Column: If Vanderbilt Football Wants to Continue to Improve, This Guy Has to Cement Himself in the Offense – Sports Illustrated

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ATHENS, Ga. — Another Vanderbilt football game, another box score that indicates a continuation of a recurring trend in the Commodores 38-14 loss to No. 2 Georgia.
As with just about every game Vanderbilt has played this season, the receiving stats looked nearly identical to the previous one. Vanderbilt wide receiver Junior Sherrill led the Commodores in receptions and receiving yards, posting seven catches for 107 yards and a touchdown. It was another great statline for Sherrill, who has shown real strides in consistency and production this season.
But after Sherrill? The player with the most receptions and receiving yards was wide receiver Ja’Cory Thomas, who hauled in two passes for 43 yards. So yes, Sherrill was the only one on Vanderbilt that had more than two catches…again. 
But to Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea, it felt as though Thomas had a bigger imprint on the game than his final statline would suggest.
“I felt Ja’Cory Thomas today. I felt him out there,” Lea said. “He had the OPI call on him, which is what it is. But he did a nice job at the catchpoint there. I felt him behind their defense. I was really encouraged by that.”
To support Lea’s words, Thomas was quite active in the game, certainly more than a two-catch day. In fact, it was the most active Thomas was in a game this season despite the fact that Thomas had three catches for 18 yards in Vanderbilt’s loss to Auburn a week ago.
Vanderbilt has been desperate for somebody to step up as another receiver that opposing defenses are forced to pay attention to. While Tristen Brown had a No. 2 receiver-type performance against NC State two weeks ago, there has not been an element of consistency at the No. 2 wideout spot.
Thomas may have given Vanderbilt’s offense a glimmer of hope going forward in Saturday’s loss. The increased activity from Thomas was the most encouraging sign Vanderbilt has seen out of any of its receivers since Brown’s 81-yard game against the Wolfpack.
Thomas was a guy that Vanderbilt brought in through the transfer portal in the offseason, hoping he would be the guy that the Commodores could use if Sherrill was ever a nonfactor in a game. Coming over from Old Dominion, Thomas had a solid fall camp in the weeks leading up to the Commodores’ season-opener against Austin Peay Sept. 5. It was solid to the point where Thomas did look like the No. 2 wide receiver.
Through the first four games, though, Thomas did not live up to that billing. In games against Delaware and NC State, Thomas did not even catch a single pass. That simply cannot continue to happen. He has to be better for Vanderbilt going forward.
If the Commodores are the team they say they are and do want to reach bowl eligibility, Thomas is going to need to be the X-factor for Vanderbilt. On multiple occasions over the past couple of weeks, Lea has pointed to Thomas as a possibility that can still be a vertical threat in Vanderbilt’s passing game whenever he is asked about his receiver room.
That sentiment was expressed again by Lea after the loss to Georgia. This time, however, he had reason to be more optimistic in his tone.
“Obviously Junior is a trusted target. But if we can get someone opposite him that can stretch the field vertically, that’s going to help take pressure off Junior and give us another explosive threat, which I think we need,” Lea said.
If there was a second downfield threat for Vanderbilt Saturday, it was Thomas. Lea pointed to his targets down the sideline and expressed his approval and need for that going forward. But one game is not enough and nor is a two-catch day.
There are no moral victories, but if there is something positive to take away from Vanderbilt’s performance Saturday it was the potential that Thomas provided Vanderbilt’s offense. If he becomes more consistent as a vertical threat, Thomas could very well be the key Vanderbilt is looking for to take it up a notch offensively.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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