Kentucky football: Five things to know about the Vanderbilt Commodores
Five things to know about Kentucky football’s next opponent, the Vanderbilt Commodores:
1. James Franklin was an aberration
Reading off the records of Commodores football coaches over the past 45 years is not pretty. Here goes: Fred Pancoast (13-31) to George MacIntyre (25-52-1) to Watson Brown (10-45) to Gerry DiNardo (19-25) to Rod Dowhower (4-18) to Woody Widenhofer (15-40) to Bobby Johnson (29-66) to Robbie Caldwell (2-10) to James Franklin (24-15) to Derek Mason (27-52).
Which of these things is not like the other? It’s Franklin, of course, who did a remarkable job in Nashville, going 6-7 in 2011, 9-4 in 2012 and 9-4 in 2013. Franklin took the ‘Dores to three straight bowl games, including wins in the 2012 Music City Bowl and 2013 BBVA Compass Bowl before leaving for Penn State.
Unfortunately for Mason, he followed Franklin. The former Stanford defensive coordinator did take the Commodores to bowl games in 2016 and 2018, but he has not had a winning record since stepping on the Vandy campus. This year’s ‘Dores are 0-5 with losses to Texas A&M (17-12), LSU (41-7), South Carolina (41-7), Ole Miss (54-21) and Mississippi State (24-17).
COVID-19 has played a role in Vanderbilt’s struggles this year. The Commodores have dropped below the 53-player threshold on at least one occasion and had just 58 scholarship players available last week at Mississippi State. How will those factors figure into Mason’s job review with new Vandy AD Candice Storey Lee, well, we’ll see.
2. Vanderbilt is fresh off its best game of the year
It was still a loss, mind you, but the Commodores rallied from a 17-0 deficit to put a scare in the host Bulldogs before losing 24-17 at Mississippi State. The ‘Dores cut the lead to 17-14 with 12:27 to play on Keyon Henry-Brooks’ 27-yard touchdown run. State scored with 2:43 left to extend the lead to 24-14 before Vandy’s Pierson Cooke nailed a 41-yard field goal with 38 seconds left.
Vanderbilt outgained Mike Leach’s team 478-204. Mississippi State had a net minus-22 yards rushing, thanks to the crazy college statistical model that counts sack yardage as rushing yardage. Vandy’s undoing was committing five turnovers. Four belonged to true freshman quarterback Ken Seals, who was intercepted three times and lost a fumble.
Still, the performance was a notable improvement for the Men of Mason, who had been battered by LSU, South Carolina and Ole Miss. And the progress might have had something to do with No. 3.
3. Mason has two veteran but new coordinators this season
Offensive coordinator Todd Fitch has been OC at numerous stops, including Boston College, East Carolina, USF and Connecticut. He was Skip Holtz’s play-caller the past four seasons at Louisiana Tech before accepting Mason’s offer to come to Music City. Louisiana Tech was 36th in scoring offense (32.5 points per game) and 37th in total offense (436.8 yards per game) last year.
Defensive coordinator Ted Roof has been a DC just about everywhere, including Georgia Tech, Penn State and UCF, Auburn and Minnesota. Roof was the head coach at Duke from 2004-07. Auburn won the 2010 national title when Roof directed the defense for the Tigers.
Roof came to Nashville from Appalachian State where he was Eli Drinkwitz’s DC last year. Vandy is 82nd in total defense (440 yards per game) and 87th in scoring defense (35.4 points per game.) But as we said, the Commodores held MSU to 204 yards, so Roof’s system might be starting to stick.
Same with Fitch. After gaining less than 300 yards in each of its first three games, Vanderbilt gained 421 yards against Ole Miss and 478 against Mississippi State. Turnovers have been a killer. Vandy has turned the ball over 14 times, while getting just six takeaways.
4. Vanderbilt has young talent on offense
As we mentioned, Seals is a true freshman quarterback out of Azle, Texas. Through five starts, he has completed 110 of 164 passes (67.1 percent) for 1,066 yards and six touchdowns. The problem is Seals has thrown eight interceptions. It’s a learning curve for the young quarterback.
Seals has been helped by Henry-Brooks, the sophomore running back from Powder Springs, Ga. Henry-Brooks rushed for 115 yards on 20 carries against Mississippi State. He also caught 11 passes for 97 yards. On the year, Henry-Brooks is the team’s second-leading receiver with 20 catches for 207 yards. He has also averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
Junior Cam Johnson leads Vandy in receiving with 33 grabs for 338 yards and a touchdown. In his last two games, Johnson has caught 24 passes for 211 yards. From Brentwood, Tenn., Johnson has already topped his career high of 30 catches last season.
5. Vanderbilt has lost four straight to Kentucky
Mark Stoops has a 5-2 record against the Commodores. He’s 3-0 against Vanderbilt in Lexington, including a 14-7 win in 2018. UK won last year’s game 38-14 in Nashville.
The series seems to go in streaks. Before Kentucky’s four-game win streak, Vanderbilt won three straight from 2011-13. Kentucky won four straight from 2004-07 and from 1996-99. Vanderbilt won five straight from 1991-95, one of the reasons that cost Bill Curry his job during UK’s 1996 season.
Joker Phillips was 1-2 against the Commodores as Kentucky coach. His 40-0 loss to Vandy in a nearly empty Commonwealth Stadium cost him his job in 2012.
A Kentucky win Saturday would be UK’s longest streak over Vanderbilt since 1976-81 under Fran Curci.
This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
