The Vanderbilt Commodores football team opens its 2018 fall camp on Thursday afternoon. Look inside to get Don Yates’ exclusive thoughts on Vanderbilt football as we enter the happiest time of year.
Quarterbacks
I’ve never felt more confident about Vandy’s quarterback corps. We all know about senior Kyle Shurmur. He’s done nothing but improve every season he’s been at Vanderbilt. He’s set to do great things in his final season.
Then there’s in-state product Deuce Wallace. If anything happens to Shurmur, such as injury or disciplinary stuff (yeah, right), Deuce is waiting in the wings. He’s got the mobility and headiness to make plays in a crunch. He passed for 10,000 in high school and has the ability to make things happen at the college level.
Freshman quarterback Allan Walters is possibly the heaviest recruited quarterback prospect ever to sign with Vanderbilt. Committing to Vandy early on, he merited 4-stars but was snubbed after the early commitment and dropped to 3-stars. He’s the total package QB with solid passing skills and great mobility to avoid sacks.
Syracuse transfer Mo Hasan passed for 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns as a senior in high school. However, he’ll sit out this season due to NCAA transfer rules.
Defense I
Last year things went south defensively for Vanderbilt. I think juggling the head coaching and defensive coordinator responsibilities finally wore down Derek Mason. He made the right move in bringing in Jason Tarver to take over that position. During the season a head coach has a loaded schedule with teleconferences, the weekly press conference, and the call in show, to name a few.
I remember one weekly press conference where Mason showed up a half hour or so early. You could see the displeasure on his face when Mason was told that he was there early. The man was getting run ragged. Time was important. Tarver has worked with Mason in the past at Stanford and with good success. He will have much more time to scout opponents and work with his players than Mason did last season.
Defense II
Last year Vanderbilt’s defense allowed 64 more total points than the previous season. Also, consider that Vandy played one less game last season than 2016. A big problem for the defense was the inability to stop the run. Vandy allowed about 35 more yards a game on average on the ground compared to 2016. That may not seem like much but remember in football games are won and lost by inches.
Vanderbilt’s middle wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t as good as the 2016 defensive bunch. Although he didn’t weigh heavily statistically, in 2016 nose guard Adam Butler was a player that could disrupt opposing lines and open things up for linebackers such as Zach Cunningham. Interestly, both those players are now in the National Football League.
During the spring Vandy must find some bodies that can win trench battles. Dare Odeyingbo looks like a player that can get it done but after that things are sketchy. Rutger Reitmaier is a possibility to help out. There’s certainly more talent on the line than just those two. Linebacker should be okay. Charles Wright and Jordan Griffin are solid. Alston Orji, a true freshmen, may have the ability to play early. He was Vanderbilt’s heaviest recruited defensive player and is playing in a position of need.
Special Teams
After significant improvement in 2016, not sure what happened to Vandy’s special team last season. They were very poor and likely cost Vanderbilt a bowl. The inexplicable late shove of an opposing punter in a 7-point road loss to South Carolina still stings. Someone forgot the “I” in RTI. Vandy will have new kicking and punting specialists to go along with a new special team coach, Shawn Mennenga. It’s a fresh start for all involved. It won’t be too hard to improve over last season.
Fandom
I just can’t help but think about that Alabama game last year. Vandy was off to a 3-0 start and had things rocking and a home field advantage against a ranked Kansas State team the week prior. We have got to do better somehow at supporting our team at home. Sitting in that stadium against Alabama it was sad. Not just because of the score but because of the Crimson that was everywhere.
In the Communications field there is a theory of Social Proof which means that if you see a lot of people buying a certain product or supporting a certain cause you are likely to be more inclined to buy that product or support that cause. When a hometown fan decides to go to a Vanderbilt football game against Alabama and sits in a stadium that is 80 or 90 percent opposing fans, that does not bode well for the Social Proof Theory as applied to promoting interest in Vanderbilt athletics.
Vandy fans have to do their part but so does the University. If you are a fan try to buy extra tickets and bring friends, not opposing fans. If you are the University, sometimes a fire needs a little kindling to get going. We saw a few years ago with Vanderbilt was creative and created a home floor advantage for the women’s basketball team when they played Tennessee. That was a big success. I’d like to see a similar type thing done for at least one SEC home game every year. It’s an investment.
There is no better marketing than winning. I am convinced that when Vandy plays an opponent at home, and that opposing team comes into Vanderbilt Stadium and sees over half of the crowd is theirs, it lights a fire under them. People think Alabama was fired up over Nifae’s comments last year after the Kansas State win. Bama was even more fired up when they saw that sea of Crimson in a road venue. Where else have they ever seen that?
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