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NASHVILLE — The usefulness of the bye week for Vanderbilt football cannot be understated in the eyes of the program.
Not only was it an opportunity for coaches and players to collectively catch their breath after eight consecutive Saturdays of having a game, but it was an entire week to digest what has gone wrong this season and how Vanderbilt can improve in the final stretch of games.
Offensively, it has not been the season Vanderbilt has wanted in terms of running the ball. The Commodores entered Saturday’s game against Mississippi State averaging just 106 yards per game on the ground, which was 128th in college football at the time.
In the win over the Bulldogs, though, the Commodores had their best day rushing in a long time, going for 160 yards in their first conference win of the season. It was the closest thing to rushing identity all season.
The big question, however, is whether Vanderbilt can find a consistent identity in the run game in these final three weeks?
“Well you got to commit to it," Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea said. "I credit Tim Beck because as a play caller, and especially the way he sees the game, he wants our yards per play number to be up. He wants to be explosive and a year ago we were. And yet, this group’s different. This team’s going to win differently. And it’s taken us too long to get this, but how do we shorten games? How do we control the game offensively with possession?”
Vanderbilt wants to win games by dominating time of possession and being in control of the clock. That way of winning can only happen by running the football effectively.
Saturday was as good as Vanderbilt has been by finding a way to control the clock and keep the opposing offense off the field to the tune of possessing the ball for nearly 40 of the 60 minutes. It is no coincidence that happened the same day Vanderbilt had its best game running the ball.
In his press conference, Lea referenced the game against Kentucky Oct. 24 as a time where he started to see shades of his team winning the way it wants. The Commodores jumped out to a 10-0 lead and were in control in the first quarter. At first, it looked like it was going to be a night where Vanderbilt pulled an upset.
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But, things fell apart and Vanderbilt took a 34-17 loss to the Wildcats. Lea has not forgotten what the beginning of that game felt like, though, and his team took what it learned from that game and went to work during the bye week.
With the playbook stripped down a little more during the bye week, Vanderbilt won the way it wanted Saturday.
“What I saw on Saturday was a unit that responded to that and embraced it. And it allowed us to play the physical brand of football that’s defined our program in the last few years,” Lea said.
Vanderbilt has a tough remaining schedule to finish the season. The Commodores host playoff hopefuls Alabama and Tennessee and go to Florida. This weekend, they take on an Alabama team ranked in the top five.
Winning in a way that dominates the time of possession thanks to an effective run game is one thing against another 1-5 team in conference play. But it is a totally different thing when it is against a team that is looking to get into the 12-team field by the start of December.
Having a commitment to the run game early on is going to be critical against the Crimson Tide. That is what Vanderbilt seems to want its identity to be.
It will not be easy to do against a tough defensive front, but the Commodores are going to need to find a way to do it if they want to take pressure off the passing game and pull off a huge upset.
“Alabama’s got a great run front, these guys are big and physical. But this has got to be about Vanderbilt is, who Vanderbilt is, what our identity is. And it’s not always going to be pretty, but we got to commit to it and the team, the players respond to that,” Lea said. “It gives us a chance to chew up some possession time and now the challenge is to control the game offensively. You got to finish drives off in the end zone, so that’ll be what we look to do.”
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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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