Whew!
That simple expression of relief captures the mood in and around the Vanderbilt program after Week 9 of the college football season.
By Matt Zemek
We talked about this over the past two months. It was clear that Arkansas represented the last particularly good chance in this midseason stretch — before the November finishing leg — to get to four wins and set up an Ole Miss-Tennessee double in the final two weeks to reach 6-6 and make a bowl game.
Not only did Vanderbilt notch that crucial fourth win; the offense, which had been shackled against Georgia and Kentucky and had hardly been a model of consistency this season, found a winning formula and decisive plays against a weak defense which was there for the taking.
That formula started with Ke’Shawn Vaughn, by far Vanderbilt’s most exciting and explosive offensive playmaker, who scored three touchdowns and was a beast against the Hogs. Vaughn might have gotten more carries in previous weeks, but injuries held him back, and while it was and is natural to criticize the coaching staff for not giving him enough touches, the reality of injuries should always be taken into consideration as a cautionary element. Clearly, Vaughn was fully fresh and supremely prepared for this Arkansas game. As the season points to the finishing stretch, Vaughn is rested and has not been overworked or taken too many hits. He can give VU the offensive firepower it will need to win that Ole Miss-Tennessee double, and maybe even pull off a surprise against Missouri before the final homestand.
Beyond the fact that Vaughn burst into another, higher level of productivity, what was also encouraging about this game is how Andy Ludwig — who, for those who have read my columns on VU over the past few years, has not been one of my favorite offensive coordinators — finally had a great game between the headsets. Ludwig seized on a weakness in Arkansas’ defense and kept going back to it, as any good coordinator should. The screen game was kryptonite for the Razorbacks, and instead of trying to be too cute or clever, Ludwig went to his bread and butter until Arkansas showed it could stop it.
The Hogs never did. Vanderbilt kept piling on the points on a day when the defense wasn’t in lockdown mode.
Styles make fights and matchups determine reactions. Against Kentucky, Vanderbilt found itself in a rock fight, because EVERY Kentucky game in 2018 is a rock fight. Against Arkansas, a shootout emerged.
The good teams will get into any style of game — the video game with huge offensive numbers, the street brawl with no room for flashy plays, or something squarely in between — and win most of the time. They will show they can handle multiple sets of circumstances. Vanderbilt didn’t sweep this Kentucky-Arkansas pair of polar opposite games, but it didn’t go 0 for 2, either. Getting a split offers encouragement that VU can adjust and develop on the fly, showing the nimbleness which wasn’t always in evidence at earlier points in the season, and hasn’t generally been in evidence — particularly from Ludwig and the offensive staff — during Mason’s rocky and uneven tenure in Nashville.
Missouri and Ole Miss promise wide-open football, while Tennessee could be closer to the street fight Kentucky provided. If Vanderbilt can win a majority of those three remaining tests, it will achieve its season’s foremost goal. It is fitting that VU needs to go 2 of 3 down the stretch, because winning most of the time against relatively equal opponents is exactly the kind of challenge this 2018 team needs to master… and which future Vanderbilt teams have to get a better handle on.
This win against Arkansas — particularly the killer-instinct play selection from Ludwig and the enlarged scope and scale of production from Vaughn — offers the first especially resounding piece of evidence that yes, VU can figure it all out before its 12 games are over.
If that happens, a bowl game will exist in this program’s future, and Mason — while not a man who is surpassing expectations — can legitimately say that the VU program is avoiding the sense of erosion which seemed and felt a lot more pronounced at the end of 2017.
Hope? Yes. Maybe it doesn’t exist to the extent Commodore fans envisioned at the start of 2017, but it exists in a much larger supply compared to a week ago. For now, Vanderbilt, Mason and Ludwig will take that.
Let’s see if they — like Ke’Shawn Vaughn in the open field — can run with that momentum into and through November.
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