Vanderbilt (2-0, 0-0 SEC) at Wake Forest (1-0, 0-0 ACC)
Saturday, Sept. 9 • 10 a.m. CT
Allegacy Stadium • Winston-Salem, N.C. • ACC Network
• Vanderbilt goes on the road for the first time this season after winning its first two contests at home. The Commodores visit Wake Forest on Saturday for the 18th meeting all-time against the Demon Deacons. Vanderbilt has won three of the last four meetings with two of those wins coming in Winston-Salem (2011, 2012).
• Vanderbilt handled business Saturday against Alabama A&M to move to 2-0 on the season with a 47-13 win. The Commodores put up 462 yards of total offense and scored 35 of their 47 points in the second half. Will Sheppard caught two touchdowns for the second consecutive game and Sedrick Alexander found the end zone twice on the ground.
• Will Sheppard went over 1,500 career receiving yards in the contest against Alabama A&M. He also had two receiving touchdowns that equaled his total from the previous week against Hawai’i and gave him four for the season. It is the second time in Sheppard’s career that he has caught two touchdowns in consecutive games, as he also had two receiving touchdowns in back-to-back outings to open the 2022 season. With 17 career touchdown catches, Sheppard has tied Bucky Curtis (1947-50) for seventh in program history. Allama Matthews (1981-82) is sixth with 18.
• Vanderbilt has won four of its last five games dating to the 2022 season, securing wins over Kentucky, Florida, Hawai’i and Alabama A&M in that stretch. It marks the most successful run for the Commodores since they won five-of-six games at the end of the 2016 and beginning of the 2017 seasons and is just the second time since 2014 the Dores have won four of five.
• Vanderbilt’s special teams rank 10th in the nation per ESPN’s FPI. The unit has produced an efficiency grade of 96.6. In the opener against Hawai’i, Vandy had a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, a 27-yard punt return, averaged 53.7 yards on three punts with a long of 71 yards, notched two touchbacks on kickoffs and made all three PATs. Against Alabama A&M, Vandy blocked two punts, including one for a safety, produced a long punt return of 39 yards, a long kickoff return of 29 yards, made all six point-after attempts and made its lone field goal attempt of the year from 23 yards. Vanderbilt’s special teams units has scored points in three of the last four games. In last season’s penultimate game against Florida, long snapper Wesley Schelling recovered a fumbled punt in the end zone for a touchdown.
• The special teams performance over the first two games shows continued progress under associate head coach and special teams coordinator Justin Lustig. The Dores ranked 117th in special teams (ESPN FPI) prior to Lustig’s arrival and were 127th during his first season. In 2022, Vandy jumped to 44th in the nation (55.4). It was the fourth-largest jump in FBS, trailing only Mississippi State, West Virginia and UTEP, and Vanderbilt was one of just five teams in the nation to improve its special teams efficiency by at least 25 points.