Throwback Dawg Day: Granthan vs. Franklin
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Vanderbilt.
To a lot of SEC fans, you almost felt bad for them most years. At least as far as football goes, the Commodores have spent many years languishing as a doormat. Being in Tennessee’s shadow does not help, neither does the fact that opposing fans can easily take over a game day over on Nashville’s west end.
In a lot of ways, it was hard to take Vandy serious. Sure, they could turn games into an unexpected rock fight, but there was no rivalry energy to make you dislike them.
But for Georgia, an exception came in 2011 against Vanderbilt, or more appropriately, former Commodores head coach James Franklin. If you believe that a team takes on the mentality of their head coach, Franklin’s Vandy teams were just that – pesky and hard-nosed to make some of the SEC’s top teams sweat, and tweaking fans’ noses in the process.
The win itself in 2011 was blood-pressure spiking for Georgia. The Bulldogs had eyes on an SEC East Division title, and a massive clash a game later against Florida loomed. As for Vanderbilt, the Commodores were on their way to an upswing under Franklin, getting off to a 3-0 start and halfway to a coveted bowl-eligibility clinching win. But back-to-back losses to South Carolina and Alabama in which Vandy managed a combined three points likely had Georgia fans discounted Vandy’s odds going into that 2011 night game.
As Mike Cooley of the Drive-By Truckers sang, “Nashville’s where you go…to see if what they said is so…”
The good news for Georgia – it had a good offensive night with Aaron Murray’s career-high 326 passing yards as the Bulldogs rolled up 33 points…just a handful more than the Commodores as Georgia took a 33-28 win…one that was way too close for Georgia fan’s comfort.
The score may have been testy…but that was only the start as a post-game confrontation between Franklin and then-Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham ensued, escalating the point where players, coaches and security personnel had to seperate the two.
It was hardly over from there, so much so that the SEC even investigated the incident afterwards.
Regardless, that night created something unexpected – that Vanderbilt had a coach that Georgia fans suddenly had a reason to have a strong iron of dislike to direct that disdain toward…which might be why the Sanford Stadium crowd enjoyed the next season’s 48-3 Georgia win in Athens.
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