How Vanderbilt Football Establishes Identity in the Run Game Against Mississippi State – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE — Reviewing how his team has progressed over the bye week, Vanderbilt football head coach Clark Lea made clear what the biggest point of emphasis was for his offense this weekend at Mississippi State.
Lea talked plenty about how Vanderbilt needs to establish some semblance of a lively running game so that his offense finds a way to be multi-dimensional. It sounds simple, but it has been far from that in reality for the Commodores.
Going into this weekend, Vanderbilt ranked 128th out of 138 FBS teams in rushing offense. The Commodores have run for just 106 yards per game this season. Against Kentucky last time out, they ran for 15 yards as a team. This week, Vanderbilt takes on a Mississippi State run defense that is 32nd in the country despite the bleeding the team has experienced over the past few weeks.
So how does Vanderbilt find life in the run game and execute the point of emphasis that has been talked about since the bye week began?
“It’s not about running the ball 40 times a game. This is about how do we find an efficient run game where we’re going for three or four yards where there’s identity and it’s physical,” Lea said.
Too many times this season, Vanderbilt has lost on first down when running the football and has put itself behind the sticks. In turn, that has killed offensive drives or put far too much pressure on the passing game to make winning plays.
Vanderbilt has to avoid the second-and-long situations and create more second-and-medium or second-and-short situations to help open up a menu of play options to run and that help pin back an opposing defense.
Lea has not been pleased with the performance of his offensive line, especially in the rushing attack. To Lea, identity in the run game begins with physicality and being synced up on the offensive line and continuing with finding a way to take pressure off his five-star freshman quarterback, Jared Curtis.
“The focus has been trimming the callsheet down, getting really specific about the looks we need and making sure there’s an ability to take some pressure off Jared and get the ball in the hands of the guys we believe in,” Lea said.
Ultimately, finding a way to take pressure off Curtis is the most important thing. At this point, it is not about developing a run game to the point where either Sedrick Alexander and MK Young rush for 80 or more yards in a game. Rather, it is about eliminating the runs that do not go beyond the line of scrimmage or go backwards.
Against Kentucky, Alexander had three carries for four yards while Young had three carries for negative two yards. Lea knows that kind of run game is not going to help Curtis and the rest of the offense. In fact, it looked as though Curtis tried to play the hero in the game at times in the passing game because Alexander and Young were held in check.
It does not have to be an amazing performance on paper, but it does have to be good enough. Lea made a point Thursday that abandoning the run game is not an option. There has to be some flow and chemistry to the run game.
Vanderbilt knows what it needs to do. It is just a matter of if it is able to execute on its game plan Saturday.
“Obviously, Mississippi State’s run defense is really strong. We understand there are going to be other elements to win the game, but it can’t be about vacating a run game. Let’s find a way to have some chemistry and some belief in it,” Lea said.
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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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