Why is nobody talking about Charlie Goro?

Look at our poll to the right of this page. Since the spring, we've been asking which Vandy quarterback will starting by the end of the season.

And which quarterback has a commanding lead?

Charlie Goro.

Now look at the Tennessean's story today about the Vandy quarterback battle. Three guys are mentioned:

• Larry Smith, the returning starter who says he was really getting comfortable back there when he was injured against Georgia Tech.

• Jordan Rodgers, the junior college transfer and of course brother of Aaron who says it's Larry's "job to lose" but that he believes he's got an advantage because he's already played two full seasons of JUCO ball.

• Jared Funk, who coaches say has an NFL arm but for some reason hasn't thrown a pass for the Commodores in four years, and who is optimistic that with Robbie Caldwell at the helm "a little bit of change might occur."

So who's missing from the story?

That's right, Charlie Goro. And for the record, Caldwell has mentioned Goro in interviews before, usually as a helpful side note BECAUSE NOBODY IN THE MEDIA IS EVEN MENTIONING GORO.

Everybody is dazzled by the fact that Rodgers' brother plays for the Packer, obsessed with talking about how much Larry struggled, and falling for all the coaching staff's mentions of Funk, who's being rewarded for five years at Vandy by getting his name in the newspaper instead of getting playing time.

Meanwhile, Goro continues to fly under the radar. And, really, if nobody's asking Caldwell and the other coaches about Goro, then why should they volunteer his name?

If Goro is the real deal, then Caldwell would love nothing more than to catch opponents off-guard early in the season. Maybe let Jordan Rodgers get lots of work in the open practices, get all the fans excited about Aaron's little brother, and then redshirt him and unveil Goro.

Just a thought. There are other theories, of course, both for and against each quarterback:

LARRY SMITH
For: He's a terrific athlete, perfect for our offense and has worked out all the kinks last season after being unfairly blamed for our weak receivers and shabby offensive line play.
Against: Sure, he's got some skills, but he's not a leader, he doesn't respond well to pressure, and we need to go in another direction.

JORDAN RODGERS
For: He's got the bloodlines, and while that doesn't always translate, he's got the arm, the mobility and the intangibles of his brother and he needs to start from Day 1.
Against: There's a reason he wasn't highly recruited out of junior college and had to settle for Vandy. He's got some skills, but they won't stand out against SEC defenses.

JARED FUNK
For: Bobby Johnson brought quarterbacks along too slowly and simply overlooked Funk, and Caldwell recognizes the mistake and will rectify it. Sure, it's a shame Funk hasn't played yet, which is why he should start now.
Against: Sheez, he hasn't thrown a pass in four years on campus and he was playing on the punt coverage team last year just so he could get on the field. Let's move on already.

CHARLIE GORO
For: He's Vandy's first-ever Parade All-American and he's got the leadership qualities and intangibles needed to get this team over the hump. Let's give him four years to do it.
Against: He was only a two-star quarterback by Scout and ESPN, and he's not being mentioned right now because he's not better than the other three guys.

One factor here is time: Robbie Caldwell doesn't have a lot of it. He's got to win now. So what does he do?

Does he go with the most experienced guy, Larry Smith, because the most experienced guy ought to do the best job right now?

Does he go with the big-name guy, Jordan Rodgers, because it will energize the fans, who seem to have already written off Larry, and maybe even excite the team? If he can excite fans and make them hopeful for the future, then maybe they'll forgive losses, which we're supposed to produce plenty of this season.

Is he loyal to Funk, the fifth-year senior who supposedly has an NFL-caliber arm but hasn't played yet?

Does he go with Goro, the least experienced quarterback, but possibly the wisest long-term move because he'll be on campus for another four years and because he's restless to play and might jump ship if he carries a clipboard another season? But then again, if Goro's not ready now but plays anyway, then Caldwell won't be around to watch him shine later.

Decisions, decisions.

What do you think? And why the heck is nobody besides us even mentioning Goro?

Freshmen move into dorms... and don't drop any beds on their toes

The freshmen football players have moved into their dorm, and so far nobody’s dropped a bed on his toe.

You may remember that last year defensive back Trey Wilson actually dropped a bed and broke his toe, which kept him out of pre-season camp. It didn’t keep him from contributing as a true freshmen, but it was still a bummer.

You can go to the official Commodores site to see the class of 2014 (or 2015 with a redshirt) move their stuff into their new digs.

Perhaps learning from the plight of the elder Mr. Wilson, the kids were keeping it light. Safety Kenny Ladler’s pictured toting a coat, dress shirt and tie on a hanger, and cornerback Andre Hal’s got some bottled water and a 19” television.

The difference from past classes is the veritable cornucopia of defensive linemen. Vince Taylor and Jared Morse are big boys, and James Kittredge looks big too even standing next to hulking offensive lineman Logan Stewart, who by the way is wearing a heavy chain and padlock around his neck. Roommates Kyle Woestmann and Thomas Ryan look lean and mean and destined to stay on the outside of the line.

Karl Butler, a Louisiana native, was proudly sporting a Saints Super Bowl champs T-shirt, while Chase Garnham and Fitz Lassing wore buzz cuts.

Jonathan Krause had toned down his Kid N Play haircut just a bit, and Steven Clarke had a Larry Smith do.

Some other observations and thoughts:

• Did we mention the D-linemen look massive and ready to play?

• Stewart was the only O-lineman pictured.

• Speaking of frosh O-lineman, Grant Ramsay wrote on his Facebook page that he thinks he may play this season. We’ve long thought he’s our most game-ready OL.

• Kicker Carey Spear will not be moving to the offensive line.

• The receiver Chris Boyd is massive.

• Fellow wideout Jordan Matthews makes safety Andre Simmons look like a shrimp.

• Don’t forget Jonathan Krause. The little speedster is getting no mention from preseason prognisticators and even Vandy fans, who are focusing mainly on Boyd and Matthews and even Trent Pruitt. But he can separate from DBs and catch the ball in traffic, and that’s something the Commodores have sorely lacked.

• People are starting to speculate that Garnham, who reportedly runs a sub-4.4 40, might play as a true freshman. Don’t know about that. He’s still kind of light. Even Chris Marve redshirted as a freshman.

Vandy gets a commitment from a Heisman Trophy winner's grandson

Robbie Caldwell has landed his first recruit, Conor Hart of Michigan. He’s a good-looking prospect at 6-foot-3 or 6-foot-4 and 245-250 pounds and a 40 time of somewhere between 4.5 and 4.6.

The kid’s grandfather actually won the Heisman Trophy in 1949 at Notre Dame and was the first pick of the NFL draft. His father played on the Irish national championship team of 1977 and his brother also played for the Irish. Which leads Douglas James at VSL to worry that he’ll ditch us for the Irish if they should offer.

That’s a big if. The Irish are taking their pick of blue chippers right now and Hart is a two-star guy across the board. Right now, he’s got offers from mid-level teams like Ball State, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Colorado State, Miami-Ohio, Toledo, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Kent State and Southern Illinois. The only BCS conference bid other than Vandy is from Syracuse.

Hart went to camp at Michigan State a couple of months ago which led the Detroit papers to speculate that he’d soon get an offer from the Spartans; he hasn’t.

That doesn’t mean he won’t get some big-time offers and that we won’t be sweating it out for him in the end.

I know beggers can’t be choosers, but we’re end-rich right now and really need more commitments from offensive linemen. James Lewis is a nice prospect and was recently upgraded to three stars by Rivals. With no quarterback in last year’s class (thanks again, Nash Nance), we could use another one in addition to dual-threat Damien Fleming, but only if we could get a late shot at a blue-chipper. We should continue to upgrade at receiver, and we need to start planning for the future at linebacker, running back and tight end.

We never seem to have a problem getting nice prospects at defensive back and defensive end. Right now, we’ve got nine ends with a shot at cracking the two-deep — seniors Teriall Brannon and Theron Kadri, junior Tim Fugger, sophomores Josh Jelesky and Johnell Thomas, redshirt freshmen Walker May and Thad McHaney, and true freshmen Thomas Ryan and Kyle Woestmann. That’s nine guys competing for four slots, and 10 if you throw in frosh James Kittredge, who’ll also get a look at tackle.

Whereas many of our defensive ends used to be skinny linemen like Reilly Lauer, Ryan Seymour and Jabo Burrow — all whom we beefed up and moved over to Robbie Caldwell — we’ve now got real defensive ends who are fast and who aren’t easily convertible to O-line. May could double as a linebacker and McHaney could slide to tight end, but for now it looks like all those guys will just duke it out.

And soon, hopefully, we can throw Conor Hart into the mix.

Hottest Vandy football ticket this season is road game at Georgia

Entertaining thoughts of going to a football game in Nashville this season. Believe it or not, the last game I saw at Dudley was the loss to Kentucky in 2005. Since then, I've gone on the road to see Vandy lose to Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, Georgia and Army. Of course, I did make a special effort to attend the Music City Bowl.

Anyway, I just went to Stub Hub to see if I could score a deal on any tickets. Here are the cheapest ticket you can get right now for each game, starting with the most expensive:

1. Vanderbilt at Georgia, $85
2. Florida at Vanderbilt, $38
3. LSU at Vanderbilt, $37
4. Vanderbilt at Connecticut, $32
5. Vanderbilt at Kentucky, $30
6. Tennessee at Vanderbilt, $24
7. Vanderbilt at Arkansas, $14
8. Vanderbilt at Ole Miss, $12
9. South Carolina at Vanderbilt, $10
10. Wake Forest at Vanderbilt, $5
11. Northwestern at Vanderbilt, $3
12. Eastern Michigan at Vanderbilt, $2

Joe Fisher should do all the talking when he's on 97.1

I always enjoy listening to daily updates with Joe Fisher, the voice of the Commodores.

Before Vandy switched over to 97.1, Joe was making his morning calls to Mark, Frank and Kevin at 104.5, and those guys were funny and knowledgeable about football and asked some good questions.

I'm not going to dwell on it this season, but I'll go ahead and say once that Mac (Michael McIntyre) at 97.1 may be a great rock n' roll DJ, but as a sports interviewer he is terrible. The guy likes to hear himself talk and apparently knows nothing about football. After Joe says something, he proclaims, "All right my friend!" or simply "Wow!"

On yesterday's call, Joe was going to tell Mac how many strikeouts Sonny Gray threw in 5 innings for Team USA. He set up the story by saying, "There are 15 outs in 5 innings." To which Mac exclaimed, "Wow!"

Actually, there are always 15 outs for a team in 5 innings of baseball, so there was nothing exciting or unusual about it, so when Joe finally told Mac that Sonny had thrown 14 strikeouts in those 15 outs, Mac had to muster up an even more enthusiastic "Wow!"

Here's some advice to you, Mac: Let Joe do all the talking.

Caldwell needs to win fast to keep job... and win recruiting battles

Bobby Johnson told the guys at 104.5 The Zone last week that Robbie Caldwell needs more than this season to prove himself, and that his success in 2010 shouldn't be measured by victories. Johnson also said — and this was a week before David Williams lifted the interim label from Caldwell — that he believed Caldwell WAS the head coach and that he deserved and would get at least another season.

Caldwell's best players, Johnson said, are his youngest players, and those players will be peaking in 2011 and 2012. That's what we were saying a couple of months ago about Johnson as articles were surfacing saying he was on the hot seat. Johnson laid a solid foundation for 2011-2012 and he should have gotten the chance to see it through. Now Johnson's argument is that his hand-picked successor, Caldwell, should get the chance to see it through.

While Caldwell may or may not have to win now to keep his job, he absolutely needs to win in order to boost recruiting. If you're a recruit leaning toward Vandy, why on earth wouldn't you wait at least a month to see how the team fares in its opener against Northwestern, a team that you probably have also considered because it's a private academic institution playing in a major athletic conference?

Meanwhile, Vandy is losing some important recruiting battles. A month ago, we identified recruits that Rivals, Scout and ESPN all said were considering Vandy. That list included three offensive linemen, by far Vandy's most critical recruiting need. Since Bobby Johnson's retirement, all three have committed to other schools — tackle Watts Dantzler of Georgia to UGA, tackle David Simon of Alabama to South Florida, and center Mack Crowder of Bristol, Tenn., to UT (ouch). Jared Boyd, a cornerback from Kenny Ladler's high school in Stone Mountain, chose Duke, and Cameron Dickerson, a raw wide receiver from New Jersey, chose Northwestern.

These guys, with the exception of Datzler, weren't blue-chip prospects. All were the type of three-star guys we signed last year and that we had a legitimate shot at signing.

Caldwell named Vanderbilt non-interim head coach, sort of

The Tennessean is reporting that Vanderbilt has lifted the interim label off Coach Robbie Caldwell. So all those chat room blogger guys can now type "CRC" instead of "ICRC."

Vice Chancellor (But Don't Call Me Athletic Director Because We Don't Need One) David Williams made the announcement today at the Wild Horse Saloon, presumably after knocking back a few beverages of his choice.

He said this: "I think what it says is we see Robbie as our head football coach,” Williams said. “I don’t want to start any speculation one way or the other, but we see him as our head football coach."

In other words, if you're a fan or a recruit that really likes Robbie Caldwell, then he's going to be our head coach forever. And if you're a fan or a recruit who doesn't really like Robbie Caldwell, then maybe we won't keep him.

Williams went on to say that he evaluates all his head coaches at the end of the season.

Making Caldwell the head coach is a good move for several reasons:

1. We absolutely need commitments from some more recruits. We've got only two commitments so far, but don't forget that Kentucky had about that many this time last year and finished with a pretty strong class. Caldwell generated some priceless momentum and excitement at SEC Media Days and making him the real head coach (whatever that means and for however long that is) certainly doesn't hurt. And if Vandy wins a couple of big games early, it will just solidify the fact that Caldwell's a good coach that kids will want to play for, instead of raising questions about how long he'll remain the interim coach.

2. Mike Leach would have been a mistake. He's the kind of coach hired by desperate schools that want to win at all costs, and by schools that have previously hired bitter coaching legends that get into fights with their bosses at salad bars.

3. No coach who's already a proven winner at the D-1 level is going to take the Vandy job. No assistant coach who's a star at the D-1 level and being groomed to be a head coach is going to take the job either. Sorry, but that's the truth. If we ever turn this ship around, it's going to take an underdog, a surprise, somebody who's been standing in the shadows. Like our offensive line coach.

4. Or maybe not. But why not? Making Caldwell the head coach gives him a complete vote of confidence and the complete authority to make changes and lead the program. In the past two weeks, he's hired an offensive mastermind from Tulsa (I think; how's that going?) and he's said he plans to play more true freshmen and use Wesley Tate some as a slot receiver. The guy's full of surprises.

5. And if he does better this season than people thought Johnson would (nobody's predicted more than three victories), then he'll keep the job. The last time I checked, everybody's on the hot seat in college football. If he goes winless or beats only Eastern Michigan, then he'll get fired and nobody will be complaining.

6. In other words, he's been given every incentive to win. If he wins, he keeps his job. The Bobby Johnson method was to hang tough and wait for the ball to bounce your way. That worked beautifully in 2008, it was a disaster last season. Caldwell doesn't have the time to hang tough and wait. But he's being given the opportunity to take action and make Vandy a winner. Take the bull by the horns, as they probably say in his neck of the woods.

Of course, making Vandy a winner is relative. I hope Caldwell wins at least five games, which will buy him at least another year as head coach. As it would have been with Coach Johnson, he'll have a better team next year and an even better unit in 2012. Winning three or four might be considered a moral victory, but also might not be enough.

To keep the job, Caldwell will have to do better than people thought Johnson was going to do this year. It's not necessarily fair, but it's the truth. Johnson still had a bit of capital remaining from the Music City Bowl victory.

And making Caldwell the head coach gives him the assurance that if he surpasses four games, his moment in the sun will surely last another year, and could lead to even greater glory. He knows what he's got to do, and I think he's going to do everything he can, including opening up the offense and taking some risks.

If anything, it'll be interesting. And if he pulls it off, he deserves the job.