Alabama Football 2026 vs Vanderbilt: Previewing the Commodore Offense – Roll 'Bama Roll

There’s no Pavia-mania this time
It now feels like a lifetime ago that Vanderbilt was rocking the Diego Pavia show and making rounds all through college football. Despite only being a season later, things have radically changed for the Dore’s and it’s generally been not for the better. After ranking 8th in the country in scoring a year ago, they’ve plummeted back to earth and are ranked 103rd in the country at only 23 points per game.
Tim Beck returns as the OC, and if you missed my breakdown on his scheme in previous years, go give this a read:
He’s an interesting coach who started at Pittsburg State right out of college under Dennis Franchione, then stayed with that program for the next 30 years, including 15 as OC and then 10 years as their head coach. And really the only head coach he served under was Chuck Broyles… Who also most of his career at Pittsburg State. So there’s very little overlapping coaching influence on Beck – he developed his scheme somewhat on an island, rather than through working for different coaches.
Ultimately, he wound up with something of a power-spread offense that operates a lot out of the pistol, and it did a whole lot of damage at Vanderbilt the last two seasons in his first shot in the big leagues.
A couple of their playmakers from the last two years return this year as well: Running back Sedrick Alexander and wide receiver Junior Sherrill. Past those two, though, the Dores pretty much totally turned over the rest of their offense, and the changes in the OL and QB have kept them held back.
So let’s start with the QB. Jared Curtis was the #2 overall prospect as a recruit last year and famously picked Vandy over Georgia. He’s a 230-lb guy with a big arm and good rushing ability and power, so there’s plenty to be excited about. But thus far, Curtis has looked very much like a true freshman thrust into the SEC. He’s been improving as a passer and is averaging over 11 yards per completion, but he’s also thrown 8 interceptions on only 224 attempts.
His receiving weapons are pretty much Junior Sherrill…. And everyone else gets a target or two to go between them. Sherrill has 56 catches for 747 yards, and in second place is running back Sedrick Alexander with 17 catches. Sherrill is an impressive receiver, no doubt, but an offense/QB that is that focused on a single receiver makes them extremely one-dimensional.
The other issue for the Dores has been their drop off in the rushing game. Alexander was a 5+ yards per carry volume back a year ago, but now he’s only at 333 yards with a 3.9 average. And his change of pace guy, Makhilyn Young, isn’t breaking off the explosives. But even bigger is the sheer amount of carries going to Jared Curtis in the QB run game, and he just isn’t creating the wizardry that Diego Pavia did. Curtis has 76 rushing attempts for only 172 yards. That lack of production has the offense pretty well mired in place, and the entire Tim Beck scheme is built around the QB power run as the primary play taking defenders away from all of their other plays.
To this point, it’s hard to see Vanderbilt and Curtis finally putting things together and getting the offense clicking right before the season wraps up. Curtis and Sherrill are a dangerous connection and they can move that ball that way, but they just don’t have any other parts of their game they can rely on.
Alabama’s Kane Wommack held Beck and the Commodores to their season low in points a year ago after struggling in 2024, and it was clear that the 24 loss was one that Wommack took to heart schematically and took a lot of time studying up for Beck and Pavia. I imagine that is going to hold true this year as well, and Vandy is a much less dangerous team.
So I think about 10-13 points is all we see from the Commodores this upcoming weekend. It’ll mostly be a defensive domination from the Tide.
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