Let's Get Clinical about Vanderbilt Football

For discussion regarding the Vanderbilt Commodores' football program.

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alathIN
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Let's Get Clinical about Vanderbilt Football

Post by alathIN »

There has been talk of the pathology of Vanderbilt football, and I agree.
What I saw in the ETSU game - and have been seeing for years - is consistent with Lea's diagnosis of the problem with Vanderbilt football. Napoleon said it too: "In war, the moral is to the material as two to one." I don't think this loss was all about the material. ETSU did not blow Vanderbilt away with superior talent. Their offense only really had one score on the VU defense. For most of the first half, the Vanderbilt O-line and D-line were getting a very good push on the ETSU lines. In Napoleon's terms, the material was adequate to the task.
More or less dominating the line of scrimmage for most of the half did not, however, translate onto the scoreboard. Why? Because of bone head mistakes. Illegal procedure, false start, ineligible down field. Failure to see the open receiver. Missed assignments. And then once ETSU got ahead, all the wind went out of the team. That's when ETSU started pushing Vanderbilt around - when Vanderbilt's morale collapsed. Then more bone-head mistakes and pressing trying to play from behind as panic set in. This is all what Napoleon would have categorized as "moral."

Yes, when Vanderbilt goes up against Georgia and Florida, we will start to see significant material deficits and will likely lose those games even if the team is in the optimal head space.

But as a 38 year Vanderbilt fan, I would agree with Napoleon that the ratio of games lost to superior talent versus those lost in the Vanderbilt players' heads has been about 1:2. For every total buttstomping by Alabama, there have been two inexplicable losses to MTSU or Tulane or UNLV.

The better coaches have recognized this. DiNardo's motto was "What's Important Now" - addressing the tendency of the team to completely collapse after just one bad play. Franklin was a genius at inspiring belief and got the most out of his players.
Mason was a mixed performer in the head space department: the teams usually maintained morale and played with fire and passion - but there were a lot of bone head mistakes.

So I do agree with Lea that the culture, the "hearts and habits" whatever you want to call it, is the correct diagnosis for what's been plaguing Vanderbilt football pretty much the whole time I've been a fan.

Obviously, whatever treatment Lea is prescribing either isn't working, won't work, or hasn't started working yet. There are probably some elements of his treatment plan that need to be changed, and some elements that he needs to persist with.
But, from what I have seen, Lea's diagnosis is correct.