ONE OPINION: MACKENZI ADAMS SHOULD BE VANDERBILT'S STARTING QUARTERBACK

Let me start by saying this: I trust Bobby Johnson as a coach. He's the best coach for Vanderbilt and I hope we can keep him after Clemson fires Tommy Bowden.

I also can't help but thinking that MacKenzi Adams should be Vanderbilt's starting quarterback.

Chris Nickson is a fine athlete. He ran wild against Miami of Ohio. Rice couldn't stop him. Against those two teams, he gained 251 yards on 33 carries. But SEC defenses are a different story. Against South Carolina, Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State, Nickson has gained 66 yards on 40 carries.

Nickson did rip off a couple of nice runs against Auburn. But I'm convinced we'd have lost to Auburn if he'd stayed in the game. I thought he was one of the stars of that game for taking himself out. I don't know how hurt he was against Auburn or if he played hurt against Miss State. But Vanderbilt couldn't run the ball against Auburn or State, and Hawkins was completely ineffective after some nice games earlier in the season. The only person who put up any yards against those teams was MacKenzi Adams through the air.

I'm also convinced we would have beaten State with Adams at the helm. In his postgame interview, Johnson said this: "I don't think it was Chris' fault... He was doing what we asked him to do and he wasn't getting a lot of time to make the throw. That is going to be a decision we will be making here on whether who to start. We make those decisions with the best information that we have and we hope to stick with them. Every position is under review."

The thing is, Johnson doesn't ask his quarterback to win games. He asks his defense and his special teams to win games. He asks his offense to control the ball and go forward instead of backward. That's worked until Saturday. But on Saturday, his offense was having trouble going forward and his defense was left on the field way too long. And those little yellow flags were flying at all the wrong moments.

We didn't need 400 yards passing and five touchdowns. But we did need to move the ball enough to win the battle of field position and give the defense some rest. Nickson couldn't do that. (Though the Bulldogs' punter tried his best to help us.) In fact, it took the Commodores seven plays and more gifts from the Bulldogs to score from the MSU17.

Like I said, I trust Bobby Johnson. If he starts Nickson against Georgia, I'll certainly stand by him, but I'll also be curious to know his reasoning. He's an exceedingly pleasant man, but when asked after the game about Nickson, he seemed to be about as terse as he's able to be. But questions about Nickson and Adams are obvious ones.

And most Commodore fans, myself included, think they know the answer.