SATURDAY TAILGATE - FLORIDA

SATURDAY TAILGATE - FLORIDA

Did anyone expect a loss like that? Like seriously, I don't even think the most pessimistic of us expected that.  Not even those of us that post in a shrine of hate to Coach Mason with effigies and a pentagram drawn on the floor thought that the Houston game would go that bad. We're asking the usual questions, and while CDA covers the new ground, a lot of us are just retreading the same ground.  Our defense is quite good, but our offense is horrendous.

I'm hungover, and once again writing the tailgate at a stupid hour to be up on a Saturday.  You know that episode of the X-Files where Fox Mulder is introduced to his sister, only for her to run off with Cigarette Smoking Man? That's kinda how I feel right now.  We've spent all this time and energy arguing and fighting for what we want and when its finally shown to us, it's taken away from us without reason. Maybe, like Fox, we'll find out that it was all subterfuge next season year.

Some of us are upset over burning Kyle Shurmur's redshirt. The narrative is of course evil Coach Mason sat there in the cover of darkness as lightning crashed around him and "ruined" "another prospect" for "no reason". Maybe there was some maniacal laughter involved. I'd imagine so.  The fact is though that something had to be done with this offense and it was a Catch-22.  Either Mason does nothing and is a fool for not seeing that some change was needed or he makes the change and people are mad when things don't go perfectly.

Frankly, I'm just tired of the whole thing.  I by no means am saying this season is good, it is far from it.  I also don't have a lot of faith in next year anymore.  The fact is though that the types of things people are getting hung up over is really bordering on turning Mason into some sort of comic book villain and I'm just losing the energy y'all.

There, I've pontificated enough. If you want, Coach theomega311 has a Q&A session set up where he thinks Mason is on the right track.  Confused by this turn of opinion just a week after he was saying he's done with Mason? Read the article, ya scamps!

In basketball news, the AP preseason poll came out, putting Vanderbilt at 18^th.  In my opinion, it's a fair place to put us.  Second piece of basketball news is the Tom continues the SEC preview.  This week - Alabama.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

There wasn't much in the way of hilarious ends last week.  Nor hilarious losses.  Only two real top 25 upsets, and I'd not call the UNC victory over #23 Pittsburgh an upset really.

• Miami 30 - #22 Duke 27. It pains me greatly to have to put a play where Miami is happy here. Yet, here we are. With less than two minutes to go in the game, Duke was down 5 to the Hurricanes. A fabulous two minute drill, in which there was never a third down, led Duke to the go-ahead TD with 6 seconds left. Then, well, magic happened. Miami returned the kickoff for a TD on a play that had 7 laterals.

In non-results news...

• Did you notice that hilarious block in the back that went uncalled in that clip above? It's not shocking to Vanderbilt fans that a smart school get screwed by refs, right? Well the ACC, unlike SEC, actually cares about appearing to care about fairness. They've suspended the crew for two games.
• Dabo Swinney promised to throw a giant pizza party for ALL Clemson fans that show up for the poll party in Death Valley. That's a lotta pie.
• A lot of LSU fans are mad at a sign some Bammers hung from their apartment that read "Finish What Katrina StArted". As y'all know, I'm also an LSU fan. I'm not offended by it, but I also didn't lose my home or family members to Katrina. I think that it's also kinda hypocritical of LSU fans who love the (hilarious) signs the LSU DKE posts on their house and then be upset at this one. I also think people are entirely too quick to be offended in this world. One footnote though - Fournette and his family was hit quite hard by Katrina. He gonna be mad.

THERE'S OTHER FOOTBALL

There's only one game worth talking about today. You know what it is.  THE GAME OF THE CENTURY OF THE SEASON - LSU @ ALABAMA. Head your ass over to the good guys sister site and embrace your only path to deliverance from evil.  I will not link to the portal of hell, I refuse.

SERIOUSLY, DON'T WATCH

We play Florida this week.  Not one soul that I'm aware of thinks we'll win.  Most everyone thinks it'll be by more than 2 scores. The only real thing I'll point y'all to is how mad some Gator fans got at our usual mockumentary preview.  Florida might be the second best academic institution in the conference, but they have no more sense of Satire that any of the other fanbases, apparently.

OK, WATCH

The games this week are considerably good, and it's easy as a footbaw fan in general to forget about our game.  That said, we invite y'all to join up our game thread and talk with your fellow Commodores.   We hope to see y'all there!

Just a reminder - the audio feed is now FREE on VUCommodores.com (link below) and starts at 10:30 ET (9:30 CT)

3-5 (1-3)

GAMETIME: 12:00 ET (11:00 CT) LOCATION: BEN HILL GRIFFIN STADIUM, GAINESVILLE, FL TV: ESPN RADIO: 1510 AM, 95.9 FM, 98.3 FM GAMETRACKER: Click this link AUDIO FEED (FREE): Click this link (VUCommodores, FREE!) VIDEO FEED: ESPN3.com (cable agreement required)

7-1 (5-1)

ANCHOR DOWN Y'ALL!