The crowd was in an ugly mood.

The Vandy game time has been set.

UGA-Vanderbilt will be a night game on Sept. 22, kicking off at 7:45 p.m. and being televised by ESPN2, the SEC has announced.

— Dawgs247 (@Dawgs247) September 10, 2012

All day tailgating and James Franklin’s first trip to Athens.  What could possibly go wrong with that combination?

If the SEC really wants to guarantee a special evening, I’d suggest assigning Penn Wagers’ crew to the game.

Random observations from last night’s SEC opener

Is this the quintessential Vanderbilt moment, or what?

Of course, let’s keep that in perspective:  even if the official had flagged Carolina on the play, it still meant Vanderbilt had to cover about half the field in about 100 seconds.  That was anything but a given for a team that amassed less than 300 total yards on the night.

Still, it helps make for a nice, warm moral victory.

On to a few specifics:

• The game was closer than I thought it would be, for two reasons, both of which should be troubling to South Carolina.  First, the injury to Connor Shaw.  It’s funny – all those years we watched Stephen Garcia run recklessly and never get hurt and Shaw, a gamer who runs with a much more organized purpose than Garcia ever did, gets banged up.  The Gamecock offense, which wasn’t exactly lighting things up before Shaw was hurt, completely shut down in his absence.  And it’s not like Shaw won’t be facing a few formidable front sevens in October.  It’s a little scary to consider how much is going to be left of him after the Florida game.
• The second reason, the shocker of the night, was how much South Carolina missed Alshon Jeffery.  Especially the threat of Alshon Jeffery.  The ‘Cocks gained a whopping 67 yards through the air.  Their leading receiver was Marcus Lattimore.  Shaw couldn’t throw anything longer than an intermediate-level pass with any authority, even before his injury.  (There was only one completion of as much as 20 yards and that was to the tight end.)
• Lattimore wasn’t 100 percent, but he was still the best player on the field.  The Vanderbilt defense keyed on him, which allowed Shaw to rack up almost 100 yards rushing, but still, when it came down to crunch time, Lattimore showed he had it in him to take over a game.  He’s got some rust to shake off, but he’ll get better.  He’ll have to.
• For all the smart-assery we’ve heard from the OBC about the schedule, I bet he’s not too unhappy right now about Georgia not being his week two opponent.
• The South Carolina secondary is definitely the weak link on the defense.  And there are some passing attacks that are going to take advantage of that.
• The “SEC – Year of the Quarterback” meme took a hit last night.  I’ve already mentioned Shaw’s deficiencies.  Rodgers looked like the same erratic passer he was last year.  He did have that nice 78-yard hookup with Jordan Matthews, but he had more than his fair share of head scratchers.
• I really, really like Vanderbilt’s coaches.  Despite being obviously overmatched on both lines, they did everything they could to scratch, claw and compensate for that.  The Vandy defense, in particular, looks like it’s going to be a pain in the ass to deal with.
• And I thought Lorenzo Ward did a competent job masking the weakness of his secondary.  Take away that one busted play in coverage that allowed Vandy’s touchdown of the night and there wasn’t a whole bunch else.  He’ll do all right this year.
• It sure looks a lot easier to kick off for a touchback.
• Who thought a Spurrier-coached team would be so boring?

For Vanderbilt, it’s going to be a year when everyone talks about grit, determination and being well-coached.  Not so much about winning, though.  For all their toughness, the Commodores held a 13-10 second half lead against a team with a one-armed quarterback… and lost.  There’s still too much of a talent gap in Nashville.  Vandy isn’t going to upset a better team without help on the turnover front, and even then, as last night showed, that’s not always going to happen.

South Carolina is a deeper team than it’s ever been and that helped last night.  But you have to wonder how far the Gamecocks can go with that passing attack, even if Shaw stays healthy going forward.  You also have to wonder if South Carolina’s front seven can do enough to compensate for the back four against a team with a more consistent passing game than Vanderbilt’s.  The OBC would seem to have his work cut out for him.

Why do the heathen rage?

Admittedly, I’ve been a little slack taking you guys through the fever swamps of opposing schools’ message boards lately, but I’ve got a couple of threads you may find amusing.

First from Vanderbilt’s Scout board, someone asks the musical question “Why do we hate UGA so much right now?”.  Honestly, I’m still trying to get over the concept of why they hate Georgia at all, but I digress.  Winning comment:  “Franklin stood up to them and they were offended. Add on the fact that he’s African American, and you’ve got a lot of hidden racism bubbling to the surface, although the largely white fan base would never admit it.”  Unlike, say, Vandy’s largely white fan base…

Okay, if that was surprising, there’s nothing like going home to Stingtalk, where you can always count on whatever amount of logic twisting is necessary to show that anything that happens in Athens is good for Georgia Tech.  So you can imagine the wisdom spewed forth over twelve pages in response to this:  “Anyone else like that GA SOUTHERN plays UGA the week before us?”.  The gist of why it’s good, I gather, is because it will give Paul Johnson a look at how Grantham defends the triple option.  It’s not until the seventh page of the thread that someone points out Johnson’s seen how Grantham defends the triple option twice already.

You gotta love ’em.

SEC, you’ve been warned.

James Franklin, at the unveiling of Vanderbilt’s spiffy new unis – at a Barnes and Noble! – took the occasion to throw down a warning to the rest of the conference.

“You guys saw last year, we’re not gonna take a backseat to anybody.  You come into Vanderbilt Stadium you better be ready for a fight…  Change is happening.  The culture has been changed.”

If by “fight”, he means having to deal with a mouthy head coach after things don’t go his way on the field, consider us served.

Paul Johnson dances with one of James Franklin’s dates.

I’m not sure what I enjoy the most about this story – the blatant “good for me, but not for thee” aspect of Johnson’s poaching on Vanderbilt’s turf in contrast to the vaunted Johnson Doctrine, or anticipation of the inevitable “smoking hot” jokes that are bound to be made at Franklin’s expense in the wake of the news.

“I don’t think Vanderbilt is going to take it too well. They are probably going to come after me to get me to commit to them again…”

Watch out for those coaches on the rebound, Vandy fans.  They’ll go out with anyone.

James Franklin is a wild and crazy guy.

Well, this is one way to pick a staff.

Franklin, in a relaxed mood near the beach, explained, “I’ve been saying it for a long time, I will not hire an assistant until I see his wife.  If she looks the part and she’s a D1 recruit, then you got a chance to get hired. That’s part of the deal.  There’s a very strong correlation between having the confidence, going up and talking to a women, and being quick on your feet and having some personality and confidence and being articulate and confident, than it is walking into a high school and recruiting a kid and selling him.”

You’ve got to love this response from one of the Vandy assistant coaches.

“@coachingsearch: James Franklin will not hire you unless your wife is a smoke show. http://t.co/vB5xgUKl” This-I def outkicked my coverage!

— Herb Hand (@CoachHand) May 30, 2012

I haven’t figured out yet how this gets used on the recruiting trail, but I’m sure somebody will come up with something.

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UPDATE:  Oops.

My foot doesn't taste good, I hope I did not offend any1, I love & respect ALL,have a great day, enjoy the fam & don't forget 2 #AnchorDown

— James Franklin (@coachjfranklin) May 31, 2012

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UPDATE #2:  Travis goes there.

James Franklin is ready to turn the page.

Let bygones be bygones.

“But to me, again, I’m a very emotional, passionate guy. This is personal to me. But on the same hand I’m a guy who once things happen I move on. I have tremendous respect for coach Richt and that program. I have respect for coach Grantham as well and what he’s trying to do. I think coach Grantham was trying to do everything he could to support his players and show them that he had his back. And I was doing the same. And those things happen from time to time.”

I don’t expect this year’s Sanford Stadium crowd to be so understanding.

What a friend he has in Johnson.

Roll with me here for a minute.  I’m beginning to think that the biggest beneficiary of Paul Johnson’s recruiting track record in this state isn’t Mark Richt… but James Franklin.  Take a look at this:

Last Friday, we pointed out that the Commodores had already gathered four commitments for the class of 2013.  Another player has jumped onboard since then.  According to Rivals.com, Vandy currently has two 4-star commits and three 4-star commits in line.  Four come from Georgia, one from Florida.  [Emphasis added.]

Think about it.  Tech runs a quirky offense under a head coach who, whatever else you might think about him, doesn’t exactly possess a dynamic personality.  Add that to Tech’s academics (which are more accurately about curriculum) and the inability to find a suitable replacement for Giff Smith on the recruiting front and you get a program with certain vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited by somebody else.

From Franklin’s perspective, it’s an ideal situation.  Vanderbilt fishes in the same academic waters as Tech.  Nashville isn’t as big a city as Atlanta, but it’s big enough.  Vandy’s offense falls far more inside the norm than does Tech’s.  Franklin’s pettiness with other coaches aside, it’s not much of a stretch to see how his personality might appeal to recruits more than Johnson’s does.

If Franklin’s thought all that through – and I’m guessing he has – you have to be impressed with his calculations.  Best of all for him, he’s established a beachhead in Georgia that may prove tough from which to move him unless Johnson figures out a way to step up his game here.  What we don’t know is whether that will have any long-term implications for Mark Richt.  I hope not.  Saban and Smart are already big enough pains in that department.

Thursday morning buffet

In case some of you have the munchies…

• It looks like Fox is planning a throw down with ESPN.  If so, every sports organization should be licking its chops over the increased competition.  Those of us with cable bills won’t be so thrilled.
• Who said this?  “It’s funny. I think I have raised more money for the University of Alabama than I have Georgia these last three years.”
• Yeah, this is gonna happen.
• It’s a shame that James Franklin let his on field demeanor obscure the coaching job he did last year, because it was pretty impressive.
• I can’t help but wonder where this is going to lead.
• Mark Bradley (yeah, I know) surveys the offseason changes for the Falcons and notes that there was “no real remorse when defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder left for Auburn”.
• The mad scientist aspect to Todd Grantham may be coming in real handy about now.

James Franklin frowns upon pre-scholarship fooling around.

His advice to Georgia DE Jonathan Wynn?  Practice safe commitment.

“Coach Franklin then had a nice metaphor [about my commitment]. He said it was like ‘we’re engaged right now with this commitment, and next February we’re going to get married when you sign with us.’ I thought that was pretty funny. He has me laughing.”

Somewhere, Paul Johnson is taking notes.