Northwestern Outlasts Vanderbilt on the Shoulders of Controversy

NASHVILLE -- Vanderbilt changed coaches, but the Commodores continued to find unique ways to lose football games. After scoring a fourth quarter touchdown to slice Northwestern's lead to 23-21, Robbie Caldwell's Vanderbilt Commodores lined up for a two-point conversion that could have tied the game. Instead, quarterback Larry Smith fumbled the shotgun snap, leaving Northwestern with a two-point lead.

But the drama was far from over. On the ensuing series -- facing a third and six -- Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa (right), who was the best player on the field all night, rushed to his right. In hot pursuit came Vanderbilt linebacker Jay Fullam. Just shy of the first down marker, Fullam made contact with Persa, stoning him on the field with a strong tackle.

As the partisan Vanderbilt crowd roared with glee, believing that the Commodores would get one more possession to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, a referee's yellow flag floated down to the green grass. A high hit on the quarterback was the call, a 15-yard personal foul penalty to decide the game.

The Vanderbilt sideline was apoplectic. On the other sideline, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald skipped at least 20 yards in the direction of the purple cheering section behind his bench. Eventually, he extended his arm to signal a first down and pumped his fist in glee.

After 59 minutes of virtually even football, the controversial personal foul call ended the game.

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As the referees exited the field to a chorus of boos, Vandy fans -- Vandy fans! -- showered the officiating crew with liquids. (Hopefully not turkey insemination fluids). One large Vandy fan kept screaming over and over again, perhaps taken with the simplicity of the declarative statement: "This is football, not flag football!"

Questions about the final call dominated the post-game press conferences and, like a football version of "Rashomon," everyone saw the final play differently. Fitzgerald said, "It was a helmet-to-helmet call ... and it was the right call." Fullam, who was flagged for the penalty, disputed that. "I didn't hit him with my helmet at all," he said.

Persa said, "I thought it was appropriate. He hit me in the head."

Vanderbilt's Caldwell, already the Southeastern Conference's best quote, said, "They (the referees) said it was a high hit. The boy was a foot off the ground. What's a high hit? We were just trying to stop him from getting a first down."

The controversy was a fitting end for a wacky game between the two smartest FBS schools in America. Eventually, most of the kids on the field tonight will end up making much more money than your average college fan. But for one evening, they competed beneath the lights to begin the 2010 season for both teams.

Here are 10 observations from the only regular season game between the SEC and the Big Ten in which you can be certain that every player can read.

1. Vanderbilt's Robbie Caldwell told me that he wouldn't be hugging the toilet in the final moments before he ran onto the field as a head coach for the first time.

Instead, he had his own way of coping with nerves, "I'll probably have a Kit-Kat and a coke," he said, "I tend to eat when I get nervous." Notwithstanding this being the first head coaching game of his career, Caldwell had reason to be nervous. He was taking over a 2-10 team that went 0-8 last season in the SEC season and an Outback Bowl team from a year ago.

2. The Vanderbilt foghorn became stuck after the first Commodores touchdown.

The entire stadium reverberated for several minutes until the foghorn was unplugged.

Later, I hear that the key used to ignite the foghorn broke in the ignition. Somewhere, R. Kelly is fashioning a new song about what happens when you put the key into the ignition and it breaks.

3. After Northwestern jumped out to a 10-0 lead, Vanderbilt scored to cut the lead to 10-6.

Then Vandy misses the extra point. At this exact moment, every Vanderbilt fan knows that this missed extra point is destined to loom large in the narrative for the remainder of the game. When other teams miss extra points, it's a footnote, a quickly forgotten moment. When Vandy misses an extra point, the point becomes a football hangnail. Try and remedy it later and you rip off more skin, enlarging the wound.

Eventually you contemplate cutting off the finger to stave off gangrene.

Welcome to Vanderbilt football.

4. Robbie Caldwell took a timeout late in the first half that allowed Vandy's offense the chance to get the ball back.

The safe play in this situation would have been to let Northwestern run the clock out. It's a bold call, one of several that Caldwell will make in this game. This decision pays off perfectly. Vanderbilt's offense covers 51 yards in 44 seconds and bangs home a field goal to slice the Northwestern lead to a single point.

5. Dan Persa, starting his first game at quarterback for Northwestern, played an unbelievable game.

He went 19 of 21 on his passes for 222 yards and three touchdowns. As if that wasn't enough, he also rushed for 82 yards on 17 carries. "I think it speaks volumes for who he is as a competitor," said Fitzgerald.

6. If you could have driven every 13-year-old boy through the center of Vanderbilt's campus 30 minutes before the Vandy kickoff, his high school GPA would improve by a full point so he could compete for Vandy admissions.

The parties were crazy. Every time an SEC fan makes fun of a Vandy kid for losing a football game, the Vandy kid ought to show a YouTube video of the campus parties.

It was like a Roman orgy on 25th Avenue. Only instead of togas, the girls were wearing sundresses.

7. Trailing 17-15 and facing a 4th and 2 with 11 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Robbie Caldwell broke out the turkey baster and made some magic.

A leaping Caldwell corralled his special teams and kept them from running onto the field. The Commodores were going for it.

A fourth down hand off to Warren Norman gained 10 yards and, for a moment, it seemed like Vanderbilt might take its first lead of the game.

Instead, Larry Smith (right) was sacked on the next play after the conversion and the eventual field goal attempt went wide left from 46 yards.

8. Northwestern scored a touchdown with 4:39 left to go up 23-15.

All that is needed to put the game away, probably, is a made extra point.

Northwestern misses.

9. Vanderbilt took possession and scored a touchdown in less than two minutes.

Maybe, just maybe, a new coach can help to erase the demons that have plagued the Commodores for decades.

Only the snap is dropped and no play is actually run on the two-point conversion attempt.

Seriously, when is the last time you've seen this happen to anyone?

10. That set the stage for the final play controversy.

And the two smartest schools in major college football saw the play from a completely different perspective.

"It was great to come on the road and find a way to win, and that's what we did today," said Fitzgerald.