Thoughts on Vandy's loss to Kentucky

[BrentVU]

The evening got off to a beautiful start, with Senior Recognition of 30 seniors, and a dramatic salute to the military featuring Tommy Smith (who would later actually play in last night's game). The new all-black uniforms looked great, especially those easily readable gold numbers. Vandy allowed the opponent to score first (naturally) but answered with a field goal. End first quarter, Vandy trails 7-3. Seals is connecting on some passes in traffic to the little-used (this season) Amir Abdur-Rahman.

But the second quarter was one of those quarters where things unraveled in a hurry, as mistakes piled up (see Stanford, Florida, Missouri, etc.). Will Levis completes a bomb to set up a score, and then Seals gift-wraps a pick-6 to expand UK's lead to 21-3. Suddenly everyone in the stadium knows how the game will end. Will Levis is burning Vandy with deep throws. Chris Rodriguez is pounding Vandy's defense for about 7 yards per carry behind a smashmouth offensive line. Harrison Smith shanks a punt. On offense, Vandy's line, when it's not getting false starts, can't protect Ken Seals, who eventually goes down with what looks like a lower-body injury (he's just come back after three games missed with a hand injury). Finally, on their fifth drive, we hold them to a field goal instead of a TD. Halftime, 31-3. Only No. 1 Georgia has put up more first-half points on Vandy this season than UK; could have been more if Vandy hadn't successfully defended a Hail Mary to end the half.

But then Vandy, which had played decent football in the first quarter, proceeded to win the third and the fourth quarters. Vandy had only three possessions (count 'em) in the second half, but Mike Wright proceeded to lead the team on touchdown drives on two of them. Those drives consumed precious time, which rested Vandy's defense, which allowed Vandy to finally force punts and one field goal from UK (amazing how that works). Wright was 7-of-11 passing and didn't take any sacks or throw any interceptions; several times he turned busted plays into positive yardage. Vandy played without Rocko Griffin again; the Dores simply don't have the horses to match the running game of a team with a Chris Rodriguez or Tyler Badie. But they did show a few wrinkles. One play was a Cam Johnson pass off a reverse that resulted in a big completion to Chris Pierce. Wright achieved a 2-point conversion with another pass to Johnson; but missed on a second one.

After the game, we find out 12 guys on the team including Will Sheppard were sidelined this week by a flu outbreak. What else can happen?

Vandy seems inexorably headed to 2-10, with two road games ahead against teams with quick-strike offenses. (Ole Miss is now No. 10 in both polls after outlasting the Ags last night.) Which QB should start against Lane Kiffin's Land Sharks? For my money it needs to be Wright. Right now the offense as a group seems to be responding better to Wright. By no means is he playing mistake-free football, but the threat of him tucking the ball and running is one of the few things Vandy has going that would give D-coordinators a worry. Meanwhile, it looks doubtful that Vandy will have captain Daevion Davis available to help pressure Matt Corral.

In other games of note yesterday: Georgia adjusted after a shaky first quarter and found a way to stop UT's offense (and Vandy should study that tape); Alabama covered a 52-point spread; and Kansas finally won a big game against Texas against long odds, so there's hope for hapless underdogs everywhere. And yo, James Franklin: If you're trying to market yourself to other big-time programs, losing games like yesterday's is not a good way to go about it.

[alathIN]

My "where we stand" take:

The defense has improved a lot - players are more often in position and more often making plays when they are in position. But the opposing team usually has a couple of high level athletes who can just flat out beat our guys and we lack the closing speed to make up for a mistake. When the opponent has an efficient offense, they will get a lot of chances for their athletes to expose our shortcomings.

With Wright at QB, the offense is a lot more explosive. But still inefficient / inconsistent with way too many 3-and-outs. If we had a really outstanding defense, this offense could probably beat some decent teams 17-10 or 21-14. But our defense can't hold SEC offenses under 20 points, especially when the offense sends them out on the field so much.

Spotty offense with the occasional big play can win games if your defense is stellar.
Our defense could be adequate with a really efficient offense.
Unfortunately neither of those preconditions is happening.

Our best chance to win another game this season would be against an inefficient / inconsistent offense. Which describes exactly zero of our remaining opponents.

[Seadog73]

Glad to see these rational, objective comments.

Glad that Amir got in and contributed. Glad LCDR Smith got in (they did not mention that during the broadcast, at least that I saw, although they talked about him a great deal).

While I appreciate all that Ken Seals does and has done, Mike Wright needs to start.

Hope Daevion Davis is back soon, at last for EweTay.

Loved the uni's and hope to see more of them in the future,

[Johnmn555]

With respect to Seals, he is not what he was last year, and I'm not sure to what extent that's on him or coaches not adapting him to a new system or both.

With respect to Wright: (1) at least he creates some guess work for the defense, unlike Seals; and (2) once a defense has had a few possessions to adapt to him, they tend to shut him down.

I don't think either is an SEC starting caliber QB, and I'd rather not spend more time with them next year. A one year stop gap like Riley Neal is not the answer, but there will be many quality transfers with two years of eligibility. Time to do something bold with the most important position on the field.

[buffy]

After watching some of the game, I agree that Wright is our best shot right now. I'm not seeing bad football from us. I'm seeing limited players working hard. I like these guys. Wish they had better results.

[dore74]

After watching some of the game, I agree that Wright is our best shot right now. I'm not seeing bad football from us. I'm seeing limited players working hard. I like these guys. Wish they had better results.

Buffy hits the nail on the head (once again). Nevertheless, I wonder if having each QB play some might confuse the defenses somewhat and give us a better shot. I suspect it could also cause us some confusion, but frankly in these last two games we have little to lose in trying something different.

[VU1970]

I’d like too see us change QBs after quarters, not halves.

[admin]

You have to have a solid QB to win in the SEC. If you don't have one you won't win many games, unless you have spectacular players everywhere else. Picking up a top notch grad transfer or any transfer QB should be a top priority for Vandy. If we don't we are slacking big time on setting the team up for success.

I wish we could have kept our previous OC. Seals wasn't perfect last year but he seemed to do a lot better with that offense.

[Seadog73]

Not to sound schizoid (my King Crimson reference for the night) I agree with Buffy and Don. I wish CCL had kept Fitch and OL coach Rosso. But i don't dislike or disrespect him for making the changes.

[charlestonalum]

Not to sound schizoid (my King Crimson reference for the night) I agree with Buffy and Don. I wish CCL had kept Fitch and OL coach Rosso. But i don't dislike or disrespect him for making the changes.

Maybe a mature, experienced head coach might have kept some holdovers, but a brand new, inexperienced coach is unlikely to do that simply because there must be a heady, novice feeling of "now I get to build my team..."

[buffy]

Not to sound schizoid (my King Crimson reference for the night) I agree with Buffy and Don. I wish CCL had kept Fitch and OL coach Rosso. But i don't dislike or disrespect him for making the changes.

Maybe a mature, experienced head coach might have kept some holdovers, but a brand new, inexperienced coach is unlikely to do that simply because there must be a heady, novice feeling of "now I get to build my team..."

Yep. I'm wondering if Jovan and Clark ever sat down to talk about what Vanderbilt did right under CDM that last year. I'm guessing not. It must have been an overwhelming time for Clark figuring out his first staff. His hyper focus on culture may have precluded a fair review of the existing staff. And ultimately, he's probably right about the culture. The offensive learning curve would have been less steep though. Perhaps he had concerns about how Fitch and Rosso fit with the rest of the group. Again, probably won't ever know.

[FayetteDore]

Both ended up being hired fairly quickly -- Fitch as an offensive analyst at no less than Ohio State (now 9-1) and Rossomando at UNC Charlotte (currently 5-5) as offensive line coach. It will be interesting to see if Fitch's status at Ohio State changes after the season ends. OSU still has Mich. State and Michigan looming in their last 2 games.