Sunday, October 10, 2010

Four wins this year would be a success for Vanderbilt

We're still talking up the possibility that Vandy will win six games. That would be a miracle, just like the 2008 season and the Music City Bowl win was a miracle. It can happen, but it's unlikely.

Vandy has been favored to win one game so far this season and has won two, so the Commodores have exceeded expectations. They will not be favored to win another game this season.

Here's what I think: Four wins this season would mean we win two out of three against Kentucky, Tennessee and Wake Forest. Or one of those and a really big win against Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas or Florida. (The Georgia team we face Saturday will not be the same one that lost to Miss State and Colorado.)

Four wins would be a big success and Robbie Caldwell should get a two-year extension to see what he can do with all the promising young talent (at least by Vandy standards) that he has.

If we don't win another game, then we should get another coach.

And if we finish with three wins? Well, it depends on how we do in the other games. Do we show improvement? If we roll over and get crushed like we did in the latter days of Woodyball, then we should move on.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dimon, I would disagree with your post by suggesting that the administration raise the bar for defining success of the football program. A 2-4 win total with basically the same coaching staff dating back to Bobby Johnson is not good enough. At the end of every season, schools replace their staffs because the are expecting to be more competitive. Vandy should be no different. You seem to be making the excuse that the glass is half-full which is the story of Vandy football for many years. Name 1 other SEC school or even 1 comparable academic institution (Nwestern, Stan, ect) that would measure itself or its coaching staff by 1-4 wins ? It's a sad commentary and I feel that the institution and players deserve better as we seem to have talent on both side of the ball. This is basically the BJ staff; they have had enough time to get it done. I say replace Caldwell and staff at seasons end.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

I'm not saying four wins is the standard every year. Interesting that you mention Stanford. How many games did Jim Harbaugh win in his first season in 2007? Four. Then he won five games in 2008 and eight games last year.

I've been saying all along we've got talent in place to make a run in 2011 and 2012, and we should give Caldwell the chance if he doubles last year's record. And if that happens, I bet he makes some changes on the staff, particularly on offense.

Anonymous said...

Good point Dimon. I think most Vandy supporters would find it totally reasonable to (at a minimum) replace the OC and WR coaches as they seem to be the most logical positions that have failed to produce. I am not trying to sound mean but coaches are replaced every year so we are just speculating yet being realistic. We have not really developed players consistently at qb or wide rec; and the passing game problems should not be blamed completely on Larry Smith. All kids coming into a program need skill-development but those 2 areas seem to be this staff's weakest link. I really like Vandy football but this under-performing and making excuses each season drives me crazy. Finally, we seemed to have developed good RB's, defensive players at all positions, but have struggled in my view of developing wr's and QB of late. At this level, technique is much more involved that at the high school level. At present, we seem to have a young but very good roster with what looks to be another solid class coming next year. We missed an opportunity (so far) to really make some noise this year in a down SEC. Go Dores !

Mark said...

Dimon I agree with your comments. While I hate the fact winning 4 games is a "success" it’s the truth with Vandy this year. So far, I'm mixed on Caldwell's performance. The Ole Miss win was huge (!!!) but the UCONN game was a debacle. I think a big measure of Caldwell's performance will be against Tennessee. They are awful this year (they were awful in 2008 and we still lost to them!) so we have to capitalize and kick this team while it’s down. Sorry, but it’s the truth. If this Vandy team is healthy, how we play against Tennessee will be a big on Caldwell's job security. Personally, I think we can pull one upset against Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, or Arkansas. We should (not could) get wins against Tennessee and Wake Forest. If we don’t, then Caldwell should be held accountable like all SEC coaches and go through and extensive evaluation about keeping him around. Dimon, how do you think next year’s recruiting class shaping up?

Anonymous said...

How does our recruiting budget compare with some of the other SEC schools? Is it competitive? Is the staff making all the necessary contacts to bring the most academically-suited and athletically-talented student-athletes? The University has over a three billion$ endowment, the best research centers and medical training facilities in the South. Surely, they can spare a few more bucks to bring in the best talent.
The coaching staff need to have the tools with which to work. Don't go skimpy on the recruiting.

Will said...

With a schedule comparable to nearly anyone else in the SEC we will win four games every year....the measurement can not be only W's. We need to win at least 2-3 games in conference every year to be a success, and if we should get 4-5 we should be in a bowl game.

Will said...

a good bowl game.....

Loud-Mouth VU Alum said...

The above is easily done. Just talk to the University of Kentucky's athletic director. They (UK) schedule four non-conference cupcakes a year. And yes, I will include Louisville. That leaves an upset and a sure win to get them a bowl game. In 2008, UK only won two (2) SEC games by a combined total of 3 points (Arkansas and Miss.State). They went to a bowl. Last year they got lucky and had three SEC wins and four non-conference. 2007, same general story. The four years before that UK lost four in row to Petrino (Louisville) so it was tougher on them.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Good point. What if we kept EMU and traded Northwestern, UConn and Wake Forest for Tennessee Tech, Tulane and Memphis? Kentucky does it, and so should we.

Anonymous said...

The only difference between our athletic department and UK’s is a big one…MONEY! Kentucky can afford to pay bad FBS or FCS teams to come and play them in the Commonwealth. Vandy can’t afford that year in and year out. In fact, we get paid to go play other teams. I think we might have gotten paid to go up to UCONN. When we won a bowl game, in 2009 we used the money and paid Western Carolina to Nashville for get a guaranteed “W.” It sucks, but that’s what it is… Basketball this year is using some of their NCAA tournament money to pay a small payout to Belmont and play them at Memorial this fall. It’s how sports work this day…

Anonymous said...

Vanderbilt did not need the 2008 bowl money to bring in WCU. That game was scheduled years before the Music City Bowl win. Everyone's out of conference games are scheduled years ahead of time.

Vandy played a I-AA team every team from 2002-06 (Furman, UTC, EKU, Richmond, and TSU). Where was the money coming from then? $100 bills blowing onto Dudley Field and getting stuck under all the empty bleachers at the end of the Woody Era?

Anonymous said...

2002? College football has changed alot since then. If UT Martin has an offer to play either UT or Vandy, they will play the highest bidder. Vandy cant shell out the money like UT so thats why we get stuck with tougher teams to play. Some games are scheduled years in advance but not games against Western Carolina. It sucks but thats where we are at.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, so much has changed since 2002, much less 2006, back when everyone coached and played for the love of the game.

You have no idea what you're talking about. Back in May, Vandy scheduled a game against APSU 3 years out.

Vandy vs. APSU in 2013

The future schedules page on Vandy's website has had the 2011 Elon game on it since last year. WCU was on there as well.

You need proof? Here's an archived scheduled page from Nov. 13, 2007 -- note the date in the URL -- with WCU already on it.

Anonymous said...

Can you guys please tell me how Duke steals two 3-star o-lineman from middle TN??? Our o-line is terrible and we can't recruit our local talent and our head coach is an o-line guy. Don't we have like 11 0-lineman on campus? The two guys that I am talking about are Lucas Patrick and Cody Robinson. 3-star on both Rivals and espn. Check it out. Can someone please tell me why we haven't signed these guys instead of Duke?

Dimon said...

We've signed two three-star offensive linemen too, and one of them, James Lewis, is from Tennessee. The other one, Jake Bernstein, is from Illinois. I don't care if they're from Bolivia as long as they're good players.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Make that gotten commitments from, not signed, Lewis and Bernstein.