Vandy win or lose.

Is it worth mentioning that Mizzou and Texas A&M beat Vandy just as badly as Mizzou and Auburn beat us? I feel like a lot of the pessimism is because of the order of games and not actually the quality of them

 

Full picture if we're doing the common opponent thing:

And Vandy just kicked the shit out of a team today that did their best to hand us a win, but we still got rolled.

 

They were +4 in turnovers. We were -3. Yardage was actually pretty similar.

If we're -4 in turnovers against Vandy, we'll probably lose, but I don't really see the Florida comparison as a huge negative unless you expect us to go -4 in turnovers.

 

You were comparing the end result with other teams. I did the same. Didn't know about the T/O qualifier. What was the T/O margin in the games you mentioned?

 

I think, perhaps irrationally, that if we can avoid turnovers that result in them getting the ball inside the 20 and/or pick 6, we have a good chance. Vandy is kind of a unique team on our schedule this year in that they aren't either dominant or utter trash (only a slight exaggeration).

 

We lost by 28 to Mizzou and were -3 in turnovers. Vandy lost by 23 and were -1.

We lost by 32 to Auburn and were +1 in turnovers. Vandy lost by 32 to Texas A&M and were +2.

They were also +1 vs Georgia (win by 4), whereas we were -1 (lose in OT). They were -1 against South Carolina (lose by 10) and we were +2 (win by 2).

Florida and South Carolina are our only SEC results that are really, really different, and both can be explained by turnovers (3 in our favor vs Carolina compared to Vandy, 7 in their favor against Florida). So far, the results look pretty similar. Which, in the big picture, is a bad thing, but I won't go into it thinking we're facing a better team or anything. We've been roughly even so far, and we're both playing backup QBs (theirs threw for 57 and ran for 29 today FWIW)

 

Tar Volon is an angel of hope and mercy.

 

Win

 

I don't mean this to be smart assy or whatnot, but isn't turnover margin one of the stats that is closely related to wins/losses that there is?

The downward trend of our level of play is what concerns me. I mean, this group has a history of mailing it in when the prize is a lower tier bowl. I realize this is a different staff, but once you mail it in the first time, the second time (if it hapoens this year, that's 3 years in a row) comes much easier.

 

Win or disband this team. There is too much quit in good ol' Team 117. The Dooley trash needs to go. So do a few coordinators... If Vanderbilt and James Franklin leave Knoxville with a win then I'd prefer to shut the program down for the year and not allow them to travel to Lexington.

 

I'm worried about people mailing it in. Vandy talent wise isn't going to beat Tennessee.

 

Vandy by 10

 

Yeah, it is, but it's also one of the stats that's most likely to vary from week to week, so that Vandy had a great turnover margin yesterday doesn't concern me that much.

Your latter point is my biggest concern as well. This needs to look like a totally different team coming out of the bye.

 

Starting to get there myself. You always hear about the seniors deserving a bowl or whatever. I'm not so sure. Some of them, sure. I've seen a lot of quit out of these guys on the way to our worst four years ever. Not sure a half full stadium on senior day isn't well deserved.

 

Do you know what the paid attendance was yesterday?

 

I thought I heard sellout.

 

If the team puts out the same effort against vandy as they did the last 3 weeks, every starter should be told to stay home for the Kentucky game.

 

Vandy is a much better match up for us.

 

At least 35k were Auburn fans...

 

I agree. Put Cam Sutton on Matthews all game.