People around the nation — people who care about college football, that is — are buzzing about Notre Dame’s extreme makeover with Ian Book at quarterback. Book was a straight-A student who read Wake Forest’s defense like a first-grade children’s story on Saturday. The Irish looked like a completely different team with their new quarterback in place. Brandon Wimbush, who faced Vanderbilt the week before, is almost certain to remain the backup for the rest of the season–presuming he doesn’t transfer. College football fans are noticing the transformation in Notre Dame, which makes it easy for them to think that Vanderbilt’s near-upset of the Irish doesn’t really mean anything.
By Matt Zemek
“Ian Book would have beaten Vanderbilt by 30,” some Irish fans surely said when the Notre Dame-Wake Forest game went final on Saturday afternoon.
Right after the Notre Dame game ended, Vanderbilt’s game with South Carolina began in Nashville.
This was a chance for the Commodores to show that they really were almost as good as Notre Dame, that they really were a good team capable of achieving at a substantial level. This was a chance for Kyle Shurmur to carry his good performance in South Bend to the following week. It was a chance for him to build on an encouraging effort against South Carolina last season and take the next step.
This was a chance for Vanderbilt to get into a “street fight,” as head coach Derek Mason hoped this game would become, and show that it could put up its dukes, take a stand, and move upward in an SEC East which, after Georgia, is very fluid. This was a chance for Vanderbilt to make the kind of statement Kentucky made later on Saturday in the SEC against Mississippi State.
This was a chance to accomplish so many objectives and dramatically change the trajectory of this season, at least offering some cause for hope.
And then came South Carolina’s front lines, especially on defense.
The Gamecocks have Deebo Samuel, and other teams don’t. This would seem to offer South Carolina more than enough reason to develop a finesse-oriented offense in which spreading the field and letting it fly are the cornerstones of the attack. But that’s not how Will Muschamp approaches football. He still wanted to sledgehammer Vanderbilt’s defense, establishing the run and gaining both a territorial and psychological advantage. He probably wanted to send a message to his own team about the importance of toughness after Georgia bludgeoned the Gamecocks in Week 2. When the Week 3 game against Marshall was wiped out by Hurricane Florence, South Carolina gained an unexpected week off, and in that week off, Muschamp clearly wanted to impart an important point about being the tougher team on the field.
That point resonated against Vanderbilt.
Kyle Shurmur needed to be better — much better — than he was on Saturday, but it is hard to place the blame at the feet of the quarterback when his running game gets swallowed up and he is running for his life. Vanderbilt couldn’t even hit 100 yards of rushing against the Gamecocks, and Shurmur rarely had a clean and comfortable pocket to step into. South Carolina quarterback Jake Bentley wasn’t particularly impressive in this game, and if put in Shurmur’s shoes, he probably wouldn’t have been any better. The difference wasn’t the man under center. The difference was the group of men assigned to protecting the quarterback and creating holes for running backs. One line answered the call, while the other didn’t. One stood tall while the other was overpowered.
Vanderbilt had no place to go, nowhere to hide, against a physically superior team.
Notions that the Notre Dame game could become a building block for this team were torn down and reduced to rubble.
Mason and offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig must go back to the drawing board — that is bad enough after a home-field conference opener. What is worse is that with Florida and Kentucky displaying highly competent and effective defensive lines, the task for Vanderbilt’s offensive line will not become any easier in the SEC East as this season moves along.
Mason wanted a street fight, but this offense doesn’t seem ready or equipped to engage in that style of bare-knuckle combat. South Carolina ditched finesse and opted for fists and body blows. Two teams shared a general philosophy on Saturday, but only one was able to justify and validate its approach.
Vanderbilt walks away from this game needing to consider how the style of its offense might change. Same old, same old doesn’t seem likely to cut it in an SEC East where defense comes first.
I am sure that Derek Mason hoped that by playing Notre Dame in Week 3, being exposed to a physical style of play — that’s how the Fighting Irish want to play — would pay dividends the following week against South Carolina. The fact that the scheduling move did not pay off, much as the Kansas State game did not pay off in Week 3 of the 2017 season, makes it important to arrive at this realization for future schedules (the ones Vanderbilt hasn’t yet arranged or finalized): If the SEC season does begin in Week 4, schedule the sexy non-conference opponent in Week 2. Allow time to breathe in Week 3.
South Carolina didn’t allow the Commodores to come up and get air this past weekend.
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