Save the Shield! A Vanderbilt sports blog

A lot of teams are built to come from behind.   This Auburn team isn’t.   In fact, they’re not really built to come from ahead.
I don’t know how long the Iron Bowl will be watchable but it was worth it for that line.

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The ACC seems to be cleaning our clock for the moment, with Clemp’s Son up 10 17 and Georgia self-destructing against Tech.
The dirty little secret is, I wouldn’t mind both those ACC teams winning.    In the case of CU-USC it’s entirely about bowl placement.    It’s more subtle why I’m viscerally having a hard time pulling [...]

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Busy driving back to my hometown for Thanksgiving and thinking about grad school apps, I guess.
Here’s what they said about Vanderbilt:

You would think the Commodores would get up for a rivalry game, but they appeared to still be hung over from celebrating the bowl berth.–Year 2
What was that all about? You figured, great, we’re bowl-eligible, [...]

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I don’t really plan to talk a lot on this blog about the problems with the BCS. I figure that the majority of fans’ preference for a playoff has been evident for a long time.   Plainly those in control, spurred on by the Rose Bowl’s hubris, don’t give a flying damn what the [...]

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It’s pretty much a given that any time I invest myself emotionally in VU, they disappoint.    I wasn’t yet emotionally invested at the Ole Miss or Auburn games.   (Easy to say in retrospect, yes, but I really wasn’t.   I went to OM because I wanted to see Oxford and Auburn because I wanted to see [...]

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It sounds ridiculous to say that today’s game scares me.    It’s our best chance in 24 years to take it to a hated rival.   It’s a chance to improve on our bowl eligibility.    It’s too big an opportunity to feel scared about it.
But damn, I just really feel like this could be an embarrassing loss [...]

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I’m back in good health and good spirits, so you get twelve comments this week, and even a relevant one or two.

Alabama - Tide just keeps rolling along.   I don’t actually think they’re a better team than Florida, but I can’t see moving them down as long as they’re the only undefeated.
Florida - So the [...]

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Not surprisingly, our “old friend” (in blogosphere years) Jerry Hinnen didn’t let VU’s sixth win pass without commemoration over at the Car Wash.   He linked to a nice mention on an Auburn-ish blog I’d not heard of, JRSuicide’s A Lifetime of Defeats.    Hey, if the ‘Dores can combine with the President-elect to push back the [...]

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While Phillip is spending the time and care to outline nearly every possible scenario and where the Dores would land under each, let me take a few minutes to speculate on the most likely scenario for this year, and what I think the SEC Tie-In bowls would look like if my guess is right.
First, lets [...]

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All as of Nov 15 or later:

Schlabach, ESPN: Liberty vs. East Carolina
Feldman, ESPN (same link): Liberty vs. Tulsa
CBS: Music City vs. Va Tech
College Football News:  Music City vs. U. of Miami
Estes, NBC (use the BY SCHOOL link to navigate): Chick-Fil-A vs. Maryland

Stewart Mandel of CNNSI doesn’t have this week’s out yet put his out on [...]

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