Scouting the opponent: Vanderbilt Commodores
Tennessee will close the 2024 season in familiar fashion, with a short road trip to Nashville to take on in-state rival Vanderbilt in what is typically more or less a home game for the Vols.
As usual, Vandy has some issues to address if they want to improve on last year’s winless tour through the SEC.
Head Coach Clark Lea made some staff changes after last season and hit the transfer portal hard, but it will still be a challenge for the Commodores to win a couple of SEC games or approach a .500 record overall on the season.
Lea is entering his third season at Vanderbilt and actually generated some excitement after a 5-7 campaign in 2022 that included SEC wins over Kentucky and Florida.
The ‘Dores came fell back to earth last season with a 2-10 mark, and now entering his fourth season Lea has new coordinators on both sides of the football.
Tim Beck takes over the offense, arriving from New Mexico State, which won 10 games in 2023.
In an unusual move Lea is taking over the defensive coordinator duties himself after removing Nick Howell from the job.
2023 record: 10-2 (0-8 SEC)
Head coach: Clark Lea 9-27 record, entering 4th season
SEASON OUTLOOK: OFFENSE
Vanderbilt was simply awful offensively last season. They were last in the SEC and 112th nationally in total offense, managing 318 yards per game.
They were a little better scoring-wise, finishing 13th in the conference at 22.8 ppg.
Beck’s challenge in his new role is pretty clear, find a way to move the ball and score some points.
He’ll be doing that with a lot of new pieces. Vanderbilt’s top two quarterbacks (AJ Swann to LSU, Ken Seals to TCU) and top four wide receivers from last year’s team all hit the transfer portal.
Quarterback Diego Pavia followed Beck from New Mexico State. Pavia threw for 2,973 yards for the Aggies last season while throwing for 26 TDs and nine INTs with a 60.4% completion percentage.
Pavia also had 177 rushing attempts for 928 yards and Beck is expected to bring an unorthodox, option-heavy scheme to Vanderbilt. Pavia was the C-USA Offensive Player of the Year in 2023.
Quarterback Nate Johnson also transferred in from Utah where he was a reserve last season, starting three games.
Johnson enrolled and was on campus for spring practice while Pavia didn’t arrive until after he graduated in May.
The quarterbacks have a couple of marginally experienced wideouts to work with. London Humphreys (22 rec., 439 yards, 4 TDs) and Quincy Skinner (20 receptions., 203 yards, 2 TDs) return.
The Commodores hit the transfer portal hard at wideout, bringing in multiple guys to try and bolster the position. The most productive of those is fifth year senior Dariyan Riley who had 24 catches for 400 yards with two touchdowns for UL Monroe last season.
Beck brought another interesting piece with him from New Mexico State that could bolster the passing game. Tight end Eli Stowers signed with Texas A&M as a quarterback out of high school before changing positions and transferring. He had 35 receptions for 366 yards and two touchdowns last season.
The ground game was a train wreck last season. If not for South Carolina’s historically bad rushing offense (2.7 ypc) Vanderbilt (95.2 ypg, 3.3 ypc) would have been the worst rushing offense in the SEC.
Sedrick Alexander (371 yards rushing, 3.9 ypc, 4 TDs) was the team’s leading rusher as a freshman in 2023.
Lea hired a new offensive line coach, veteran Chris Klenakis who was most recently at Kennesaw State, to try and bolster the ground game.
Vandy has a pair of veteran starters back in guard Delfin Xavier Castillo and tackle Gunnar Hansen. George Pitchford and Grayson Morgan have some experience as reserves at guard and tackle.
MTSU transfer Steven Losoya joins the offensive line at center, UTEP transfer Steven Hubbard, a guard, is another portal addition.
Vandy gave up 27 sacks last season, a big number for an offense that didn’t throw it a lot.
Lea’s offensive coordinator hire means a change in philosophy for the offense, which could come with some growing pains. That shouldn’t matter in game 12 against the Vols though.
SEASON OUTLOOK: DEFENSE
Vanderbilt was awful on offense last season. They were probably worse defensively.
The Commodores finished dead last in the SEC both scoring defense 36.8 ppg and total defense, 454.9 yards per game. Both numbers were last by a WIDE margin. No other SEC team gave up more than 28 ppg.
That scoring defense ranked 126th out of 130 FCS football teams.
Clearly, Lea’s decision to take over the defense wasn’t a rush to judgment.
Lea’s challenge is pretty much overhauling everything. Vanderbilt was equally bad at stopping the run (SEC worst 175.3 ypg) as it was at stopping the pass (SEC worst 279.5 ypg).
Among many problems, Vanderbilt just rarely put pressure on opposing offenses. Their 66 tackles for loss on the year ranked 75th nationally and an SEC low 21 quarterback sacks.
On paper it doesn’t look the defensive front has the difference makers to change that situation greatly, but there is some talent on the second and third levels.
Linebacker Langston Patterson led the team in tackles (74) and TFLs (8.0) last season as a sophomore
Senior safety C.J. Taylor was third on the team in tackles with 59 stops and second with 7.5 TFLs last season despite playing in just nine games.
Taylor will pair with fellow senior De’Rickey Wright at safety to give the ‘Dores a pair of veterans there. Wright entered the portal in the offseason but opted to return.
Lea has a strong track record as a defensive coordinator, but it’s hard to see how he’s got enough talent to work with to make the kind of dramatic improvements Vanderbilt needs after a brutal year for the defense in 2023.
FINAL OUTLOOK
Afte the went 5-7 in 2022 Lea received a contract extension through 2029. As a result, he’s not coaching with his back to the wall like most guys would be if they’d just gone 2-10 and winless in conference in their third year.
With so many new pieces—especially at coordinator and quarterback—the offense is almost certainly going to have some early season hiccups.
Even with that it’s not hard to think that they’ll be improved over last year’s unit.
The offense sounds like it’s going to be ‘gimmicky’ under Beck, but Pavia was a really productive quarterback in C-USA, and there’s reason to think he will at least be an improvement.
Getting better on offense is a pretty low bar to clear.
The same is true on defense. Improving from one being of the worst units in the country isn’t exactly the football equivalent of scaling Everest.
Maybe Lea taking a more hands-on approach will benefit the defense, but that’s not going to help with talent.
It will be a surprise if Vanderbilt doesn’t struggle against SEC offenses again in 2024.
The post Scouting the opponent: Vanderbilt Commodores appeared first on On3.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings