2007 Week 5

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Earl Bennett, Quavian Lewis, Cassen Jackson-Garrison, Chris Nickson and Darlron Spead were among the Vanderbilt football players who came up and gave B-Dawg a great big hug before the Commodores' hosted Eastern Michigan on Sept. 29, 2007.

The five of them, with a little help from their friends, then proceeded to plunge a knife in the back of their former coach.

Bennett caught two of Nickson's three touchdown passes, Lewis had three of the Commodores' eight sacks, Spead took an interception to the house and CJG tacked on a needless touchdown in the final seconds as Vanderbilt rolled to a 41-22 victory over the Hurons.

Bennett, B-Dawg's all-time leading receiver with 5,022 yards over three seasons in NCAA 2007, caught touchdown passes of 11 and 16 yards in the second quarter to put the Commodores up 14-0 at halftime. The 95 OVR Bennett had only one other catch for no gain, but the damage was done. The Hurons never recovered.

"No hard feelings," B-Dawg said. "It's all ballin'. I still love those guys like sons."

EMU quarterback Tyler Jones will probably need a few days off to sit at home with ice packs all over his body. He was brutalized by the Commodores to the tune of eight sacks, one less than the B-Dawg single-game record for sacks absorbed by one quarterback. Antonio Haines of Michigan was sacked nine times at Iowa on Oct. 6, 2007 in NCAA 2004.

Despite the pounding, Jones had one of his better passing games of the season, going 20-for-33 for 176 yards, one touchdown and one pick. It might not sound like much, but then again Tyler Jones hasn't show much so far.

One quarterback who was on his game was Nickson, who started the first game of B-Dawg's NCAA 2007 Vanderbilt dynasty, but was benched for ineffective play and pretty much rotted on the bench behind Mackenzi Adams the rest of his career. Nickson was 17-for-23 for 190 yards, three touchdowns and one pick. He also ran for a touchdown.

Nickson's 62-yard touchdown pass to George Smith was the longest pass against EMU this year and put Vanderbilt ahead 21-3 with 6:12 left in the third quarter. Nickson's 1-yard sneak with 3:42 to go in the third put the Commodores (2-2) in a seemingly commanding 27-3 lead.

But the Hurons (3-2) came back quickly to temporarily make a game of it. Jones was shaken up and had to go to the bench, meaning Brian Ceckiewicz had to go under center. On his only snap of the game, Ceckiewicz threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to impact receiver Travis Lewis with 3:06 to go in the third.

Then cornerback Corey Everson continued his insane start, picking off a pass and taking it 50 yards for a touchdown with 1:38 left in the third, cutting Vandy's lead to 27-16. Everson has five interceptions, returning three for touchdowns in EMU's first five games. As a team, EMU has six touchdowns on defense and eight on offense.

"This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen," B-Dawg said. "Corey Everson is only 79 OVR, but he's playing like his OVR is off-the-charts. It seems like every time one of our guys picks off a pass, he has a clear path to the end zone. I've experienced this on the other end many times before. I swear that a third of my interceptions when I was at Vanderbilt went to the house, particularly in the early years, whereas my guys would always get stopped immediately in their tracks when they had an interception. My sliders are getting closer to zero on defense. I don't know what more can be done, other than to make the leap to Heisman. The way our offense is going, that would be suicide."

Vanderbilt returned the favor with 5:38 left in the game when Spead had a 50-yard interception return of his own for a touchdown. EMU got back to within 34-22 on an 8-yard pass from Jones to tight end Ken Bohnet with 3:26 remaining, but Justin Green recovered the ensuing onside kick for Vanderbilt.

B-Dawg was miffed that the Commodores tacked on a 1-yard touchdown run by Jackson-Garrison with 12 seconds left. He didn't care to see CJG jumping up and down celebrating like a fool afterward.

"They had a chance to just take a knee at the 1-yard line," B-Dawg said. "All of the class I brought to that program has gone down the drain. Vanderbilt is behaving no better than a typical SEC team. If CJG were my player and he acted like that when he scored in a blowout, his butt would be on the bench next week. That's just me."

CJG ran 21 times for 102 yards and a touchdown. He also caught six passes for 49 yards.