NASHVILLE - Vanderbilt used its bye week to reset, and the reset showed up in the run game.
After eight straight Saturdays with a game, the break gave the Commodores a chance to catch their breath and take a hard look at what has gone wrong this season and what still can be salvaged over the final stretch. Offensively, the biggest issue has been clear: Vanderbilt has struggled to run the ball with any real consistency.
Entering Saturday’s game against Mississippi State, the Commodores were averaging just 106 rushing yards per game, a number that ranked 128th in college football at the time. Against the Bulldogs, though, Vanderbilt put together its best rushing performance in a long time, finishing with 160 yards in its first conference win of the season. For one afternoon, it looked a lot more like the identity the program wants to build around.
The question now is whether that can hold up.
“Well you got to commit to it," Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea said. "I credit Tim Beck because as a play caller, and especially the way he sees the game, he wants our yards per play number to be up.
He wants to be explosive and a year ago we were. And yet, this group’s different.
This team’s going to win differently. And it’s taken us too long to get this, but how do we shorten games?
How do we control the game offensively with possession?”
That’s the blueprint Vanderbilt is chasing: control the clock, keep the ball, and force the game to unfold on its terms. Saturday was the clearest example yet. The Commodores held the ball for nearly 40 of the 60 minutes, and that kind of possession paired naturally with their best day on the ground.
Lea pointed back to the Oct. 24 game against Kentucky as another sign of what this team can look like when it gets into that rhythm. Vanderbilt jumped ahead 10-0 and controlled the first quarter, and for a moment it looked like the Commodores were on their way to an upset.
Instead, the game unraveled and ended in a 34-17 loss. Still, Lea said the team took something from the way that night started, and it carried that lesson into the bye week.
With the playbook pared down a bit more during the break, Vanderbilt came out and played the way it wants to play.
“What I saw on Saturday was a unit that responded to that and embraced it. And it allowed us to play the physical brand of football that’s defined our program in the last few years,” Lea said.
The challenge only gets bigger from here. Vanderbilt’s remaining schedule includes home games against playoff hopefuls Alabama and Tennessee, plus a trip to Florida. This weekend brings Alabama, a top-five team that will test whether the Commodores can keep leaning on the run against a defense built to stop it.
That’s the real issue now. Running the ball effectively against another 1-5 conference team is one thing. Doing it against a team chasing a spot in the 12-team field by the start of December is something else entirely.
Still, Lea made it clear that Vanderbilt wants its identity to start there.
“Alabama’s got a great run front, these guys are big and physical. But this has got to be about Vanderbilt is, who Vanderbilt is, what our identity is.
And it’s not always going to be pretty, but we got to commit to it and the team, the players respond to that,” Lea said. “It gives us a chance to chew up some possession time and now the challenge is to control the game offensively.
You got to finish drives off in the end zone, so that’ll be what we look to do.”
In Other News...
Mississippi State Showed Fight Vs. Vanderbilt But One Stretch Changed Everything
Mississippi State had enough fight to make the afternoon feel more competitive than the scoreboard first suggested, but the damage was done early. Vanderbilt built a 16-0 halftime lead, then had to weather a much better second-half effort from the Bulldogs, who found some life on both sides of the ball after the break. AJ Swann finished 23 of 36 for 254 yards and two touchdowns, and the defense even supplied a spark with a forced fumble returned for a score.
Still, the game turned on a stretch Mississippi State could never fully erase, and the issues that surfaced in the first half were hard to ignore. The run defense had trouble holding up, and an interception helped put Vanderbilt in control before the Bulldogs settled in. Jeff Lebby came away acknowledging the need for better coaching, a reminder that for Mississippi State, the frustration was not just about one bad quarter but about getting more consistent results from a team that keeps showing flashes without enough payoff. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Is Giving Fans A Reason To Believe Early
Two wins to open the season have given Vanderbilt mens basketball an early lift, and the first week has looked the part of a team trying to back up its preseason buzz. The Commodores handled Bellarmine and Wake Forest to start 2-0, and the early results have already shown the kind of defense and depth that can travel well once the schedule tightens.
Freshman guard Ant Brown Jr. and transfer Berke Buyuktuncel have both given the lineup a useful spark, which matters for a team trying to build something sturdier than a hot start. The bigger question now is whether Vanderbilt can keep stacking those kinds of performances while carrying the expectations that come with being one of the SECs highest-regarded teams. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Just Delivered The SEC Road Breakthrough Fans Needed
Vanderbilt walked out of Starkville with a 25-23 win over Mississippi State, a result that carried a little extra weight because it ended a long drought in that building. For a program looking for a road breakthrough in the SEC, getting one in a tight, low-margin game made the trip feel like more than just another Saturday result.
Brock Taylor was central to it all, repeatedly delivering points when the Commodores needed them most and giving the offense a steadier path through a game that stayed tight into the final minutes. Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby also pointed to the late two-point conversion try that came up short, a sequence that left the Bulldogs chasing the finish and Vanderbilt celebrating a road win it had not found there in years. [Read more 🡒]