Three Keys: How Vanderbilt Football Can Improve Out of Bye Week

NASHVILLE--Vanderbilt football has two weeks to prove that it's a College Football Playoff level team and it appears as if it will be rejuvenated when it gets back to the field for its matchups with Kentucky and Tennessee.

Here's a few thoughts on the significance of the bye week and what it could do for Vanderbilt football down the stretch.

Rejuvenation

This thing comes at the right time for this Vanderbilt team, it seems.

“It's going to be the best bye week we've ever had,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “Let's get freshened up and get rested. Then we'll shift our attention to Kentucky, and obviously got a two two game stretch run here at the end to close it out.”

Vanderbilt had a grueling four-game SEC stretch prior to the open date on its schedule and got out of it relatively healthy—at least in terms of long-term injuries—but it appeared as if its win over Auburn took everything it had. An illness that went around throughout the week didn’t make things any easier.

As Vanderbilt comes out of the bye week and faces Kentucky, it should be fresher and sharper than it was on Saturday.

Defense

Vanderbilt’s defense has seemingly lost a step relative to the beginning of SEC play. Its offense has been good enough for it to get away with that, but it’s got to find answers defensively if it’s going to make its way to the College Football Playoff.

“We will certainly look to evolve,” Lea said. “It's less about creating new things, more about like, what have we done? Well, sometimes there's too much on the sheet. Sometimes we're carrying a call over that we need to eliminate.”

There is reason to believe that some of the issues Vanderbilt has faced defensively are a result of wear and tear. They’ve also been uncharacteristic.

Vanderbilt’s pass rush has gone completely dead at times over the last few weeks, some of its most sure tacklers are missing, it’s giving up more explosive plays than it has.

Time for it to tune things up before an important final stretch.

Scripting, early energy

Vanderbilt has been impressive when playing from behind lately, but too often it’s come out and dug itself a hole early in games. It did it against Auburn and Texas.

The bye week gives offensive coordinator Tim Beck time to develop an effective script and Vanderbilt to evaluate how it took so long for Vanderbilt to get going the past two weeks.

If it can figure that out, it’s got a chance to be playing in the playoff when this is all said and done.