Mack's 2016 SEC East Preview: Vanderbilt

WMack4Bama

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Nov 7, 2008
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Overall: D+
Entering into his all-important 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] season, head coach Derek Mason will be equipped with an above average defense that is a good mixture of above average talent and tons of experience. Feeling his ship sinking, Mason took over the defensive play calling duties midway through last season and the team responded well, only losing by two points to SEC East champion, Florida (although, I’m not sure how much that says as Florida’s offense was painful to watch at times last season, but I’m trying to find some positives here.)

Offensive Grade: D+
We start at QB as we always do. Sophomore QB Kyle Shurmur is the presumed starting signal caller after taking over as the starter with 5 games remaining last season. He did okay. He didn’t set the world on fire, but he didn’t embarrass himself either. He doesn’t have a ton of weapons to work with. His offensive line should be solid. They should dominate lesser or equal opponents but will probably look like high schoolers vs teams like Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. Their best offensive playmaker, C.J. Duncan, is coming off of a torn ACL.

Defensive Grade: B+
As mentioned above, they finished the season much better than they started after head coach Derek Mason took over the play calling on this side of the ball finishing ranked #28 in the country in total defense. They return ¾ of their starting defensive line. At linebacker, rising junior Zach Cunningham is reminiscent of former Vandy tackling machine Jonathan Goff. And the secondary returns just about intact and is getting a talent upgrade at corner with newcomer JoeJuan Williams. This will be the strength of this team. The big question mark is depth. Can they sustain their level of play if/when the injury bugs strike or will one injury derail everything?

Special Teams: D+
This is an area where the Dores struggled mightily last season. Per Adam Sparks of The Tennessean: “Last season, Vanderbilt’s special teams ranked 100th in the FBS in kick returns, 119th in net punting and 123rd in punt return coverage. The Commodores gave up two punt return TDs, committed some costly special teams errors at key times and never found consistency in their kicking or punting.” So they went out and hired a new special teams coach. I don’t know if this guy is a miracle worker though. And aside from bad overall play here, injuries to some key pieces did play a role in this. I think they’ll be better in this area, but not world beaters by any stretch.


Schedule Friendliness: D+
Best case scenario, they’ll be a game under .500 by the time their bye week comes. They have 4 out of conference games in the first 8 weeks, and only 1 of them (Tennessee St.) is a gimme. The other 3 are Georgia Tech (on the road), Western Kentucky, and Middle Tenn. St. (this says more about these teams than Vandy. We've seen first hand playing against these two teams the past couple of seasons how tough of an out they can be). The other 4 games in that stretch are South Carolina (one that they better win to get some momentum), Florida, Kentucky (who they beat last year, but are a year ahead of Vandy in terms of talent influx), and Georgia (who Vandy played really tough last year, but still lost). After the break, they go to Mizzou and Auburn (both are winnable, but I doubt they will beat either of them), and they get Ole Miss and Tennessee, both of whom may be playing desperately to get a shot to go to Atlanta. Their schedule does them no favors.

Final Analysis:
In year 3 of the Mason experiment, Vandy will show some improvement, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The expectation is that their defense can show some of the same grit that Mason’s defenses showed at Stanford. But in a conference with a lot of defenses just like that, they will need to generate points on offense. And unfortunately for Commodore fans, I don’t have a lot of confidence that they’ll be able to do that on a consistent basis. Last season, Vandy’s defense gave up a total of 62 points in the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] quarter all season. On the flip side, Vandy’s offense only scored 23 1[SUP]st[/SUP] quarter points all season. Just not a good look. Barring a miracle run, Vandy is still Vandy.
 

ALA2262

All-American
Aug 4, 2007
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Cumming, GA
2016 Vanderbilt Commodores

9/1 (Thursday): South Carolina-W
9/10: Middle Tennessee-W
9/17: at Georgia Tech-W
9/24: at Western Kentucky-W
10/1: Florida-L
10/8: at Kentucky-L
10/15: at Georgia-L
10/22: Tennessee State-W
10/29: OPEN
11/5: at Auburn-L
11/12: at Missouri-L
11/19: Ole Miss-L
11/26: Tennessee-L

5-7 (1-7)

Bowl eligible territory for them.
 

Redwood Forrest

Hall of Fame
Sep 19, 2003
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Boaz, AL USA
I often wonder why anyone would want to be a Vanderbilt fan. Vandy may upset someone this year but I look for 3-4 wins. If they go 6-6 it would be a miracle.
 

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