Vanderbilt is already working on bulletin board material for next year's game against Tennessee. After a controversial 27-21 overtime win by Tennessee, the Volunteers had an epic celebration in their locker room that someone filmed and later posted on YouTube for all to see — including Vandy coach James Franklin and his Commodores, who were still stewing over some botched calls by officials.
The postgame celebration included Tennessee players jumping up and down, coach Derek Dooley being hoisted into the air and punching the Tennessee "T" on the ceiling, a thank you to the seniors, and a now infamous quote by Dooley:
"The last thing that I'm going to remind you before we sing, is that the one thing Tennessee always does is kick the (expletive) out of Vandy."
The team goes on to sing, "Don't give a damn for the whole school of Vanderbilt, the whole school of Vanderbilt, the whole school of Vanderbilt. Don't give a damn about the whole school of Vanderbilt, we're from Tennessee."
Catchy, right?
During his Monday press conference, Franklin said Tennessee's postgame celebration left a "wound open" and that the celebration video would be played as much as necessary leading up to next year's contest.
"We'll talk about it next year — a lot," Franklin said. "We'll talk about it as much as you guys want to talk about it next year. We'll watch it as many times as we've got to watch it next year. That's a wound that I'm going to leave open that's not going to heal. We'll leave it open for a year and we'll discuss it next year.
"I look at it as respect. Some people act like they won the Super Bowl and they beat a team that the two previous years had won four games total. Obviously, we are closing the gap and threatening some people and making some people uncomfortable. We'll see. We'll leave it at that. We'll move on. But we'll have a lot of discussion about this next year when the time is right."
Looks like this is slowly turning into a real rivalry. However, if you're a Tennessee fan, a celebration like this has to sting a little bit, too: A championship-caliber reaction to an overtime win a perennial punching bag — its first SEC win of the season in seven tries — is another indication of many this season of just how far the Vols have fallen. A win Saturday at bottom-dwelling Kentucky will give Tennessee 27 straight over the Wildcats and secure a bowl game despite a 2-6 conference record, which just might be good enough to break out the champagne.
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Curtsy (female version of the hat tip) to Outkick the Coverage and Larry Brown Sports
Graham Watson is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow her @Yahoo_Graham