Vanderbilt Football: Commodores narrowly escape at home vs TSU
The Vanderbilt football team hosted in-state foe, the Tennessee State Tigers, on Saturday, but narrowly came away with a win against the FCS opponent.
The Vanderbilt football team snuck out a 31-27 win over TSU on Saturday to move their record on the year to 3-2 before they head into a very tough stretch of SEC games.
Many expected this week to be an easy week and a little break from a tough game for the Vanderbilt Commodores, but they were wrong, as TSU had the chance at a game-winning drive but failed to convert on 4th down inside the 15-yard line.
Recap
Both teams traded scores all day long. Neither team scored in the 1st quarter, but the Tigers were able to get on the board first thanks to a 5-yard touchdown pass from Demry Croft to Steven Newbold.
Vanderbilt quickly answered though, as Kyle Shurmur connected with Jared Pinkney from four yards out to tie things back up at 7-7.
Croft had his second passing touchdown of the day when he connected with Treon Harris from 31 yards out, but Antonio Zita, TSU’s kicker, missed the extra point which ended up being huge at the end of the game. Vanderbilt’s kicker, Ryley Guay, was able to make his field goal attempt as time expired in the first half with the Commodores down 13-10.
Vanderbilt quickly answered out of halftime, when Shurmur found Kalija Lipscomb for a 38-yard touchdown. Ke’Shawn Vaughn took a 78-yard rush to the house, as the Commodores had seemed to put the Tigers out of it with a 24-13 lead, but TSU’s offense had something to say about that.
Demarco Corbin answered for the Tigers the next drive, rushing the ball in from two yards out to cut the Commodores lead to just four points. TSU answered again early in the fourth quarter, as Croft had his third touchdown pass of the day, this time to Andrew Knox from one yard out to give TSU the 27-24 lead.
Vanderbilt answered though, which ended up being the game winner, as Shurmur and Lipscomb connected again, this time from 68 yards out.
TSU had one final chance but had a drive that stalled out on the 15-yard line. The Tigers could’ve used a field goal to tie things up and potentially send the game into OT, but that missed extra point earlier in the game turned out to hurt them in the end.
Reaction to the Game
This game should be alarming to Vanderbilt fans. A win is a win, but the Commodores should not have struggled to an FCS team in TSU. TSU is a good team but they should have put this team away early. The thing that is most alarming is that the schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Commodores, as they have seven straight SEC games to finish the season off.
A positive from this game is that Shurmur and Lipscomb still continue to connect through the air. Shurmur passed for 297 yards and three touchdowns yesterday. More than half of Shurmurs’ yards were to Lipscomb, as he finished with nine receptions for 174 yards and two touchdowns. The two have connected 43 times so far this season for 480 yards and six touchdowns. If the Commodores want to make a bowl game with this tough upcoming schedule, Shurmur and Lipscomb will have to find each other.
I’m sure the team will be more focused in practice this week, as they head down to Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs, the No. 2 team in the nation. The Commodores can’t struggle in next week’s game like they did on Saturday or they will get blown out to a very good Georgia team.