Florida 56, Vanderbilt 0: Arguably, the worst performance of the Derek Mason era

To be sure, there have been some awful games in Derek Mason’s six years in Nashville. This might have been the worst.

For comparison, here’s the Statistical I wrote the day after Vanderbilt’s 59-0 loss to Alabama in 2017. (I wasn’t an active writer at AoG during the 2014 football season, so no such evidence exists for anything during that season.) Vanderbilt’s offense had a worse performance in that game, and didn’t have the excuse of being down to its third-string quarterback. On the other hand, Alabama won a national championship that season.

This was basically that game, only against “merely” a Top 10 team rather than a championship team. Vanderbilt actually got outgained by a greater margin per play against Florida yesterday than it did against Alabama in 2017, and the final score might have been even worse had Florida not had some issues finishing drives — the Gators missed a field goal and had two turnovers. Otherwise, this might have rivaled the 71-13 shellacking Florida put on Vanderbilt in 2001 for devastating losses. Woody Widenhofer would announce his resignation a couple of days after that game, though he finished out the remainder of the season.

I am not expecting a coaching change to be made this week — but at this point, we basically know how this ends. Vanderbilt has played nine games this season and has performed poorly in eight of them. Generalizing here, but you don’t usually get to keep your job when the team looks like this in your sixth year.

With Deuce Wallace in the game, Vanderbilt ran 24 pass plays and those plays netted 17 yards and two turnovers, one of which was an eighty-yard scoop and score by Florida. And I’m not actually convinced Allan Walters is better based on his brief performance.

These are also, by the way, likely to be the two incumbent quarterbacks on the roster in 2020. (Mo Hasan might be back as well, but he hasn’t been cleared to play three weeks after suffering a concussion in the Missouri game.)

And, of course, the other result of the complete absence of any passing threat was that Ke’Shawn Vaughn had his worst game at Vanderbilt (and it’s not really even close.) At least here, I do like what Vanderbilt has coming back next year with Ja’Veon Marlow and Keyon Brooks — but Vanderbilt absolutely has to find a quarterback.

I really don’t have anything to say about the receivers; whatever happened yesterday had nothing to do with them.

Notes

• Two players made their first start yesterday: Ben Bresnahan got the start as a second tight end in a big formation, and Rutger Reitmaier started on the defensive line; I have no idea why Dayo Odeyingbo didn’t start (he played, so it wasn’t an injury.)
• Tae Daley had two interceptions. I can’t remember the last time a Vanderbilt player had two interceptions in a game, but it has to have been a while. That was the highlight of the day.

What’s Next

Vanderbilt has already been eliminated from bowl eligibility at 2-7 (yes, yes, I know, APR bowl), so Saturday’s home game against Kentucky isn’t for much more than pride. Game time is 2:30 PM CT and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.