Vanderbilt Football’s Week 3 matchup with NC State — whether you think the ’Dores deserved to win the game or not — was extremely entertaining.
Riding the high of that victory, the Black and Gold traveled down to the plains of Auburn, Alabama, to take on the Tigers in Jordan-Hare Stadium. In the team’s first road trip of the season, Vanderbilt fell short — leaving with a 21-15 loss.
It was a relatively boring football game, as both teams struggled offensively for the most part. In the midst of it, though, there is a lot to take away from Vanderbilt’s performance.
I think there are going to be some positives that we build on from this [loss].
— Clark Lea
“I think there are going to be some positives that we build on from this [loss],” head coach Clark Lea said after the game.“There are going to be some things that we can take away that we identify as strengths.”
Ketchup
The ’Dores played an okay game — both the offense and defense had moments of great success — but the overall formula that Vanderbilt went into the game with was not a winning one.
And that formula starts with how the coaching staff approached the game from the beginning.
To the fan’s eye, the offensive play-calling felt very risk-averse — similar to how it was at the start of Week 3, where the Commodores fell behind 17-0 to NC State. Similarly, against Auburn, the ’Dores found themselves in an early 14-3 hole.
Offensive coordinator Tim Beck started the game off with old-fashioned, boring football. A series of runs up the middle and screen passes were easily deciphered by the Tiger defense and led to Vanderbilt not reaching the red zone at all in the first half. In fact, Beck did not call a passing play of more than 12-yards of airtime for the entirety of the first quarter.
Now, freshman quarterback Jared Curtis still has much work to do to learn the playbook, but as he has shown many times this season, he is more than capable of getting creative and making big impromptu plays — with his arm and his legs.
Thus, keeping Curtis contained to very conservative play-calling, especially where he has no choice of where the ball goes, led to the offense being stagnant.
This led to the third week in a row Curtis and Co. had to play catch-up in the second half. And they were pretty successful again — winning the back 30 minutes 13-7 because the offense was able to move down the field.
The unit was able to move so much better because Beck made changes — letting Curtis get creative in and around the pocket — and moving away from struggling up-the-middle runs with Sedrick Alexander to more creative handoffs and dump-offs to MK Young.
But unlike the last two weeks, Vanderbilt was unable to fully surmount the early deficit it faced.
[Beck] must get more creative in early-game situations and have more trust in his quarterback going forward for his unit’s success.
— Eli Landers
This shows that Beck cannot just rely on mid-game changes leading to wins every week. He must get more creative in early-game situations and have more trust in his quarterback going forward for his unit’s success.
Egg shells
Vanderbilt’s offensive line was easy to crack at Jordan-Hare. Auburn defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin pestered the unit all night with a variety of blitzes that led to four sacks of Curtis and eight total tackles for loss.
While Vanderbilt’s trench unit was slightly more disciplined this week — picking up three total penalties, a significant improvement from Week 3 — it was torched by Auburn’s heavy-pressure sets.
Once Beck allowed Curtis some space, it almost didn’t matter. Every time he dropped back, a swarm of Tigers greeted him in the pocket, and the first-year had almost no time to find his pass-catchers.
The run game was no different. Whether it was an Alexander draw play or an option for Curtis, neither was able to take off on designed runs. The former of the two was held to just 13 yards on 11 carries — mostly due to the lack of gaps provided to him by his blockers.
The O-line made other costly mistakes as well — a bumbled snap nearly led to a turnover early in the game.
Offensive line coach Chris Klenakis needs his group to clean up their play. This is a line that is composed of mostly returning players from 2025 — who were stout a year ago. Especially when there is uncertainty in the team’s playcalling, Vanderbilt cannot get far if its blockers cannot perform well.
Spritzes
All it takes to change the momentum and eventual outcome of a football game is one or two splash plays. On Saturday, Auburn was able to find those and Vanderbilt was not.
The first of which came midway through the first quarter when Auburn QB Byrum Brown saw his star wideout Chas Nimrod had four steps on Vanderbilt’s Martel Hight down the sideline, and hit him on a go route for a 33-yard touchdown.
Hight, who has been utterly horrible on man coverage sets this season, had no chance at containing the play and gave up his fourth touchdown in three weeks. The Vanderbilt cornerback room, which was less than stellar against NC State, was good for the rest of the game — but because it gave up one big play, its job was incomplete.
Then, Vanderbilt’s special teams made costly mistakes. The unit, which was so crucial to the Commodores’ first win over Austin Peay, gave Auburn its second sixer of the day when the Tigers blocked Logan Ebel’s punt and returned it to the house with 8:56 remaining in the second quarter.
This kind of freak play is simply not acceptable to allow for teams that want to win football games. The lack of protection Vanderbilt showed on that set was then repeated minutes later when Brock Taylor had a 48-yard field goal try tipped.
“We have got to strengthen our special teams play,” Lea said. “We have had the opportunity to experience explosive play from those units and its just not good enough [to win].”
Hence, a couple of big plays Auburn made on special teams shifted the game 10 points in its favor, and as Vanderbilt could not recover with any big moments of its own, the Tigers were able to ride the momentum of a couple of snaps for 60 minutes.
“The 10 [missed] points become the game,” Lea said.
Bread and butter
Despite much of the bad that Vanderbilt showed, the box score looks favorably on a few Commodores who are beginning to become weekly talking points.
Wide receiver Junior Sherrill continues to be the Commodores’ best offensive weapon by a mile. The senior had six grabs for 95 yards, including a couple of big snags on the right-hand sideline — a route where he and Curtis seem to be perfectly in sync.
“I really am excited about the chemistry [Curtis and Sherrill] are building,” Lea said. “[Sherrill] is the guy [Curtis] wants to give the ball in critical moments.”
Sherrill has obviously gotten stronger this offseason, and genuinely looks like one of the best receivers in the SEC. In fact, his name is beginning to enter NFL conversations. As a result, look for him and Curtis to keep connecting on Saturdays and be the primary driver of Vanderbilt’s offense.
On the other side of the ball, a pair of superstars have emerged for defensive coordinator Steve Gregory.
Safety CJ Heard had another stellar outing with 9 tackles — 8 solo — and a pass deflection. His ability to chase down runners from any spot on the field makes him incredibly valuable, and the junior leads the SEC in solo snags. Week in and week out, the Sea Snake’s consistent play will be something opposing teams will have nightmares about.
“It’s a players game,” Heard said post-game. “And, I took it upon myself to meet [Auburn] more today.”
Edge Miles Capers continues to make big plays as well, coming up with a pair of tackles and a tip-drill interception against the Tigers. His locker room presence also continues to elevate his peers.
These stars give Vanderbilt fans names and numbers to look forward to every weekend, and can perhaps be a big part of helping the squad bounce back from this defeat.
The Commodores will next travel to Athens to take on No. 2 Georgia at 11:45 a.m. CDT Saturday, Oct. 3.
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