Oct. 3, 2015
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Vanderbilt — Middle Tennessee State Postgame Notes
Floyd Stadium
Pregame Notes
• Vanderbilt is in its 126th year of organized football.
• The Commodores wore gold helmets and pants with white jerseys on Saturday.
• Vanderbilt won the toss and deferred to the second half, Middle Tennessee State elected to receive and defend the south goal.
• Attendance was 25,411.
• Vanderbilt captains for the game were Ryan White, Oren Burks and Johnny McCrary.
Team Notes
• Vanderbilt played at MTSU for the first time since 1920 and is now 13-3 against the Blue Raiders all-time dating back to 1915.
• The Commodores are 26-5 against teams from Conference USA all time.
• The win on the road is the first for the Dores since 2013 when VU won at Tennessee and first non-conference win on the road since the Massachusetts game that season.
Individual Notes
• True freshman Andrew Rector made his collegiate debut on the opening kickoff and the ninth true freshman to play this season.
• Arnold Tarpley made his first career start, getting the nod at safety with Emmanuel Smith getting his first career start at nickel in his hometown. Vanderbilt has now started nine first-time starters this season.
• Tommy Openshaw’s 40-yard field goal in the first quarter gave him one field goal in all five games this season.
• Zach Cunningham recorded seven tackles, six solo, with two tackles for loss and a forced fumble in the first half.
• Trent Sherfield’s 34-yard run in the third quarter was the longest rush of his career.
• Torren McGaster recovered the Dores’ second fumble of the night stop a MTSU drive in the third.
• Ralph Webb topped 100 yards for the first time this season and third time in his career with 155 yards.
• Zach Cunningham registered a career-high 15 tackles, including 12 solo, and now has four career games with at least 11 tackles.
• Trent Sherfield caught a team-high six passes on the night and now has 29 catches over his last three games.
• Zach Cunningham matched his career-high with 2.5 tackles for loss.
• Torren McGaster broke up a career-best three passes and now has five break ups in his last two games.
• Johnny McCrary passed for 177 yards in the win and now has 1251 yards this season the fifth-most ever by a sophomore QB at Vanderbilt.
Offensive Notes
• Vanderbilt has now had at least seven different receivers make catches in all five games this season with eight receivers catching passes Saturday night.
• The Commodores rushed for a season-high 237 yards, the most since last season’s win over Old Dominion.
• Vanderbilt rallied for a season-high 14 fourth quarter points to win the team’s second game of the year.
• The Commodores gained 414 total yards, marking the third time this season the squad gained at least 400 yards.
• VU rushed for 178 yards in the second half and averaged 6.9 yards per play.
• The Commodores scored on each of the team’s last two possessions to take the lead late in the fourth quarter before lining up in victory formation to end the game.
• The Dores averaged 5.8 yards per play on the night.
Defensive Notes
• Vanderbilt recovered the team’s first fumble of the season with Ryan White jumping on the ball in the second quarter to stop MTSU on the one-yard line on fourth down.
• The Commodores allowed just seven yards rushing in the first half.
• Vanderbilt allowed only 34 yards rushing, matching the fewest yards on the ground allowed by a Mason-led team and second time this season (Austin Peay).
• The Dores held MTSU to 13 points and 320 total yards, including 286 passing yards, after the Raiders entered he game averaging 44.5 points and 485.8 yards per game.
• The Commodores broke up a season-high nine passes with five tackles for loss.
• For the second straight game, Vanderbilt forced two turnovers.
• The defense allowed just 142 total yards in the second half, including just 27 on the ground.
Special Teams Notes
• Tommy Openshaw’s 40-yard field goal in the first quarter gave him one field goal in all five games this season.
• Darrius Sims had three kick returns for 50 yards.
