Starting the season with an emphatic win over a clearly overmatched FCS program is what good teams are supposed to do. These games do very little to tell us about a team’s ceiling. The only thing we can really get out of them is that the team appears to have taken their offseason work seriously to be crisp, outside of a few offensive penalties, in game one. Last week I went over a list of the most pressing questions for this season. None of them were answered, but we did get some early hints on most of them.
If you are familiar with the series, I normally break the topics covered down into three topics for “Lessons for Further Study,” “Lessons We Are Learning,” and “Lessons We Know Well.” I do not feel comfortable putting any of these in any category except “Further Study” because of the opponent.
Lessons for Further Study
Can Pavia stay healthy? Vanderbilt clearly wanted to limit Pavia’s exposure to big hits, but they did not totally take the ball out of his hands. He carried the ball 8 times for 44 yards and took a couple hard hits. Clark Lea said after the game that he wants Pavia to keep his edge but know when to get down or out of bounds instead of always taking the extra hits for a yard or two. He was also able to stay mostly clean in the pocket.
Will the offensive line be more consistent going forward, or are the dreaded “ebbs and flows” going to be part of games this season? Pavia was only sacked once, and there was only 1 other negative play. The running backs were able to average 7.7 yards per carry, and they were still at 6.1 YPC if you take out Jamezell Lassiter’s 35-yard late-game sprint to the end zone. The negative is 4 holding calls and a pair of false starts. The holding calls all negated big plays. One offset a DPI, but Pavia still threw a TD pass 2 plays later. Two of them were back to back to negate a 43-yard TD pass and a 20-yard completion. They also pushed the offense out of field goal range to end the first half. The last one also took a TD off the board that was earned 2 plays later. Based on Charleston Southern getting little to no pass rush and being pushed around in the run game otherwise, my hopeful guess is that the penalties were a function of taking certain plays too casually then panicking than lack of ability or intelligence.
Can a combination of potentially improved offensive line play, the addition of MK Young, growth of returning RBs, and a few other factors all lead to a more explosive running game? As noted above, the backs were able to get good yardage on almost every carry. There was only 1 rushing play that went for negative yards. Sedrick Alexander carried the ball 12 times for 83 yards with his longest running going for 18 yards with some style points via a sweet hurdle. He really is the ideal back for this offense with his pass protection, vision, patience, and even a spectacular diving catch in the end zone for a 26-yard touchdown. AJ Newberry and MK Young provide good complements. Newberry showed his hand as a pass catcher last season and was missed by Pavia on a slick move up the sideline. He had the loss of 2 but also had a 4-yard TD run in his limited usage. New addition MK Young had 3 carries for 19 yards with a long of 15 and another 4-yard score that would have had a lot more if there was room for it. Oh, and Jamezell Lassiter decided one carry was all he need to scamper 35 yards to pay dirt. The backs racked up 4 rushes of 10 or more yards on 18 touches. It was a good start that showed signs of a bit more pop, but we need to see it against better competition to start feeling too good.
The offense is also looking for someone to step up beside Junior Sherrill at WR, but have they found it in Tre Richardson? Richardson led the team with 5 receptions spread out between screens, a slant, a curl, and I missed noting how the 5th catch occurred. He was second on the team in yardage through the air at 74 before Eli Stowers. Kayleb Barnett was credited with 3 catches for 30 yards, but all 3 were jet sweep pop passes. It is a weapon, but it does not provide the downfield danger to back safeties up. Martel Hight’s first experiment at WR also had limited returns with 1 quick hitter blown up for no gain and an 8-yard curl he sprinted into a 17-yard gain. Blaze missed Hight on a deep shot later in the game, too.
Can Eli Stowers continue to be a massive problem for opposing defenses now that everyone in the country knows about him? Having 4 catches for 86 yards including a 41-yard reception is a good start. He is also dealing with a slight nagging injury, I believe, so a limited night is perfectly fine when he was not especially needed, and other players could benefit from the game reps.
Is this going to be another year of elite ball security? I both feel like a jinx asking the question and like this may be the first topic that deserves to be in a more certain category. Sedrick Alexander did put the ball on the ground thanks to a perfectly executed Peanut Punch from a LB while being tackled by another defender. He fell right on it to smother it. Pavia put one throw in danger, but the defender only got fingertips to it. Blaze Berlowitz did throw an interception that was overturned due to DPI that probably did factor into the WR getting to the ball. It was not perfect, but the first game can be a turnover fest since most teams do not go fully live hitting, along with a natural inclination to not fully tee off on your teammates even in live scrimmage periods.
Conversely, the defense looked like they were hunting the ball well, so can they turn up their end of the turnover margin? CJ Heard got his Commodore career off to a strong start with a diving interception on an overthrown pass. It killed Charleston Southern’s only threat to score except the final drive where they broke the shutout with a FG. Khordae Sydnor also fell on a fumble forced by Miles Caper sacking Charleston Southern’s QB just before he could throw. The Vanderbilt DL also got credited with 2 of the team’s 3 passes defended. Vanderbilt’s most memorable interception last season – Randon Fontenette’s pick six against Alabama – came via a tipped pass, so doing more of that could be a way to get some more turnovers.
Speaking of the pass defense, can it be more than a liability after being a glaring weakness of the 2024 squad? They held CSU’s 3 different QBs to 10/18 for 88 yards and the aforementioned INT. The DL really forced the struggles with the 3 sacks and 2 batted passes. They also hit passers during the release a couple other times. During the game, I was watching downfield, too, and could not find open targets that the Charleston Southern QBs were missing. It was a good first effort against a team that struggled to throw the ball a year ago.
Is the run defense going to be just okay again, or will they make teams one dimensional? Allowing 47 yards on 27 carries is one way to suffocate an opponent. Vanderbilt also made 3 Tackles for Loss outside of the sacks. The mobile threat of Kyron Drones will be a much different, more difficult test.
Special teams were one way Vanderbilt turned a lot of games in 2024, so can the third phase of the game be where some gaps on offense and defense are neutralized? Brock Taylor at kicker and Martel Hight at punt returner are the contributors returning as the primary options in those roles. Taylor was 1/1 with the kick coming from 35 yards, and he converted all 5 PATs. Hight only got to return 1 of CSU’s 7 punts, and he got a respectable 11 yards from a punt that he caught backpedaling. Tre Richardson may have supplanted Junior Sherrill as the main kick returner with MK Young beside him. Richardson gained 29 yards on the only kick return opportunity, and his athleticism could make him a real threat. Nick Haberer only had to punt twice and sent balls 56 and 46 yards. The shorter one was a touchback, and the longer punt probably would have followed suit if not for a fair catch at the five. The only black eye was Taylor skewing a kickoff out of bounds, which seems to happen every 3 or 4 games for some reason and has been an issue dating back to the Derek Mason years.
Scheme tweaks should be expected and are on my radar, but there was nothing in this game to suggest any noticeable shifts in philosophy or play calling.
Finally, how does a program that has not had a winning season since 2013 handle the pressure of winning expectations? Diego Pavia and others have mentioned the playoffs and championships, which are well beyond most fans’ wildest dreams of how this season goes. Still, a sellout against an FCS opponent shows that fans are expecting SOMETHING better than the Vanderbilt football status quo. The comprehensive beatdown delivered that through one game. There are at least 11 more to go. It appears the right work was done in the offseason, so now it comes down to the week-to-week grind and execution.
In the next 24 hours, some of these questions will start to have answers. I really hope we are learning from a win since I made the trip out to Blacksburg to see what I have heard is one of the coolest stadium entrances in college football with “Enter Sandman” and the way Virginia Tech’s team walks into the stadium.
