Ole Miss - Vandy

The first televised game college game of this season will probably go down as one of the most entertaining games of the year.

Ole Miss and Vandy put on one hell of a show last night in Nashville in a game won by the Rebs 39-35.

All I can say is that if these two teams represent the also-ran status in the SEC then the SEC is going to be one tough conference to compete in this season.

There are some very very good athletes on both of those teams I saw last night and they are well coached.

I don't remember a Vandy team with that much talent and yet Ole Miss overcame for the W.

Should be a fun season.

 

Those were also 2 horse **** defenses. The game would have been lower scoring if you awarded points for tackles.

I watched the Rutgers/Fresno State shootout that went to OT.. All 4 teams looked right about the same, but Rutgers and Fresno showing a bit more heart.

It's the first week. It was fun.. but man, that was some bad football.

 

Corey's right. Here in Indiana, people are ga-ga about IU's 73-35 win over Indiana State. You could say IU is on fire because they scored 73 points, but the coach can't be happy that the defense gave up 35 points to an FCS team. I saw some of the Ole Miss-Vandy game. I wasn't impressed. Poor defense.

 

I saw it as highly skilled offensive players making great plays and utilizing good coaching strategy.

I think there was a reason Vandy was on a 7 game winning streak before the loss.

ISU does not compare to Ole Miss and Vandy at this juncture.

 

We have no idea who compares to who yet. This was the first day of the season. I'm sure there will be plenty of time for you to share your slanted views. I wish I could be proud to be from the SEC but around here, you spoil that Dave.

 

Here the Vandy-Miss game came on after the So. Car.-UNC game. (at least the portion before the rain delay.)

 

You missed (or ignored) my point. A coach whose team gives up 35 points to ANY opponent, FCS or SEC, can't be happy with his defense. I doubt that the two SEC coaches were happy with their teams' defensive play last night.

Heck, it's a young season. Maybe those two teams will turn out to be among the cream of the SEC this year. If so, I'll eat my words about last night's game.

 

I do believe in the post game interview, Pastor Freeze referred to his defense as 'abysmal'...

but what the hell do I know.. To Dave it's all just SEC gladiators ruling the world.

On a more serious note, as terrible as the defense was in Rutgers/Fresno State, there was some big time skill and heart in that game. (for example, guys who catch the ball with the game on the line) Carr's brother just threw it all over the yard. That kid for Rutgers looks freakishly talented and he has freshman hands

I'm always a little surprised that Fresno is never consistently good on defense. They have some players there. Some years they are, other years their games are track meets.

 

If you stepped back for a minute Tom ( but you won't ) you might see that many of my "slanted" views have actually been agreed upon by and/or have come to fruition and reported on by the so called talking heads and CFB experts.

I won't list them lest those that are so easily offended are offended once again.

Hey... I'm the first to say that giving up 30 something points is not acceptable defensively and will get you a loss many more times than not.

But I watched the game in it's entirety ( did anyone else??? ) and what I saw was NOT two lousy defenses just laying down and giving up points.

There was skill on these two teams that I haven't noticed much before.

Maybe they'll both go out and lay eggs the rest of the season..... we'll see.

 

Dave, I just compare what you do to the young kids at the race track. They talk their trash, what I call bench racing, but when eliminations start and they go down in defeat, they are not so boisterous.

Let's see a few "elimination rounds" before we say that it was great offense against good defense. We may just find out that it was nothing but crappy defense.

 

I've been dead on about a lot of things in CFB over the past few years.... and it was tough sledding voicing my opinion about some things here because of so many sensibilities.

So as many things have come to fruition and laid on the table I don't have much to say about it specifically.

But that's the "old news" stuff.

Damn.... Vandy has gone 26-13 over the past three years which is "new news" stuff.

The 'Dores however may get derailed by their sex/rape scandal if the rest of the team get's distracted by it. However, last night they looked dangerous enough to me that you had better be paying attention when you play them.

Same for Ole Miss and their key players are mostly freshmen. I hope UF doesn't get them back on the sched any time soon.

 

This was an obvious train wreck... which explains why I had to look.

 

We get Vandy in late November. We get Ole Piss next year. Plenty of time to evaluate without jumping to conclusions watching the two play wach other in the first game.

 

Here was my analysis on August 30th of the potential for Vandy and Ole Miss based on what I saw.

Damned if Ole Miss and Vandy didn't just beat LSU and Georgia respectively this past Saturday..... relegating both teams in one night to also ran status in the SEC race.

 

or the conference is shitty and plagued with bad defense.

 

In any event.... we'll find out in bowl season..... but in any event the conference has beat the hell out of each other this season..... except for Bama.... for reasons already discussed that aren't the Tide's fault although I do think some chinks will appear after the run of Tn, LSU and Auburn.

 

It's not the usual suspects doing the beating......Vandy, Auburn, Missouri. There are two ways to look at it....Dave's Way: The other teams in the conference are becoming as strong as the 3-4 power teams.......Another way: the conference as a whole is down this year (not necessarily a negative).

Either way, Bama keeps rolling.

 

I think Arkansas and Kentucky are down.... but otherwise the reason I said what I said about Vandy-Ole Miss after watching them play each other back in August is because their quality of play seemed to be an upgrade over recent years.

I think I was right in that assessment and I do think you will see the results in the bowl games in addition to the cannibalism taking place in the SEC.

Bama has escaped the hungry cannibals so far.....but will have a brush with a couple two or three pretty soon.

 

Here's the problem I have with all of this.

There's no denying that Vandy and Ole Miss are getting better, even if it is oh so slightly. It's not as binary as either of the proposed realities above. How about Georgia being a bust? Florida is on their way to Birmingham for a bowl game at this pace. There is not this static element of awesomeness that lives in the SEC. It's possible that those guys are up and others are down. That's something that no one even talks about..which brings me to:

The planted flag theory. The SEC are the undisputed kings of this ****. How many years (and it's been a long time) have you guys heard me assess the teams in the SEC, the bowl games come and the SEC proves very human only to have an SEC team win the title which leads to everyone forgetting about their very human bowl performance.

The chants of SEC, SEC, SEC just drowned it all out..

This is the point that Kirk Herbstreit was ripped for earlier this year. When he said that the SEC has to take ownership of Oregon's absolute dismantling of Tennessee, he wasn't piling on. He wasn't saying the SEC sucks. It wasn't any of the speculated theories that I saw tossed about.

It was a direct reference that the SEC (and to a much larger extent college football as a whole) has annually tossed aside bowl results, regular season results and all empirical evidence to plant their flag on a win in the BCS title game.

You plant your flag over Alabama destroying Notre Dame, but totally ignore Louisville destroying Florida. You plant your flag over Ole Miss beating Pitt, while totally ignoring Northwestern beating Miss State. Everyone talks about Vandy beating NC State in a bowl game, but how many remember that Clemson beat LSU?!?

It's not just you guys and I don't entirely blame you. It's a system created by the SEC commissioner that has benefited the SEC immeasurably and taken them to levels of success that once only existed in the loftiest of drunken barroom boasts. It's everyone else's fault for going along with this nonsense. You guys are doing what's in your best interest, I have no idea what anyone else is doing but they've sold out their heritage, tradition, reputation and souls to chase the almighty TV dollar. I could blame the networks, but they are doing what they do...create hype and generate advertising revenue. Granted, they do it under the guise of reporting or presenting 'facts' but the reality is that's ********. The worst thing is deep down inside we know it, but we accept it anyway.

The BCS era cannot end soon enough imho.

 

Corey, it is kind of hard for me to accept much of your analysis when the SEC does have that big run of BCS Championships. And in many of the years either the team that lost the SEC Championship game or another SEC team could well have won it also.

I know a lot of you Notre Dame fans will disagree, but Georgia was one play away from beating Alabama in that Championship game and had they won there is not much doubt in my mind they would have have beaten Notre Dame also.