NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt put a bow on its second week of fall camp with a competitive scrimmage Saturday at Vanderbilt, the program’s second scrimmage of the preseason.
It was a session once again mostly controlled by the strong play of the defense, although the offensive unit showed improvement by playing turnover-free ball and frequently moving the chains. Too many penalties and executional missteps, however, kept the Commodores out of the end zone until much later in the practice.
“There’s certain things we honed in on this week after watching film from last week and a few of those things were alignment, pre-snap movements and ball security,” Vandy senior wide receiver Chris Pierce said. “Those are some of the key focuses we had this week. As you can see from last week to this week we definitely improved on those things – although we still understand there’s still more areas for us to improve on.”
Pierce and the Vandy offense started the day sharp by moving the ball to the 2. The series included a first-down run by Re’Mahn Davis on fourth down, an impressive diving catch from Cam Johnson on a long Ken Seals pass and a third-down run from Seals for a new set of downs.
But after a false start inside the 5 and two short runs, Seals’ third-down pass across the middle toward the end zone was broken up by Allan George. Joseph Bulovas came in and hit a short field goal.
“We’re not going to be able to self sabotage and have the number of pre-snap penalties we had to kill drives – starting with the first one,” Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea said. “A 16-play drive that stalls out right there on the goal line because we’re false starting at the running back position – we just got to be more disciplined.”
Vanderbilt’s defense dominated from that point forward. Feleti Afemui recorded a sack, Marlen Sewell had a key pass breakup and Dashaun Jerkins sacked Seals on a fourth-down play.
After a short break in the action, the offense finally found pay dirt thanks to a 15-yard run up the middle from Dylan Betts-Pauley. A short while later Seals hit Logan Kyle on a 33-yard stroke down the sideline for six.
Seals also found Johnson on a 12-yard touchdown pass on a third-down play. Davis ran in a score from the 3 and James Ziglor scored on a 20-yard run just before the end of the day.
“Go with the big things first – the first scrimmage, I thought, wasn’t very competitive. It lacked heartbeat on the offensive side,” Lea said. “So we challenged them this week to step up, step up in the front in terms of their protection, step up in terms of the esprit de corps and the spirt and enthusiasm. They’ve done that.
“Now we got to hone in on those details and I think the more times we get to play live, the better. So we understand how impactful those penalties can be. But you show them, you teach them, you put them back in the situation this week, have a chance to extend drives, to go live, to understand how important it is.”
Vanderbilt will have Sunday off before beginning the final week of fall camp starting at 11 a.m. Monday. The Commodores are also scheduled to scrimmage one final time next Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium.
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.
