Vanderbilt: Finish Strong

After a long, hard road of ACC games, Vanderbilt should be an easy way to finish the season. Wake is definitely the better team, but I worry about a costly letdown (or a surprise performance from Vandy) in a game like this.

Briefly, I'd like to discuss this "rivalry" and its position on the schedule.

Unlike many Wake fans, I fall in the camp that is in favor of playing Vanderbilt on a regular basis. They are definitely our natural SEC rival, and if both teams ever ended up being pretty good for a couple of years in a row, it could really pick up some steam. Unfortunately, the game just doesn't pack that kind of punch at this stage.

One of the biggest problems is that the game is played over the post-Thanksgiving weekend. I know that weekend is nationally a Rivalry Weekend, but for opponents like Wake and Vandy it just doesn't work. If Florida plays Florida State, or Texas plays Texas A&M, or UCLA plays USC, it works out perfectly; all of those schools have huge fanbases in the area, and with 5 figure enrollements they are guaranteed to have enough students around to fill the student section.

For Wake and Vandy, with small student bodies spread out across the country for the Thanksgiving holiday and smaller local fanbases, it's going to be nearly impossible to fill the stadium. I think this game needs to be moved earlier in the season to allow an actual rivalry to develop, then maybe it can move back to Thanksgiving. I know this is not going to happen, at least for the duration of this contract, and that the ACC wants its schools to be playing non-conference games the last week of the season for Championship Game scheduling purposes, but in a perfect world this game would happen at a different time.

Nothing can be done about any of that now, so the only thing remaining is the action on the field. Last season the Commodores went 5-7 and were a win against Wake away from bowl eligibility. They may not have actually gotten a bid with that record, but the fact that they were close to that number of wins was certainly a small victory. Now, with standout wide receiver Earl Bennett gone and uncertainty about the top quarterback, Vandy will struggle to stay at that level.

Chris Nickson and Mackenzi Adams will battle for the starting quarterback job, and at this point no one really seems to know who it will be. As I've often heard Jim Grobe say, "If you think you have two number ones, you really only have two number two's." I'm guessing that statement is completely accurate in this case.

Vandy's biggest strength is their secondary, led by impressive junior cornerback D.J. Moore. They return three other starters, and the unit will be counted on to keep Vandy in games. The rest of the defense isn't bad, but graduation left a big hole at defensive tackle and Vandy will struggle against good running games.

On offense Vanderbilt lost all five of last year's offensive lineman. Playing a group of untested Juniors is going to make things very challening for the skill players. Without a clear picture at quarterback and the loss of Bennett at wide receiver, Vandy is definitely in trouble for 2008.

It should be a pretty clear victory for Wake in this one, but Vandy does have a tendancy to sneak up and bite someone big just about every year. We'll just have to hope they do it to Tennessee or South Carolina before they have the chance to do it to us.