re: Derek Mason Ole Miss post-game."We did more to us than they did to us"

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He needs to learn hopw to keep Vandy from beating Vandy then. I know what he means...that Vandy made a lot of mental errors...but its disrespectful to your opponent to say that...just learn from the OBC and say that we were outcoached, outhustled and outclassed on the field.

Vandy wont have itchy trigger finger...its an academic institution and they are classy. He needs time to recruit and develop...at least he can sell playing time in the living rooms..but how many top notch recruits can qualify at VU?

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Generally, I hate it when coaches don't give props to the other team (though I have no idea if he did elsewhere, because it'll be a few days before I can bring myself to watch any post-mortem.) I'm guessing Coach Mason is trying to take the burden of an awful loss onto himself. It's not quite as bad to get into self-blame when you're talking about a blowout than when you're talking about a close game because it's generally understood you were completely outmatched in a blowout, so you can safely talk about how badly you hurt yourself. Or something.

While Vandy standards are a bit higher than most, it's not as bad as people think when it comes to recruiting. Vandy's standards for athletes aren't going to be quite the same as for the general population. We're not going to take some dumb-as-dirt 5* physical freak of nature -- not that we'd be on most of their commitment lists anyway -- but we're also not going to require a recruit to be in the 98th percentile or above academically either...hopefully. I'm not ashamed to admit I'd be willing to recruit some slightly-above-average scholars in return for some top-notch football players.