Save the Shield! A Vanderbilt sports blog

I’m not good at obsessing over week-to-week details, especially when the team’s not really competing for any postseason honors. I was going to direct you to VSL, but I see that Bobby only made it through the first quarter in detailed fashion and Stan has turned his attention to the Carolina game. Fair enough.

I’m somewhat better at sifting through message board chatter and filtering out some big-picture themes that, although more nuanced than “Bobby Johnson, coach for life!” or “Fire that bum Ted Cain!”, still help me make sense of the clutter. For now I’ll present these as propositions without defending them. Maybe in future posts I’ll talk more about them.

1. Vanderbilt’s coaching staff is pretty good at recruiting and developing players — in other words, at program-building — but deficient in game-day strategy and tactics.
2. As a corollary, there may well be a “glass ceiling” beyond which this staff cannot take the program (despite having taken it farther than anyone else since the 80s).
3. To close on a happy note, our present struggles may be part of an adjustment in philosophy that’s just running a little behind schedule, but will improve the program in the long run.