Jay Cutler's gone.  Big deal.

Except it is when spring football stories dominate the college football media.  The Commodores lost their four year starting quarterback, yes.  We got it.  Lazy commentators are waxing poetic about the big loss.

This is the same quarterback who owns all of eleven career wins.

It's difficult to win at Vanderbilt.  It's difficult to win in the SEC.  But it happens.  Vanderbilt won 12 games in the four seasons before Cutler emerged as their quarterback.  Here's guessing they'll win another 10-14 games the next four years without him.

The 'Dores recorded the most offensive points (299) since 1974 (313).  With Wonder Boy gone they'll be hard pressed to match that.  No surprise, the offense is likely the struggle.

The real news is the defense.  The coaching staff must respond to the obvious and find a way to drastically reduce the points surrendered.  The Commodores have allowed 368, 358, 286 and 321 points in Bobby Johnson's four seasons.  If they do, they might just win more than two games.  If they don't, see 2002-2004 and the six combined wins.

The pressure will be on the defensive interior to distinguish itself.  Senior tackle Ralph McKenzie has departed, but junior Theo Horrocks, a converted end, returns at the other tackle spot.  A veteran pair of 300-pounders are vying for McKenzie's job.  The two-deep has just one underclassman, sophomore Brandon Holmes.  At first impression this group looks like one that has enough experience to not fall on its face and give the defense at least a fighting chance of survival.

Schedule:

6 home games (Arkansas, Tennessee State, Kent State, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee)
6 road games (Michigan, Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia, Duke, Kentucky)

Tennessee State, Kent State and Duke should be automatic wins and Kentucky looks winnable as well.

Four wins sound good?

Finally, a golf clap from CFR for the road opener against Michigan.

The Michigan (Sept. 2) and Alabama (Sept. 9) games are probably Vandy's best chances to pull an upset.  The gap between the haves and the have nots in college football is never smaller than at the beginning of the season as the game's power squads are still figuring things out.

Never beat an SEC team with a winning record...
might as well give someone else a try