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Vanderbilt football could play spoiler against Tennessee, playoff hope
Chaos reigned all through the SEC on Saturday evening.
An Oklahoma group that was monitoring to overlook a bowl recreation ended up upsetting Alabama in Norman. Ole Miss could not deal with the Swamp, getting dropped by Florida. Auburn beat Texas A&M in quadruple additional time.
These outcomes did a number of issues: First, they proved that within the SEC, any given group can win on any given evening. Second, they secured Georgia a spot within the SEC championship recreation. And third, they offered a a lot simpler path for No. 11 Tennessee to make the School Soccer Playoff — with one caveat.
Vanderbilt soccer has crushed Alabama this season. The Vols misplaced to Georgia and a 6-5 Arkansas group. The Commodores (6-5, 3-4 SEC) might play spoiler simply as Oklahoma and Florida did.
That does not change due to Vanderbilt’s 24-17 loss to LSU (7-4, 4-3) on Saturday evening, whilst considerations in regards to the Commodores’ offensive manufacturing and lack of cross rush have mounted. In any case, Oklahoma was seen as being and not using a pulse on offense earlier than it beat the Crimson Tide. Kentucky, Auburn and Florida have all appeared hapless at instances. Vanderbilt has performed 5 one-score video games in SEC play and performed the likes of Alabama, Texas and LSU all shut.
But when Vanderbilt desires to do the unthinkable and deal its rival a crushing blow, some issues are going to have to vary from what occurred in Baton Rouge.
What damage Vanderbilt
Missed tackles, as an example. The Commodores had probabilities to cease LSU’s first landing, however working again Josh Williams danced and broke by means of tackles. They struggled to constantly get strain on LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who threw for 332 yards and a landing. The Commodores had just one sack and nil quarterback hurries.
“They do job defending the quarterback,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea mentioned throughout a postgame radio interview. “They did that tonight. We weren’t in a position to get strain on him, and so he was capable of finding type of late checkdowns in our zone protection, we simply conceded slightly an excessive amount of house at instances, they usually gained by the margins.”
The Commodores did some good issues, although. They made a gutsy name for a faux punt — and never a conventional one, the place a ball is snapped to an up-back. Punter Jesse Mirco took the snap and ran all the way in which for the primary down on fourth-and-9. Offensive coordinator Tim Beck confirmed some trick performs earlier within the 12 months, too, and it appears fairly doable that Vanderbilt might cook dinner up one thing new for its largest rival.
For Vanderbilt, no cause to carry again
Regardless of not being at 100%, and regardless of being taken out a handful of instances for Nate Johnson, Diego Pavia threw for 186 yards, his second-most towards an SEC opponent this season after Alabama. He threw a 63-yard landing to Quincy Skinner and ran for a 36-yard acquire.
“Tim needed to take a shot,” Lea mentioned of the landing throw to Skinner, which got here on the primary play of Vanderbilt’s first drive. “We have not executed that this 12 months. And he got here to me earlier within the week and mentioned that was what he needed to do. And naturally, I used to be all for it. I felt like we would have liked to throw the primary punch on this recreation, and we positive did. It felt like the beginning of what was going to be a magical evening. Simply did not maintain.”
However in per week, there can be no cause to carry something again. The group may have a month off earlier than a bowl recreation. There are not any extra SEC opponents to cover the playbook from. It has each cause to be daring, and maybe it may discover a spark and maintain it.
It is not notably probably, after all. Tennessee has been ranked within the prime 10 many of the season for a cause. However what’s school soccer with out hope? One loopy Saturday evening within the SEC offered loads of it — for Vanderbilt and for each different group with one thing to show and a rival to hate.
OVERREACTIONSDiego Pavia ought to play your complete recreation, and extra overreactions from Vanderbilt soccer’s loss to LSU
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, previously Twitter, @aria_gerson.
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