Rodger Sherman of Sippin' on Purple recently asked if I'd mind to do a quick Q&A on the upcoming Vanderbilt-Northwestern slugfest. I obliged.

What's a good season for Vanderbilt? And is a victory over Northwestern necessary to achieve that?

Our schedule is pretty brutal this season: Northwestern, LSU, @Ole Miss, @UConn, Eastern Michigan (YAY!), @Georgia, South Carolina, @Arkansas, Florida, @Kentucky, Tennessee, Wake Forest (Phil Steele ranked it as the 12th toughest overall). Considering we were a pathetic 2-10 last season (0-8 in conference), I think a reasonable goal would be to try not to finish last in the SEC East. Certainly the more wins the better and I think a win over Northwestern would have to be considered a quality one for VU. Let me put it this way: I think winning vs. Northwestern does more to help us have a great season than losing would to ensure we have a terrible season.

More after the break.

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Football

Name of the Week: Vanderbilt Edition - Sippin' On Purple

And Vanderbilt had a Secretary named Northwestern... - Sippin' On Purple

My lone contribution to Sippin' On Purple's exposé of the commonalities between the two schools? Hunter Hillenmeyer. 

Vanderbilt Commodore Jamie Graham picks his spot | tennessean.com | The Tennessean

"He's right at home at cornerback on defense and he's really doing well," Coach Robbie Caldwell said. "But I've told him, if we're not getting it done on offense we're going to sling one down the field to him. We're going to use every weapon we've got."

Norman in pads, practicing Tuesday at Vanderbilt | Tennessean Blogs - Vanderbilt Insider

Vanderbilt running back Warren Norman was initially labeled "questionable" for Saturday's game with Northwestern. As of Tuesday, his status looks much closer to "probable."

Gambling degenerates with a soft spot for the Commies: Now's the time to put your money on Vanderbilt, seeing as the line shifted when news of Norman's surgery trickled out. As of the time mid-morning Wednesday, it's VU +5.5 (at bodog).

Vanderbilt Commodores expect 35,000 fans for home opener | tennessean.com | The Tennessean

Vanderbilt prepared to muscle out memories of 2009 season | Nashville City Paper

Scout.com: 8/31 Practice (Premium)

MORAL VICTORY!: Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald preparing to face a bowl team on Saturday

Baseball

Indians keep Lewis on move | The Columbus Dispatch

2011 MLB draft: Vanderbilt 3B Jason Esposito - ESPN

"My freshman year I didn't want to have anything to do with a slider," Esposito said. "I couldn't tell you how it happened," Esposito said. "I had my confidence built in with hitting that pitch early in the fall and it grew into the early part of the season." "Does he have tremendous speed? No, but he has very usable speed, he stole (31) bases (last season). And does he have tremendous power? No, but he has pretty good power. Can he hit? Yeah, he can hit. Can he throw? Yeah he can throw. And can he field? He can field. There just aren't a lot of players like him. He is kind of a ... I don't know, he's an anomaly really."

2011 MLB draft: Vanderbilt pitcher Jack Armstrong - ESPN

After coming across the Esposito article, I noticed the one on Jack from earlier in August.

MLB draft 2011: Christian Montgomery, Joe Ross shine at Tournament of Stars - ESPN

Two Vanderbilt commits were on display in RHP Tyler Beede and LHP Philip Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer has an insane, herky-jerk, rush-to-the-plate delivery and worked at 86-89 with good downhill plane and a mid-70s curveball, attacking hitters while he appears to be coming to tackle them. Beede is the more advanced prospect, touching 92 with a two-seamer at 90 that had bat-breaking tail and a short slider with good tilt. He commanded his fastball to both sides and showed a pretty good approach for setting hitters up. Neither will be an easy sign next spring, but I could see Beede rising enough to the point where someone buys him out.

More photos » M. Spencer Green - AP

Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald expounds upon the enormity of Robbie Caldwell's testicles. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

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It appears that despite their impressive USN&WR #12 ranking, Northwestern still has a lot to learn from the Commodores when it comes to the adoption of "the new media." Though, I suppose I shouldn't have expected so much from the team that turned down the opportunity to move the game from Saturday "regional" (read: limited) coverage to nationwide ESPN Sunday night primetime.

Here are a few quotes from Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald's Monday press conference:

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First, the players:

Coach Caldwell's videos after the break.

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More photos » Mark Humphrey - AP

Robbie Caldwell, rocking the long sleeve shirt/gym shorts combo that was popular back at Pilgrim High School in 2001.

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Admittedly, there is a shadow of impending doom that hangs over this team following a 2-10 season and a new head coach. However, a silver lining still shines through. The Commodores were handed a pretty favorable schedule in the tough-as-nails SEC this season. Vanderbilt misses #1 Alabama, #22 Auburn, and unranked Mississippi State in the conference scheduling draw, leaving #4 Florida as the sole top fifteen squad the team will face in 2010. Comparatively, 2009's schedule included preseason titans in #1 Florida, #8 Mississippi, #11 LSU, and #13 Georgia.

Though the season will bring showdowns with Florida, #17 Arkansas, #21 LSU, and #23 Georgia, the decline of formidable squads at Tennessee, Wake Forest, and Kentucky, make Vanderbilt's 2010 schedule much more palatable. Package that with the potentially-good/potentially-bad fortunes of teams like Northwestern, South Carolina, and Connecticut, and a 6-6 season could be more likely than many pundits, including the prescient wizards on payroll here at AoG, have predicted.

There is much work to be done, and the out-of-conference schedule will be rough for Robbie Caldwell, but looking at the current state of the Southeastern Conference, it's tough to argue that the league schedule could have been much better for the jovial coach's first year. Though swapping out LSU or Arkansas for Mississippi State would have been nice, there's only one game that Vandy fans - despite optimism - can look at and expect a bad loss. That would be Florida, and with John Brantley taking over at quarterback against a staunch VU secondary, even that could be a surprise upset for the Commodores.

Few are optimistic for the college football season in Nashville, but there is a beacon of hope in this year's schedule. If Coach Caldwell can exploit the weaknesses of the mid-tier programs that the 'Dores will face at home (Northwestern, Tennessee, Wake Forest) and pull off a big-time upset away from the friendly confines (a Bobby Johnson specialty), he'd be in the running for SEC coach of the year - and instantly make Vanderbilt a trendy dark horse pick for 2011. That's a pretty big order to fill, but crazier things have happened at Vanderbilt Stadium. Additionally, Caldwell has the benefit of one of the deepest, most athletic teams to trek across the Star Walk. The stage has been set, and the opportunity is there - can the Commodores capitalize and shock the SEC with the winning season this year? It doesn't seem likely, but it is not impossible; not by any means.

UPDATE 3: Here is the official press release from VUCommodores.com.

UPDATE 2: It's official. Welcome aboard, Coach Hand!

UPDATE 1: Vanderbilt has scheduled a 1pm CT press conference to "announce an addition to the offensive coaching staff." (H/T BarcaBlog).

As you are no doubt aware (since you've surely been following AOG's scintillating coverage of SEC Media Days), Robbie Caldwell's first order of business was not to reinstate profanities (thanks to Spencer @ EDSBS for displaying brazen testicular fortitude in asking my question). While that has apparently been tabled for the time being, something far more pressing needed to be addressed: filling the offensive line coaching vacancy.

As is expected to be formally announced, Herb Hand, offensive line coach for Tulsa and co-offensive coordinator, will be Robbie Caldwell's replacement.

There are myriad reasons why Commodore fans should be excited. Hand arrived in Tulsa in 2007 as their offensive line coach and their co-offensive coordinator:

Hand shared offensive coordinator duties with Gus Malzahn in his first two seasons with the Golden Hurricane. In 2009, he was listed as the offensive coordinator, but playcalling was shifted among different parties, including head coach Todd Graham.

As you may or may not know, in 2007 Tulsa led the nation in Total Offense with 7,832 yards gained. That year, they were 2nd in Passing Yards, 32nd in Rushing Yards, 2nd in Points Scored, and 7th in Points Scored Per Game. Similarly, in 2008 Tulsa again led the nation in Total Offense with 7,978 yards gained. They were 6th in Passing Yards, 7th in Rushing Yards, 2nd in Points Scored, and 2nd in Points Scored Per Game. 2009 saw the Golden Hurricanes put up more modest numbers, though it appears Hand had less control over the offense on gamedays than he did in the two years prior.

Those are all well and good. The kicker? This ringing endorsement: Herb Hand Will Eat Your Babies. Must read, obvi.

Sounds like Coach Caldwell has hit two homeruns in his first two at bats as Head Coach. One has to think that the future of the Commodores offense will have Coach Hand's fingerprints all over it (see what I did there?). Maybe not this season, but certainly in the future.

Edit: Youtube is being stupid. Instead of embedding the video, here's the link.

Despite the photoshops, I still think Larry is a great quarterback, honestly.

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Since Jay Cutler's departure, there hasn't been a wealth of stability at quarterback at Vanderbilt. Chris Nickson's promising start in 2007 was derailed by injuries and mental lapses. The same can be said for Mackenzi Adams, whose performance was based more on heart than accurate passing and timely audibles. The Nickson/Adams era, which was surprisingly successful despite their shortcomings, gave way to a promising young passer in Larry Smith, who started the team's only bowl win since the Korean War. Smith was a beacon of hope, an athletic specimen with a strong arm, decent vision downfield, and the capacity to grow under a strong coaching staff. Things looked good (at least by Vandy standards) until the 2009 season hit.

That year's 2-10 disaster sucked the life out of the offense in Nashville and the will to coach out of Bobby Johnson. Smith completed just 46.7% of his passes that year - an impressive feat when you consider how much time he spent on his back behind an impotent offensive line. His receivers didn't provide much support either; a corps of Alex Washington, John Cole, and Udom Udoh often failed to get open even in single coverage and often were the culprits of drive-killing, momentum-squashing drops on the occasions when Smith was able to find them downfield.

As a result, Commodore fans and even coaches have lost faith in Larry, and the question of "who will start at quarterback in 2010?" has become a very real concern. Compounding these concerns is the presence of new head coach Robbie Caldwell, and concerns over whether he'll have the same yo-yo strategy when it comes to QB starts as his predecessor and colleague Bobby Johnson. With open practices coming up this week, we'll soon have a better idea of who has the edge to start against Northwestern; whoever takes the most snaps, barring injuries, will be the odds-on favorite to take the field against the Wildcats. Let's break down the candidates:

The favorite: Larry Smith - Smith had a dismal season following his promising(-ish) 1-0 campaign in the 2008 Music City Bowl, passing for just 125 yards per game and putting up a JaMarcus Russell-esque 4:7 TD:INT ratio. The dual-threat quarterback has shown to be less of a running threat than Chris Nickson and the surprisingly elusive Mackenzi Adams before him, but part of that can be chalked up to a horrible offensive line rather than Smith's ability to create space from defenders. A former Mr. Football out of Alabama, the junior has a strong arm and is relatively accurate, though since he is a victim of dropped passes and hurried throws his stats don't reflect that. This also led to some poor decision making on the field, as Smith is prone to panic and leave the pocket early, force passes into tight coverage, and leave himself open for turnovers and major losses of yardage.

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