B-Dawg was shown much love after winning a natty in his final game at Vanderbilt in NCAA 2007.
HE’S BAAAAAACK!
B-Dawg returns to Vanderbilt,
bringing some NCAA ’07 flavor
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — What were you doing from July 2006 through July 2007?
If you’re B-Dawg, you were sitting in your easy chair late at night while enduring the final years of a miserable marriage playing NCAA 2007 night after night. After all, it wasn’t really worth his while to go to bed early, if y’know what we’re sayin’.
If you’re an O.G. who was frequenting the long-defunct MaddenMania forums (pouring a sip), you might have stumbled across B-Dawg’s handiwork, a Vanderbilt NCAA 2007 dynasty on the PS2 that lasted for 17 seasons.
B-Dawg has won 1,091 games (losing 301) in official NCAA dynasties going back to NCAA 2004. In no single dynasty did B-Dawg win more games, going 164-63 from 2006-2022 at Vanderbilt. All of that winning produced only two national championships, both toward the end of this coaching run in 2020 and 2022. (It’s nuts to think that we’re actually in 2022 now, but it was 17 years in the future when that dynasty was being played!)
After calling it quits following a 13-year run at Air Force, B-Dawg was looking for a fresh rebuild. His first inclination was to go to a school at which he’s never coached before, but nothing sparked his interest. Illinois and Northwestern in the Big Ten were close to landing his services, as was Mississippi State in the Southeastern Conference.
He couldn’t help but keep glancing over at Vanderbilt as he scrolled through the list of potential schools, realizing the Commodores are the ultimate rebuild program. Vanderbilt has the OVR of a mid-major team, but plays in the powerful SEC. Perhaps no team has a larger talent gap when compared to its conference foes.
So, Vanderbilt it is.
“This is going to bring back a lot of nostalgia,” B-Dawg said. “Nothing tells me I’m back home quite like seeing the black-and-white striped tent behind one of the end zones. That was there when Earl Bennett and the boys were ballin’ out for me, and it’s still there.”
At Air Force, B-Dawg went 144-32. Over his final four seasons, the Falcons were 53-3.
“It’s great to dominate, but it gets boring,” B-Dawg said. “I missed that feeling you get when you fire up a game and have genuine fear that you might lose. We’ll do plenty of losing to begin with, that’s for sure. Vandy is the ultimate underdog.”
In his first go-around at Vanderbilt, the Commodores didn’t go to a bowl game and went 12-24 in his first three seasons, despite the record-setting receiving performance by Bennett.
B-Dawg will begin this dynasty in the 2021 season with rosters downloaded from Operation Sports in late November.
“I think it will be fun to see which current players end up being stars in this dynasty for other teams,” B-Dawg said.
Oh, and there will be a new twist to dynasty.
Because B-Dawg had a long run at Vanderbilt in the past, he will be running the current dynasty concurrently with his old one. So, game reports from the 2006 season in NCAA 2007 will run following the subsequent game reports in this current dynasty.
“Occasionally, someone will ask if I can repost an old dynasty,” B-Dawg said. “This is a way to do it while running a fresh ’nasty. It will be a fun trip down memory lane for me.”
B-Dawg will be using the Heisman sliders he used in his final years at Air Force, with a change that should benefit the defenses. The defensive sliders for the user and CPU will be bumped from 50 to 80 in the hope that there will be closer, lower-scoring games. The interception sliders will remain at 20 for the user, 15 for the CPU or you’d have a constant pick-fest.
Vanderbilt is a three-star program rated 77 OVR with a 74 offense and an 83 defense.
* B-DAWG'S AIR FORCE DYNASTY
* B-DAWG'S WESTERN MICHIGAN DYNASTY
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