Vanderbilt Football

Vanderbilt's passing game was grounded the past two weeks.

It finally took off Saturday night, albeit against the woeful pass defense of the Rice Owls in a 36-17 victory to even the team's record at 2-2.

But who cares who it was against? The Commodore aerial attack was so anemic the past two contests, this kind of a shot in the arm for both quarterback Larry Smith and his beleaguered receivers is immeasurable, especially with angry Ole Miss on slate in just six days.

They say good defenses always beat good offenses, so does that mean bad defenses beat bad offenses? Well, we knew Vanderbilt's offense was capable of far greater production than it had shown in putting up a touchdown and a field goal over the last eight quarters.

Rice was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And Smith might look back on this game as the one that turned things around.

We saw Smith take a big step forward in his maturity as a signal-caller, shrugging off a poor performance against Mississippi State, going on the road and having a career day.

And he didn't hesitate getting started.

Smith went deep on his first pass of the game to speedy Udom Umoh. It was incomplete but it sent Smith a welcomed message from his coaches: we trust you to make these types of plays.

He earned that trust with a good week of practice, despite the pressures of possibly being benched and two straight double-digit losses weighing on him and his teammates. 

He kept throwing and throwing against Rice en route to career highs in completions (23), attempts (41) and yards (268).

He went back to Umoh in the third quarter and this time they connected for a 54-yard bomb, setting up Smith's rushing touchdown for a 10-point lead. Rice never got any closer.

Not only did Smith look comfortable chucking the ball that much, his receivers backed him up with some nice plays of their own.

Along with Umoh's big reception, John Cole made seven grabs to lead the Commodores, and Collin Ashley and Turner Wimberly had several key first down plays.

Ashley had one memorable catch, grabbing a pass and getting clotheslined but still holding onto the ball.

Plays like that weren't being made the last two weeks. Plays like that not only ignite a team's offense, it gives Smith the confidence that if he puts the ball on the money his boys are going to haul them in.

I know, I know, this was against Rice, but with the bleeding good and stopped, the Commodores can completely rip off the band-aid with a win Saturday over the Rebels.

And Smith's arm (along with putting some serious pressure on Jevan Snead, although that's another story) could be the difference.

I've never liked when people use the term "must-win."

Does that mean if you're playing in a game that isn't a must-win, you're not going to give maximum effort? Come on, every team is trying to win every game it can.

You think the Ole Miss Rebels circled Florida on their schedule last year and thought, 'Well, we don't need to win that one because it's such a long shot and not crucial to our year-end goals?" I doubt it.

Of course, we all know why and when the term is applied. Fans love looking at their team's schedules and circling the hardest and easiest matchups, the latter being "must-wins."

My point is that the term is ridiculous.

With regards to Vanderbilt, fresh off a 15-3 beating by Mississippi State, and every other team for that matter, every game should be viewed as a must-win. What are you preparing hard all week in practice for otherwise? To cover the spread?

So there's no one who has to ask any of the Commodores, or head coach Bobby Johnson, whether they're looking at Rice this Saturday as a game that they absolutely have to get.

Of course they do.

Lose to Rice, you're staring at a 1-3 record. Lose to Rice and you have to wonder whether 2008 was a total aberration. Lose to Rice and you're imploding.

Losing to Rice also means you need a 5-3 record, at minimum, the rest of the way to gain bowl eligibility, and during that time you've got Ole Miss, Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Florida on tap.

South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee aren't exactly slouches either. No team in the SEC East is.

In fact, no team in the SEC, period, is; Vanderbilt certainly learned that last weekend when Mississippi State came to town and pushed the Commodores around for 60 minutes.

But first things first.

Rice is a very beatable team. Its porous defense and lack of a lot of the playmakers who made last year's game in Nashville a little too close for comfort (Vanderbilt came from down seven last year to win 38-21) are encouraging factors.  

The Owls are 0-3 and have lost by at least 17 points in every game. Vanderbilt may have just lost the past two games but still has a very good defense, and it looks to be getting back the services of last year's leading rusher, tailback Jared Hawkins (pictured), who missed the first three games with a nagging foot injury.

Despite this, the Commodores are just seven-point favorites, which should tell you something about the way the oddsmakers are looking at this team, an SEC squad coming off a bowl appearance going against a winless group from Conference USA.

They're not impressed.

They shouldn't be. The Commodore offense over the past eight quarters has essentially produced seven points, a touchdown against LSU. I don't count getting a field goal when you started on Mississippi State's six-yard line.

Think they want to make up for it? You betcha.

I don't care how lousy Rice is this year; this game might as well be the Super Bowl as far as the Commodores are concerned.

They need this not just to get to .500. They need this for their confidence. They need this to remind themselves of who they are. They need this for their season.

So you don't need to ask them if it's a must. Trust me, they know.

Vanderbilt's Brad Vierling is who you want as a team captain.

The fifth-year senior and starting center doesn't make excuses. He's a crisp, asserted speaker who speaks his mind, and for that reason, his teammates listen.

His assessment of Vanderbilt's performance in its dismal 15-3 loss to Mississippi State Saturday night was typically blunt.

"We weren't seeing things well, we weren't seeing blitzes well," Vierling said. "The offensive line didn't do their part. We were terrible, to say the least, on offense."

It had to have woken the Commodores up.

They can't waltz into any game, whether it's a conference opponent or not, and put on an effort like they did Saturday and expect a victory.

Vierling's the kind of person who can vocalize that.

So it was no surprise Saturday night while meeting with members of the media that he looked, not unconvincingly upbeat or cheery, but grimly resolved.

The loss had to stay right there, on a wet Saturday night at Vanderbilt Stadium.

Over and done with, like a bad day at the office.

"You wash it off," he said. "If you stay back and pout about a game you just lost, you're going to lose the next one and the next one. So you can't do that. You've go to stay optimistic."

"We're a team that can do good things."

Vierling knows this better than anyone, having been with the program since it began its resurrection in 2005.

I know, as well as everyone in Commodore Nation knows, Vanderbilt is not a bad team.

They did their best to defeat that notion Saturday night, but these players have too much pride and ability to let the hangover of this loss carry over against the Rice Owls this weekend.

After the Commodores lost their fourth straight in 2008 following their 5-0 start, a drubbing at home at the hands of Florida, and two weeks after an even more depressing loss to lowly Duke, Vierling said then too that the team had to stay upbeat and believe in themselves, even when all signs pointed to yet another monumental collapse.

Being there and speaking with him, you could tell he truly believed it. That's what makes him such a good captain.

His team backed his confidence up.

One week later, Vanderbilt went on the road, beat Kentucky and had its first bowl eligibility in 26 years.

So there needs to be a stop to this reactionary, knee-jerk "Oh my God, the season is over" talk.

The season's got a long way to go.

There are nine games left, four of them against currently ranked teams. Plenty of opportunities for big wins by the Commodores, who have a tendency to get them when least expected.

And Vanderbilt's performance, given how pitiful it was, can only serve as motivation going forward.

"All it's going to do is fire us up to do better next week," Vierling said.

That can't be good for Rice or anyone else on the schedule of the angry Commodores.

Embarrassing. Just plain embarrassing.

Vanderbilt's performance Saturday night against Mississippi State in a 15-3 loss couldn't have been more uninspiring, more flat, more unreal.

But the reality is the Commodores got their clocks cleaned by the worst team in the conference.

Dropped passes, botched snaps, dumb penalties, (very) questionable play calling. It was as if Vanderbilt was trying to one-up last year's debacle in Starkville.

Well, almost. This time they put up a whopping 154 yards of offense, 47 more than last time.

Then again, Auburn put up nearly 600 last week on this same defense. I wasn't aware the Bulldogs suddenly morphed into the Pittsburgh Steelers in the last seven days. The Commodores said they were going run the ball down their throat, and instead it was the Bulldogs who were suffocating them.

The fact is Bobby Johnson, his staff, and his players have some soul-searching to do. The fact that this loss should be viewed as a complete and utter embarrassment should wake the Commodores up: they are better than this.

This isn't like years past. An empty performance like this won't pass intense scrutiny by everyone who cares about this program.

This isn't the same team that played LSU close last week and looked terrific on both sides of the ball in its opening shutout win.

It's certainly not the same team that started 5-0 last year, showing opportunism on offense and making big plays on defense and special teams.

In this game, Alex Washington coughed up a punt, the second straight week the fifth-year senior made a major-league mistake at the worst time. When Larry Smith had John Cole open in the end zone, Cole couldn't bring it in. He couldn't bring in a key first down throw.

Whenever a huge play was there for the taking, the Commodores would not, could not take advantage.

The defense did its best: it couldn't have given the offense a much shorter field than when they recovered an MSU fumble at the six-yard line.

Not enough. Three straight runs not only netted just three points, but it also sent a clear and welcomed message to the Bulldogs.

We don't trust our passing game to make plays. We're terrified of making a mistake. We aren't playing winning football. We're playing scared football.

And in the SEC, if you play scared, you're going to lose, even to a team that seemed as easy a win as the Bulldogs.

Vanderbilt is 1-2 and 0-2 in conference play. The Commodores can roll over and see their big hopes for this season go down the drain by October, or they can rebound, re-establish trust in their offense to make plays and get back on the winning track.

We'll see. It is, after all, one game.

No moral victory today. No positives to take out like we Vanderbilt fans tend to do after a defeat.

Just a grim realization that no team's going to fear the Commodores unless they start earning it, and soon.

If the Vanderbilt Commodores have any thoughts of payback against Mississippi State for ruining their perfect season last year, they’re doing a good job of just going about their business.

Wisely, they’re not playing this Saturday up as anything more than it is.

“Just another game on our schedule,” as senior linebacker Patrick Benoist put it.

 Just another conference game, more specifically, which the Commodores need to win to do the things they want to do this year, namely go to another bowl and improve on last year’s 7-6 record.

Part of the reason that the gaudy 5-0 mark ended up being 7-6 was that the Bulldogs ended Vanderbilt’s streak in Starkville, holding the Commodores to just 107 yards of total offense in a 17-14 win.

“We came out a little flat as a team all together,” Benoist said. “Offense, defense, and special teams, we weren’t ready to play that game last year.”

No, they weren’t.  I happened to be at Davis Wade Stadium that fine fall day last October.

The only thing worse than watching the Commodores attempt to have a semblance of an offense for 60 minutes was the drive to Starkville and back. Motoring for five hours on the Natchez Trace Parkway going down there was bad enough; doing it twice in one day was something else entirely.

I digress. Anyway, the Commodores expect to be ready this time. Benoist, the only defensive co-captain still in action after the loss of Ryan Hamilton, pinpointed mental preparedness as the key to not repeating last year’s performance.

That, and not letting Mississippi State’s dangerous running back Anthony Dixon loose. He rushed for 107 yards, the same amount of offense managed by the entire Vanderbilt team, in the victory last season to help control the clock.

“We’ve got to get everything sharp and crisp and ready to go,” Benoist said. “We’ve got to plug up those holes.”

Do that, and the Commodores should sail over the Bulldogs.

Seriously, how often is Vanderbilt a nine-point favorite against an SEC team? How often is Vanderbilt favored in a conference game, period?

Here’s the main reason why: Mississippi State’s defense is pretty awful. Auburn lit the Bulldogs up for nearly 600 yards of offense in a 49-24 rout last week. War Eagle's offense doesn't really strike fear in the hearts of the rest of the SEC, either.

In comparison, the Commodores played 9th-ranked LSU fairly tightly last weekend. Their defense in the second half was particularly impressive. They’re well beyond moral victories at this point, but that at least showed they are the better team going into this Saturday.

Reilly Lauer will be most likely starting at right tackle in place of injured James Williams, lost for the season after breaking his ankle against the Tigers. Not only does Lauer want to clean Mississippi State’s clock but he has a specific plan on how to do so.

“We’re looking to take it and pound the ball down their throats pretty much,” Lauer said.

Nice. They should.

Zac Stacy, a true freshman, is among the top running backs in the nation right now with 222 yards rushing through two games, and Kennard Reeves ran like a freight train during limited action against Western Carolina and LSU.

That kind of one-two punch, along with the dual abilities of quarterback Larry Smith leading the no-huddle offense, should make for a tiring day for the beleaguered Bulldog defense.

Coach Bobby Johnson remembers last year’s game clearly, however, so there’s no way the Commodores will walk in with heads held high simply because they’re the better team on paper.

“I thought they did a good job of controlling the ball,” Johnson said. “We had some execution problems on offense and didn’t help ourselves. When you’re not executing on offense and they’re keeping the ball away from you, every series is extremely important.”

Asked about any notions of revenge on his team’s part for last year’s debacle, however, the answer was predictable from a man who’s never been much for that emotional aspect of the game.

“No,” he said bluntly.

 He’s about fundamentals, taking care of the football, finishing your assignments. That’s what’s won Vanderbilt games and that’s what will work on Saturday. With rain in the forecast in Nashville this weekend, those sorts of things are even more important than usual.

“Do what you’re taught to do, do it well, hope the other guys mess up, knock it loose from them,” he said.

Sounds simple enough.

Like their business-minded coach, the Commodores don’t need to worry about anything other than getting a solid win to get back to .500 in conference play and some momentum heading into the brutal part of their schedule starting in October.

It’s a golden opportunity for a rebound after last week’s tough loss.

Losing a starter hurts. Losing a co-captain hurts. Losing your most experienced player hurts.

The Commodores got a three-for-one raw deal in that regard when safety Ryan Hamilton, a redshirt senior, was lost for the season with a torn pectoral muscle during Saturday's 23-9 loss in LSU.

A co-captain and the most veteran player on the team with 34 straight starts, Hamilton's production and field savvy aren't easily replaceable.

However, the Commodores have a little something called depth that they didn't have at their disposal a few years ago, and right there to take his place is another fifth-year senior in Joel Caldwell. He's got 11 career starts at cornerback and seen a lot of time behind Hamilton at free safety.

"He's smart, he knows the defense," said Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson. "I think he'll step in and do a pretty good job."

He stepped in and almost turned the game around Saturday for the Commodores.

Caldwell had a nifty interception in the fourth quarter that was called back by a defensive holding call. I loved his answer when someone asked him whether he was due for another pick against Mississippi State.

"I'm trying to get at least two to make up for that one they called back against LSU," Caldwell said. "Hopefully I can go out there and get at least one and help the team make some plays."

Caldwell didn't mope after his redshirt freshman season in 2006, the last year that he was a starter. He continued to produce on special teams coverage units and always played solidly when called upon to spell Hamilton.

No, he doesn't have Hamilton's statistics or wealth of starting experience. But you have to like the mindset he has on the gridiron.

"You've got to step on the field and always (think), 'I'm the best player, I'm going to make plays' and be like that," Caldwell said. "That's pretty much the mindframe I try to take out in every game, whether I'm playing special teams or defense."

The best kind of back-up to have is one who thinks like a starter. Now that Caldwell actually is starting, we'll see that confidence and ability on a game-to-game basis.

The Vanderbilt Commodores found a way to lose another big game on the road, falling 23-9 to the LSU Tigers.

QB Larry Smith was a terrible 11 of 24, passing for only 88 yards and one INT. Smith carried the ball 13 times for negative-six yards, but one touchdown.

Zac Stacy had another great game with 20 carries for 89 yards. The freshman is showing that he is going to be a force to be reckoned with.  Stacy also had two catches for 14 yards.

Vanderbilt was in the contest for most of the game, but couldn't get the job done.

They lost more than the game on Saturday, with this report coming out on Monday:

Vanderbilt has lost two starters to injuries for the rest of the season, with the worst being senior free safety Ryan Hamilton, who tore a pectoral muscle.

Coach Bobby Johnson confirmed the injuries. Hamilton is a co-captain who started his 34th straight game in last weekend's 23-9 loss at No. 9 LSU. Johnson said Hamilton played about a quarter and a half against LSU after tearing the muscle away from the bone.

Hamilton will have surgery Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Commodores (1-1, 0-1 SEC) also lost starting right tackle James Williams to a dislocated left ankle. He will have surgery later this week. Vanderbilt hosts Mississippi State (1-1, 0-1) on Saturday night.

Vanderbilt's receivers have to step up and catch the ball:

"We've got to catch the ball better," Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson said. "We dropped several first downs, the ball went through our hands for an interception...We had a good chance to either score a touchdown or a field goal and make it a little tighter."

I said a couple of days ago Vanderbilt would have to play smart to beat LSU Saturday. The Commodores played hard, they didn’t give up, but they sure didn’t play smart.

Wet, tired and hurt, Vanderbilt played LSU tough Saturday night, but in the end committed too many mental errors to overcome the Tigers’ superior athleticism in a frustrating 23-9 loss.

“I’m proud of the way our team hung in there until the end and battled,” said Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson.

Battled they did, but the usually heady Commodores were far too mentally sloppy to overcome LSU on Saturday. This one's not on the coaching staff; Vandy looked prepared and looked like they  belonged on the field. Just one too many self-inflicted gunshots to the foot.

The usually disciplined team committed mistakes that extended both LSU touchdown drives, not the sort of thing a team can easily overcome on the road. In the second quarter, redshirt junior defensive tackle Adam Smotherman was a called for a facemask penalty near midfield to move the Tigers deep into Vanderbilt territory.

Then, with Tiger receiver Terrance Toliver stopped a yard short of a first down at the 13-yard line, redshirt senior safety Ryan Hamilton came charging in to a pile of players making the tackle and grabbed Toliver’s facemask for an automatic first down.

Williams scored the next play, the first points of the season allowed by the Vanderbilt defense.

“That is just people going hard trying to make plays,” Johnson said regarding the penalties.

Maybe so, but Hamilton's got to know better than that. It's good to see him wanting to help make a play, but there was absolutely no reason for him to grab a facemask.

While both those calls were clear, the backbreaker was a (questionable) defensive holding call on Chris Marve that wiped out an interception by Joel Caldwell in the fourth quarter. With the score 16-9 Tigers and the issue still in doubt, LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson overthrew his receiver and Joel Caldwell picked it at the goal line, but Vanderbilt hearts sank when the call went against Marve. Given new life, Williams scored four plays later for the final margin.

Another costly error was a false start in the first quarter; the Commodores were on LSU’s 33-yard line about to go for it on 4th-and-three. That forced a punt and put an end to a promising drive.

All told, Vanderbilt committed an uncharacteristic seven penalties for 52 yards. The Commodores also fumbled the ball three times but recovered each one.

Nothing burned worse than a first-down-turned-turnover in the fourth quarter.

After scoring a safety to pull within a touchdown, the Commodores had a promising drive in LSU territory. On third-and-seven, Smith hit a wide-open Alex Washington over the middle, but Washington bobbled the ball in the air at the 16, where it was caught by LSU’s Brandon Taylor for an interception. That was as close as the Commodores would get to scoring again.

Washington's a fifth-year senior and has got to make that catch. We can sit here and second-guess all day. If he makes that catch, it's a first down and some more with the end zone in their grasp.

"We were going to make the first down," Johnson said. "When you make it tighter in the fourth quarter, you have a chance."

Only if the Commodores played more heads-up, though. If Washington makes that grab, if Marve isn't flagged for holding, if, if, if. That word's the most infuriating in all of sports. All the Commodores can do is learn from these mistakes.

Like I've said, this isn't a team with the offensive firepower that can afford to mess up what's totally in their control.

Upset! Upset!  Vandy shocks the Tigers!  

That will be the headline in the Nashville paper on Sunday morning following the Commodores victory over LSU.

There are five reasons why the Commodores will win Saturday night:

1. The Vandy defense will shut down the run game of the Tigers. Scott and Williams struggled against Washington last week. Look for a repeat performance this week.

2. Vandy QB Larry Smith will throw for 250 yards against a weak secondary for the Tigers. Jake Locker threw for over 320 yards against the Tigers D.

3. Freshman running backs that do not know any better. Look for the Commodores two explosive running backs to have a great night. The numbers might not be like they were against Western Carolina but Stacy and Norman will each get 20 carries and 75 yards a piece.

4. Vandy offensive line will prevent the Tigers from pressuring Smith in his first test away from home. With Smith's ability to run the defense will have to be watching out for him breaking one, that will give him plenty of time to find his big TE down the middle.

5. Luck.   Look I am not a drunken fool. I know for Vandy to win in Baton Rouge they are going to need a lot of help. It is time for the Commodores to win one of these games they are not supposed to win.

No matter the outcome people will respect the Commodore football program a lot more after this game. Coach Bobby Johnson has done a great job and Vandy fans should be proud.

Final Prediction   

Take Vandy and the 14 and ride it all the way to the cash out window.

Vanderbilt got off to a 5-0 start last year, and it wasn’t peculiar just because the team hadn’t accomplished that since World War II.

In three of the games, the Commodores were outgained by their opponent, and not just by a little. South Carolina (325-225), Rice (407-344) and Ole Miss (385-202) all handily outproduced Vanderbilt yardage-wise; yet it was them scratching their heads in defeat while the Commodores were laughing all the way to their first national ranking in 24 years.

How did they pull off such a feat? Very simply. They were smarter. “The Geeks Shall Inherit The Turf” was one of the more memorable signs made by a Vandy fan when College GameDay broadcast on campus for the first time for the Auburn game last October. Indeed, it was brains triumphing over brawn.

The Commodores did all the little things right. They took care of the football, didn’t commit turnovers and capitalized on every scoring opportunity they had. Through their 5-0 start, they committed just 16 penalties compared to 36 by their opponents, and turned the ball over just six times while earning 15 takeaways. 

Oh, and in the red zone, they converted 18-19 times (the one time they didn’t, it was when they were killing the clock against Rice).

After that great start though, Vanderbilt got away from such heady play. In losing six of their last seven games, the 'Dores made the mistakes they couldn’t afford to make.

While the offense was never spectacular last season, it was efficient enough in the early going to take advantage of the other team’s mistakes. When Vanderbilt started missing field goals, committing stupid penalties and not taking good care of the football, it exposed an offense that didn’t have the firepower to overcome such errors.

Vandy returned to its old ways for the Music City Bowl against 24th-ranked Boston College, though, and it worked.

The bowl win was a microcosm for the entire crazy 2008 season. Outgained by over 100 yards yet again, Vanderbilt looked like it should have lost on paper but didn’t. The Black and Gold committed no penalties or turnovers, while Boston College had several of both.

The Commodores squeezed three field goals out of their 199 yards of offense and got a lucky break on special teams, bouncing a punt off an Eagle player and recovering it in the end zone for their only touchdown.

It was just enough in a 16-14 win.

Lucky, some might say. But Vanderbilt made its own luck by playing intelligently. Impeccable special teams and solid defense masked a not-so-great offense.

Against LSU on Saturday, it’s no different. The Tigers have better personnel and speed, plus the intangibles of the home field advantage. Vandy will have to win the way it did last year; leave the other team scratching its head wondering what in the world happened.

No-duh comment of the day:  the new no-huddle offense isn’t going to rack up 600+ yards against the Bayou Bengals like it did against the hapless Western Carolina Catamounts. But the offense does have the ability to make plays when they present themselves.

Use those brains, Commodores. Play smart, play within yourselves and leave another opponent thunderstruck.