Vanderbilt Football Stock Exchange After Loss to No. 12 Kentucky – Sports Illustrated

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Vanderbilt football dropped its fifth game of the season over the weekend, taking a double-digit loss to No. 12 Kentucky.
The Commodores started the game up 10-0 but Kentucky’s offense eventually got going.With the loss, Vanderbilt is now 0-5 in SEC play going into its bye week. During the game, there were some players that had good performances and others that did not.
Here is this week’s Vanderbilt stock exchange at the bye week.
Vanderbilt tight ends Cole Spence and Jayvontay Conner were both active in the game Saturday night. The two had a combined seven receptions on 10 targets. Curtis seemed to make it a point to get those two the ball.
The way in which Spence and Conner were able to be effective was how they were both able to get open over the middle. Kentucky was defending the sidelines stricter than what Vanderbilt had seen, but that left the middle of the field open. Spence and Conner were both beneficiaries of that and they took advantage.
Spence finished the game with five catches for 49 yards while Conner finished with two catches for 20 yards and a touchdown that put Vanderbilt up 10-0 early in the game. That is enough for both of them to raise their stock going into the bye.
Of course Vanderbilt’s leading wide receiver raised his stock. It was another week and another productive game for Junior Sherrill. Sherrill finished the game with eight catches for 78 yards on nine targets.
The production from him this season continues to be consistent. Sherrill is getting a lot of the target share each week and he has been the leading receiver for Vanderbilt in almost all of its eight games so far this fall. Sherrill has 70 yards or more in seven of his eight games this year.
The connection with his five-star freshman quarterback looked strong once again in his sneaky good performance against No. 12 Kentucky. One would expect that trend to continue in the month of November.
Yes, Jared Curtis fumbled the ball and he did throw an interception Saturday night. However, his performance still warrants a rise in his stock.
Curtis completed 27 of his 36 passes for 247 yards and two passing touchdowns. What was more impressive is Curtis looked more comfortable and it seemed like the game of football is starting to really slow down for him. Curtis also used the middle of the field more than he has in any game this season.
It was the full arsenal of the Jared Curtis experience Saturday. Mistakes will happen for him being young, but Curtis did things that indicate optimism with his production going forward.
To put it bluntly, Vanderbilt’s rushing attack did not show up to Lexington over the weekend. Vanderbilt finished the game with 15 total rushing yards as a team. Vanderbilt’s running back duo of Sedrick Alexander and MK Young had just three carries each.
As a matter of fact, Alexander and Young finished with a combined six carries for two yards. That is just never going to produce positive results in the win-loss column. Those kinds of running numbers will never put teams in a position to win. And as a result, it puts far more pressure on Curtis and the passing attack to make plays.
Part of the reason for Vanderbilt’s lack of running is the lack of push the offensive line got in the run game. There was not much of a push. Vanderbilt’s offense looked extremely one-dimensional against Kentucky. That must change going forward.
It feels like every week some aspect of Vanderbilt’s defense ends up on the wrong side of the stock exchange list. At this point, it is warranted given what transpired on the field.
The Commodores had a strong start, giving up just 14 yards in the first quarter. But after that, Vanderbilt gave up well over 300 yards of offense to Kentucky. Whatever changes Kentucky felt like it needed to make, it did. Vanderbilt was simply not fast enough to adjust compared to Kentucky. That is an issue in itself. 
Vanderbilt has a long bye week to get things figured out on defense. It has plenty of work to do. Whether playcalling has to be different or there is a big adjustment on the timing of when Vanderbilt blitzes, there must be some noticeable changes in the final stretch.
Again, Vanderbilt was simply not clean against Kentucky. The Commodores committed nine penalties for 75 yards. The discipline was not there yet again.
Vanderbilt is starting to get on a consistent trend in multiple facets of its game. The penalties are just one of many things it has to get cleaned up during the bye week. It cannot afford any more personal foul penalties or any critical penalty.
Vanderbilt has been one of, if not, the most penalized team in the SEC this season. It will look to adjust and make changes to that during its final four games of the regular season.
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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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