The Dores are coming

Michigan now has our 12th opponent for the year and they are not from the MAC, they're actually a team from a real conference, the SEC! Did the home and home that Auburn supposedly offered us go through? Nope, it's the Vanderbilt Commodores! It's not as bad as it sounds though because the hot rumor was that it was going to be Maine, a great opponent for Coach Berenson and the hockey team but would have been absurd for the football team to play them. One of my good friend Jeff or Tennessee Jeff as we refer to him now that he's moved out to the Cali, is a Vanderbilt grad and because of that Vanderbilt has always been a team I rooted for because how can you not, they are like the lovable loser, play in the SEC, have no athletic department and are trying to stay competitive without one. As Sexy Results posted a few weeks back "Your school allegiance aside, when was the last time you didn't root for Vandy when they were on TV?" In addition to that they just have some funny chants I mean it's awesome to just chant "Vandy, Vandy, Oh Hell Yeah!"

Thank goodness that now projected first round pick Jay Cutler is going to be off to the NFL but they do return 13 starters, according to the depth chart I got from the Vanderbilt Rivals site and they are going to probably start Chris Nickson at QB, who was Jay Cutler's backup and will be a RS Sophomore next season. Where's the problem in that you ask? Nickson in his senior year was Mr. Football in the state of Alabama and passed for 2,942 yards and 42 TD's while rushing for 1,526 yards and 22 TD's so he is mobile and you know our problems with mobile QB's the past few years.

They also return Rivals 2nd team Freshman All-American Earl Bennett, a true freshman this season who put up 79 receptions for 876 yards and 9 TD's, including 5 TD's against Kentucky and the GW TD against Tennessee. He had 53 receptions in the last five games as well so he will be one to keep an eye on. In addition they have another freshman in Cassen Jackson-Garrison who averaged 5.6 yards a carry and had 8 TD's last year so they will have some players that can move the ball. We shall see what changes are in store for our team on the offense and defense and since it is not a complete cupcake we will have to show something.

Now that the schedule is all done now we turn our attention to the team where we have lost two players to transfers, Max Martin is heading back home to play for Alabama, while Matt Gutierrez will be transferring to I-AA Idaho State to play but will still be able to get his degree from Michigan. I expected Martin to transfer after all his problems of being in the dog house but I definitely did not expect this from Gutierrez. I remember we needed a QB in his class and while others were hot for James Banks, thank goodness that one didn't happen, I wanted to get Gutierrez, the De La Salle QB who never lost a game. It sucks how injury cost him his job but he handled everything so well and with such class I wish him nothing but the best. I have heard rumors of another player to be transferring as well, an offensive player, but there has been no mention of it so far so perhaps it was just a bad rumor, hopefully that is the case.