I watched the replay this morning (game started at 1:30am my time, so did not watch it live). I noted that early on and probably through Q2 Kentucky was actively trying to intimidate the Vandy players with cheap shots (head butts, late hits away from the action, etc). I'm all for trying to get a competitive advantage any way you can, but I thought Kentucky's behavior was over the top. But, I also noted that the Vanderbilt players were not intimidated nor did they back down (which I think is a point of differentiation for this Vanderbilt team). By the second half, as they were falling behind by 7, then 10, then 13 points, the cheap shots and trash talk by Kentucky pretty well stopped likely because they realized it wasn't working and they were going to lose.

Separately, I thought one of the UK linemen had a really bad cheap shot on Pavia that wasn't called. It was either late 3rd Q or early 4th. Pavia was a good 5 yards behind where the tackle was being made, yet a UK lineman used a block to throw himself at Pavia and then leg whip him. He sold it pretty well as being blocked into Pavia and no penalty was called, but it sure looked like he was specifically trying to injure Pavia and Pavia did come up gimpy after the leg whip.

Much of this has been discussed already, but I just wanted to get all my thoughts in one place.

Q1 - 12:58 - Jordan Rogers talks about how happy he was for Vanderbilt to get the win, though he was stuck in college Station. I was pretty hard on him during the game about his perceived partiality to Kentucky. I didn’t hear those comments the first time I watched. Good to know he’s not all Cutler-ish.

Q1 - 9:42 - first play for our offense. Backed up on our own 3 yard line. Seddy goes right up the middle into the strength of the Kentucky defense. A loss would have been tough to recover from. Instead, we get three tough yards and UK gets Seddy’s helmet. Followed that up with a 9 yard run for a first down. I thought that really set the tone.

Q1 - 5:00 - TD pass to Newberry. How tf does Pavia do that? He was amazing on that drive. UK defense has to be getting frustrated about now.

And shoutout to Stiner for getting that kid in shape. Dude has had a heck of a season after taking much ridicule from many for being out of shape.

Any word on his injury? It was scary looking. It was good that he made it back to the sidelines during the game.

Looks like we won both games against Nevada. Was anyone there?

I’m curious who looked good.

My 12 year old is becoming a die hard fan. How can I get one for him

You’re telling me we are paying Nate Johnson $1M to sit on the bench? Give the man the keys this week. If he can’t beat Ball State that is a really really bad sign.

Pavia needs to get 100% rest. We need him and Patterson and Capers and the DE transfer and whomever else to be 💯 for the Texas game. This MUST HAPPEN!

Levis just threw his 7th interception, the most in the league, I think. He has 3 times as many interceptions as the Vandy team has turnovers.

Kentucky had two weeks to prepare for our offense, and we still won. The best defense in the SEC had 2 weeks to prepare for us, and we still beat them. On the road.

I'm pretty sure no one else has a week off before they play us. Well, UTjr plays UTEP the week before us, so that's kind of an extra week, but, you get my point. Everyone else will have to play us honest.

Oh, did I mention that Texas plays Georgia this week, before they play us? 😀

It's a huge asset having a kicker that can make from 50+. And he has plenty of distance on those. He already has five from that distance this year. That has to be more than VU has had for at least the last 5 years *combined*

For the second week in a row, at some point in the second half, usually the 3rd quarter, it seemed like our supposedly superior opponent was gaining momentum and about to take charge. And this Vanderbilt team has responded every time. Sometimes it's the offense going on a good drive, maybe scoring. Sometimes it's the defense getting a stop and forcing a punt. This is how SEC teams play. I read somewhere that a coach would tell his team--trust your coaches, trust your teammates and trust yourself. And I think that is exactly what this team is doing. Does that guarantee any more wins? Of course not. Not in the SEC. But it does guarantee that Vanderbilt will be tough to beat.

Before I buy parking passes for both games, does anyone have a parking pass they won't be able to use?

I thought we played with more desire and toughness than UK, and all of that credit goes to Lea. They had mostly the right defense against us, their DC had a funny way of wording it if you listened to the broadcast: “I don’t need my front 7 to “lie” to the next level.” But all he was saying is they have to move into their gaps so the LB can clean up. They mostly did just that and our athletes, Pavia, Stowers, Alexander etc beat their LBS. Thats almost a bigger sign to me than the Alabama game as it shows we can win after a team adapts to us. Which means we can potentially keep winning game after game.

I was dead wrong about Lea (except when I debated that person about the Missouri game and said Lea was a much better coach than Mason that was the one time I was right about Lea; damn I wish I could remember other user names like you psychos and find posts from weeks ago let alone years ago in the fell attempt to show one person was slightly more wrong than me 😜). But on a serious note; this isn’t a gimmick offense — this is a program on the rise. You can see it in the way the team put themselves out there for one another. Thats always the biggest sign to me of a team that cares and wants to win. Kudos to them and Lea.

the rest of this year is gonna be real fun.

We're going to be ranked this week.

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Listen guy, it’s not Vandy’s fault you picked the school that is known for their fanbase using all their vacation time per year for the SEC tournament in March. The pocket books are LIGHT in Lexington.

Also, zero star pissin Pavia was not a big NiL spend. He earned his NiL money the hard way.

Does anyone know what Jerry Kill is going through off the field? Based off of Pavia’s comments last night it sounds like something serious, but I haven’t heard. Hope he’s ok.

Should be a good one, some interesting performances around the league.

Fifth in "not receiving votes" which makes them essentially 30th.

No two-loss team is ranked except Ole Miss and Michigan.

You all know the story, after a loss to South Carolina under Mason, I vowed to never come back to Dudley Field until we were a well coached team. That was 2016.

It has taken 8 freaking years, but, this team is a well coached, fun team to watch.

I think my return happens soon. Since I left after a bad loss to South Carolina, that's probably going to be my return game!

Anchor Down ⚓️👇