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NASHVILLE — In accordance with dreary, depressing and messy weather filling the Nashville skies Saturday evening, Vanderbilt football’s performance Saturday against Ole Miss can be described as that. Especially the third word.
In fact, the word “messy” may be the perfect adjective to attribute to how Vanderbilt looked on the field against the Rebels. It felt like Groundhog Day seemingly every play of the game. Whether it was a flag, a missed assignment on defense or giving the ball away, the Commodores played perhaps the messiest game they have in about three seasons.
How bad was it? Vanderbilt had five penalties for 59 yards…in the first quarter alone. The Commodores turned the ball over three times in the first half and Ole Miss scored a touchdown on all three of them. Do the math and it adds up to 21 points off turnovers in favor of the Rebels before halftime even arrived.
Every time Vanderbilt was close to making something happen and leaving a glimmer of hope for some sort of chance to be competitive with Ole Miss, some sort of self-inflicted wound would happen.
In an attempt to respond to Ole Miss’ first touchdown, Vanderbilt was driving the field. In fact, the Commodores had the ball on the 2-yard line, getting ready to tie the game. After no gain on first down, Vanderbilt offensive lineman Clinton Azubuike drew a 15-yard personal foul penalty that ultimately killed the drive and Vanderbilt’s momentum. Instead of a second down from the two, it was a second down and goal from the 17-yard line, which caused Vanderbilt to settle for a field goal.
Later in the second half, Vanderbilt’s defense made a third down stop in its own territory that would have forced Ole Miss to settle for a field goal. But after the third down play, Vanderbilt defensive lineman Jaylon Stone drew a personal foul penalty for himself, giving Ole Miss an automatic first down. That drive ended in an Ole Miss touchdown to go up 21-3 instead of what would have been 17-3.
Not only were those penalties costly on the scoreboard for Vanderbilt, but they were totally avoidable and inexcusable. Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea knows it, too.
“I love Clinton, I love Jaylon. It’s unacceptable. Those are emotional football plays that don’t have a place in our program and are going to keep us from winning challenging games,” Lea said. “They have to find their discipline. We’re not here to win the trash talking game.”
The penalties were just one of the categories Vanderbilt, to put it bluntly, embarrassed itself. The 11 penalties for 92 yards were just the start of it.
Vanderbilt had four turnovers in the game, three of them in the first half. Whether it was balls that should have been caught but were tipped up in the air or a play where Jared Curtis was trying to play the hero down 28-3 late in the second half, the Commodores continued to hurt themselves in a way that they have not since before Diego Pavia arrived.
And not to mention, the lack of execution on offense and defense for Vanderbilt simply was not good enough to win a game. Just not good enough to beat either Ole Miss or any SEC football team.
Playing cleaner is a must going forward. The product Vanderbilt put on the field of Firstbank Stadium Saturday can not happen again. Throughout the next week, Vanderbilt is going to need to have plenty of hard conversations on how to eliminate the disciplinary issues.
It may not take too many conversations to get rid of the personal foul penalties. But Vanderbilt is the most penalized team in the SEC. That is where the true disciplinary issue lies. This week is going to require both offensive and defensive players to do some maturing and growing up and face the glaring issues head on.
“You can’t play that type of game and expect to win,” Vanderbilt defensive lineman Issa Ouattara said. “It’s looking ourselves in the mirror and asking the hard questions. And it’ll take confrontation, it’ll be addressed.”
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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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