Saturday, October 23, 2010

Vandy's game with the Gamecocks will be uglier than we thought

Each Saturday, we like to examine our preseason prediction for that day's game and then stick with it.

Two months ago, we predicted Vandy would lose 27-20 to South Carolina.

No way.

Vandy's going to be just what the doctor ordered for the Gamecocks, just like we were just what the doctor ordered last weekend for the Georgia Bulldogs. It's very unfortunate for us that Kentucky beat SC last week.

Sure, we've beaten SC two out of the last three years. But those teams didn't have the offensive line that this team has. Don't be too glad about Lattimore missing the start today; his backup is the guy who gained 125 yards against us last season. And Alshon Jeffery should have a field day against us.

Don't forget that we'll have a true freshman starting at center against a stout defensive front, and don't forget that our starting tackles are still gimpy.

I really, really hope we score some points. The team seemed angry and embarrassed after the Georgia loss, and hopefully they don't get embarrassed today. But their odds of winning are very slim.

Call it 24-3 Gamecocks.

But don't go jump off a building if we lose. We have no business winning this game. Instead, we need to figure out something we can do offensively, get our young O-linemen some more quality minutes, and shore up our weaknesses on defense.

In fact, that's what we need to do in our next three games. OK, go ahead and say we can beat Florida. Do you know how loaded with talent the Gators are? We'll be just what the doctor ordered for them too. No, we need to focus on self-improvement and building a solid foundation for the future.

Then maybe we can have some success when we finish our season with three progressively weaker opponents: Kentucky, Tennessee and Wake Forest. Beating two of three of those teams would be a big deal for us and give us some momentum heading into 2011.

As for 2011, here's what we need to do:
• Get a whole new offensive coaching staff. It's time for a change. We recruit marginal SEC talent on both sides of the ball, but our defense is always competitive because of our defensive coaches and schemes. In fact, our defense looks so great because our offense is so unbelievably bad. I'm glad we've changed coordinators and schemes, but we need to keep changing until we find something that works. Anything else is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
• Get Jordan Rodgers healed and give him the ball next season. We'll be much better at all positions but quarterback next season and then even better in 2012. So we need to go with a quarterback in 2011 who'll be around in 2012. Rodgers is redshirting and will be available to fit the bill. Let's redshirt Damien Fleming next season and get him ready to be a three year starter in 2013. Meanwhile, Larry's got six more games to change our minds, and I hope he does.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

100% back the call about playing Rodgers next 2 years and maximizing the amount of years Fleming sees the field. I think both will be good. Fleming reminds me of Jacory Harris.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Jacory Harris? Cool.

Anonymous said...

Could be way off, but based on a few videos of Fleming he just looks a lot like Harris. Wirey and a great, quick release.

VU lookin' good!

Anonymous said...

Dimon, I was in the stands and actually enjoyed the game despite the loss. But I at leaste have new respect for Caldwell after publicly calling out, in the Tenn, the bad offensive showing. I believe Coach Kiser and Fischer were badly out-coached. Vandy blew the game in the 2nd quarter. Up 7-0 with the defense playing very well and controlling the entire half; SC punted with about 2 minutes left. 1st play-call by Vandy resulted in a fumble on a bad hand-off (Vandy recovered); 2nd play was run into the SC defense for a loss; on 3rd-13 the play call resulted in a 7 yard completion to Krause. Vandy had the ball for about 35-40 seconds. Spurier then called timeout and got the ball back with about a minute left. Rather than Vandy play-calling resulting in short drive and maybe a field goal and a 10-0 lead, the poor play-calling ended up giving the ball back to Spurrier for thier 2 minute offense and they scored a td to tie the game at the half. Just like that, after the defense dominated the 1st half, we were now tied at halftime. Because the defense was on the field so much, you just knew that SC would score on a big play against a tired Vandy defense. I hope that Caldwell is very agressive and turns the entire offense over to Coach Hand. BTW, SC had 3 WR's all over 6'-3" tall.

Will said...

Fairly good showing last night. Regarding ur key points; 1) the defence is not always better because of coaching, but since CBJ was a defense guy, he tended to put the better athletes on defense....when you only get so many good ones there is not enough for both sides of the ball, and 2) CRC promised that there would be changes made this week in personel (players and coaches), so I am excited to see what happens!!
The game was somewhat closer than the final score....Roll Dores!!