Commodore Banter (9/3)

Just thinking about tomorrow night gives me the chills. Here are a few links to help pass the time until then...

Chris Nickson has seen the Commodores silence Rocky Top in 2005, win between the hedges in 2006 and pull off the upset in Columbia in 2007. But after four years, Nickson is still waiting to watch West End go wild after a home victory, which is why the senior quarterback could not hold back his excitement when discussing Thursday night's home opener against South Carolina.

"Every player on our team came to Vanderbilt to have experiences like this," Nickson said. "We have an opportunity to fill out our stadium, something we've been looking forward to for a long time. This is what you play for. This is the life of SEC football."

Click here to read the rest of my feature story for VUCommodores.com. (I also posted it on this site yesterday).

The Nashville City Paper's Brett Hait has a bunch of nuggets in today's football notebook:

*RB Jeff Jennings will likely be out with a shoulder injury, leaving Jared Hawkins and Gaston Miller to share most of the carries. Redshirt freshman Ryan van Rensburg could also see time with Kennard Reeves out with an injury.

*Myron Lewis is underrated.

*The play of Vanderbilt's defensive line is going to be critical.

Don't underestimate just how much Vanderbilt's victory in Columbia bothered the Gamecocks.

"It was a tough game to lose, a tough game to swallow," said wide receiver Moe Brown. "But I think it'll make us better because of it."

At the time, South Carolina was 6-1 and ranked No. 6 in the country. They went on to lose five straight.

“It still bothers me. It messed up our perfect season,” cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said. “We were No. 6 in the nation and went out there like they were going to lay down for us or something. They were a good team, but we felt we were better than them.”

“This year we’re not going to go out there and think they’re going to lay down,” Munnerlyn said. “It’s not like we’ve got to pay them back. But it still kind of bothers me a little bit. We’ve got to go out there and play hard.”

For those of you driving to the game tomorrow night, make sure to check out the new traffic plans to help cut down on gridlock.