Saturday night in Oxford left Vanderbilt with very little to feel good about, but the Commodores did get a few individual performances worth noting in a 52-17 rout by No. 9 Ole Miss.
The bigger picture was ugly from the start. Vanderbilt was overwhelmed in a way it has not been in three years, and after the first 10 minutes the game was effectively out of reach.
Ole Miss jumped ahead 14-3 early, then blew the door open with a 42-3 halftime lead. By the end, the Rebels had turned it into a blowout that exposed plenty of issues on both sides of the ball.
Still, not every Vandy player left the night empty-handed.
Ja’Cory Thomas continues to make himself a real presence in the passing game. The wide receiver posted three catches for 60 yards and a touchdown, which marked a season high in receiving yards.
He followed up last week’s 43-yard outing at Auburn with another step forward, and the trend is hard to miss. Vanderbilt has spent all season searching for its No. 2 receiver, and Thomas is starting to look more and more like that answer.
Special teams also had a much better showing than it did the week before. Punter Tyler Ebel, who had some rough moments to open conference play, bounced back in a big way.
Against Ole Miss, he punted three times for 171 total yards, an average of 57 yards per kick. His longest boot traveled 64 yards.
On a night when Vanderbilt needed any kind of field-position help it could get, Ebel delivered it. At times, he was the Commodores’ best defense, pinning Ole Miss back and giving the unit at least something to build on.
Safety CJ Heard also stood out on a rough defensive night. He finished with only two tackles, but his impact was bigger than that number suggests.
Heard recorded a tackle for loss, intercepted a pass and broke up two others. It was the kind of individual performance that hinted at what he can mean to this defense over the second half of the season, even if it did little to change Saturday’s outcome.
The rest of the defensive story was much harder to stomach, and it starts with coordinator Steve Gregoy. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss had far too much freedom, and Vanderbilt’s defense spent the night out of position.
The opening drive offered a small glimmer of competence, but that was about the extent of it. Chambliss found the end zone on four straight touchdown drives, and even after halftime, Ole Miss still found room to punch in a 25-yard touchdown.
The numbers only reinforced how badly the Commodores were beaten. Vanderbilt entered the game ranked 57th in college football in defense and 77th against the pass, and those marks will not look any better after this one. Whether the problem is the scheme, the playcalling or the execution within it, something is clearly not working.
Penalties made the damage worse. A personal foul on defensive lineman Jaylon Stone after a third-down stop wiped out a chance to force a field goal attempt, and Ole Miss cashed in with a touchdown a few plays later. Instead of hanging around at 17-3, Vanderbilt suddenly found itself in a 21-3 hole, and the game felt as good as finished.
Another costly moment came on the Rebels’ opening touchdown drive, when cornerback Martel Hight was flagged for pass interference in the end zone. There was a strong argument that the call was questionable, but it still went against Vanderbilt at a time when the defense needed one more stop.
By the end of the night, Ole Miss had rolled up 409 total yards, scored on every trip to the red zone and converted 5 of 11 third downs. That is a brutal combination for any defense to absorb.
Vanderbilt’s offense had its own missing piece in the backfield. Running back Sedrick Alexander was basically shut out, finishing with six carries for 13 yards and one catch for seven.
Even with the Commodores trailing throughout, seven total touches for the top running back on the roster stood out. His 2.2 yards per carry did nothing to change the game, and his usage remains surprising.
Alexander has topped nine carries only twice this season - 10 against Austin Peay and 11 against Auburn - and that limited role has left his stock down.
For Vanderbilt, the night came with a few individual bright spots, but the overall message was loud and clear: there is a lot to clean up.
In Other News...
Vanderbilt Suddenly Has A Quarterback Depth Problem Behind Jared Curtis
Vanderbilts quarterback room took a hit in the loss at Ole Miss, where Blaze Berlowitz left after suffering an injury in game action. Berlowitz had gotten on the field and even helped lead a touchdown drive before the setback, giving the Commodores a brief glimpse of the kind of depth they hoped to have behind starter Jared Curtis.
Now the focus shifts to keeping the position stable moving forward, because the margin behind Curtis is suddenly thinner. With Berlowitz sidelined, Vanderbilt will need either Whit Muschamp or Jack Elliott to step into the backup role, and that puts added importance on how quickly the next option can be trusted if called upon. [Read more 🡒]