Takeaways From Vanderbilt Football's 45-17 Win Over Kentucky

NASHVILLE---Vanderbilt football moved to 9-2 on Saturday as a result of its 45-17 win over Kentucky. The Commodores have now won two in a row heading into thier rivarly-week matchup with Tennessee.

Here's our takeaways from that outing.

That Diego Pavia’s best game at Vanderbilt and that’s saying something

Pavia really padded that Heisman Trophy case on Saturday, not only because he and his mom both struck the pose during the game.

The Vanderbilt quarterback knew that Saturday may be his final game at FirstBank Stadium and answered the call with a 517-yard performance that set the record for passing yards in a game from a Vanderbilt player. Pavia also completed 32 of his 38 passes and accounted for five touchdowns by the time this thing was settled.

It was a sharp and downright legendary performance from the Vanderbilt quarterback on his senior day.

It was fitting that Pavia’s night ended in a curtain call.

A downright dominant outing

Pavia’s curtain call was made possible by a dominant all-around performance by this Vanderbilt team. For as great as he was, the rest of Vanderbilt’s team did enough to earn their flowers too.

The Commodores out-gained Kentucky 604-315, won the time of possession battle 36:11 to 23:47 and embarrassed this Kentucky team in seemingly every way throughout the afternoon. The possibility that Kentucky would leave with a win on Saturday appeared to dissipate by the end of the first quarter.

It was the last time that this program has beat an SEC team by this much since the 2012 season when it took down Kentucky.

How about Vanderbilt’s defense getting its swagger back?

Vanderbilt’s defense was under fire enough coming out of its two games prior to the bye week that when Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea took the podium on Tuesday, he was asked whether he would step back into playcalling duties.

It appears as if Vanderbilt’s concerning defense had more to do with its lack of rest and health down the stretch than its real ability as a defense. Kentucky’s offense hasn’t been fantastic, but it put 38 points on Florida a few weeks back and certainly wasn’t a pushover.

Vanderbilt held it to 17 points and realistically could have held it to far less than the 315 yards had Kentucky not put together 213 yards of offense in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game–which often saw its depth pieces take significant snaps.

Tre Richardson has perhaps his best game in the Vanderbilt uniform

Richardson set his goal at 300 offensive yards prior to this season and got over halfway there on Saturday night.

The Vanderbilt receiver accounted for 159 yards on Saturday night, caught six balls and caught three touchdowns. Two of Pavia’s best throws came on throws to Richardson, but the wide receiver’s heroics shouldn’t be entirely overshadowed.

Richardson has added an entirely new element to this Vanderbilt offense.

A few noteworthy numbers

As Linus Zunk, Bradley Mann and a few of Vanderbilt’s reserve defensive linemen stood in the south end zone and looked up at the scoreboard, they had a pretty sight to see.

Vanderbilt finished the regular season undefeated at home for the first time since 1982 and flashed a graphic on the jumbotron as a result. Vanderbilt’s senior class has dealt with plenty of losing, but went out the right way at FirstBank Stadium on Saturday.

The scoreboard also could’ve mentioned that this program picked up its ninth regular-season win for the first time since 1915.

Clark Lea’s defensive prognostication

Lea says that Vanderbilt’s defensive struggles in the past dealt mostly with its organization rather than the personnel he has.

The Vanderbilt defense allowed just 102 yards in the first three quarters of Saturday’s game and “returned to form” relative to its early-season performance, Lea says. That was perhaps the most encouraging comment the Vanderbilt head coach made on Saturday night.

If the Commodores’ defense really is back to form, it’s got a heck of a chance to go win at Tennessee next week.