Vanderbilt Football Stock Exchange After Week 1 Win Over Austin Peay – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE – It was not pretty in any way for Vanderbilt Saturday night despite winning 28-9 over Austin Peay.
Vanderbilt took longer than expected to pull away in the new era of the program, now in a post-Diego Pavia era. But the Commodores came out on top nonetheless. Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea hopes that it is the worst game that his team plays this season, but at the end of the day Vanderbilt woke up 1-0 going into Delaware game preparation.
There were standouts from Saturday’s win and a few others that need to show more going into next week. Here is the first Vanderbilt football stock exchange of the season.
Man oh man did Vanderbilt look happy to have defensive lineman Issa Ouattara back in the starting lineup. Ouattara missed all but a few snaps of the 2025 season a year ago, which did not do the Commodores any favors in terms of bringing pressure on the downs that mattered most.
But now, he is back and he showed how impactful he can be and how much better Vanderbilt’s defensive line is with Ouattara on the field. Ouattara brought plenty of pressure against the inside part of Austin Peay’s offensive line. Ouattara finished the game with 1.5 sacks, one solo tackle and four total tackles on the night. He had the third-most total tackles among all Vanderbilt defenders in the game.
Ouattara brings so much value to the Commodores defense. The push he can get against offensive linemen takes pressure off other Vanderbilt defenders. Buy stock now in Ouattara going forward.
The former walk-on to now team captain Nick Rinaldi was another Vanderbilt defender that had a great performance to open the 2026 season. Rinaldi finished the game with six total tackles, three of them were solo, while having a 0.5 sack to his credit.
Rinaldi tied Vanderbilt safety CJ Heard for the most total tackles among all Commodore defenders.
Going into the season, Rinaldi was expected to be one of the leaders on Vanderbilt’s defense. He is a part of a veteran linebacker core composed of him, Bryan Longwell and Bryce Cowan. Being one of the guys that helped lead the defense to what was an overall satisfactory performance certainly helps his stock going into the rest of the season.
In what was a sloppy, dysfunctional offensive performance from Vanderbilt, running back Sedrick Alexander was the best player on offense for the Commodores against Austin Peay.
Alexander got the ball the first four plays of the game and finished the game with 10 carries for 60 yards and a touchdown. Maybe it is not the most impressive statline, but averaging six yards per carry with an offensive line that is still developing and building chemistry is nothing to scoff at. Granted, Vanderbilt’s offensive line will face much more difficult defensive fronts soon, but Alexander’s start to the season was a nice one.
Expect plenty of more opportunities from Alexander the rest of the season. Vanderbilt’s running game is going to involve more work placed on Alexander’s plate as well as his running back running mate MK Young.
“I put my trust in my coaches and whatever they call. We’re going to run the play, we’re going to try to do the best we can do to accomplish the play, whatever yards we need to get,” Alexander said postgame.
Did starting quarterback Blaze Berlowitz play bad overall against Austin Peay? No. Was he deserving of the boos the fans were giving him and the offense? No. But the play calling Vanderbilt went with when Berlowitz was in the game is why Berlowitz needs to show more after Week 1.
Berlowitz completed 11 of his 16 passes for 149 yards. It was a performance that does not produce an extreme or defined reaction one way or another. It was a fine performance from Berlowitz. However, he did not throw the ball down the field against Austin Peay. He did have completions to wide receiver Junior Sherrill for 31 and 27 yards, but it was on crosser routes that were within 10 yards down the field.
There were no deep shots down the sideline or even 20 or 25-yards throws down the field over the middle. Maybe Vanderbilt was being ultra conservative in its playcalling to perhaps limit what is on tape. But it is certainly fair to wonder why Berlowitz did not get chances to get a couple stabs down the sidelines.
If Berlowitz comes back against Delaware, assuming he plays or starts, and shows the ability to produce passes down the field then it will be a more positive discussion on Berlowitz’ arm talent. For now, though, Vanderbilt’s ability to be explosive offensively seems limited.
Vanderbilt wide receiver Brycen Coleman was listed as the No. 2 receiver on the depth chart going into the Austin Peay game. He only had one reception for seven yards and it was the only time he was targeted in the game.
Part of that was because Vanderbilt ran the ball quite a bit during the game, but to only be targeted once on 25 throws from Vanderbilt quarterbacks as the second-best receiver according to the depth chart is not the way Coleman probably wanted to start the season.
During fall camp, Vanderbilt coaches felt that Coleman is a guy that can pose a threat to defenses downfield. And they have a point given that he is 6-foot-5 and has a big frame that can catch 50/50 balls. Coleman’s performance was underwhelming to start the new campaign, though.
However, he can find redemption next week against Delaware.
This is just more so something to monitor and easily something that could be just a one week thing, but starting STAR Carson Lawrence did not record a tackle against Austin Peay. Lawrence was also the one that got beat against Austin Peay wide receiver Denver Harper for a touchdown on the first defensive drive of the game.
For a player that won the starting role at STAR Week 1 over Mason Lewis and Jailen Ruth, Lawrence is going to have to show more going forward.
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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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