Friday, October 19, 2007

Jason's Commie/South Carolina Preview

Since law school has pretty much taken over my life and the lives of the rest of the VSL staff, and since our intern is terrible, we've had to outsource this week's preview. Our man Jason, who played for the Commies back in the day, has some thoughts on this week's match-up:

1) A 10% marginal improvement over last week's offensive performance is necessary, IMO by making Adams the starter. Nickson has to suck it up and play receiver or 10 snaps/gm at QB as a change up. The way to use Nickson is as follows: First series: All QB runs, option and draws. Second series, first play: Play (or draw) action, then down the field to Earl. SC's defense (who I guarantee you sees Nickson now as the "running QB") will be spinning. Bottom Line: It's time for a veteran, talented O-Line to assert itself as they did in the Ole Miss game.

2) CJG should split 50/50 with the "White Boy Express"...2 critical fumbles killed us last week, and Hawkins is the fastest RB we've got. He can make a free safety miss. (Florida last year) I'd like to see Hawkins get several carries to get into a groove. CJG delivers punishment, however.

3) Vandy's defense is predicated upon the D-line not allowing blockers to get to the next level and letting Goff/Buggs/Langford make plays...they did a great job of this against EMU, GA, Johnny Reb and Bama (until the 4th quarter, but they were obviously gassed) With Sidney Rice thankfully gone, the secondary does not have any true physical mismatches with SC's receivers.

Make no mistake: Despite Spurrier's rep, SC is your traditional SEC running offense with play action mixed in. They must keep SC's offense "off schedule" i.e., greater than 2nd and 6 and 3rd and 3 consistently.

4) I would love to see Cain put Earl in non traditional situations to get him the ball and to decoy him to free up other receivers.

Example: I'd like to see the reaction in the booth of SC's defensive coordinator if Earl lined up at RB for 5-10 plays. It would set up:
1) draw/screen/swing pass

1a) Imagine how SC's D would "bite" on that inside QB option/handoff with #10 at RB.

2) Single coverage as the free safety would "spy" on Earl...given his ability I'd love to see him get an extra 5-7 yards of space to get open.

2a) Single coverage on other receivers.

3) There are so many throwback/reverse opportunities from this set that it boggles the mind.


5)SC will have 2 new O-linemen in the mix this weekend...look for Vandy to throw some brand new looks at them this weekend...freaky shit like 2 down linemen and 4 linebackers...confusing fronts with a lot of slanting and movement before and (and on) the snap...

Jason, you are the man.

Seamus and I will be reunited this weekend and are hoping not only to watch the South Carolina game, but also knock out a podcast on where the team stands at this point in the season. Kick-off tomorrow at 12:30, with the call available either on VUCommodores.com or on ESPN Gameplan.

VSL is not making any predictions since that hasn't worked so well for us over the past few weeks. With that said, we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.


Before tomorrow's game, check out VUCommodores.com's "Things to Know about South Carolina," as well as Mo Patton's piece in today's Tennessean on Vanderbilt's "spread offense." Finally, the Voice of the Commodores, Joe Fisher's got some Keys to the Game that you can access on VUCommodores.com.

7 comments:

BP said...

I think last I heard, South Carolina is laying 13. I would take the Cacks minus the points if I wanted to make money tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

You do that. Make sure it's your only bet and put a lot of cake on it...

Stanimal said...

Look for the lone Vanderbilt shirt in a sea of garnet this weekend, and that'll be me.

Pigums said...

Does anyone know where the game will be shown around Nashville?

Anonymous said...

Check your typical sports bars. Sam's is always a sure bet. Regardless, call around before hand to make sure they have ESPN Gameplan.

BP said...

Wow. I'm glad to admit I was dead wrong. Big win today. Go Dores!

Aaron said...

I agree with BP i was so wrong about this one!!! GO DORES!!! Almost bowl bound