Less than twelve hours until kickoff time in Nashville. In case you missed anything this week, here's what you need to get back up to speed. Be sure to join us in the comments of our gamethread, which will post about two hours before kickoff.

AOG Vandy - UConn Coverage

The Commodore Review. Train Island takes a closer look at how the Commodores did against Elon.

Whither UConn? Welcome to Nashville, Huskies. C'mon in. Take your shoes off and stay awhile. Let's get to know each other.

Heir Jordan. Brett McReynolds wonders if Vanderbilt might be better served, long term, if Coach Franklin started Jordan Rodgers the rest of the season.

Expert Predictions By Noted Experts. Fancying a bit of a gamble this weekend? Try using our highly accurate futurecast. ***Legal note: Your mileage may will vary***

Video of the Day

(h/t @VUHawkTalk)

More after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

All the relevant Vanderbilt Commodore news (that I've read) from the past 24 or so hours. Also, a friendly reminder: Make sure to catch James Franklin's Noon CT press conference!

Vanderbilt Commodores Football

Coach Franklin has announced that the team has voted five players as captains for the 2011 season: Kyle Fischer, Casey Hayward, Chris Marve, Larry Smith, and Carey Spear.

Al.com has a "by the numbers" style preview of the SEC. There are several pertaining to the Commodores, including:

294 - SEC games played by Vanderbilt since the Commodores posted a shutout, the longest non-shutout streak in league history. Vandy blanked Kentucky 6-0 on Nov. 9, 1968. Vanderbilt has shut out eight opponents since then, but all of the blankings came in non-conference games.

My hypothesis that press entities recycle their annual Vanderbilt previews continues to hold true. Did you know that Vanderbilt faces the ultimate challenge in mixing academics with athletics? I did find this one little blurb to be very interesting at a time when the school and its administration has promised to "change the culture":

Vanderbilt is inexorably tied with three others among FCS-level brainiac schools - Stanford, Northwestern and Duke. Vandy's football budget is the lowest of the three, trailing Stanford by more than $3 million. This despite higher revenues through the SEC TV contracts.

It is true: Vanderbilt was once the southern football power.

The National Commodore Club announces home and road tailgates.

Vanderbilt Commodores Basketball

Luke Winn takes a statistical look at college basketball's top "Value Add" offensive players (think WAR -- Wins Above Replacement -- except for hoops instead of baseball). Number three overall on his list? John Jenkins. There's more:

Vanderbilt's offense is going to be insanely good ... but the Commodores still might not be a top-10 team. In terms of cumulative returning Value Add, Vandy's offensive figure of 18.75 percent is by far the best in the country, with Ohio State second at 15.80 percent, and North Carolina third at 13.70. The 'Dores' quartet of John Jenkins (6.18%), Brad Tinsley (3.68%), Festus Ezeli (3.48%) and Jeffery Taylor (2.71%) is excellent.

College Football

Here's your week 1 college football tv schedule, courtesy of the SB Nation mothership.

Blogpoll: The 2011 preseason college football rankings are out. Hit the link for traditional blogpoll snark. Check the results after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

The SB Nation iPhone app is now available in the App Store! And it's Free!

Now you can stay on top of all the latest news and commentary for Anchor of Gold and all 300+ SB Nation blogs from your iPhone. With the SB Nation iPhone app you can:

• Get the latest, breaking sports news as it happens
• Customize your news with your favorite teams, sports and blogs (including AOG)
• Get notified of updates to the stories you choose to follow on SBNation.com, regional sites, Baseball Nation, and MMA Nation
• Read and reply to comments

Here's how to get it:

Go to the App Store on your iPhone and search for "SB Nation"

-- OR --

Go here and click "Download Now"

FAQ

1. An Android version of the app is coming soon. Hopefully by the end of the year
2. The app is free
3. Comments are basic read-and-reply, but SB Nation has plans to enhance them in future updates
4. You can use your existing SB Nation user name and password to log in to the app

Any questions, feedback, comments? E-mail support@sbnation.com.

All the Vanderbilt Commodore news you can handle from the past 24 hours:

Continue reading this post »

Here's the latest Vanderbilt Commodore news from around the internet. I'm hopeful to be more diligent and regular with the daily links post. Here's everything I found relevant over the last 24 hours:

Vanderbilt Commodore Football

• Jamie Newberg rates the 2012 football recruiting in the SEC East. Here's a choice quote from the Vanderbilt section:

  This group is led by the dynamic athlete Brian Kimbrow (Memphis, Tenn./East), who should bring a Percy Harvin-like ability to the offense.

• Jeff Lockridge talks about how the diminutive RBs in the current freshman class are turning heads in practice. We may have a new nickname on our hands, thanks to Coach Franklin:

  "We’re giving [freshman Mitchell Hester] more reps in practice, and he’s been doing good things," Coach James Franklin said. "He’s got tremendous quickness, tremendous lateral quickness. I call him the sidewinder."

• Jeff Lockridge's Monday practice report. Typical stuff in here. OH AND COACH FRANKLIN LEVELED ANDRE HAL. LIKE LITERALLY PUT HIM ON HIS ASS.

  After Franklin was intercepted by LB Archibald Barnes on a pass over the middle, the coach gave chase toward the front left pylon as Barnes attempted to return the pick for a score. Sophomore DB Andre Hal was shielding Barnes when Franklin – not wearing any pads, mind you – put two arms into Hal and sent him flying out of bounds. It was a priceless moment. "I didn’t know who it was (I hit)," Franklin said. "I was trying to find out who it was. It was fun. It was fun to get out there and compete with them and fly around and show them how competitive that we’re all going to be in this program … everyone."

• This is a little old, but Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg wants everyone to know that they're wrong about Jay Cutler.

Basketball and baseball after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

UPDATE: It was a comprehensive, four-step NCAA reform agenda. For more, see this post by the SBN mothership.

*Original post below*

The early word out of Birmingham is that SEC Commissioner Mike Slive will be making a "big" announcement at 12.30 CT. What will it be? Renegotiated TV contract with ESPN? Texas A&M invited to join? A proposal that will fundamentally change college athletics in the future? We'll see in two hours.

Some recent tweets to pique your interest after the jump. Share your predictions in the comments.

Continue reading this post »

Think back - when was the last time you felt this good about Vanderbilt sports?

The baseball team is coming off a run to the College World Series that validated the team's presence as a national power. The men's basketball team has developed into a perennial top 25 squad and will be returning all five starters this winter in a bid for Final Four glory. Even our lowly football team, coming off a 2-10 season, is taking steps to erase five decades of futility behind new head coach James Franklin and an ever-expanding base of top-flight recruits.

Was there ever a better summer to be a Commodore?

2010-2011 will go down as a strong year for Vandy athletics, but 2011-2012 is shaping up to be even better. Several parties are responsible for this; classes of tremendous student-athletes that have chosen to come to - or stay in -Nashville, an administration that's allowed the school's athletics to flourish despite the lack of an Athletic Director, and a fanbase that has proven that West End is a viable setting for big-time college sports. However, most of the credit must go to a solid base of coaches that have re-ignited Vanderbilt's passion for athletics and given the school an identity outside of "the SEC's private school."

Tim Corbin, Kevin Stallings, and Franklin - head coaches of the men's baseball, basketball, and football programs, respectively - are the architects behind this revival. All three have been tireless recruiters and salesmen of the Vanderbilt vision. All three have stolen prospects who probably had no business coming to Nashville. Two of the three, excluding the first-year coach Franklin, have tasted postseason success. Their hard work has been the catalyst that set this snowball in motion, and as Vanderbilt teams win more, their momentum will breed more success. This promise of success on the field, in the classroom, and on the recruiting trail, have made the summer of 2011 one of the best ever for Vandy boosters.

Of course, this is a far cry from the summers of the past in Nashville. The June-July-August corridor rarely gives Commodore fans the chance to be happy. Instead, we've been forced to watch as basketball heroes slip out of the first round of the NBA draft or baseball squads heartbreakingly fall out of postseason play. Summer football recruiting was a futile effort that generated few headlines and even fewer recruits. In general, the dim optimism of the upcoming football season was overwhelmed by the lingering failures of the past.

But not anymore.

Continue reading this post »

Vanderbilt Commodores Football

VandySports.com - Another one rolls in for the Commodores
Earlier this morning the staff picked up another big commitment when another linebacker jumped in the boat. Now, fresh off the news of Darreon Herring's commitment comes the news of a fifth commitment.

Train Island wrote about this earlier this morning.

Continue reading this post »