Same Old Vanderbilt? Commodores Lose Heartbreaker to Tennessee in Overtime, 21-27

I am so disgusted with our field goal kickers that I could scream. I just hope that they are not on scholarship because they are not deserving.

How many games have we lost because of them!

“On the last play of the Vanderbilt-Tennessee game, in overtime, the Tennessee defender intercepted the pass, his knee did not touch the ground and he returned the interception for a touchdown. During the play, the head linesman incorrectly ruled that the Tennessee player’s knee was down when he intercepted the pass by blowing his whistle and giving the dead ball signal. The play was reviewed as if there was no whistle on the field and as a result, overturned the incorrect ruling. By rule, if there was a whistle blown, the play is not reviewable.”

What does that mean?

“Every obscure rule that could possibly… I was explained the rule, we blocked the field goal to win the game. They said we ran into the kicker, I didn’t know you could rough the kicker when you block the field goal, but it has to be the same person, I guess, that runs in to the kicker that also blocks it. We did block the kick, but it’s got to be the same person.”

The officials rule is a crock. I hope that the SEC office reviews this. Surely that is not a rule!

We all know that there are human elements of the game, of which, referees are one. In baseball, every ump has a different strike zone. In basketball, every ref has a different level of physicality that they are willing to tolerate before making a call. In football, it is the subjectivity of the referees as to when they see a foul and when they blow their whistle.
We all know that with the human element comes mistakes. But we are willing to live with those mistakes thinking, that in the end, everything will come out even.
However, the last call of the game last night was an illustration of why SEC officiating is so bad. Instead of making a call and standing behind it, the referee lied about blowing the whistle and tried to reverse his original call. This is a clear example of a referee trying to make up for his mistake on the field which has the consequence of throwing off the balance of ‘things will come out even in the end’.
To me, an analogy of what happened would be if a RB ran through the line but bumped into the ref and fell down although there was open field all around. That is very unfortunate but not uncommon circumstance in football. However, it would be much worse if the ref conferred with the other judges and decided that the player would have had a touchdown anyways, so let’s just give it to him.
This inequality and subjectivity in the officiating is questionable at best. And for VU fans, this element of ignoring fouls or making up decisions on the field seems to come in every road SEC game. I do not know if these are just poorly trained officials or if something else is at play. But it is difficult enough to win on the road in the SEC when the officiating is neutral. My hope is that someone – Clay Travis I’m talking to you – will look into this more thoroughly.
For UT fans, if this is difficult to understand, I will post a ‘connect the dots’ version later.

We have shown incredible heart in coming back when we get down this year, but we have also found ways to lose every close game we’ve been in, other than UConn. It won’t take many more for this to become a mental hitch that dogs this team on an ongoing basis throughout the Franklin era.

I’m also very sad to read people talking almost exclusively about the refs because they were the least of our problems. Here are the problems I saw, in order of importance, in a game that was a colossal step back for us, pretty much across the board.

1. Rodgers absolutely sucked against a mediocre defense. It’s hard to win when your QB turns the ball over four times. The regression was sickening.

2. We have no FG game whatever. I do not understand how the coaching staff cannot get this fixed up. Even if you grant that the yips will destroy all long FGs, we need to be able to kick them 35 yards and in.

3. The O line regressed mightily, though injuries obviously played a role here. We had basically zero running game for much of the second half, and Rodgers had very little time.

4. We got way too many stupid penalties. It needs to stop. Jelesky needs to be benched until he can get control of himself. If he takes another cheap shot at anyone, he needs to be off the team.

Fans need to stop bitching about the refs every week. Did they make a horrible mistake this week? Yes. But it didn’t cost us the game. We cost ourselves the game about five times over. Even if the call had been made properly, we have almost no chance of winning OT games because offenses basically start in FG range and we have zero FG ability. UT would have gotten the ball, kicked a field goal and won.

For so many reasons, it is tough to be a Vandy fan. We were so close….

That said, this is the closest that we have been. I guess that makes me feel better? (it doesn’t really)