I was in attendance last night and the loss felt different this time. It’s not that we all didn’t know that our field goal attempt would fail, or that the momentum had changed and that our defense was tiring, just as we’ve seen and felt so very many times before. We knew at the end that we didn’t have a JMatt who could grab a deep jump ball or even a quarterback who could deliver one. At the end, we all knew that we began with very little and ended with nothing that really justifies hope for the future. While it had many of the hallmarks of SOV last night’s failure was deeper, more serious and maybe more telling than other losses. Something seemed so wrong and it just didn’t seem fair to the kids that put in the very hard work that they aren’t in a system where they have the right chance to succeed.
I suppose the end was foreshadowed by the sparse hometown crowd despite the many that whited-out. I think that most of us were confident that we’d win but it still wasn’t really a feel-good first half despite the scoreboard. Something was missing at all times and questions abounded such as why Loy wasn’t punting, what about Sims and why so little success in the air? There needed to be something that sparked about last night but it never came ... and there was never confidence that it would.
As I read through our many threads last night, it became apparent that one of the worst impacts of the night was that so many seem to have drifted away from caring about Vandy football. While understandable, and I’m not criticizing as I find myself drifting too, it is a harsh judgment to impose on the kids and I hurt for them. It’s hurtful that the fun is no longer there for the many that have long-time supported and enjoyed a net positive from the overall game day experience.
Earlier that day, I enjoyed visting the library and looking through archives involving the planning and building of Morgan and Lewis. It was interesting to see the memos, some with handwritten notes, from Chancellor Heard, Harvie Branscomb, KC Potter and other stalwarts of VU’s past. There were many challenges to the university in the late 50’s and early 60’s, just as I suppose there are now. But, the dominant attitude of correctness has seemingly made it a different place than when I matriculated. Oddly, it may be the intense focus and prioritization of inclusiveness that has inadvertently excluded needed attention to other centers of the Vanderbilt experience that were valued by many for decades. VU should never be ashamed to say that its number one priority is educational excellence, although that may be a goal that VU may now lack the courage to enunciate. As well, VU should never be “all about” any one thing … true diversity is about being many things, inclusive of athletics and valuing every student’s experience equally. One can value both sharing and winning.
Coach Mason is a good man and he is literally correct that the sun will always come up tomorrow. But, it may seemingly have a different shine to those who’ve moved on. I hate that loss for them and am saddened that it just isn’t the brightness that I, too, enjoyed. It can’t be a simple missed or made field goal, or failure to strike with a winning drive that has changed it, but something big happened last night and I sense that there are others who feel the same way.
Last night’s loss was different and I awaken today a slightly different person focusing on different things. While I don’t intend to eulogize Vandy football, I do suspect that we’ll look back on last night as more than just another loss. It was about forty years ago as a freshman that I sat at IHOP drowning in coffee and putting midnight touches on my paper involving Sherwood Anderson’s “I Want to Know Why.” As I awaken caring a little less about something that I’ve cared for a long time, I’m reminded that we’re never too old to be disillusioned, to know that some positive portion of our world will never seem the same, and to come of age in yet another aspect of our lives. While I walked out last night in the company of so many of our shocked fans, and know that I’ll return at some point as will most of them, I still feel as though I walked out of something last night for the last time. And, I think that I know why.
I suppose the end was foreshadowed by the sparse hometown crowd despite the many that whited-out. I think that most of us were confident that we’d win but it still wasn’t really a feel-good first half despite the scoreboard. Something was missing at all times and questions abounded such as why Loy wasn’t punting, what about Sims and why so little success in the air? There needed to be something that sparked about last night but it never came ... and there was never confidence that it would.
As I read through our many threads last night, it became apparent that one of the worst impacts of the night was that so many seem to have drifted away from caring about Vandy football. While understandable, and I’m not criticizing as I find myself drifting too, it is a harsh judgment to impose on the kids and I hurt for them. It’s hurtful that the fun is no longer there for the many that have long-time supported and enjoyed a net positive from the overall game day experience.
Earlier that day, I enjoyed visting the library and looking through archives involving the planning and building of Morgan and Lewis. It was interesting to see the memos, some with handwritten notes, from Chancellor Heard, Harvie Branscomb, KC Potter and other stalwarts of VU’s past. There were many challenges to the university in the late 50’s and early 60’s, just as I suppose there are now. But, the dominant attitude of correctness has seemingly made it a different place than when I matriculated. Oddly, it may be the intense focus and prioritization of inclusiveness that has inadvertently excluded needed attention to other centers of the Vanderbilt experience that were valued by many for decades. VU should never be ashamed to say that its number one priority is educational excellence, although that may be a goal that VU may now lack the courage to enunciate. As well, VU should never be “all about” any one thing … true diversity is about being many things, inclusive of athletics and valuing every student’s experience equally. One can value both sharing and winning.
Coach Mason is a good man and he is literally correct that the sun will always come up tomorrow. But, it may seemingly have a different shine to those who’ve moved on. I hate that loss for them and am saddened that it just isn’t the brightness that I, too, enjoyed. It can’t be a simple missed or made field goal, or failure to strike with a winning drive that has changed it, but something big happened last night and I sense that there are others who feel the same way.
Last night’s loss was different and I awaken today a slightly different person focusing on different things. While I don’t intend to eulogize Vandy football, I do suspect that we’ll look back on last night as more than just another loss. It was about forty years ago as a freshman that I sat at IHOP drowning in coffee and putting midnight touches on my paper involving Sherwood Anderson’s “I Want to Know Why.” As I awaken caring a little less about something that I’ve cared for a long time, I’m reminded that we’re never too old to be disillusioned, to know that some positive portion of our world will never seem the same, and to come of age in yet another aspect of our lives. While I walked out last night in the company of so many of our shocked fans, and know that I’ll return at some point as will most of them, I still feel as though I walked out of something last night for the last time. And, I think that I know why.
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