Scouting Report: Vanderbilt

Texas will look to rebound from their first loss of the season when they travel to Nashville to take on an improved Vanderbilt team that cracked the top 25 this week. The Commodores already have one massive upset on their resume, knocking off Alabama earlier this month in the biggest win in program history. Fourth-year head coach Clark Lea has Vanderbilt sitting at 5-2 and in position for their first bowl game since 2018.

Offense

Vanderbilt’s turnaround can largely be linked to plucking a trio of guys out of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Former New Mexico State head coach Jerry Kill joined the Commodores as an analyst and also brought along his QB Diego Pavia and offensive coordinator Tim Beck. The duo of Beck and Pavia have transformed the Vanderbilt offense into a dangerous attack with a lot of triple-option-type elements. Pavia is completing 66.2% of his passes with 11 touchdowns and only 1 interception while also leading the Commodores in rushing with 470 yards. He is the backbone of the entire offense and will carry a heavy load on Saturday.

Vandy’s traditional rushing attack is led by Austin native Sedrick Alexander, who has 95 carries for 380 yards and 5 touchdowns. His backup is also a Texas native in AJ Newberry (30 carries for 147 yards).

The Commodores only have 2 receivers with over 12 receptions on the year. The passing offense primarily goes through TE Eli Stowers, who also transferred from New Mexico State. Stowers started his career as a QB at Texas A&M but has found his home at TE and is having a fantastic season (33 catches for 426 yards).

The Vanderbilt offensive line is extremely experienced. The starting 5 left-to-right go: redshirt junior-5th year senior-6th year senior-senior-5th year senior. The unit has allowed 11 sacks on the year. Their jobs are made easier by the offense being run and Pavia’s improvising skills.

Defense

The Vanderbilt defense benefits greatly from an offense that slows down the pace and dominates time possession because the counting stats for the Commodores’ defense are not very good. Vandy ranks in the bottom half of the SEC against the run and pass.

No single player for Vanderbilt has more than 1.5 sacks, with the unit totaling 14 sacks overall (2 per game, ranking 49th nationally). Miles Capers is probably the best pass rusher of the group but missed last week’s game with an injury.

Middle linebacker Langston Patterson also did not play against Ball State but Lea made it seem like on Monday that the second-leading tackler would be back on Saturday against the Longhorns.

Vanderbilt has some good individual pieces in the secondary but teams have found plenty of success through the air. The Commodores rank 97th nationally in opposing passer rating and are also surrendering 7.7 yards per attempt. Safety duo CJ Taylor and De’ricky Wright are solid in run support but have struggled in the passing game.

One thing to remember is that Vanderbilt played one of the worst FBS teams in the country last week, Ball State. How much practice time did Lea and the staff use to get a head start on Texas? The Longhorns can expect new looks and wrinkles on both sides of the ball.

Final Thought

The path for a Vanderbilt victory has already been laid out this season against Alabama. Dominate time of possession, convert on 3rd and 4th down and keep a shaky Vandy defense off the field. We will see if Clark Lea’s crew can replicate that path again.

It’s hard to overstate how important this game is for Quinn Ewers and the Texas offense. Vandy has looked shaky against any competent offense they have faced. If Ewers is unable to get on track this Saturday, the alarm bells are going to start ringing.