Demon Deacon linemen soak in the adulation of all 26 fans that were in attendance on Saturday. Photo credit: Terren in Virginia via Flickr.
Jordan Rodgers and Jordan Matthews both had season-defining games on Saturday – and that’s without really having to do anything in the second half.
Vanderbilt capped off an eight-win regular season with an emphatic win over Wake Forest this weekend, stomping out the Demon Deacons to extend head coach James Franklin’s winning streak to six games. Rodgers and Matthews hooked up for 10 passes and 144 yards in the first half before shutting it down after halftime of the team’s 55-21 rout in Winston-Salem. Franklin took his foot off the gas in the second frame, but his special teamers made sure that the ‘Dores didn’t stop scoring. Vandy got touchdowns on a blocked punt and an 83-yard punt return to bookend a pair of 50+ yard field goals from Carey Spear.
Much like last year’s season finale, this year’s game against Wake exuded an aura of optimistic dominance. The ‘Dores threw the hammer down after Wake Forest made things competitive early, ripping off a 48-7 run that was only stopped by Brian Kimbrow’s fumble long after the game had been decided. Like 2011, we also got some all-time Vanderbilt football highlight reel fodder. Back then, it was Brandon Barden leaping over a Demon Deacon defender en route to a 73-yard touchdown. This year, it was Jordan Matthews running under an underthrown pass to Kris Kentera and motoring 64 yards to the end zone. Or, it was Zac Stacy blasting up the gut for a record-breaking 90-yard touchdown run. Or maybe it even could have been Jonathan Krause’s field-stretching punt return in the third quarter.
That’s what kind of day it was. Vanderbilt didn’t just score often against Wake Forest – they scored impressively.
Saturday’s 55-21 win was one of the most exciting blowouts in college football this season, and it’s an indicator of just how far this team has come in three months. This team has found a rhythm that had totally escaped them in August and September. Then, the team wasn’t only losing games, they were losing them in ugly fashion. The fourth quarters of the South Carolina and Northwestern defeats looked more like a throwback to the Robbie Caldwell era than any #BrandNewVandy that the coaching staff had promised.
A (mostly) patient fanbase stuck with the team through that dry spell. On Saturday, they were rewarded for their efforts. Still, it was a journey along the way.
The Commodores had wrapped up 2011 with an offense that had turned into an unexpected juggernaut. They wrapped up that year scoring more than 32 points per game in the second half of the regular season and returned every skill player from that offense but their tight end. Expectations were high for a Vandy team that was the most fun to watch since Bobby Johnson’s turnover-margin champions of 2008*.
Their momentum failed to carry over into 2012. The team sputtered to a 2-4 start and scored just 13 points per game against FBS opponents in that span. Fans were calling for Austyn Carta-Samuels to replace Rodgers. The team was wasting an impressive series of efforts from a defense that was supposed to be the team’s weak point.
Then, things started to click. It all started with Vanderbilt’s sink-or-swim moment, a home matchup against Auburn that would essentially dictate whether 2012 ended in a bowl game or with apologetic phone calls to recruits. A 382-yard performance against the Tigers gave the team something to work with, and Vandy built from there. The ‘Dores rolled over FBS newcomer UMass and ran through Kentucky before reeling off their biggest win of the season, coming back to knock off Ole Miss on the road. That win seemed to instill a confidence and strength in this team that James Franklin had been searching for since coming to Nashville.
The ‘Dores cashed in that confidence in their last six quarters of play, rolling over Tennessee and Wake by a combined score of 83-29 in those 90 minutes.
More importantly, they turned into one of the country’s most exciting teams in those wins. That’s something that will reverberate across the fanbase, into the hearts of recruits, and into the ears of bowl executives. Suddenly, Vanderbilt is one of the hottest teams in the country. We’ve even got our own Twitter trolls now.
That isn’t just a Brand New Vanderbilt from the days before James Franklin took over; it’s a Brand New Vanderbilt from where this team stood in September. It’s been a remarkable season. Raising a bowl champion banner at Dudley Field next spring would be the perfect way to end it.
The Good:
- Carey Spear, Jonathan Krause, and Dynamite Special Teams. Carey Spear hits two 50+ yard field goals. Andrew Williamson blocks a Wake Forest punt and Casey Hughes falls on it in the end zone. Jon Krause, master of drawing fair catch interference penalties, returns a punt for a touchdown for his second time this season. Vandy’s special teams came up big in the second half, picking up where the offense left off. Jordan Rodgers may have led his team to a win, but the special teams led the ‘Dores to a rout.
- Bowl Projections. Is Vanderbilt headed to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl? That seems to be the popular theory right now, with ESPN’s SEC blog suggesting the pairing and even some Commodore players getting behind the idea. Meanwhile, ESPN’s main site has the ‘Dores going to the Gator Bowl (against Wisconsin…yes, please!) or staying at home for the Music City Bowl. Vandy seemed bound to stay in Nashville for the postseason until they stomped out Wake and Ole Miss took care of Mississippi State, adding some ambiguity to the SEC bowl rankings. Wherever the ‘Dores end up, sending a big contingent of Commodore fans out there with them will be paramount to building a brand amongst NCAA bowl committees.
- Zac Stacy works towards the Commodore Hall of Fame. Stacy broke off a 90-yard touchdown run in the second half that ensured his second straight 1,000 yard season and gave him over 3,000 rushing yards for his career. At this point, he’s bound to go down as the greatest tailback in Commodore history, and a spot in the school’s athletic hall of fame is likely to follow. That’s a honor that the senior truly deserves, and it’s impressive to think of how far he’s come after sharing a backfield platoon as Warren Norman’s 1B in his freshman and sophomore years.
The Bad:
- Jordan Rodgers, still fumbling. This is nitpicking, because any quarterback would have lost the ball when Rodgers fumbled in the Wake Forest red zone in the first half. The senior quarterback had his arm pulled back to deliver a pass when Joey Ehrmann swatted at the ball, forcing a fumble that the Demon Deacons recovered. It was a stroke of bad luck, but Rodgers needs to step up his pocket awareness, particularly given his fumbling problems in 2012.
Jordan Matthews brought home his first PIPOTW with a 10 catch, 144-yard first half against Wake Forest.
The PiBB Ice Player of the Week: Jordan Matthews
Matthews became the sixth player to intercept Jordan Rodgers this season, cutting across the field to snatch an underthrown pass intended for Kris Kentera and taking it 64-yards for a touchdown. That throw to Kentera was one of the few in the first two quarters that wasn’t intended for Matthews. The Commodores saw a mismatch in the Deacon secondary and exploited it, using Matthews to move the chains and help get Vandy to a 28-7 start on Saturday. At this point, he’s a lock for All-SEC honors and may even be an All-American as a junior.
*Citation needed.
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