Thoughts on Vandy's 38-28 road WIN over Northern Illinois

[BrentVU]

Wow, wow, wow! OK, I want to focus on two plays that were pivotal:

(1) Early in the second half, NIU had taken a 28-14 lead after running 51 yards up Vandy's middle for a TD and a subsequent Jayden McGowan fumble. Vandy's defense had finally stopped NIU on third down (for the first time), and NIU attempted a fake punt-- and it caught Vandy completely flat-footed. (A bad play by Vandy's defense; another by Vandy's offense, and now a bad one on special teams... that's what you call complementary football, gentlemen.)

But wait! One of the Huskies' protectors held the lone Vandy guy who rushed-- which was totally unnecessary, because Vandy's lone rusher wasn't going to block the punt. But that one bonehead mistake turned the game around. Instead of NIU keeping the ball, Vandy would get the ball back and go on to score 24 unanswered points. If that guy doesn't hold, NIU retains the ball and the momentum, and I don't know what might have happened.

(2) A.J. Swann, making his first start in the fourth game of his college career, made a SportsCenter-worthy pass to Ray Davis, a Johnny Manziel-type play the likes of which I'm not sure I've seen from a Vandy QB EVER... I could watch it over and over...

This from a young man who was starting for Cherokee High School this time last year, the guy whom Clark Lea persuaded to flip his commitment from Maryland-- he threw for four TD's and 255 yards in his starting DEBUT. Will Sheppard, who now has someone who can get him the ball consistently, had a dazzling game also. The offensive line (which got one guy back but lost two others) nonetheless dominated NIU and opened up holes and consistently allowed Davis and Chase Gillespie about 5 yards per carry.

And the hyenas on defense, which gave up touchdowns on NIU's first four possessions, finally found their groove. Twice, the NIU coach made the bonehead decision to go for it on fourth-and-short deep in their own territory, and Vandy came up with big stops. So many players caught my eye: Darren Agu had his best game yet; Ja'Dais Richard filled in capably for Jaylen Mahoney (who went out with an injury); Tyson Russell and Jeremy Lucien had solid games at corner. All of these guys are new to their positions this year. Michael Owusu had the play of the night, and De'Rickey Wright came up with the INT that sealed the win.

The guys are flat buying in to what Coach Lea has been selling. All week the mantra has been about reacting positively to adversity, and doing what they did Saturday is something that will serve as a paramount object lesson. As a fan, it was a lot of fun to see the team rescue a game off the trash-heap and turn it into a big win. I envy those who got to see it in person; I didn't.

Coach said later the idea in starting Swann over Wright was about getting the ball to the perimeter and preventing defenses from crowding the box. What's unspoken is that Swann simply has the most reliable arm, and an unshakable confidence that's hard for anybody else to match. I doubt we've seen the last of Wright... it's a big thing for a coach to bench a junior who's a captain in favor of a true freshman, and we can only hope that Wright and his teammates will handle this the right way. But everyone loves to win. If Swann goes on from here to legendary status, let the record show the legend was born in Dekalb, Illinois.

Please don't remind me who we're playing next. I'm going to enjoy this one for at least 24 hours. This was a really memorable comeback win.

And that guy who bet $4,000 on the "over" for Vandy and 2.5 wins? He's gotta be a happy man today.

[BrentVU]

OK, I realize I am remiss to mention that NIU lost its QB Rocky Lombardi to an injury, and that was a huge break that went against the Huskies. Vandy never stopped NIU with Lombardi in the game. But for a while Vandy's defense wasn't stopping the backup either... until they finally seemed to step things up about midway through the third quarter.

Luck always helps, and Lombardi's injury and the NIU coach's Widenhofer-esque calls certainly didn't hurt us. We'll take it.

[alathIN]

I am sorry to see Wright lose his job because there is a lot to like about him.
But I don't see how you start anyone other than Swann at QB. He can make all the throws and keep the opposing defense from overplaying the run. They can't overplay anything because Swann can get the ball anywhere the defense isn't.

Of course he will make freshman mistakes and he will struggle mightily against Alabama and Georgia.
But I think there is enough offense to beat anyone else. My questions are about the defense.
Getting back healthy on the D line would help a lot.

It's obvious Lea and Co have leveled up the talent. There are a lot of freshmen and sophomores making plays.

You have to love Ray Davis. He has a lot of tools and can contribute in so many different ways.
I know he's a Senior - but does he get a covid year?

Love the fight back in this team.

[Vandy_Law07]

Cutler-esque performance out of Swann. I suppose no need to protect the young man when you're that good. On to the SEC...

[Johnmn555]

And this was his first start as a true freshman!?! It's staggering, really. Sheppard wasn't even particularly open a lot of the time and he still got it to him. Now, against SEC competition he's going to throw into some coverage and get burned sometimes, but make no mistake, we've got something special.

[charlestonalum]

I'd like to commend our coaches for making the very difficult decision to change QB's. It was not a desperate paniced decision, but an analytical one with many emotional overtones. Wright seemed supportive and the offense responded. BRAVO!

[dore74]

Very encouraging for sure. With their starting QB still in there would have been quite a game I suspect. While their two fourth down runs may have been bad calls—we stopped them. Congrats to the D for that.
Our defense did much better once UNI lost its starter, but still gave up big plays. Teams with speedy receivers and decent QB’s will give us problems until we get more speed.
Our fourth down TD was one for the ages, the QB play and the reception.
We seemed well coached overall. Great to see
Did coach say why Wright didn’t start after affirming his first string status all week. Injury?

[buffy]

I watched his Thursday press conference and thought to myself, coach seems a little overly committed to framing Mike as our starting QB and overly nonchalant about what AJ did Saturday night. I guess he could have been trying to build Mike's confidence, but that just didn't match up with what logically needed to happen. Logically, you needed Swann to throw the ball a good bit against an equal opponent. It looks like they knew on Sunday what they wanted to do and this was just part of the strategy.

After, his press conference last night. It's clear who the starter is going forward. Him showing the ability to scramble in the game just makes the decision that much easier.

The question now is what can we do with Mike. A guy like that needs to be on the field for many reasons.

[charlestonalum]

Did coach say why Wright didn’t start after affirming his first string status all week. Injury?

The decision to start AJ was made after Wednesday's practice and according to Lea both players and I assume the team were informed and Thursday and Friday practices were with the new lineup, and better practices were a result. Have to commend Mike for being all in for the team. The decision was explained that there had been 6 quarters of unreliable offensive production and that Swann offered the best opportunity to spread the field and sustain drives. Proved effective at NIU, but Bama will be very different...

[VU1970]

We are just now getting a glimpse of where Coach Lea is taking Vanderbilt football. There will be some breakdowns and setbacks along the way, and a few teams we may not yet have the personnel to beat, but we will be competitive in more games than not from here on. Vandy fans are going to remember AJ Swann and Ray Davis for a long time.

[UltimateVUFan]

Re: getting snaps for Mike Wright, I mentioned in a post last week after Swann took over in the Wake game that I think it would be interesting to see Wright lined up opposite Ray Davis in a split back shotgun set with Swann as QB. Wright is still one of the most dangerous offensive players on the field due to his overall athleticism, speed, and solid vision. There are lots of unique ways the offense could attack the defense with Wright lined up in this manner. Not only do you open up lots of triple option plays, but Wright being another gunner in the backfield could be very hard to defend against. The real challenge would be coaching this up in a short amount of time when the team really didn’t plan to implement this offensive scheme from the outset. Still, I think it would be an intriguing and possibly unstoppable offensive experiment if utilized effectively. This film study post breaks it down for better than I can, but it’s what I was suggesting last week. It’s just hard to keep Wright on the sidelines all game. They need to use a player of his caliber.

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-sta ... formations

[buffy]

Did coach say why Wright didn’t start after affirming his first string status all week. Injury?

The decision to start AJ was made after Wednesday's practice and according to Lea both players and I assume the team were informed and Thursday and Friday practices were with the new lineup, and better practices were a result. Have to commend Mike for being all in for the team. The decision was explained that there had been 6 quarters of unreliable offensive production and that Swann offered the best opportunity to spread the field and sustain drives. Proved effective at NIU, but Bama will be very different...

Hmm. Interesting. I think we need to get Mike out there somehow. If we don't, we're foolish. Your best players need to play.

[Johnmn555]

Gotta get that clip board outta Mike's hands. He looks lousy in the ball cap!

In all seriousness, he's bigger and perhaps faster than most of our running backs, making the obvious question...

[VandyD]

Most of the time teams don't play back up QBs because then both guys could get hurt. However, Vandy is in the unique position where their 3rd string QB is not only capable but has the most starts of the three. I wonder if you don't show it versus Bama since chances are it does little to change anything. Then you have a bye week to implement how he can be used and try to catch Ole Miss off guard.

[Lynchsr]

A few additional thoughts from the stadium. I haven’t watched the replay so not sure what was shown or mentioned during the telecast.

Vandy’s defense
Tyson Russel (#8) is hands down our best/most athletic CB. He is the only CB the coaches trust to play press coverage. On TV it always seems VU’s CB give 7-10yd cushion. Not Tyson he played press most of the 2nd half.

We played pretty good all game on 1st and 2nd downs. We struggle to get off the field on 3rd downs.

The offsides on 4th and 3 was a self inflicted mental lapse. There was 2 or 3 other mental lapses. Would like to see Lea and the coaches get those worked out now in year 2. Still way better than the Mason era, but far from near where it should be for Vandy.

Someone please let the beast that was Osuwu on that 4th down stop loose more often. He explode off the line and looked like higher level player. Need more of that on 3rd downs.

At some point a switch flipped and the hyenas showed up in the 2nd half. It was noticeable when the energy level and quality of play got turned up. The players demeanor flipped and you could see the confidence. Very different from the first 37min of game time.

Offense
The offensive line was moving bodies around. There were some big holes. The pocket was pretty clean except for a few outnumbered blitzes.

AJ kept a few QB reads which were the correct call and vital to keeping the D honest. Amazing to see that in a freshman.

A few fans thought Mike Wright should have come in to the game in the 4th when we had to run some clock. Seems smart until the ball hits the turf because he is cold. I would prefer to see Mike in for the optionplays but need to mix them in thought out the game to keep him involved.

The best WR on the field was #8 for NIL regardless of Mahoney’s stats. Guy was faster than any person on our D plus ran a sharpe route. He was open a lot and consistently could convert the 3rd down for them.

Special teams:
I worry about VU’s kickoff coverage. Several were a tackle away from going to the house.

The fake punt. Was that a called fake? From the seats it seemed the punter made the right call as he was looking to punt it but there was only 1 VU player within 20th s of him and even then the VU players had there back to him. I thought it was a heads up play by the player not a called fake. Curious what the tv analyst thought