The Tennessean is now making it official: Lafonte Thorogood, possibly the most heralded name in the whirlwind 2011 James Franklin recruiting derby, is leaving the Commodores. Thorogood, who was described at the time by one knucklehead blogger as "the four-star recruit with the five-star name," started off as the future of the QB position for the 'Dores - but when Jordan Rodgers broke out big, Austyn Carta-Samuels transferred in from Wyoming, Josh Grady proved to be a deadly threat under center despite being listed at WR and Patton Robinette made the move from UNC at the last moment, the Virginia Beach product found himself at 5th on the depth chart. So he moved to RB, where he found himself stuck behind breakout star Zac Stacy, returning one-time SEC Freshman of the Year Warren Norman, changeup-back-extraordinare Jerrod Seymour, and the bright star of the 2012 class, Brian "Got Running Away From A Porsche Speed" Kimbrow - a lineup so deep that Wesley Tate moved to wideout at one point.

At this point, having redshirted, Thorogood has four years to play three pretty much anywhere in the country he likes; there's no indication that there are any strings tied to where he might transfer. There's nothing to indicate that he has been anything other than a fine player and student; it's merely a case of not enough chairs left when the music stops. But looking at the verbal of Johnathon McCrary on top of the Rodgers-ACS-Grady-Robinette lineup, I suspect LT still has ambitions of playing quarterback. And given that he was a four-star dual-threat-QB prospect, one can hardly blame him for seeking someplace where he can go under center.

Two thoughts here:

1) How much have things changed when we have so much depth at critical offensive positions that a four-star prospect is leaving Vanderbilt for playing time elsewhere?

2) No Vandy player who never played a down did more for this program than Lafonte Thorogood did, just by signing and coming here. The fact that a prospect that well-regarded would turn down an perennial BCS bowl contender in Virginia Tech to sign with the new regime at Vanderbilt was the shot heard 'round college football, and did more than all the inspiring press conferences to give James Franklin's new order a dose of instant credibility.

I'm glad he came. I hope wherever he winds up, he gets his shot and sets the world on fire (though I'd rather not see it across from our defense). No matter what, though, when they write the history of the Franklin era at Vanderbilt, you'll see the name Lafonte Thorogood. It may not seem like he did very much, but he did the most important thing: he believed in the future of Vanderbilt football. And for that, we owe him our thanks.

As of late Monday night, Vanderbilt's men's basketball Commodores have a new transfer. Eric McClellan comes to us from one year at the University of Tulsa, where the 6-4 guard averaged 8.5ppg. His minutes seem to have climbed as the year went on, culminating in 25 points in 46 minutes in a grueling triple-OT loss to finish the year against Marshall in the Conference USA tournament. As it happens, Eric was originally recruited by David Cason at Tulsa - before Coach Cason left the Golden Hurricanes to come to Vanderbilt.

If you want to follow our newest Dore, he resides on the Tweets at @iEricMcClellan2. Welcome to the V-Unit!

They could have left.

Festus Ezeli and Jeffery Taylor had guys in their ears (as did John Jenkins) talking about the NBA, about first round picks, about the kind of money that makes it a lot easier to develop your game in a pro environment without the hassle and inconvenience of classes or having to worry about what your share of the bill was. They had track records and stats and the promise of a bright future. They didn't have to come back.

Except they did come back. Because they felt they had to. And that tells you about the character of this team, of these guys that we've lived and died with for four years.

I didn't see a lot of that first season in 08-09, because I knew it was a huge reloading year and I figured I could wait patiently (and I was still recoiling from the Siena fiasco) but when the Dores came through St Mary's in November of '09, I had to go see the show. What I expected to see was AJ and Dolla Beal wilding out and John Jenkins being a freshman sensation. What I got was Jeffrey Taylor, who I described after the game as "the deadliest-shooting 44 in the Bay Area since Dirty Harry Callahan hung it up."

Well, you know the rest. Big wins and bigger heartbreak and a team that keeps marching up the school's all-time charts...but no NCAA tournament wins yet. These guys have an unfinished line on the resume that they weren't going to leave blank. But I think they also just wanted one more year to ride together, which is why Jeffrey Taylor was tearing up on ESPN last night (and why I was blubbering like a sorority girl on Bid Night).

This time last year, don't forget, we were wargaming what this season would look like without Ezili, Taylor and Jenkins, and it wasn't pretty. But our guys all used the words "unfinished business" when they came back, and it's a damn good thing they did...because in the words of Jim Ross, business is about to pick up.

Go Dores. Sink the Vols.

Or, Your Guide To How To Waste Time In The Land Of The Future While The Vandy Boys Are Doing Something Other Than Tanning Some Cardinal Ass.

Honest confession time: I have been an inside sleeper agent since the last time the Dores came this far west. I have actually been employed by Stanford University and as such have been able to thoroughly salt the ground for our returning forces. (I am not worried about Stanford fans seeing this, because there are no such things as Stanford fans.)

So for those of you who are making the trip to the Valley of Heart's Delight (which is what it was called when there were only orchards as far as the eye can see), some advice on the local area, especially if you're not going all the way to the city or to Napa:

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(NB: All opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. King and Train have been very kind in allowing me the use of their soapbox, and in the cold light of day, I don't want my bourbon-fueled assessment of last night to reflect on anyone's judgement but my own. That said, I can't bottle this up any longer.)

Bright side first: We are 10-2 in our last 12 games, with only one of those losses coming in regulation (Arkansas, where we've won only once in the last seven or eight tries anyway), and our overall record shows that three of our six losses were against top-15-ranked teams. If you didn't know anything about this Vanderbilt team, you'd think things are going pretty well.

But we know about this team. More important, we know where we were ranked in the preseason. We know how this team has flamed out down the stretch for the last two years. And we know this year was when things were going to be different. In 2011-12, more than ever before, it was possible to say "the future is now" because we know what comes next year: barring a miracle, this team will have no scholarship seniors and only two juniors, one of whom only got meaningful playing time for the first time all season in last night's loss at Arkansas.

It's nobody's fault that Fes got hurt. It's asinine that he was suspended, but the injury did for that anyway. It's nobody's fault that Hendo was lost for the year and that we had to play with Stevie Thunder out of position for the first dozen games or so, and that our frontcourt didn't round into shape until January 1. Maybe we're just snakebit.

But we can no longer duck the question - we have to seriously consider whether the problem is at the end of the bench.

Here, then, is the bill of charges against Coach Kevin Stallings. J'accuse:

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Or, more accurately put, "cut and pasted from the Longwood Athletics website":

The Lancers of ninth-year head coach Mike Gillian are 4-6 overall for its second-best start to a season since beginning the Division I scheduling with 2004-05. Senior Antwan Carter|St. Petersburg, Fla. (St. Petersburg) (16.5 points, 8.9 rebounds), along with classmate Jeremiah Bowman|Washington, D.C. (Harcum JC) (14.2 points, 5.6 assists), continue to lead the team this season.

Look, let's be honest, this is supposed to be a milk run. This was intended to be a breather for the new kids to get some reps. This, in short, is a gimme.

This team doesn't have a gimme anymore. We need a win, a resounding thumping, and we need to get this squad on track. If THIS game gets tight, it may be time to get VBK on the phone and start making amends.

Hippity Huz? HIPPITY HUZ.

(I had half of this already written before today's front-page episode of The Thorn Birds and The Winds Of War Meets Rashomon, but I hate to bang out a thousand words for nothing and then waste it in a comment thread, so I apologize for the redundancy and beg your indulgence and will refund the full purchase price of this post upon request.)

I haven't had a lot to say about Cal football this year, because it's been such a weird season. Five stadiums in the first five games. Home games at AT&T Park, which is singularly unsuited for full-time football with one side of the stadium sending all its noise into the bay. A major shift in offense with the return of much of the old staff (we're getting the band back together!) and the sea change in quarterbacking. In short, this is a highly anomalous and outlying year for Cal football, and it's felt strange from day one.

But to cap it all off, the gods of football have thrown one last wrench into the Wackadoo Machine - the bowl game. Because the Pac-12 finally has two teams in the BCS, because the automatic bowl tie-ins were rearranged with the addition of the Alamo Bowl to the lineup, and because USC is ineligible for postseason play, the stars have somehow aligned to send a 7-5 Cal to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl, site of the infamous 2004 flameout. And their opponent is none other than the 2011 incarnation of the team that effectively took their Rose Bowl berth: the Texas Longhorns.

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We didn’t buy in at first.

You can go back through the archives of the Vanderbilt blogosphere in December 2010 and see that we were…less than enthusiastic about the hiring of James Franklin.  Much of the disappointment, obviously, stemmed from the thought that we had (allegedly) thrown $21 million over 7 years at Gus Malzahn and been turned down, and some of it stemmed from the apparent lack of success in recent years for Maryland.  I knew Friedgen was on the way out for the Terps, thanks to my DC pals, and the fact that Maryland flaked on Franklin’s head-coach-in-waiting deal was discouraging.  There were questions about play-calling, there were questions about recruiting, and there was a general sense of malaise over the fact that once again, we went out and got somebody else’s coordinator instead of a known good proven BCS-conference coach.

What a difference a year makes.

From the first press conference, it looked like we had a winner.  From his first recruiting haul, it was apparent that he knew how to bring guys into the fold.  And tonight, at 6-6 in his first year, the most successful new Vanderbilt football coach in generations, we have to admit: it looks like James Franklin can coach.

Yes, we were 6-6 in 2008.  But this is a very different team.  We won in 2008 by playing teams close, no penalties, no turnovers, and just hanging around for sixty minutes.  When we won, we won close, and when we lost, we lost ugly.  This year, five of our six wins were by three touchdowns or more. Read that sentence again.  In our six losses, four were lost by a margin of six points or less. Read that sentence again.  Now consider this: one catch against Georgia, one fumble not lost against Arkansas, one field goal made and one of theirs missed at Florida, and one field goal made at Tennessee, and this team finishes the regular season 10-2, 6-2 in the conference, and tied with South Carolina.

This team, in one season, with almost the same players as last year, was five plays and a tiebreak away from the SEC Championship Game.

Vice-Chancellor David Williams, it is said, was dialed in on James Franklin from the beginning.  And he was questioned for it.  In the cold light of midnight, it has to be said: his judgement is impeccable.

(Edited to reflect how I botched the standings.  Alas, the Gamecocks still beat us in my scenario.)

December 14, 2010.  Your own words, Mr. Import:

Maybe this is realistic, maybe not, but here's what I'd like to see:

Season one: more than two wins.

Season two: not less than 5 wins (including, by definition, at least one conference win)

Season three: not less than 6 wins (which would assume a bowl since they hand those out like candy now)

Season four: not less than 7 wins AND a bowl bid outside the 615 area code.

Season five: all of season four PLUS at least one big-ticket win over the Penitentiary of Tennessee, or some big-ticket foe like Florida or Alabama that we haven’t beaten in years.

I don’t think this is unreasonable at all – in fact I would consider this the bare minimum necessary to keep your job, things being how they are. If you have to throttle down the non-conf schedule to help out, fine, but steady progress is mandatory and backsliding unacceptable.

Well, in the cold light of morning, it looks as if we would have wrapped up Year Five if we could have run the table in these last two games.  As it is, we're going to finish Year Two for sure and possibly Year Three if we can get over on Wake Forest.

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(repurposed from comments, because we use every part of the shtick here at AoG)

An Open Letter, to the Board of Trustees, Chancellor Zeppos, VCDW, Ingrams, Riches, etc etc:

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the Greater Vanderbilt Power Establishment:

PAY JAMES FRANKLIN. NOW.

I am not kidding.  We need a big-dollar, long-term, lock-it-up deal for Coach Franklin and we need it YESTERDAY.

My understanding is that we never actually offered $3 million a year for 7 years to Gus Malzahn.  That's fine.  But if you ask me, that sounds like a good figure.  Big dollars relative to almost any similar program in the country, big dollars even for the SEC for anyone not named Miles or Saban, and long enough to ensure that we can build on the foundation we have set this year.  Put it another way: if you'd said in December that Malzahn would have us .500 going into the UT game and a favorite in Knoxville, would you have balked at $3M for 7?  

There are going to be openings. Never mind the high profile jobs like Penn State, there’s Ole Miss next door. There’s ample reason to think Cal could come open in a year or two. Kansas State - where Coach Franklin developed Josh Freeman - isn’t going to consider Bill Snyder a long-term solution. Hell, Maryland already has buyer’s remorse over Randy Edsall.  Don't overlook that it took only four years at Stanford for somebody to make Jim Harbaugh an offer he couldn’t refuse, and the Cardinal have at least one booster known to be kicking them $10M a year for whatever crosses their minds.  Oh, there are going to be openings, all right, and the vultures are going to be headed to Nashville on the dead run.

James Franklin, in eleven months, has done more for Vanderbilt football than anyone in decades.  Never mind the brief renaissance under Steve Sloan, or the All-American years when Bill Wade was QB - we're talking maybe Dan McGugin. He could be the transformation of our program. This could be the vindication of everything we’ve hoped for. This could be our chance to do things the right way and WIN while doing it.  We got the results we dreamed of and now it's time to settle up and order the next round.

No fooling around. No taking chances. Stack the dollar bills as high as the stars and make the buyout inconceivable.

PAY. THE. MAN.

Hippity Huz,

VI

[Frontpaged because, well, this is good. Very good. All formatting mistakes are mine - TI]

So the news of the day from Nashville is that a local five-star recruit has opted for Kentucky over Vanderbilt, and years of recruiting by Coach Stallings and the 'Dores have gone down the drain.  Instead, Alex Poythress will head for Lexington and a program which, under John Calipari, seems to have become ground zero for "one and done" players - kids playing out the string until they reach the mandatory minimum requirements for NBA draft eligibility.

We're never going to be a one-and-done school.  That's fine.  We ought not be a one-and-done school.  It's not who we are, it's not what we stand for.  But we still have to play those schools - with one hand tied behind our backs. I don't blame Alex for making his decision, at all.  I don't blame any kid for going to school wherever he wants to go, and God bless him - and that's why I don't care about recruiting until our guys are in the fold and on campus.  But as long as there are schools willing to serve as the green room for the NBA draft, and we aren't one of them, we are objectively placing ourselves at a competitive disadvantage.  We're playing the same sport, but we're not playing the same game.  And it's been that way for a long time.

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(This is a legit post that I already had in draft and not at all a way to push that picture down the page.  YIKES.)

So here we are, sitting at 3-3 coming into the Army game for Homecoming.  I think we are sitting exactly where most folks expected us to be - winning the first three at home and then dropping two tough road games.  As for the Georgia game, I think most people would say it was a competitive loss, certainly more so than the two preceding it - and in all three games, a touchdown in the last minute of the first half obscures a pretty good 29 minutes of football in adverse conditions.  But still, despite the three-game losing streak, a .500 record at the halfway mark is about as good a result as we could have hoped for back in December when we were first introduced to our rookie coach.

It's worthwhile to consider the quality of our wins, too.  While we always should have beaten Elon - and the performance of their stud receiver made that a lot scarier than it ought to have been - the way in which we won the other two was a clear demonstration that things have changed.  Against UConn, we took their best shot, rallied, and came back to take charge of the game.  Against Ole Miss, once we got rolling, we never took our foot off the gas and very nearly delivered a beatdown for the ages; at the very least, we may well add Houston Nutt to the collection of "coaches who lost their job because of Vanderbilt."

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We need an overflow thread, and it occurs to me we have forgotten one of the biggest traditions of the offseason (well, unless I just missed it while out of town):  the confessions thread.  Yes, all the things that gnaw at your soul, all the infidelities in your fandom, the creeping admirations, the lack of fealty to your team and tradition - this is the time to get them off your chest and get right with Crazy Old Testament God before the shit jumps off for real.

I'll start:  VandyImport (Vanderbilt, Cal, childhood Alabama):

* As a Cal season ticket holder, I loathe the Furd and all their pomps, and all their works, and all their empty promises.  As a Vanderbilt alum, I would trade football programs with Stanford tomorrow and not think twice.

* As much as I want to make it in the SEC, it wouldn't have broken my heart if we had gotten traded to the B1G as part of expansion/realignment.

* My favorite college fight song, ever, is UCLA's "The Mighty Bruin."  I have to sing alternate lyrics to keep my wife from wanting to kill me.

* I honestly enjoy the hell out of LSU.  That may just be because of Freek.

* I can play Rocky Top on the harmonica.  It's the only song I can play.

/says five Fuck Clemsons and performs an Act of Inebriation

Who's next?

This time, things will be different.

That's been the message for months now.  This time, we're not going to hire whatever random school's assistant will take the job.  This time, we're not going to pay lip service to "winning the right way" and promptly drop ten games. This time isn't going to be another dose of "Same Old Vandy."

Now is different.  Now we have a young, energetic coach who believes in the program and wants everyone else to believe.  Now we have upgrades to the facilities, to the tailgates, to the locker rooms.  Now we have multi-star prospects poached from big-ticket programs, guys with three and four and five stars who mockingly try on a Vol hat before declaring "it doesn't fit" and choosing us.  Now, we have YouTube video going viral and Twitter accounts whipping up the faithful and blogs to bang the drum.

And now, it's our turn.

We have been made a promise: that things are going to be different.  Now it's our turn to hold up our end of the bargain.  We have to watch.  We have to show up.  We have to be black and gold from stem to stern.  We have to scream, and shout, and sing, and carry on like it's the end of the world.

If you're a student, use your tickets.  Make it the whole day.  Start early, stay late, on time and on target.  If you're a season ticket holder, fortify yourself however it takes and be prepared to be leather-lunged and sore-footed by day's end.  If you're local, and you haven't got tickets, climb over the fence.  If you're not local, tune in.  Find the stream.  Find a radio.  Wear your black and gold.  Throw up the VU at everyone and no one.  Blog.  Tweet.  Don't let anyone in a Commodore shirt walk across the street from you without "WHO YA WIT!" even if you're three thousand miles from campus. 

We don't know how this is going to work out.  Nothing is certain, and we could still find ourselves looking up at ten losses despite everything.  This is a bet - that we can change the course, that we can turn this thing around, that we can transform Vanderbilt football into what it once was, what it should always have been, what it can be going forward.  But James Franklin, his staff, his administration and his student-athletes are going to lay it all out there to make it happen.  They have promised us everything they've got.

What are you prepared to do?

Believe because you're the preseason #1

Believe because you've got nowhere to go but up from 0-12

Believe because you're coming off a national championship

Believe because you're ticketed for a BCS berth

Believe because you've got senior leadership

Believe because you're got freshman talent

Believe because your coach is an immortal legend

Believe because your coach is new and energetic

Believe because your coach deserves one last shot

Believe because you've finally got a new stadium

Believe because you've got a hundred thousand fans in your stadium

Believe because you're starting your tradition today

Believe because you've got threeve national championships

Believe because you haven't seen undefeated since 1904

Believe because you're finally spending $TEXAS on the program

Believe because Gameday is coming

Believe so you can say you were there from the start

Believe because your father did

Believe because your kids do

Believe because your wife does

Believe that it won't all end the first time you punt

Believe that it won't be over until 0:00 and the final whistle

Believe because your conference needs another consecutive mythical national championship

Believe because you've got to have a winning season someday

Believe because there's no logical reason to

Believe because you don't know any other way to be

Believe that this can be the year

Believe that this IS the year

BELIEVE.

Well, we have brought our affairs to a conclusion once again.  Congratulations to TSigGeig, who stands atop the podium with NCT and allicols.  New action begins Monday the 1st!

I have been out of pocket for most of the month so I don't know how things went - how is the revised format?  Is the "different category every day" better than the "general knowledge with daily difficulty increase" approach?  Is Friday still a ballbuster?  Have they stopped asking stupid meta-questions about the format of the site?  Are there any changes I should try to make ahead of August?  Holler back.  I need the distraction; Ma and Cousin Pa are here until Tuesday morning...

And if you haven't joined the game yet, here's your chance!

The Spider Closet: The EDSBS Trivia Challenge

So last night, in a desperate craving for actual college football, I pulled out NCAA 09 for Wii (I don't think they've made a version since, and besides, I thought "that's the 08 season and we were pretty good").   I glance over the teams and settle on Vandy vs UAB, at home.  And put the controller to the middle and press A, and sit back.

That's right, I'm watching the computer play both teams.  At least I haven't hit full degeneracy by betting on it.

My cousin comes downstairs (full disclosure: Georgia Tech grad).  He and his wife plunk down on the couch, and his wife asks what I am doing.  I explain.  She is appalled (full disclosure: PhD psychology candidate and professional counselor).  Cousin, of course, sees nothing wrong with this.

Cousin asks for the spread.  I figure what the hell, we can probably cover eleven at home, right?  "Eleven over?" he asks incredulously.  No, eleven and the under, I quickly assert, it's going to be a low-scorer and our defense is stout.  (Notice at no point was a combined over/under actually set.)

My wife comes in and is appalled.  My cousin and I ignore her and whoop as Chris Nickson hits somebody in stride for 40 yards.  Vandy goes up 7-0.

"Do you actually intend to watch this whole thing?" cousin's wife asks in amazement.

"Not if it doesn't pick up a bit.  Might flip back after halftime."

Cousin's wife seizes the remote and turns on House Hunters.  At the commercial, I insist on flipping back to the game, where Vanderbilt is on a 10-7 lead at the half.  I feel good about this.

Cousin and wife go upstairs for the night as the show ends.  I pounce on the remote before wife can get it and flip back to the game.  Vanderbilt is leading 17-14 with about 3 minutes to go.  OK, we're not going to cover, but I'll take the W.

UAB is driving, but Vandy holds them four-and-out with a minute left.  WOOOO!!!

First down: take a knee.  UAB uses last time out.

Second down: take a knee.  In the bag!

Third down: computer throws deep incomplete pass WAIT WHAT THE SHIT--

Fourth down, six seconds left: punt.  Ball arcs high.  UAB player catches it at the 30 as the clock runs out.

And makes some kind of juke move, runs 70 yards, and scores the winning touchdown, 20-14.

Wife, who has fallen asleep on the couch, is awakened by my screaming. And explains in no uncertain terms leavened with profanity (full disclosure: five years Cal marching band) that it's trying enough dealing with ACTUAL football and she is not about to countenance this sort of nonsense around FAKE football, especially if I wasn't even actually playing the game myself, and she is not interested in my ranting that evidently since the game comes out before the season that this must be the 2007 Vanderbilt team, but that team beats South Carolina and Ole Miss so they couldn't be THAT bad, and who the hell throws after taking a knee for two straight downs, and goes upstairs to leave me alone in my RAEG AND MISERY.

So the question you have to ask yourself, really, is CAN HAZ REAL FOOTBALL NAO PLZ??????

Is this really happening?  Not content with raiding Virginia Tech the eve of National Signing Day for this year's class, Coach James Franklin and staff appear to have poached SMU commit Elston Lane - yet another WR speed merchant to go alongside Batey and DeClouet and of course Brian "that guy's faster than Walt Flannigan's dog!" Kimbrow in next year's crop of freshmen.

If.  Big if.

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So after the first month, I have come to the conclusion that relying on FunTrivia's grab bag of questions results in way too many weird questions about the site itself or "all of the above" type nonsense.  So the format for July will be as follows:

MONDAY: Geography

TUESDAY: History

WEDNESDAY: Literature

THURSDAY: Science and Technology

FRIDAY:  General Knowledge (same ballbuster difficulty as now)

Where possible, I've defaulted to the tougher questions, because y'all some smart mothers.  Again, folks will not get the same questions, but I expect things to level out over the month.

Also, I'm not actually playing this month, as I will be out of town a lot and swamped the rest of the time.  I expect to see some of you running the top of that board...

Good luck!

The Spider Closet - The EDSBS Trivia Challenge

JEEVES, START A NEW THREAD AND BRING ME A JULEP.  This is so you degenerates can carry on with your talk of movies and drinking and shoes and dating and surgery and flags and video games and WHERE IS MY GOD-DAMNED FOOTBALL, SIRRAH?  Is it not time that our man McGugin has the lads all ramped up to give those no-good Yalies what for?  Why, we might win all nine games this year, and won't that be a treat!

What?