the coach if he saw his stance as being a double-standard:

“I think you get frustrated, and you get upset because kids commit to you.  But you’re exactly right. It was like the year before, when we got in here at the last minute and only had a month left for recruiting, we got kids to de-commit to us. I think that’s a very, very valid point.”

At least he admits that his comments post-signing day were out of line.  And in this instance he doesn’t try to blame the evil press for twisting his words.

1.  Florida will try to bounce back from a clubbing at Kentucky when they host Tennessee this weekend.

2.  Georgia put a whoopin’ on Arkansas to climb out of the SEC cellar.

3.  This writer believes John Calipari has his best shot at a national title with this year’s Kentucky team.

4.  South Carolina has now lost 10 basketball games in a row to Tennessee.

5.  The Vol football team will be a lot more multiple on defense next season.

6.  Meanwhile, assistant coach Darin Hinshaw wants more production from his receiving corps.

7.  After a sluggish first half, Vanderbilt dropped 49 on LSU in final stanza to win 76-61.  (Up next: VU hosts top-ranked Kentucky and the Dores have toppled the last four #1 teams to visit the West End.)

Back in December of 2010 when Vanderbilt made the hire of James Franklin official, chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos made the following statement:


“I told James if he needs a rocket to go to the moon to get a player — get the rocket.”


Fourteen months later, it looks like Franklin has talked Vandy officials into getting him the rocket they promised.  And private planes.  And helicopter rides. 

In all, the Commodores claim to have doubled their football recruiting budget in Franklin’s first season.

VU’s de facto AD — vice chancellor of athletics David Williams — recently told Nashville’s The Tennessean that the school put “a lot” more money into the recruiting fund this year:


“I really won’t know the number until we get all the bills.  We increased the budget for recruiting by probably 100%.  Any time James decides to fly on a private plane or a helicopter — in this case a lot — it has to be approved.  I think I got requests almost on a daily basis (the week before signing day).  I would expect when the bill is paid, it will be a lot.  It will be within the budget, but we’ve increased recruiting a lot.”


Good for Vanderbilt.  The school invested in Franklin and Franklin delivered three four-star prospects, a bundle of three-star recruits, and what’s being called VU’s best-ever signing class.

Can Franklin keep the positive momentum rolling after a six-win season that led to a bowl bid?  That remains to be seen.  But credit him for creating some Commodore moment in the first place.  And for convincing Vandy officials to pull out the school’s thick checkbook.

The favorites took care of business in the SEC last night as Vanderbilt thrashed Tennessee in the opener and Kentucky cruised past Georgia in the nightcap.


Vanderbilt 65, Tennessee 47

The Commodores rebounded from their overtime loss to Mississippi State with their ninth win in 10 games last night.  Jeffery Taylor and John Jenkins combined for 39 points on 13-of-26 shooting from the field.  While Vandy raced out to a 9-0 lead, Tennessee continued to go cold on the road.

The Vols — who beat defending national champ UConn on Saturday — clanked in just 35% of their shots against VU’s stingy defense.  The Dores also forced Tennessee into a season-high 25 turnovers and held true freshman hotshot Jarnell Stokes to just 6 points.


Kentucky 57, Georgia 45

Georgia played nip-and-tuck basketball with the nation’s top-ranked team for about 10 minutes.  And then Kentucky came to life.  Senior Darius Miller led the Cats with 19 points as they pulled past UGA before the halftime break and then coasted to their 12th win in a row. 

Despite the win, John Calipari wasn’t pleased with his team’s uneven performance.  “Last year’s team, I couldn’t believe we were as good as we were so I didn’t have to say a whole lot.  This year’s team, we could be really special and we’re not right now.”

College football is a cold, cruel world to athletes.  If a school recruits you and signs you only to learn that your upside really isn’t as good as they initially thought… you’re adios’ed so fast your head spins.

Ah, but if you do all that you can for the school, find yourself unhappy, and want to transfer out… good luck getting clearance to do so.

That’s the lay of the land in this, the year of our Lord two-thousand-and-twelve.  And it’s the same all over.  Even at Vanderbilt.

Wait, what?  Even at Vanderbilt?

If there were any doubts that James Franklin is turning around the Commodores program, this next wee bit of controversy should put them to rest.

Following the Liberty Bowl, senior tight end Brandon Barden tweeted the following message:

“If you go to Vandy now, you seriously sign a ONE year scholarship #dirtygame #gladtomoveon”

Sour grapes from one disgruntled player in serious need of some gruntling?  Maybe.  But Franklin also told The Tennessean yesterday that a number of redshirt juniors have decided not to return for their senior years.

“A lot of guys walked for Senior Day and a large number of those guys decided (not to return),” Franklin said.  “That’s not based on our decision, but guys graduating and guys who haven’t been playing or not playing a significant role who are going to go get jobs or may go play at smaller schools.”

More players leaving means more spots are open on the VU roster.  And that means Franklin can better cash in on the positivity created during his first season in Nashville which ended with a 6-7 record and a bowl trip.

But like every other football coach on the face of the planet, Franklin is shocked by the suggestion that he might have encouraged some of his players to look elsewhere.

“I would put our record of what we’ve done this year and what our athletic department and university have done for a long time against anybody.  Most new coaches come in and there’s all kinds of new turnover in the program.  I find (Barden’s twee) really interesting.

When you have 105 guys on a team and you’ve just suffered a tough loss, here’s going to be some things said.  There are decisions made where guys don’t know the whole story behind it.  It’s like I told the team, I have no problem with them coming in and talking to me and I’ll explain it to them.”

Our take?  Franklin has Vandy in a position where it can act like other big-time football programs.  And if a coach — any coach — can run off a few guys to open up more slots on signing day, he’s going to do it.

That doesn’t make it right, of course.  But Franklin’s not doing anything at VU that isn’t being done elsewhere.  The surprising part is that he’s got Vandy in this position after just one season.

James Franklin — perhaps the least-heralded hire of all the coaching moves in America last offseason — has Vanderbilt going bowling in his first year.  His fiery demeanor has also brought attention to VU (and himself) from across the SEC.  The Commodores might not be world-beaters at 6-6, but they sure aren’t a laughing stock any longer.

As a reward for Franklin’s success, Vanderbilt is working on an extension for its new coach.  Some Nashville outlets quote vice chancellor of athletics David Williams as saying a deal is already in place.  Other Nashville sites quote Williams as saying “We’re trying to work on something.”

While the school is planning to make a bigger commitment to its coach in terms of salary and security, Vandy is not yet ready to fork over cash for an indoor practice facility that Franklin has campaigned for.

“We hope to have something and keep working and see what we can do,” Williams said.  “Right now we’re not in a position to move anything on that.  But we’re going to be working real hard to do all of the things we can do and need to do.”

Franklin has also made it pretty clear throughout the season that attendance at Vanderbilt Stadium has disappointed him.  Williams told The Tennessean yesterday that VU fans will need to help the school hang on to its successful, young coach.


“We’re fighting now in a situation of bowl picking… trying to get different bowl people to understand the value of having Vanderbilt in their bowl.  And one of the questions is, ‘Well, will a lot of people come?’

Those are all sort of things that need to be part of this equation.  I can do a lot and Vanderbilt can do a lot, but I can’t come over to your house and pick you up and make you sit in the stands or make you go to one of the bowl sites.

I think Coach has proved himself.  He’s a good football coach.  He’s a good person.  He’s a good part of this community.  Vanderbilt is prepared to step up and support that.

I just think we all have to stand up and support it and basically show the rest of the world, and more importantly show all of our coaches, we’re going to support you and fill up the place and travel with you.”


While Franklin deserves much of the credit for the Commodores’ success this year, the work of Bobby Johnson should not be forgotten.  Johnson made VU competitive during his reign and actually took the Dores to their first bowl since 1982 in 2008.  (The current VU senior class is the first in school history to reach two bowl games during a career.)

Johnson’s team slipped to 2-10 in his final season and Robbie Caldwell matched that record last year.  But Johnson had been stockpiling players for the future.  Franklin inherited a team with 28 redshirt juniors and seniors.  Think about that.  That’s a lot of guys that Johnson put on the shelf to age while he battled with a thinner roster.  Toss in nine more true juniors and true seniors and it’s clear Franklin has been working with a roster of men, not boys.  Johnson deserves some credit for that.

Vanderbilt will spend New Year’s Eve either in Nashville at the Music City Bowl or in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl.  We suspect the Music City will select MSU in hopes of bringing more fans to town.  That would leave the Liberty to deal with what would likely be a small Vandy turnout in Memphis.  On the flipside, VU players would at least get to go to a bowl outside of town.  In ’08, Vandy played in the Music City Bowl.

When first-year Vanderbilt coach James Franklin takes his team to Neyland Stadium for the first time on Saturday, he’ll do so as a favorite.  The Vegas Line opened at Commodores -1 and has since moved to VU -1.5.

Vandy has a better record than Tennessee (5-5 to 4-6).  With a win the Dores will go bowling and the Vols will not.  And they’ve been more competitive than the UT in several games against common foes:

South Carolina 21, Vanderbilt 3…  South Carolina 14, Tennessee 3

Alabama 34, Vanderbilt 0…  Alabama 37, Tennessee 6

Georgia 33, Vanderbilt 28…  Georgia 20, Tennessee 12

Arkansas 31, Vanderbilt 28…  Arkansas 49, Tennessee 7

Florida 26, Vanderbilt 21…  Florida 33, Tennessee 23

Franklin’s immediate success hasn’t been good for second-year Tennessee coach Derek Dooley.  Vol fans know that he took over a program that had declined under Phillip Fulmer and had been razed by Lane Kiffin’s quick exit, but 10-13 over (and 3-11 in the SEC) is still tough pill to swallow.

Many already believe Dooley shown all that he’s capable of and that that isn’t much.  Some are already spreading the word on messageboards and talkshows that it should be nine wins of bust for UT’s coach next year.

But before too many people compare Dooley to Franklin and decide that it’s time — again — for change in Knoxville, they should first look at the following numbers:

Franklin inherited a team with 15 upperclassmen in its starting lineup.  Dooley is trying to coax wins from a squad featuring 14 underclassmen at the top of his depth chart.  If picking between a team with six freshman starters and a team with zero freshman starters, 99% of coaches would take the team of veterans.

This isn’t to say Dooley will eventually succeed in Knoxville.  He may not.  In fact, his decision to start a true freshman quarterback in a winnable game against South Carolina — a game UT ultimately lost — was hard to fathom.

But Vol fans need to give Dooley a chance to coach a team that will have depth (unlike his 2010 squad) and will have some experience (unlike his team this season).  If not for Dooley’s sake, then for the sake of their own program.

Dooley is on his way to his third straight Top 15 signing class.  He’s stopped the bleeding when it comes to attrition in UT’s program and — for the most part — his players haven’t spent too much time in handcuffs, which is a far cry from previous regimes.

Instead of comparing Dooley to Franklin, people in the Volunteer State should instead compare him to Mike Shula.

The former Alabama head coach — like Dooley, the son of a coaching legend — took over his alma mater in the middle of stiff NCAA sanctions.  Before being blown up after four seasons, Shula managed to stabilize the Tide program.  He also recruited well enough to set the table for Nick Saban… who then went 26-2 and collected a national title in his second and third years in Tuscaloosa, thanks in part to key players he inherited from Shula.

No one can be sure what new Tennessee AD Dave Hart thinks of Dooley or of UT’s need for stability.  If he’s sharp, he’ll probably tune out the talk radio callers and keep Shula in mind.  Dooley can help the Vols’ program overall even if he’s not succeeding with his individual teams.

If Dooley falls to Vanderbilt on Saturday and has another ho-hum year in 2012, many will want his ouster.  But giving him the boot would result in Tennessee trying to find its fourth coach in six seasons.  That’s no way to rebuild.

James Franklin has quickly turned around the in-game fortunes of the Vanderbilt football team.  Now he needs to do something about VU’s postgame reputation.

Last week, Franklin himself took offense to a Georgia player’s taunts and wound up in a heated postgame exchange with UGA defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.  On Saturday, Vanderbilt dissed the US Military Academy with its postgame behavior.  Today the school issued an apology that read in part:


“We at Vanderbilt University would like to publicly offer our sincere apology for the events that occurred at the conclusion of our recent football game.  While our football team performed our alma mater with our fans and band, the Black Knights, their band and cheerleaders, as well as their fans, stood at attention and honored us as would a worthy foe.  However, after we were finished and the Black Knights began to perform their alma mater, our football team left the field and our loud speaker blasted music that had the result of drowning out the performing of your alma mater.

While there was no intention to be disrespectful, this was wrong and was a huge mistake on our part.  There is no excuse for this oversight; we were just wrong and we are truly sorry.”


A nice touch by the Commodore brass to offer a public mea culpa.