Sept. 15, 2012
Recap: Vanderbilt 58, Presbyterian 0
On Vanderbilt’s first offensive snap, running back Zac Stacy raced 86 yards down the left side of the field for a touchdown. The play aptly summed up the type of day it was for the Commodores, who rumbled past Presbyterian 58-0 on Saturday.
Stacy’s carry was the longest rushing play in school history, erasing Bill Marinangel’s 81-yard carry on a fake punt against Alabama in 1996. The 86 yards was also two yards more than Stacy had combined to gain in the first two games of the season.
“(My eyes) got pretty big and I was looking at the jumbotron a little bit,” Stacy said of his touchdown run. “My mentality each time I get the ball is to score; take advantage of each opportunity when I have the ball in my hands.”
Stacy would get carries on Vanderbilt’s next two snaps as well, gaining 35 and 15 yards, respectively. Just three carries into the game, Stacy was already at 136 yards rushing. By the end of the first quarter he had 140 yards on the ground.
Vanderbilt was held to 13 points in its first two games of the season and Saturday the Commodores took out any pent-up frustration on Presbyterian by scoring at will. Much of the damage came on the ground where the Commodores churned out 410 yards on 46 carries for an average of nearly nine yards per rushing attempt. As a unit, the offense had 605 total yards.
“I don’t care who you play, when you rush for 410 yards, that is pretty good,” Head Coach James Franklin said. “When you have over 600 yards of total offense that is pretty good, so it gives us something to build on.”
The ground attack was led by Stacy, who hardly broke a sweat finishing with 174 yards on eight carries. Freshman Brian Kimbrow gained 137 yards on 14 carries, including a 49-yard scamper for the final touchdown of the game. Stacy and Kimbrow were the first Commodores each to eclipse 100 yards in the same game since Stacy paired with Warren Norman to do so against Western Carolina in 2009.
Ironically, Norman made his long-awaited return on Saturday. Norman played a series against Northwestern last week, but did not get a carry. Against Presbyterian, the former SEC Freshman of the Year carried the ball eight times for 26 yards and one touchdown. Norman received a loud ovation from the 35,491 in attendance after his initial carry of the day, which was his first since Oct. 30, 2010 at Arkansas.
“Everybody was excited for him and for him to get back out there,” Stacy said. “He is going to continue working week in and week out. Hopefully he can continue to make a big contribution for us on offense.”
Adding a punch to the backfield, Wesley Tate scored twice on short-yardage carries and finished with 24 yards on nine attempts.
Paving the way for Vanderbilt’s rushing attack was an offensive line that feels rejuvenated following Saturday’s performance.
“I think we definitely improved from the last couple of weeks, and that is what we are going to try and do every week,” senior guard Josh Jelesky said. “I don’t think it was just us, I think the receivers blocked well and as an offense we were all hitting our marks and doing what we were supposed to top to bottom.”
Getting the rushing game in gear was exactly what Vanderbilt was looking for heading into next Saturday’s game at Georgia (6:45 p.m., ESPN2). The Commodores had been held to just 163 yards on the ground through two games before Saturday’s offensive explosion.
Wilson Takes Another Pick to the House
He did it again. There are interceptions and then there are Trey Wilson’s interceptions. Wilson picked off his first pass of the season on Saturday and returned it 100 yards for a touchdown. The 100-yard return tied a school record with Archibald Barnes’ pick-six at Tennessee a year ago.
It also was Wilson’s fourth-career interception, three of which have been returned for touchdowns – a feat no other Vanderbilt player has ever accomplished.
Wilson’s interception on Saturday was especially sweet because it came just a few plays after he was flagged for a penalty that negated Caleb Azubike’s blocked punt.
“I definitely wanted to (make up for my penalty) because I let my teammates down,” Wilson said. “I kept us on the field when we should have been off. Caleb made a great play in blocking the punt. I wiped that away with a holding call.”
Following Wilson’s holding penalty on the blocked punt, the Blue Hose were able to get down to Vanderbilt’s five-yard line, but on third-and-five, Presbyterian’s pass was grabbed out of the air by Wilson who fought off a tackler just outside the end zone and took it the rest of the way untouched.
“I saw them throw at the tight end, so I stuck my foot in the ground and made a play on the ball,” Wilson said. “He was on top of me when I caught it, so I shook loose of (the receiver). I thought about going down, but when I looked down and saw a straight shot, I had to go.”
Pitching a Shutout
Vanderbilt had a stout defensive effort against Presbyterian. The Commodores limited Presbyterian to just 149 yards of offense and pitched the team’s first shutout since blanking Western Carolina 45-0 in 2009.
“Shutouts are always the goal on defense,” Franklin said. “It’s not really about yards, it’s about keeping points off the board and creating turnovers.”
It was also Vanderbilt’s largest margin of victory in a shutout since 1999 when the Commodores also defeated The Citadel 58-0.
Vanderbilt was especially stingy in the second half, surrendering just 22 yards of offense and one offensive first down. The other first down came on a roughing the punter penalty.
The wide margin of victory was also beneficial for the growth of the team, as it enabled a number of unexperienced players significant time on the field.
“One of the things I’m real happy about is that we are able to get other guys in the game and got realistic reps,” Franklin commented.
Carta-Samuels Gets the Nod
Head Coach James Franklin did not name a quarterback during the week, noting that “every starting position is a competition each week,” and on Saturday Vanderbilt fans saw junior Austyn Carta-Samuels make his debut under center.
Carta-Samuels got the start over senior Jordan Rodgers, who had started Vanderbilt’s last nine games. After the game, Franklin said, the decision to start Carta-Samuels was made later in the week.
“Like every other position, we compete every single week,” Franklin remarked. “We felt like after the first couple of weeks, that we needed to at least look at some things. I have tremendous respect for Jordan Rodgers and how he handled the whole thing because that was very important for our team.”
Although Carta-Samuels wasn’t asked to pass a lot with Vanderbilt’s ground game running with ease, he still completed 13-of-20 passes for 195 yards and one touchdown.
“There are still some things operationally that we have to clean up, but we didn’t turn the ball over; we made most of the throws that we should have made,” Franklin said. “I think we missed a couple early which were his first throws, which is understandable. Those things will come with reps.”
It was his first game action since transferring from Wyoming before the 2011 season. At Wyoming, Carta-Samuels was the 2010 Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year.
John Townsley subbed for Carta-Samuels late in the game, but did not attempt a pass.
Franklin did not say who would start next week at Georgia. “If we feel like Austyn gives us a better chance to win against Georgia based on the film (against Presbyterian) compared to the film from the two previous games, then we will make that decision. But I don’t think there is anything in stone right now.”
Quiet Day for Punting Unit
Vanderbilt’s offense totaled 605 yards and kept the punting unit off the field until seven minutes remained in the game when Richard Kent boomed his lone punt of the day 48 yards.
Until that point, the only thing that had prevented Vanderbilt from scoring on every possession was the clock expiring at the end of the first half.
Azubike Makes an Impact
Freshman defensive end Caleb Azubike is continuing to see more snaps each game and the impact he is making is only getting larger. The Nashville native registered his first sack at Northwestern last week, and his encore performance on Saturday was even better. He posted another sack, finished with two tackles and should have had a blocked punt had it not been for a holding penalty called on Trey Wilson.
“He’s a freak,” Wilson said of Azubike. “He’s an amazing athlete to be that big, that strong and that athletic and that fast. You don’t meet a lot of kids like that.”
“We have a nickname for him, we call him the Nigerian Nightmare,” senior defensive end Johnell Thomas said. “He’s all over the field. He has a motor that’s nonstop and that is what I like about the kid.”
