How Vanderbilt Football Plans to Start Faster on Offense Going Forward

NASHVILLE — It felt like the perfect opportunity to strike first and strike fast a little over five minutes into Vanderbilt football’s game against Auburn Saturday.

An interception from Vanderbilt EDGE Miles Capers set Vanderbilt’s offense up pretty on the Auburn 23-yard line with a fresh set of downs. But a pre-snap penalty took it back to the 28-yard line and Vanderbilt went three-and-out from there and had to settle for a field goal. Sure, it was a 3-0 lead, but the Commodores had the perfect chance to go up 7-0 and put some early pressure on Auburn.

After that missed opportunity, Vanderbilt did not score until the beginning of the second half, where running back Sedrick Alexander capped off the first drive of the third quarter with a touchdown run.

By that point, though, Vanderbilt was already behind and was playing catch up. The week before against NC State, Vanderbilt did not score its first points until there were 12 seconds left in the first half and was already down 17-0.

It is no secret that Vanderbilt has to get off to faster starts on offense, especially this weekend against No. 2 Georgia. Failure to keep up with a national title contender in the first half will not produce the result the Commodores want at the end of the game.

As Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea stood at the podium for his weekly Tuesday press conference, he was honest about the solution to get off to a faster start on offense.

“I think the momentum and the fast start is going to begin with an effective run game and a commitment to that. And then clean play at the line of scrimmage so that we don’t have the self-imposed negatives and set us back,” Lea said.

A commitment to running the ball is perhaps what Vanderbilt has been needing. Down 17-0 early against NC State, Vanderbilt barely ran the ball to the point where running backs Sedrick Alexander and MK Young combined for just 11 carries. Those numbers improved against Auburn, with Alexander and Young combining for 21 carries but Curtis having 18 carries by himself.

Lea seems to think that giving Alexander only 11 carries in a SEC game is not where he wants his offense to be. He knows that number has to be higher and he would be right to think along those lines.

In fact, Lea pointed to Vanderbilt’s first offensive drive of the second half as what he would like to see from his offense from the get-go.

“If you look at the touchdown drive coming out of halftime, we were able to move the ball running the ball. And I think that opens up so much in the pass game because they’re just things defenses have to do when you’re running effectively,” Lea said.

The other part of that, however, is the play of the offensive line. Alexander and Young can possess all the talent they do but the running game depends heavily on the performance of the offensive line. The Vanderbilt offensive line has plenty of room to grow, which was evidenced by the penalties against NC State two weeks ago.

Against Auburn, penalties were not as much the story, but the false start penalty in the drive that came right after the Capers interception certainly did Vandebilt no favors. Still, the offensive line showed it has a lot of growth to do, especially in the run game. As a team, Vanderbilt averaged 2.7 yards per carry Saturday. That will not cut it in conference play.

Lea does seem self-aware of what his offense needs to do to start faster and he knows his team cannot live the rest of the season playing from behind every week. The question is whether his urgency will translate onto the field Saturday.

“We need to get a faster start. Had we been able to use the early defensive momentum in that game, we could have really grabbed control and put some pressure on Auburn. Unfortunately, we came away with three off the turnover and then surrendered a touchdown and then had the punt blocked,” Lea said. “ So yeah, we’re looking for a better start.”

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