Sorry, Emeril. I just don't see how one can discount what Franklin has done at Vandy. I repeat at VANDY. Blaming Dooley has nothing to do with the reality of what he has done there. Yep, Dooley gave him an opening, but he not only opened that door, he kicked it in.
Anyway you try to justify it, that's looking through orange colored glasses.
I can't stand him personally, but he has won games where no coach has been able to win games before, down SEC East or no. Credit where credit is due.
The way I look at it is that back in the day, Woody Widenhofer won some games at Vandy, but just could not get them over the hump. Of course, this was when Tennessee and Florida were two of the dominant teams in the country, let alone the SEC, and Georgia was pretty good when not playing those two. So Woody could occasionally beat USC and Kentucky, but that was about it. And this was the era of 11 games, so winning 3 OOC games and at most 2 SEC games wasn't going to get a bowl bid. I think he might have snuck into one bowl at 6-5, I'm not sure.
Anyway, Franklin might just be like Woody with the East down a bit. Let me put it this way....while I acknowledge Franklin is good, it takes some unusual circumstances on top of that for Vandy to beat Uga, UT and UF all in the same year. Like all three of those programs having off years together, which almost never happens.
But whatever...he's a good coach. I still think Cut is just as good or better though.