At least we're using our weapons

I like the fact that we gave the ball to Eric Samuels on our first drive of the first half and just gave it to him again early in the second half. I like the fact that Brandon Barden, a high school quarterback, just threw a pass. It shows we're trying to use all our weapons.

But we just surrendered a long TD to Randall Cobb.

Samuels just got another nice gain. You know, Eric was more highly rated as a high school running back than either Zac Stacy or Warren Norman.

Vandy offense looking good at halftime

In the preseason, I predicted Vandy would beat Kentucky 20-14. Looking good right now, because we're winning at halftime 13-10.

We've had a better half offensively than most of our games this year. Consider this:
- 242 yards total offense
- 9 first downs
- Zero turnovers
- Kennard Reeves, filling in for Stacy and Norman, has 53 yards on nine carries.
- True freshman Jonathan Krause has 110 yards on three touches, including a 52-yard reception, a 45-yard run and a 13-yard reception.
- Larry looks pretty good running and passing.
- The offensive line is actually holding its own.

On the downside, on our first two drives we had 2nd and goal on the 1-yard line and 1st and 10 on the 11 and we came away with six points instead of 14.

But as the second half begins, there's a big "if." We can win this game if we make second half adjustments.

And that's a mighty big "if."

Derek King commits to Vanderbilt: Commodores keep losing games and gaining athletes

I was just about to post my weekly don't-kill-yourself-if-we-get-blown-out-on-Saturday piece. Though we're not facing a team with the talent of Florida or Georgia, we could get ours handed to us this week by Kentucky. After all, we'll be without our top two playmakers, running backs Warren Norman and Zac Stacy, and maybe even their backup, Wesley Tate.

Of course, our strength was our running game, and now that's gone too. If we had Kentucky's team and they had ours, we'd be jumping up and down right now.

So don't kill yourself if we get blown out on Saturday.

But you can jump up and down because Vandy just got a verbal commitment from Derek King of Brentwood, Tenn.

King, a 5-10, 185-pound athlete with a 36-inch vertical leap and a 4.4 40 time, has offers from Arkansas, Auburn, Ole Miss and Tennessee. How often does Vandy get a player with four other SEC offers? Not often, my friends.

This was a huge get. King is a playmaker who could line up at running back or maybe even receiver but is probably best suited as a cornerback who can be a difference maker returning punts and covering on special teams. Oh, and Ted Cain got him.

King's our best recruit in this class, and frankly, it's a miracle that he's committing to us on the heels of another blowout and as fans are howling for Robbie Caldwell's firing. The big job will be to keep him in the fold until February's signing day.

Don't underestimate the job that Caldwell and his staff have done on the recruiting trail in the middle of a miserable season in which their jobs are in jeopardy.

The day Bobby Johnson quit, Vanderbilt had TWO commitments, compared to 14 on the same day a year earlier. They were Damien Fleming, a two-star dual-threat quarterback, and James Lewis, a three-star left tackle.

That's it.

Enter Robbie Caldwell and more uncertainty than you can shake a stick at. Here's what's happened since then:

1. Right after he knocked ’em dead at SEC media days, Caldwell wrapped up defensive end Conor Hart, who runs a 4.5 40 and whose grandfather won a Heisman at Notre Dame.
2. At the end of August, with Vandy predicted to win one or two games this season, Caldwell got commitments from consensus three-star players Jake Bernstein, a hulking offensive lineman, and Keith Heitzman, who can play defensive end or tight end.
3. The week after narrowly dropping the season opener against Northwestern, Caldwell landed Spencer Pulley, an offensive lineman who got three stars from Rivals.
4. The week after falling apart in the fourth quarter to LSU, he picked up a pair of promising running backs, Mitchell Hester and J.J. Keels, each of whom got three stars from ESPN.
5. The week after shellacking Eastern Michigan, Caldwell landed huge offensive lineman Alex Barr, who's got three stars from Rivals and ESPN.
6. The day Vandy played hard but lost to South Carolina, he got a commitment from Jose Valedon, another offensive lineman with three stars from Rivals.
7. Following miserable blowouts at the hands of Arkansas and Florida, Caldwell somehow manages to land Derek King.

Meanwhile, Lewis, the tackle who committed to Johnson in the spring, has gained more than 20 pounds and is pushing 300 pounds. Word is, his family's making him stick to his word. Good for them, and good for us.

Fleming appears to be having a good season in his first full year as a starting quarterback. He's an athletic, dual threat project, who's supposedly an extremely accurate passer who doesn't mind pressure in the pocket.

Last year's class, built on the strength of the Music City Bowl and then stripped down a bit after we crashed back to earth, had nine consensus three-star players. This year's has four so far, more than any in recent history.

Here are the consensus three star players (Rivals, Scout, ESPN) in the past six classes:

2011: OL Jake Bernstein, TE Keith Heitzman, CB Derek King, OT James Lewis
2010: S Karl Butler, HB Blake Gowder, CB Andre Hal, OL James Kittredge, WR Jonathan Krause, DT Jared Morse, OL Grant Ramsay, DT Vince Taylor, DE Kyle Woestmann
2009: WR Brady Brown, OT Wesley Johnson, TE Mason Johnston
2008: LB De'Andre Jones
2007: OG Kyle Fischer, FB Ryan van Rensburg, QB Larry Smith
2006: QB Jared Funk

Why do you want a bunch of these guys? Because not all of them pan out. The so-called gem of the 2006 class, Jared Funk, has zero starts in five seasons. Ryan van Rensburg (2007) is in the wrong offensive system, De'Andre Jones (2008) looks great in the airport but hasn't come close to starting a game yet, and Brady Brown (2009) plays receiver, one of our worst positions, but hasn't seen a down this season.

But the class of 2010 has already burned the redshirts off five of the nine consensus three-stars, as well as another eight guys — CB Steven Clarke, LB Chase Garnham, S Kenny Ladler, TE Fitz Lassing, WR Jordan Matthews, S Andre Simmons, PK Carey Spear and C Logan Stewart — who weren't as highly touted.

The guys who aren't playing right now — WR/TE Blake Gowder, OL Grant Ramsay, DT Vince Taylor, DE Kyle Woestmann — could easily crack the depth chart next season. Expect Taylor and Woestmann to make the biggest splash, on the defensive line.

Anyway, just wanted to give you some good news. And if we can steal a couple of victories in the next three weeks, we may get even more pleasant surprises on the recruiting trail.

Things get tough before they get easier for Vandy

At the beginning of the season, we predicted Vandy would lose to Florida 31-14. No way we score two touchdowns. Call it 31-7.

Meanwhile, don't forget that Florida has one of the best secondaries in the nation. If you thought our passing game looked bad against Arkansas and Georgia...

It'll be a long night. Let's just don't lose a bunch of players before we enter the next three games, all of which we have at least a reasonable chance of being competitive in and maybe even winning.

Stay strong.

I'll be watching my brother's 10-0 Division III SUNY-Maritime team face Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. Yes, that's the deaf school, where they beat a drum so the players can feel the vibrations and know when the ball's being snapped.

Hey, it'll be more interesting than the game at Dudley Field.

Have a good Saturday, friends. Go Commodores.

Charlie Goro suspended for being a college student

We told you last week that Charlie Goro wasn't on the sideline in Arkansas.

So what happened?

"Sorriness" happened.

"Charlie Goro was suspended for sorriness," Coach Robbie Caldwell told the Tennessean.

And the definition of sorriness? "Not getting up and going to class," Caldwell said. "I apologize if that's a little strong, but there's no reason why anybody can't get up and go to class. None whatsoever."

No, actually, Coach, there are plenty of reasons a young man in his second year of college can't get up and go to class, and most of them are related to whatever he happened to be doing the night before and how late he happened to be doing it.

Such a thing may have even happened to me when I was a Vanderbilt student. But I didn't play football and so my parents didn't have to read about it in the newspaper. Which was all well and good.

So young Charlie will miss the Florida game and return for the Kentucky contest, but it sounds like he'll be in the doghouse until, oh, the middle of February.

As I said before, I certainly understand what happened. The kid's 19 years old and living on a great campus in a great city. But c'mon Charlie! Vandy was getting blown out on Saturday, Larry was demoralized, Funk had just thrown a pick-six and it was still early in the fourth quarter! Perfect time to insert the third team quarterback.

Except the third-string quarterback was apparently back in Nashville, hopefully catching up on his sleep. Hope you get another chance, Charlie.

Speaking of my days as a Vandy student, I just realized it's been 22 years since I was a junior watching the Commodores whip the Gators and Emmitt Smith, which was the last time we beat Florida.

STEWART'S OUR CENTER FOR THE LONG HAUL

One other thing: True freshman Logan Stewart has apparently supplanted senior Joey Bailey as our starting center. Bailey has returned from an ankle injury but is working at left guard, where we've been alternating between redshirt sophomores Jabo Burrow and Caleb Welchans. Here's hoping Stewart develops into an All-SEC center and starts 43 more games. (Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wake Forest, and the next three seasons, all with bowl games.)

Warren Norman out for the season

So the Tennessean is reporting that Warren Norman has a dislocated wrist and will have surgery, and after that heals he'll have knee surgery. In other words, he's out for the season.

That hurts, of course. But let's get Warren healthy for next season. In the meantime, let's resist the urge to ride Zac Stacy like a rented mule. We don't won't to send him off to the surgeon too.

This means Wes Tate should get a lot more carries, which will only help us next season. And let's not forget Kennard Reeves, who's been running hard and has earned the right to tote the rock.

Warren's injury just reinforces what we've been saying for the past two years: It doesn't matter how good our running game is if we can't throw the ball. Maybe this will force us to figure out the passing game.

November always unkind to Vanderbilt football

For the past month or so, I've been saying we should keep Caldwell if he wins two games in November. That would probably mean beating Wake Forest, which looks at least as bad as we are, and then beating either Kentucky OR Tennessee.

Some people don't like this. Some people think we should win our last three games and probably beat Florida too.

People, do you know the last time Vanderbilt won two games in November?

It was 1995. That was 15 years ago.

Bobby Johnson won three November games in eight seasons as Vandy's head coach. Why should we expect Robbie Caldwell to do the same thing in one season?

In a great post from earlier today, Andrew04, wrote this:

"All you can expect from the coach is to put out the best and most ready team he has, and all you can expect from the players is that they give a maximum effort."

If we win two games in November — and yes, finish 4-8 — then Caldwell indeed put out the best and most ready team he had and all our players gave maximum effort.

And if they do that next season, then we'll have more than four wins.