Vanderbilt will get no help from Marcus Lattimore

I like Marcus Lattimore. We all know he's a spectacular running back and will be playing on Sundays in a couple of years. But he's also a good kid who works hard, plays hard, does what he's told and is more concerned with winning than looking good.

Oh, and he's taking Vanderbilt seriously.

“I saw they beat Ole Miss. It’s a new Vandy,” Lattimore told the Tennessean. “You can’t roll over them. It’s always tough when we play them.

“They’ve got a real good defense and we’ve got to step up to the challenge. I feel like they don’t care who you are. They don’t care where you’re ranked. They’re going to play hard and play hard the whole game.”

Remember after Vandy's 2007 win over the Gamecocks in Columbia, when the Gamecocks whined to reporters after the game that they were better than Vanderbilt and should never have lost to them?

Remember after Vandy's 2008 win over the Gamecocks in Nashville, when the Commodores were hanging on to a slim margin late in the game and cornerback Captain Munnerlyn lost his cool and racked up a couple of personal fouls in a row that helped seal a victory for us?

I wish Marcus Lattimore wasn't such a good kid. I wish he thought he could just show up on Saturday and whip Vandy all by himself. I wish he was laughing at Vandy right now and getting his swagger on.

I wish he was a punk like Captain Munnerlyn.

Oh well. Maybe some of the other Gamecocks can help us out.

You listening, Stephen Garcia?

Vanderbilt's real key to victory: Unleash the little white running back

Jared Hawkins is back, which is a great thing for the Commodores. No, we don't really believe he's better than Zac Stacy or Warren Norman and we haven't been exactly devastated to see him on the bench this season with the slowest healing broken foot in the history of medicine.

But as we start playing SEC teams, especially teams like Ole Miss and South Carolina who'd like to believe they've established themselves as SEC powers, JHawk is a hugely important psychological weapon.

Even after losing to us on their home fields, teams like the Rebels and Gamecocks truly believe they're physically superior to us. And nothing reinforces that like having a tailback who looks like Harry Potter.

The Rebel fans are still making fun of Jared. I bet the players are too. Remember last season when Auburn's Sen'Derrick Marks was talking about how good Hawkins was...for a white running back. It's hard to take us seriously when you're laughing at us.

Some Vandy fans get angry and start rattling off Jared's bench press and 40 times. Not me. I say keep on laughing, Rebel fans. And while you're at it, take a close look at Patrick Benoist. Doesn't look much like a football player either, does he? So spend some time laughing at him too.

Laugh, laugh, laugh.

Then, in the fourth quarter, you can throw a Captain Munnerlyn style hissy fit.