It’s finally here, the season opener. Vanderbilt hosts Charleston Southern, and let’s just say Vanderbilt is a heavy favorite. How much of a blowout will Saturday be? Let’s ask the Anchor of Gold writing staff.
As FCS teams go, Charleston Southern is bad. Like “picked to finish in last place in the not-particularly-good OVC-Big South mashup” bad.
As such, my main questions for Saturday are: how long does Clark Lea leave Diego Pavia in the game, and how good are the backups? If the answer to the first question is “through the third quarter” (as he did against Alcorn State last season), then Vanderbilt covers. If the answer to the second question is “significantly better than a bad FCS team,” then Vanderbilt covers. One of these questions is true. As far as the game goes, again, I’m mainly looking to see who the backup quarterback is. While the starters are in the game, this shouldn’t be close.
The Pick: Vanderbilt 45, Charleston Southern 6
The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: I’m gonna go out on a limb here and pick SOUTHERN MISS (+12.5) to take down Mississippi State. Never intentionally schedule a game in Hattiesburg, Mississippi State.
Well, if you saw the Pick ‘Em post, you’d already know the spread is Vanderbilt -36 and I took the Gridiron Dores. That will likely answer any questions you had about my thoughts on the opener. If not, in this week’s Mail Bag, I said
We need to blow the doors off our OOC opponents early to get the rest of the team to Pavia’s other-worldly confidence level. Charleston Southern needs to be a boatrace. Needs to.
So yeah, this not only cannot be a Georgia State letdown like last year, it absolutely has to be a complete Beowulfian massacre. If Pavia and co claim to have the strength of 60 men in each hand, not only will they have to be telling the truth to tear the arms off the Grendels of the ‘25 schedule (The South Cackalacky Game Penises on 9/13), but also to then kill the wolf-like she-beast Grendel’s mother in her own hellish lair (The Ramajama Gumps on 10/4), and especially to finally slay the Franzia-funelling dragon of Buttchuggville and claim their golden Sunsphere (you already know who this is and when it’s happening), not to mention the forces of Dayraven the Frank (The Gumbo Bengals on 10/18), and King Heremod’s angered warrior band who did not get their wergild nor were given rings by the king last year (The Tejas Long Fedoras on 11/1), or…
…ah hell, this extended metaphor has extended and metaphor’d enough. You know what I’m saying. As Beowulf’s modern analogue Cassius Clay said, “It ain’t bragging if it’s true.” Well, Diego and the boys (Dirty Mike’s not invited), you had damned well better ravish the Charleston Southern University, umm (checks notes) some sort of pirates, at home, as the Virginny Tech Hokie Pokes are not exactly pleased with what went down in Nashville last year, and we have to travel to Blacksburg next week.
If we’re up by and less than 21 after the first quarter, I might be pissed.
The Pick: Vanderbilt 62 – Charleston Southern 13.
The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: Syracuse is going to take down the Chuggers, PAAAAAWWWWLLLLL!!!
First off, gotta respect a team with a boat dude as a mascot. Second off, there is nothing else to respect about this team. They were bad last year and will be good this year. Our goal should be to get the starters off the field by halftime. Heck, even if we are only up a pair of touchdowns, I feel like we would get more use out of keeping players safe. Charleston Southern only won a single game last year, and I doubt they are going to all that much better this year. As much as I wish a game like this were slated for the middle of the season, I am more just glad we get it at all.
The Pick: Vanderbilt 63 – Charleston Southern 13
The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: The Gooder of the two Orange Team shall consume The Badder of the two Orange Team. Syracuse in a close one.
Andrew being this positive and brazen is scary. I completely agree with him though. This needs to be a statement that the Commodores will put any lesser opponents to the sword. Vanderbilt did not do that last season by losing to Georgia State and only beating Ball State 24-14. They did take Alcorn State behind the woodshed, who is the closest comparison to Charleston Southern.
The Buccaneers scored in the teens in 8 of their 12 games last season and never topped 24 points scored. The defense, especially the secondary, needs to put the clamps on an offense that barely topped 1,700 yards. Both line units need to bully their opposing numbers.
Anything less than covering the spread will be concerning, and we should probably see Blaze Berlowitz get at least a quarter, if not most of the second half.
The Pick: Vanderbilt 52, Charleston Southern 3
The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: I think Kentucky should be on upset alert with Toledo. That offense might be terribad. I am not sure what Toledo lost from last season, but they took Mississippi State down 41-17 then. Let’s go Rockets!
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