Vanderbilt’s season is only one game old, but Mark Byington is already looking at the bigger picture.
That’s the reality for a No. 24 team that opened with a blowout and now turns right around for a tougher one. The Commodores host Wake Forest on Thursday night in what should be a far more revealing early test than Monday’s 93-47 rout of Bellarmine.
“I’m sitting here after game one, kind of thinking about how many games we’ve got left,” Byington said. “It’s a long season.
It is a tremendously long season. So on the journey, the goal is to keep getting better along the way and see where you are at the end of it.”
Vanderbilt looked the part in its opener, with four starters reaching double figures and Tyler Tanner leading the way with 20 points. The Commodores also controlled the glass and the tempo, finishing with a 38-20 rebounding edge while forcing 23 turnovers.
“With us and with our team, the whole focus was we’ve just got to learn our team and get better,” Byington said. “I played a lot of guys.”
Tanner’s scoring stood out, but Byington was just as focused on the way he set the tone.
“He plays so hard,” Byington said. “I thought he did a really good job of being really aggressive on defense and pushing the pace on offense.”
Sebastian Williams-Adams said Vanderbilt believes it has the pieces to defend at that level again. The question is whether the Commodores can bring that edge every night.
“We definitely feel like we have the talent to do it,” Williams-Adams said. “It’s more so finding the want to every single day, every single game. We just have focused on that.”
Wake Forest arrives after handling its own opener, an 83-62 win over Maryland Eastern Shore. Gavin Placide scored 20 points, while Kevair Kennedy delivered 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in his first game since transferring from Merrimack.
“I think that he embodies a lot of things that I believe in ... grittiness and toughness and relentlessness,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “I think he’s about the right stuff. I think at that position, he’s got a joy to play.”
Jamari McDowell, a Kansas transfer, said the Demon Deacons know what comes with a game like this and the preparation that has to go into it.
“It slowly adds up, and before you know it, it snowballs, and you have a whole bunch of either problems or you got a whole bunch of things that your team can rely on,” McDowell said. “So that’s kind of what we are striving for here to do at Wake.”
The matchup is a rematch of last December’s game, when Vanderbilt jumped out early on the road and rolled to a 98-67 win over Wake Forest. Tanner had 11 points, seven assists and five steals in that one.
Thursday’s game is also one of just two true road nonconference games for Wake Forest. The other comes Dec. 1 at LSU.
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, will play its first six games at home, giving the Commodores an early stretch to settle in before the schedule starts to tighten.
In Other News...
Vanderbilt Heads To Starkville With A Drought Finally Worth Watching
Saturdays trip to Davis Wade Stadium gives Vanderbilt a familiar SEC opponent and a setting the program has not navigated often in recent decades. The Commodores and Mississippi State are meeting for the 25th time since 1904, and this one comes with a little extra intrigue because it will be Vanderbilts first visit to Starkville under head coach Clark Lea. The matchup also arrives with a few of Vanderbilts top performers carrying real momentum, including wide receiver Junior Sherrill, who ranks among the nations receiving leaders and has already piled up several school records.
On the other side of the ball, linebacker CJ Heard has been a steady presence for a defense that will need to travel well in a tough road environment. He leads Vanderbilt in tackles and forced fumbles, which makes him one of the key figures to watch as the Commodores try to handle the kind of game that has often turned on field position and discipline. For Vanderbilt, this is more than just another SEC road date. It is a chance to see how far the program has come in a place where the history has not always been kind. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Needs More From Its Offense Before Jared Curtis Pays For It
Clark Lea spent the bye week talking less about a freshman quarterbacks growing pains and more about the offense around him, because Jared Curtis has been asked to carry too much too soon. Vanderbilt has seen enough progress from the young passer to believe the arrow is pointing up, but the bigger issue has been the ground game, which has left the offense too often stuck in obvious passing situations and made every mistake feel bigger than it should.
The timing matters with Mississippi State next on the schedule, because the Commodores used the break to try to get the run game moving again and ease some of that pressure off Curtis. Leas message was clear: the quarterback development is only part of the equation, and until the offense gives him more help, Vanderbilt will keep asking a freshman to absorb the consequences of a unit still searching for consistency. [Read more 🡒]
Clark Lea Sees A Bigger Vanderbilt Defensive Problem After Kentucky
After Vanderbilts loss to Kentucky, Clark Lea came away focused less on a single busted series and more on a larger issue with how his defense handled the game. The Commodores were getting outpaced on run-defense calls, and that showed up in the way Kentucky kept finding steady success on early downs, forcing Vanderbilt into compromised situations before the possession could really settle in.
Lea said the defense has enough potential to be better, but it has to do a better job of tying the whole operation together. He pointed to the need for adjustments in both the play-calling and the execution, stressing that winning the early part of downs is essential if Vanderbilt wants to avoid spending the rest of the series on its heels. [Read more 🡒]