Lessons in Vanderbilt Football: Mississippi State – Anchor Of Gold

We finally get to learn from an SEC win in 2026!
The Vanderbilt Commodores ended the looming threat of going winless in the SEC. They breathed a little life back into a season that has fallen below expectations but is still salvageable, even if the likelihood is low. At 4-5 (1-5 SEC), the Commodores really need to win at least 2 of 3 from a home game against #3 Alabama, a trip to newly-unranked Florida, and a rivalry week showdown in Nashville against #8 Tennessee. Of course, for most Vanderbilt fans, a single win to end the season that may knock a rival from the College Football Playoff may be enough to save any season. Realistically, the program needs this team to get to a bowl game for the extra practices as the roster transitions to the next phase and as a better starting point for the career of Jared Curtis.
The win in Starkville looked like it was going to be free and easy at halftime. Vanderbilt had gone on the road and had their second straight 10-0 lead, but, unlike Kentucky who was able to quickly get off the mat in the first half and was up 14-10 at the break, Mississippi State was completely listless through 30 minutes. Then it started to look like the Arkansas and Kentucky script where disasters snowballed. A blown coverage led to a 65-yard TD that doubled the Bulldogs’ offensive production to that point. Vanderbilt’s ensuing offensive possession ended in a strip sack that was returned for a TD. Suddenly, 16-0 was 16-14, and Vanderbilt went 3 and out to follow.
Thankfully, the defense quickly got back to form and forced a 3-and-out of their own. Brock Taylor made his third Field Goal of the game, a 54-yard effort, and the game mostly settled into a defensive struggle where Vanderbilt held the upper hand. Personally, it feels like a lot of the good things from the Kentucky game showed up again and even stronger against a weaker opponent, but some of the same issues that have plagued the season also made what should have been a blowout into a tight contest.
Brock. Freaking. Taylor. The cannon-legged kicker went 6 for 6 with kicks of 54 and 55 yards as the crown jewels. The longest of which proved to be the game-winner when it gave Vanderbilt an 8-point lead with just 1:46 to go in regulation. Mississippi State would score a TD but fail on the 2-point conversion attempt. The Vanderbilt-record FG kicking performance was 1 make short of tying the NCAA record for a game. It also brought Taylor’s career marks to 44 of 50 with the yardage splits as 7/7 from 20-29, 18/19 from 30-39, 11/14 from 40-49, and 8/10 from 50+. The kid has a special leg. It saved Vanderbilt in Starkville.
Tyler Ebel had a decent day but was understandably overshadowed by his kicking partner. The first punt was just barely a touchback that ruined a 54-yard blast by turning it into a net of just 34 yards. His second kick was Brocket Launcher-esque when he blasted it 64 yards over the punt returners head to be downed at the 9-yard line. His next kick was lower and “only” flew 40 yards before bouncing and rolling another 9 yards where it was downed. His “weak” effort for the day was a 39-yard punt that was fair caught. Then the coverage team swamped a frisky returner who went backwards 3 yards to net Ebel 45 yards on a 42-yard punt. In a tight game, having a punter averaging 46.2 yards NET is a big boost. That is how you flip field position and force offenses to go the long route to paydirt.
Not committing back-breaking penalties can lead to success! Vanderbilt was penalized 6 times for a mere 25 yards. The first was a Cade McConnell false start that Jared Curtis immediately erased by hitting Cole Spence up the seam for 20 yards. Carson Lawrence was offside on a kickoff that went for a touchback, so that let State start at the 30 instead of the 25. That drive went 3 and out. The most painful penalty was probably CJ Heard jumping offside to give State a free play on 2^nd and 12. The pass, probably a risk taken because of the known penalty, was intercepted, but the worst part was turning 2^nd and 12 into 2^nd and 7. On 3^rd and 7, after no gain on a running play, AJ Swann would hit the 65-yard TD over coverage that might have been even deeper and safer on a 3^rd and 12. The second worst was an Illegal Substitution that turned a 4^th down with less than a yard to convert into a 4^th and 6 FG attempt that was made. Still, it may well have taken 4 points off the board in a moment where Vanderbilt could have gone up 23-14 instead of just 19-14. Then the final two penalties were on back-to-back plays with Ja’Cory Thomas having a 0-yard loss-of-down call for Illegal Touching when he stepped out of bounds before dropping a pass along the sideline then Marcus Veney false starting. Both of those were wiped out by Jamezell Lassiter taking a screen pass for 18 yards and a reset of the chains. It was a pretty clean game where Vanderbilt only really hurt themselves twice, but they still swung potentially 11 points in a 2-point victory.
The other factors in playing clean were almost all smooth. Curtis does need to be more secure with the ball in the pocket or when starting to buy time in the pocket. He has been stripped a few times, and he had another one go for a TD. The other moment was a kickoff going out of bounds, which I guess is not technically a penalty even if they throw a flag? Also, the ESPN box score incorrectly lists it as a Taylor kickoff, not Justin Dewers. I do not understand why we decided to get tricky on the kickoff following the FG to make it 19-14. The Bulldogs were awful on offense. Why give them a free 10 yards? At best you gain 10 to 15 yards, but our offense was also generally moving the ball well until getting across midfield or deeper. It would make sense to try something like that if you get into a track meet where both teams are scoring consistently, and you think that pinning them deeper than the typical 25-yard line starting point may get more conservative playcalls or present an opportunity for forcing a turnover as a returner gets caught out by the funky kickoff.
The offensive line was … below average but not abjectly bad. The OL had a new alignment, too. Lyndon Cooper, Caleb Azubuike, and Cade McConnell kept spots while freshman Mitchell Smith was in at Strong Guard and CJ Williams and Beau Johnson alternated at Strong Tackle. I do not have a snap count split for Williams and Johnson, but the Vanderbilt depth chart for Alabama lists Williams as the starter. A team with 21 sacks entering the game (2.6 per game) had 2 sacks. The Bulldogs did make 9 Tackles for Loss, but they only created 37 yards worth of negative plays. The two sacks accounted for 22 of it, and a Junior Sherrill tap pass was another 5. On rushing plays, Vanderbilt had a total of 10 yards lost over 6 plays. The trio of Sedrick Alexander, Makhilyn Young, and Jamezell Lassiter had 38 carries for 139 yards, which is not impressive but fits in with the game-grinding style akin to the 2024 team (3.83 YPC average for the season even including sacks so still better but similar) that held the ball forever and just wore defenses down in slug fests. Having 39 minutes and 55 seconds of possession fits that mold, too.
Curtis was protected quite a bit in this one. Whether it was a function of coaches deciding to go back to the 2024-style grit-and-grind offense or wanting to protect a young QB behind a shaky offensive line, Vanderbilt’s freshman phenom threw just 27 passes two weeks after throwing it 36 times against Kentucky. He was an unspectacular 17 of 27 for 168 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. He carried the ball 13 times for 22 yards, but he had a long of 22 and was effective other times with the 22 yards in sacks dragging his rushing totals down significantly. One other rushing loss was a pass play that he decided to pull down that was not counted as a sack. The 40.9 QBR is disappointing. He missed a few throws that he should make and needs to make in the future. He has the talent to clean it up. The test he faces today against Alabama is definitely a sink-or-swim moment.
Junior Sherrill was huge again. He had 7 catches but only gained 41 yards. For only the second time all season, he was not the leading receiver in terms of yards. Similarly to the Ole Miss game where Ja’Cory Thomas caught 3 passes for 60 yards, Tristen Brown had 2 catches for 52 yards. Sherrill did have a bad 3^rd down drop on a slant that would have given Vanderbilt a first down near the Mississippi State 10-yard line. It was the only notable mistake he made all game.
The depth of options for Curtis had a fair showing. Brown had the aforementioned success while Sedrick Alexander caught 3 passes for 30 yards. Cole Spence and Jamezell Lassiter both had singular receptions for right around 20 yards. Martel High, Jayvontay Conner, and Ja’Cory Thomas also each had 1 catch but gained 3 yards or less. Feeding Sherrill for volume then using others for impact could be a viable strategy, especially with the new gadget on offense.
The misdirection is potentially back to stay. It never should have left. Vanderbilt used jet motion at least 7 times with 4 fakes that were handed off to a RB, 2 tap passes, and 1 fake into a HB screen. I think it was used probably 3 or 4 more times, but I did not necessarily note it every time it happened. The use and execution were not always perfect. I fully support more misdirection to help Curtis identify rushers and make defenders declare their responsibilities pre-snap for you. Maybe Back has more up his sleeves.
The defense was its perfectly inconsistent self. Granted, it is all but impossible to be perfect defensively for an entire game. The defense had 3 drives where they allowed 231 of State’s 297 yards of total offense. Allowing 3 scoring drives per game is nothing to be ashamed of. The score looks worse for them because of the defensive TD by the Bulldogs. Vanderbilt’s defense only allowed 16 points. Even against an offense struggling like Mississippi State is, allowing only 2 TDs and a FG is going to be a recipe for success. The defensive line was able to create consistent pressure with just 4 rushers. They only sacked Swann 3 times, but they batted at least 2 passes and were in his face preventing him from stepping into throws or making it hard to find targets downfield often.
Two young defenders are really standing out even if the overall unit is doing too much up-and-down. Davin Chandler was listed as a safety to start the year and was at the bottom of the depth chart. He has become a starting cornerback. Players typically move from CB to S as they move from high school to college or college to the NFL and are not up to standards in coverage. I cannot remember any player moving to CB from S, especially not making the dramatic leap from the opening depth chart to the current one. He had 2 fantastic pass breakups by ripping the ball out of WRs hands before they completed the catch. Both were downfield plays that could have totally changed the game. Chandler also had 7 tackles with 5 being solo as he consistently blew up quick throws to the perimeter for limited, if any, gains. His fellow freshman partner in crime is Mason Lewis. Lewis led the team in tackles at State with 10. The good news for a safety is that only 3 were solo. He also defended two passes. These two have deserved more mention here than they have gotten so far.
If Clark wanted an “identity” game, he got it. The game plans from both Beck on offense and Gregory on defense were obvious but executed with commitment and focus. The offense was not always pretty, nor did it score as many TDs as anyone would like, but they ground Mississippi State down to the point that the rushing game ticked up to a 4.0 YPC average for the 4^th quarter, which is 0.9 YPC better than the average for the game.
The missed opportunities made life more difficult instead of totally sinking the ship. The penalties that turned a State 2^nd and 12 into 2^nd and 7 then eventually a 3^rd and 7 deep ball TD and an Illegal Substitution that ruined a 4^th and very short stand out. The Sherrill drop comes into play here, too. The biggest culprit is Clark Lea. He got too conservative and too “safe” too soon. Being okay with a FG before halftime instead of risking giving the ball back to Mississippi State with very little time left in a half where they awful was so incredibly cowardly. If you believe in your team and want them to have that confident and brash mentality, you have to support it instead of stifling it. That sequence left Mississippi State hanging around. If the score is 20 to 0 going into the break, that game feels a lot safer while looking a lot bleaker for State. Lea should know that stepping on the other team’s throat is the best path to victory by now, but he seems to either forget or still does not believe it.
With one win down in the question from last week about a 2016/2018 flourish to finish the regular season and get to a bowl, can Tim Beck match Andy Ludwig’s creativity and week-to-week building upon previous success? Especially in 2016, Vanderbilt was pulling out plays fans had never seen before one week then running misdirection, if not outright trick plays, off the new play the next week. The offense went back to basics for Mississippi State with a lot of straight forward zone running plays. They also relied on pre-snap motion a lot but settled into a rhythm of faking to the motion man then handing off to a running back. Unveiling more creative passes, like the HB screen to Lassiter they did pull out in Starkville, from those motions could be lucrative. A key piece to some of that creativity may be a fully converted cornerback.
What is Martel Hight’s role and impact now that he has moved to offense full time? The two-way player experiment in 2025 never bore much fruit for the offense. He had 1 carry for 2 yards and 7 catches for 64 yards before it was quashed after Week 3. Hight then went back to full-time defense and punt returner. I do not have a precise Starkville snap count for Hight, but it was probably in the 10-ish play range. He caught a tap pass and was open on a deep crosser that Curtis never saw due to pressure. Curtis did target him down the sideline on a pass that should have been a TD if it had not been left short enough that the DB caught up and had it bounce off his helmet or back. That throw belongs in the “missed opportunities” category, too, since it was on 3^rd and 7 from Vanderbilt’s own 28 and was followed by a punt. Hight’s play at CB has not been up to his usual standards, but this seems like a bad move for him personally. Any future he may have in professional football is surely on defense. I do love his enthusiasm to contribute on offense. I hope it is useful enough to outweigh any downstream impact.
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This game reeks of Ungunking the Sunshine Pump…
The chance for smoked pig turned into a tire fire for the Vanderbilt football program.
There were a lot of painful lessons in this one…
That football was better, but better was not nearly enough against an exceptional Georgia team.
Vanderbilt found a way to win against NC State. They found numerous ways to lose at Auburn.
That was one way to win a football game, and it made learning from this game much less painful for the soul.
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