Know the foe: Digging deep on the very hot Vanderbilt Commodores
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BamaInsider.com managing editor Kyle Henderson asked five key questions about the very hot 3-0 Vanderbilt Commodores for Saturday's contest, and Chris Lee of Vandy Sports answers them.
1. What Makes Vanderbilt's Defense Go?
It's a combination of a bunch of things.
First, coach Derek Mason needed a few years to get the kinds of players he wanted in terms of size and speed. To keep it simple, Mason wants big guys who can run. Look across the field--there's 6-foot-5 Jonathan Wynn at one end, 6-foot-5 Nifae Lealao in the middle of the line, 6-foot-3 Oren Burks at middle linebacker, 6-foot-3 corner JoeJuan Williams locking down one side of the field, and guys behind them like a pair of true freshman defensive linemen in 6-foot-6 Dayo Odeyingbo and 6-foot-4 Jalen Pinkney.
And these guys are fast. Maybe not Alabama fast, but fast enough to play at a high level, for sure.
Second, they're smart, and they're mostly his guys. Mason talked on Tuesday about how the defense can now understand two or three times what it could when it got there. Mason admitted he threw too much at them in Year 1. He pulled back and gradually started challenging them with more info again, and here we are.
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On the field, you see that play out in multiple ways beyond what I've said. What you're seeing with VU's pass defense is that Mason now has guys like 6-foot-3 Charles Wright and 6-foot-2 Dare Odeyingbo who can really get after the passer, and guys like Williams, Tre Herndon, Ryan White, Arnold Tarpley and LaDarius Wiley who can really cover--even when VU couldn't get pass rush against Kansas State, quarterback Jesse Ertz simply ate the ball after having an eternity to throw because nobody was open.
Vanderbilt has not been tested with athletes like Alabama's and we should rightfully suspend some judgment until then, but right now it's very, very difficult to find the flaws.
2. How much culture change has there been since the arrival of Derek Mason?
A bunch.
As much credit as James Franklin deserves for building a foundation for success--and Franklin is a phenomenal coach who deserves every bit of credit for Vandy's back-to-back Top 25 finishes--he also left Mason with a mess. He brought in four recruits who are now all in prison due to a terrible on-campus rape scandal. While that gets pushed under the rug at a lot of places, Vanderbilt takes those things really seriously.
That one scandal alone absolutely wrecked progress with funding football, and is primarily responsible for the fact that Vanderbilt has not renovated a stadium that, as Alabama fans will discover on Saturday, is absolutely in need of major work.
Vanderbilt has always had easier admissions standards for athletes than is the public perception; while VU can't get in kids that some other SEC schools can, the standards are reasonable and the Commodores have benefitted from getting kids that could not get into Stanford. But at the same time, it's made Mason super-careful about the kind of kid he recruits, because he knows he can't afford a mis-step.
As a result, Mason has built a program that's free from distractions and one that will run through a brick wall for him. Attrition has been really low. Throw in the fact that he appears to be a good talent evaluator for the particular situation at Vanderbilt--yes, that means better than Franklin in that regard--and you're seeing things fall into place for Mason in his fourth year.
3. Tell us about the quarterback Kyle Shumur
Shurmur may be the most under-appreciated player in the Southeastern Conference right now. Public perception is that he's a game manager, but that does the former four-star recruit and son of NFL offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur a bit of a disservice.
Shurmur is not mobile, but everything else is there. He's making tough throws across the hash marks. He's excellent at throwing the deep ball. He has freedom to make calls and change plays at the line of scrimmage now. His footwork is better. His arm is not Jay Cutler's, but it's plenty good enough.
His best attribute, though, is his accuracy. He puts the ball exactly where he wants to put it time and time again. He's now thrown 69 passes, with eight going for touchdowns and no interceptions, and there haven't been a lot of near-picks that I remember.
Shurmur entered 2017 as VU's most indispensable player because there isn't an experienced back-up behind him. Through three games, I'd argue that he's the team's MVP, too.
4. How confident is Vanderbilt coming into this game?
Probably more confident than people think. This is a team that truly believes in itself.
Of course, the great philosopher Mike Tyson once said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." So I'm not sure how much that really means until we see how Saturday plays out.
5. What does Vanderbilt need to do to beat Alabama?
Play the kind of football that it's played all year. That's avoid turnovers (one Ralph Webb fumble is the only in three games), make plays downfield in the passing game, get after the passer, force turnovers.
Again, those things are all really simple until you line up and face Alabama, so we'll see.
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