Vanderbilt Northwestern envy thread
- Thread starter kaTNap
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I was at the Vandy/Kentucky game a few weeks back during a trip to Nashville. They are a really lousy football team.
No. They think there were three Pat Fitzgeralds who played for and now coach at NU: PF, PF Junior, and PF the Third.
It’s a southern thing.
I'm afraid it's more widespread than that. When you seen one of these, check if there are two (or more) people in the car ... almost always, There's an alumnus or an alumna in the car, but not two alumni.
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Well there was the U.S. attorney for Chicago who prosecuted Scooter Libbey a decade ago.
It means they belong to a club.
I'm afraid it's more widespread than that. When you seen one of these, check if there are two (or more) people in the car ... almost always, There's an alumnus or an alumna in the car, but not two alumni.
Vandy is always going to have it tough in the SEC, but who would have thought they'd be playing a Tennessee team that is 0-7 in the SEC at this stage of the season.
Why is "Vandy always going to have it tough in the SEC", when their equivalent school in the B1G (i.e. NU) is sitting at 6-2 in conference play and has been consistently a decent to good team over the past decade? Isn't that the point of the linked thread, thst they can and should expect to be more than SEC bottom feeders? Stanford is another example of an academically strong school with a strong football team. There's no real reason why Vandy can't have more success on the football field.
I don’t want to say the SEC is “bad” but I am starting to wonder. Missouri got owned by Purdue, and now Mizzou, admittedly a different team, has throttled Florida, UT, and Vandy in recent weeks, and they were pretty even with Kentucky.
Sagarin puts MSU at 14 (that will drop) and LSU at 20, then there’s a big gap to aTm at 35. Missouri checks in at 45–one ahead of Indiana.
So after Georgia, Auburn, and Bama, you have to wonder what’s left.
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I agree. I went to the A&M - South Carolina game earlier this season, and neither team looked special. LSU's starting QB is a transfer from Purdue. A team like Vandy should be able to expect to set a baseline of 3-4 conference wins every year. If NU can do it, so can Vandy.
The SEC is weak. The SEC East is going on 3-4 years of awful. The SEC West has just caught up.
Tennessee and Florida are embarrassments. Kentucky has never done a thing. Mississippi was spectacularly good at cheating, and got caught.
MSU is the only program that's *better* today than they've typically been. Georgia might get there - but they've got one quality win (ND) in about 3 years.
Bama's success has caused the rest of the league to change its definition of success. Winning 8 or 10 every year is no longer good enough. Les Miles is a pretty good coach who was fired for that reason. We were recently talking about how Malzahn might get canned. Richt was fired for not winning national titles - we'll see if Kirby Smart is a better coach, and if Richt gets his title first.
As for Vandy, they *were* successful as recently as four years ago. Vandy's challenge is the stepping-stone challenge. Why win 9 at Vandy when you can win championships somewhere else.
NU is lucky that Fitz is both a) a pretty good coach, and b) a graduate. While he will rightfully listen to offers, the big name programs don't have the allure to him that they would to a hotshot coordinator with no connection to the school.
Vandy needs their Fitz. Maybe it'll be Cutler (ha!)
#thankful #soblessed
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They will have it tough for the same reason other schools in their boat have it tough. They simply can't recruit many of the players other in their conference can. That doesn't mean they can never succeed, but keeping up with the Alabamas, LSUs, Floridas and other powers of the conference is always going to be an uphill climb. and the SEC, while nothing great this year, has probably been stronger on average than the B1G for most of the 21st century. The sad thing about Vandy this year is they're 0-7 in conference in an SEC East that's much weaker than usual. The B1G West is also weak, but at least NU is beating most of the other teams in it.
The SEC does appear to be weaker than usual. To me, the Big 12 looks like the best-balanced conference this season, even though their top teams don't appear to be better than the top teams of the other conference.
Kansas and Baylor are pretty bad this year. Illinois and Rutgers would beat them respectively.
OK, that's two bad teams out of 10. In the B1G. I'd be very careful of picking Illinois to beat anybody else in a P5 conference. We'll see how the game with them goes this weekend. Rutgers is coming off a 41-0 beatdown at Indiana.
Kentucky has been a disappointment this year. There's two games they should have flat out won and found a way to lose. In a way I'm glad, as now they're unlikely to play and NU in a bowl game as my loyalties would be divided.