Vanderbilt Football put itself on the map last weekend in a come-from-behind upset of the Virginia Tech Hokies. This weekend, it kept itself on the map thanks to a 55-0 drubbing of the Alcorn State Braves. The Commodores were led by a balanced ground game, with four different players rushing for over 50 yards.
“We want to prove ourselves. A lot of people were surprised to see the way this team played last week, and we don’t want to give up that spotlight,” head coach Clark Lea said postgame. “We’re in a ‘prove it’ mindset and there’s a mentality that’s fueling us.”
Vanderbilt opened the game as a heavy favorite and certainly played like it. After winning the coin toss and deferring to Alcorn State, Lea’s defensive unit went right to work. Familiar faces from last week’s win, Bryan Longwell and CJ Taylor, made some key tackles early on to force a quick three-and-out.
With that, the ball was back in red-hot Diego Pavia’s hands, and he wasted no time executing offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s strategy. The Commodores ran the ball on seven of their first eight plays, highlighted by 12 and 9-yard gains from Pavia and Sedrick Alexander, respectively. The drive ultimately stalled out, and kicker Brock Taylor drilled a 35-yard field goal to give Vanderbilt the lead. The drive, while it didn’t end in the seven points that Lea might’ve wanted, was exactly what the Commodores strive for every time they get the ball — they chewed 7:55 off of the clock.
Alcorn State found some early success on its next drive as quarterback Tyler Macon found Tavarious Griffin for a first down, but things went downhill for the Braves from there. Pressure from Nick Rinaldi and Miles Capers forced Macon to throw the ball up, and CJ Taylor — who dropped a would-be interception last week — made him pay. The superstar safety plucked the ball out of the air and returned it all the way to the Alcorn State 17-yard line.
Vanderbilt needed just one play to make the Braves pay for their mistake. After receiving a flea flicker from Pavia, Eli Stowers hit a wide-open Cole Spence in the end zone for a 17-yard score. Spence, the Commodores’ largest offensive weapon at 6’7, didn’t record a reception on opening weekend. The junior tight end wasted little time making his mark on this one and gave his squad an early 10-0 lead.
“We’ve been working on [the flea flicker] all week. [Stowers] threw a great ball, which makes sense, since he used to be a quarterback,” Spence said after the game.
On the ensuing drive, Vanderbilt’s defense seemed to force another quick three-and-out before a holding call on third down kept the Braves’ offense on the field. Their fortune only lasted for so long, as Prince Kollie and Taylor got into the backfield for a huge stop on third-and-one.
Martel Hight received an Elijah Gorman punt and turned the jets on immediately, making multiple defenders miss on a flashy 34-yard return. His efforts set the ‘Dores up inside enemy territory on the 46-yard line, and his offense marched right down the field.
“I thought Martel was our top performer tonight. He made a huge difference,” Lea said. “The difference he can make as a returner, it showed up tonight. You gotta credit that punt return unit. He’s a guy that a year ago was kind of forced into action.”
Pavia worked the ball around to his transfer wideouts early, finding Dariyan Wiley (Nevada) and Loic Fouonji (Texas Tech) for eight and 10-yard gains, respectively. With Vanderbilt nearing the red zone, it turned to sophomore running back AJ Newberry, who rushed three times for 24 yards. Ultimately, though, it was Pavia who found paydirt from a bevy of space on the left side of the field. He walked in for a five-yard score.
Halfway through the second quarter, the newly-furbished scoreboard in the north end zone showed the same score as last week: 17-0 in favor of Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt’s defense flashed its muscle once again as it forced a three-play, zero-yard drive from the Braves and got the ball right back to the offense. Before Pavia and Co. could take take over, though, Hight made another critical play on special teams. This time, the sophomore cornerback found an opening in the middle of the field and sped through for a 28-yard return.
Methodical as ever, Vanderbilt cruised into the end zone thanks to four straight rushes from Alexander, the last of which was a two-yard scamper to extend the lead to 24 points.
A miscue on the kick return from Alcorn State’s Terrick Latham left the Braves inside their own five-yard line, where they could once again do nothing offensively. Another fruitless drive from the Braves gave the Commodores the ball back with the hopes of extending their lead to four scores.
Beck’s offense worked itself across midfield thanks to some superhuman efforts from true freshman wide receiver Tristen Brown. Brown hauled in 3 receptions for 27 yards, including a ridiculous one-handed catch with a defender draped all over him. The drive ultimately stalled out after a holding call negated a fourth down conversion, but Taylor came up clutch again, drilling a 45-yard field goal right before halftime to make the score 27-0.
The story of the first half was one of dominance at the line of scrimmage. Vanderbilt’s offensive line looked unstoppable through the first 30 minutes of this game, creating running lanes all over the field for Pavia and his backfield mates. The Commodores rushed 22 times for 122 yards and 2 scores in the first half, sticking with their ground-and-pound style of offense.
Vanderbilt looked even more unstoppable on the other side of the line of scrimmage, as Alcorn State managed just five rushing yards (12 attempts) in the first half — a meager 0.4 yards per carry. The passing game didn’t fare much better, as the Braves completed just 4 passes for 23 yards while also giving away the aforementioned Taylor interception. The Braves earned just two first downs through the game’s opening half as Vanderbilt’s defense gave them absolutely no room to breathe.
Junior Sherrill started the second half with a nifty 37-yard return on the kickoff, but the Commodores couldn’t add to their lead early in the third quarter. After stringing together a handful of first downs, back-to-back sacks would force punter Jesse Mirco onto the field for the first time.
A quick defensive stop gave the ball right back to the offensive unit. After a couple of nice runs, Pavia found Sherill — the sophomore speedster’s first catch of the game — for a 17-yard gain. On the very next play, Newberry flashed his game-changing speed on a 20-yard touchdown scamper up the middle of the field. The sophomore runner broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage before finding space in the middle of the field and cashing in for his first career score. As time dwindled in the third quarter, the Commodores were seemingly unstoppable, leading 34-0.
The Braves closed out the third quarter with back-to-back false start penalties, ultimately punting back to Vanderbilt in the fourth’s opening minutes. With the game securely out of reach for Alcorn State, backup quarterback Nate Johnson stepped in for Pavia and made an immediate impact. Johnson flashed his own unbelievable speed with a 56-yard rushing touchdown up the right sideline to help the ‘Dores eclipse 40 points.
The next two Commodores to touch the football ended up finding paydirt. Another stop from the defense forced an Alcorn State punt, which Hight took to the house on a 57-yard return. On a night where he dominated in the return game, Hight spoke through his process.
“It’s a game of tag for me,” Hight said. “I look down, look up and make sure that I have enough time to return the punt, and then it’s a game of tag.”
After the extra point and kickoff, the Braves looked to get something positive going. That went out the window when Taco Wright jumped the passing lane on quarterback Roderick Hartsfield Jr.’s attempted screen, dragging a tackler with him into the end zone and completing a pick-six. With 12 minutes still left to play, Vanderbilt led 55-0.
The rest of the game remained relatively uneventful, with Vanderbilt’s defense holding its ground and completing the shutout. In the end, the new-and-improved unit held the Braves to 71 total yards, making Saturday the first time since 2003 that Vanderbilt has held an opposing offense to under 100 yards.
The 55-point win was the Commodores’ largest margin of victory since 2012 (58-0) against Presbyterian. They’ll look to ride their momentum into a Week Three road clash with the Georgia State Panthers on Sept. 14 at 6:00 p.m. CDT.
