Dooley’s Dozen: All you need to know about the Vanderbilt Commodores
Now that Florida is bowl eligible, the Gators are hoping that Vanderbilt is not next.
The Commodores need to win their last two games to get to six wins and play host to UF for a nooner in what should be a chilly stadium.
Billy Napier is trying to get his players to put freezing temperatures out of their minds. Mostly, he wants the Gators to stay hot after six quarters of elite defense and back-to-back victories in the SEC.
How this game affects Florida’s order in the bowl selections is irrelevant. This is about a team staying on its upward trend and finishing with a break-even conference record in Napier’s first year.
Let’s get to Dooley’s Dozen for today, 12 things you need to know about… the Vanderbilt Commodores (4-6, 1-5 SEC).
It’s a battle of founding fathers
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Florida and Vanderbilt were both among the 13 original members of the Southeastern Conference, now America’s most powerful, in 1933. Some of the push was led by John J. Tigert, the Florida president who played his football at – you guessed it – Vanderbilt from 1901-03.
Tigert, who also was instrumental in the building of Florida’s stadium, is one of nine players or coaches from Vanderbilt to be in the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Commodores aren’t big on bowls
Syndication: Nashville
In the history of a program that dates back to 1890, Vandy has only played in nine of them. The last one was in the Texas Bowl in 2018. James Franklin is the only Vanderbilt coach to take his team to three bowls, winning two of them.
We don’t need your stinking rankings
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These two teams have played 55 times, but never as ranked teams. Add this game to that mix, but it’s certainly not a Florida problem when we are talking history. Vandy has been ranked once when it played the Gators, in 1950 (Florida won in Nashville).
During that stretch of games, Florida has been ranked 35 times.
We’ve seen this story before
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Florida had a lot of streaks going in part because of its dominance in the SEC East during the 1990s and first decade of the 2000s. This is another one. Florida has won 30 of the last 31 against Vanderbilt (eight straight).
The only loss during that run came in 2013 when Franklin tricked the Gators into thinking Vandy was starting the quarterback who was injured by warming him up. That’s what he said anyway. It probably had more to do with [autotag]Tyler Murphy[/autotag]’s three interceptions.
It’s an interesting quarterback situation
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Remember when Vanderbilt brought Mike Wright to SEC Media Days and we were a little surprised? Wright started the first three games and was benched for four-star freshman AJ Swann. Swann suffered a “lower body injury” and missed the last game and Wright led the way to Vandy’s first SEC win after the ‘Dores went 0-for-26.
Head coach Clark Lea was responsible for half of those SEC losses, but Vanderbilt handled a fading Kentucky team 24-21.
So, we will see who plays the most
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Swann could be back for this game and leads the team in passing with 1,195 yards and 10 touchdowns. At 6-foot-4-inches, he is more of a drop-back passer while White, a junior also listed at 6-foot-4-inches, has been better at running the ball. He ran for 126 yards and threw for 184 against Kentucky in the win. Florida will prepare for both.
The coach used to be a baseball star
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Yep, Clark Lea was part of the 1001 NAIA Championship team at Birmingham Southern before transferring to Belmont in Nashville. He played fullback at Vanderbilt and has coached at places such as UCLA, San Diego State, Bowling Green, Syracuse and Wake Forest.
He became a hot coach as the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame from 2018-20. In two seasons at Vanderbilt, he is 6-16 and 1-13 in the SEC.
There will be Gators
Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun
We have seen it before when a visiting team takes over Vanderbilt’s stadium. It is now called FirstBank Stadium and still seats only 40,550, most of whom are rooting for the other side. There was a lot of chatter about the school building a new stadium, but the deal with FirstBank is for 10 years and Vanderbilt has announced a major financial commitment to modernizing the stadium.
Watch out for Will Sheppard
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It seems that Vandy always has a receiver that defenses have to double and in this case that would be Will Sheppard. The junior already has nine touchdown receptions this season and 52 catches for 708 yards. He had four catches for 45 yards in last year’s 42-0 loss in the Swamp. Sheppard is third in the SEC in receiving.
Those old comparative scores should be ignored
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As always. Every game is still its own game. But just for the sake of comparison, Vanderbilt lost to Georgia 55-0, Texas A&M 52-28, South Carolina 38-27 and Missouri 17-14. Of course, the Commodores also beat Kentucky one day after Lea’s 41st birthday. Vandy was able to pad its record early with wins over Hawaii, Elon and Northern Illinois.
The stats are not a good look
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Let’s start out with the turnover margin, where Florida is at plus-10. Vanderbilt is at dead-even with 10 fumbles recovered and 10 fumbles lost. The Commodores are 123rd on total defense in the country and last in the SEC. Vandy is also last in passing defense at 293.5 yards per game and last in scoring defense.
The key in facing this defense is handling linebacker Anfernee Orji, who leads the team with 93 tackles and has two fumble recoveries.
Then, there is the offense
George Walker IV / Tennessean.com
It’s a little better. Vanderbilt is 10th in total offense in the SEC and ninth in scoring. The Commodores are 13th in passing and ninth in rushing in the conference. There is a reason this team is 1-5 in SEC play, but there are also players like Ray Davis (860 rushing yards, fourth in the SEC). So, buckle up Gators and bring your extra socks.
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