Vanderbilt Three Keys: Middle Tennessee

Three-keys-Vanderbilt

The Vanderbilt Commodores host Middle Tennessee to open the 2018 season on Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium. Here are your three keys to a Vandy victory.

By Don Yates

Pressure Stockstill

Quarterback Brent Stockstill has put up amazing numbers at MTSU. In three season he’s passed for 8,951 yards and 77 touchdown passes. Vanderbilt’s defense has done a great job the past three years of pressuring Stockstill and limiting his production against the Commodores. On Saturday the Vandy D needs to continue that trend. Last year in a 28-6 victory the Commodores limited the senior to just 18 of 31 completions for 166 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Under new defensive coordinator Jason Tarver look for the Vandy defense to blitz and then blitz some more. Stockstill is an accurate passer though, and can dump off passes for short gains. Better those than the longer versions.

Expose the secondary

MTSU lost both starting cornerbacks from a year ago. The Blue Raiders do have a fine safety in Reed Blankenship, who is all-conference quality but the Commodores may be able to exploit Middle with some deep passes. It would be nice to see Kyle Shurmur test the waters early with some deep passes to Kalija Lipscomb or others.

Don’t overlook Middle

This was a big problem in the early 2000s when Vandy lost three straight to the Blue Raiders, three straight in Vanderbilt Stadium. The Blue Raiders were bouncing off the walls to play Vandy while the Commodores really had nothing to gain and everything to lose. And lose they did. The rivalry doesn’t seem to be as heated now on both sides. Middle is no longer looking up at Vanderbilt, or looking up as much at least. Middle has beaten teams from the ACC, SEC and Big Ten. Still, with Vandy now at three straight wins, it could be possible for Middle to pull out a win in Vanderbilt Stadium on Saturday. Most services predict a pretty evenually matched game. It would not be far fetched for this to be some sort of mental trap game for Vandy. They’ve got to overcome any notion that they just have to step on the field to win. It’s going to be a battle from start to finish.

More on Middle.

They are without their best receiver from a year ago, Richie James. They do return their other starting receivers along with Tavares Thomas, their starting running back. Overall, Middle returns nine starters on defense and eight on offense.

This is the last game in the series for now. Head coach Rick Stockstill of MTSU said in a recent press conference that he wanted the series to continue. Previously I was against Vandy ever playing Middle but I’ve since changed my mind. I think the game is nice because it gives both fan bases an opportunity to travel to an away game without needing to drive for hours. Maybe VU could do a home and home with them every few years or even make it a permanent series. On the flip side, I’d like to see the Tulane-Vandy series renewed. Tulane is in the AAC which is a little more highly regarded than the Conference USA. Tulane has a new stadium and New Orleans is a wonderful city to visit. It makes sense to renew that longtime rivalry.

Saturday’s game kicks off at 6:30 pm CT and can be seen on the SEC Network.

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