Rising Up

Tight End Brandon Barden catches the winning touchdown pass against Auburn
Photo Courtesy of John Russell, Vanderbilt University

ESPN and GameDay are gone.

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have departed after bringing national and world-wide attention to Nashville by staging their second presidential debate at Belmont University.

But the excitement continues to build in Nashville as the undefeated Vanderbilt football team (5-0, 3-0 in the SEC)departs later this week for Starkville, Mississippi for a conference game which, if Vanderbilt wins, will make the school bowl-eligible and ensure a non-losing season for the Commodores for the first time since 1982.

Community excitement is so high, Vanderbilt has arranged for the game to televised on pay-for-view cable throughout the state of Tennessee on both the Comcast and Charter systems. And while the NCAA requires the game be blacked out in the state of Mississippi, elsewhere across the country, the game can be seen as a part of ESPN's GameDay viewing package, and you can find other cable providers picking up the game by going to the CSS web site.

The pay-for-view cost is $29.95 with kickoff set for 1:30 PM CDT.

So if you want to get fired up about Vandy football and get ready for our 35th Class Reunion and Homecoming game against Duke on Saturday, October 25, here's a great way to do it.


Players celebrate the 14-13 victory over Auburn
Photo courtesy of John Russell, Vanderbilt University

When you're ranked 13th in the nation, and you're off to the best start (5-0) since the middle of World War II (1943), there's a lot to feel good about. But it should be pointed out Vandy has not defeated the Bulldogs at State since our 1971 team pulled off a 49-19 shocker.

Vanderbilt does however continues to receive outstanding performances from its players. For the second time this season, junior linebacker Patrick Benoist has been named SEC Defensive Player of the Week. Against Auburn, Benoist recorded a team-high 13 tackles, two for losses, plus a quarterback sack and a pass deflection. Meantime, junior punter Brett Upson was honored as SEC Special Teams Player of the Week. Upson averaged 39.1 yards on eight punts, including four of them downed inside the Auburn 20.

SEC teams do still seem to be having problems believing Vanderbilt is good enough to beat them straight up. Auburn has now fired its first-year, offensive coordinator after the Vandy game, which seemed to be the last straw for him, after struggling all season to install a new offense for the Tigers.

But maybe we will have a secret weapon against the Maroons of Mississippi State, if someone can resurrect an air horn, similar to the one Steve Womack and Gary Cutler took down to Starkville back when we were in school to help Vandy win a big NCAA regional baseball game down at State. You can read all about it in Steve's comments to my football blog posting from last Sunday (October 5).
Anything we can do to counter-act those horrible cow bells the State fans always bring to their home games. :)

Go Vandy!