Cheap (Free) Seats at Vanderbilt: Georgia Football and the Three Blind Mice
Nashville is a great town, but it hasn’t been great lately to the Georgia football team. Then again the Georgia football team hasn’t been great in Nashville.
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On paper, it doesn’t seem like a big game, but Nashville is such a fun town, and even with a face value of $60 for visitors, it was a cheap (or free!) ticket to get, so the city turned red & black for the weekend.
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It seemed like everyone waited for the Auburn game to go into overtime – we did – to go into the stadium because it looked pretty empty from our tailgate a half hour before kickoff. Or is that normal for a Vanderbilt game?
It shouldn’t be a big game, but just try losing it once – see our last trip to Nashville. It’s an SEC game. It’s an SEC East game. And it’s… Vanderbilt. Even though James Franklin and Todd Grantham aren’t on the sidelines anymore, you could still feel the animosity in the quaintest stadium in the SEC.
It looked like it was going to be a repeat of that game when Lorenzo Carter was ejected for a targeting penalty. Based on the Vanderbilt fans sitting near me (there weren’t that many), they don’t know the definition of targeting anymore than the refs. As soon as the initial call was made, I could hear everyone in red & black groan and say, “here we go again.”
The View from Section F, “the Vanderbilt side” – though there were just as many red & black on this side. Note the students have already left? Or were they ever really there?
The stars of the first quarter were on special teams, including Vandy’s punter recovering a mishandled snap and running for the first down and Isaiah Mckenzie‘s punt return for a touchdown. They don’t call him the Human Joystick for nothing. We have work to do on the rest of the special teams though, as evidenced by two missed field goals, and the onside kick that Vanderbilt recovered with 4:30 left in the game.
I’m not sure what y’all saw on TV, but from section U, we saw phantom calls on targeting and roughing the passer, and missed calls on facemasks and holding. I even moved to the opposite side of the stadium to escape the intense sun and see if the referees looked any better from Section F. Not really. I started humming “Three Blind Mice” every time the yellow flag got pulled out. I did hear the Dores fans on that side of the stadium asking for targeting calls every other tackle we made.
Speaking of the sun, this had to be one of the oddest weather games I’ve ever been to. I was really looking forward to a warm weather game in Nashville since this game is usually in mid to late October. This was the first time I’ve worn double layers, including a wool sweater to a game in September. Late in the game, it looked like Dorothy and Toto were going to come through as trash was blowing all over the fields and throughout the stands.
The View from Section U, on the “Georgia side” during hte first half – although technically, both sides were mostly red.
The Dawgs’ offense looked uninspired after Morgan’s missed field goal in the fourth, and when Vandy got the ball back in Georgia territory, I had a sinking feeling (anchored down?) that Vandy would score. I hate when I’m right. To pour salt in the wound, the 2-point conversion was good. The defense looked like a different team compared to the one we saw in the first half when Jordan Jenkins got two sacks
I won’t even bother talking about the onside kickoff that Vanderbilt recovered, or the sideline penalty on Georgia, when Vanderbilt’s coaches were out the hashmarks. I may punch my laptop. But I will praise transfer Jake Ganus for possibly saving the game for us with his interception in the endzone for a touchback. Our offense had two touchdowns, as many as special teams and the defense combined – not the start we were looking for from Brian Schottenheimer or Greyson Lambert. Does anyone miss Bobo and Hutson Mason yet?
Next week, Lambert cannot look as shaky as he did, and I hope that Brice Ramsey is ready to go into the game if Lambert has a repeat performance against the Cocks.
The Georgia team that was in Nashville this weekend will not beat any Spurrier-coached team, even the one against UNC or the one that lost to Kentucky at home. My inner Munson is not happy that South Carolina lost. Now we get a mad Spurrier coming to Athens?
We were lucky to walk out of Vanderbilt Stadium with a 31-14 victory. Thank you Dominick Sanders!
Victory, by the skin of our teeth. Final scoreboard before they yanked the score off the screen.
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