Saturday Predictions: Florida at Vanderbilt

Last year, Vanderbilt traveled to Gainesville, Florida, and put in one of the most hideous performances I’ve ever seen by a Vanderbilt football team, and that’s really saying something considering Vanderbilt. The Commodores lost, 56-0.

Given that history, and, well, let’s just say that Dan Mullen doesn’t seem to like Derek Mason very much... what are we expecting this time? Let’s ask the writers!

Tom Stephenson

The good news is that Vanderbilt probably won’t get shut out this time around. Last year, Vanderbilt went into the Florida game with Deuce Wallace as its starting quarterback, and Allan Walters also saw action, and that went very well.

Yeah. I think we can safely say that Ken Seals is a better quarterback than either of those guys, and as such, Vanderbilt will score some points.

The bad news, of course, is that Florida also gets the ball. Kyle Trask has completed 70 percent of his passes on the season and the Gators are averaging 45.8 ppg. Let me just make a guess that Florida will top that number on Saturday.

The Pick: Florida 63, Vanderbilt 24

The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: Hey, has anybody watched ARKANSAS (+2) over the last couple of weeks and thought that LSU is better than them? Apparently Vegas thinks this.

Andrew VU ‘04

How bad is the state of Vanderbilt feetball? Well, I, someone who writes about Vanderbilt sports as a hobby (okay, an addiction draining me of my life force), could not tell you with 100% certainty who we were playing until Tom set up this Saturday predictions thread just now (*now being Friday morning).

I still don’t know what time kick-off is (assuming it’s our Jefferson Pilot 11:00 am slot).

Don’t watch this game live. Seriously. The Jorts are really good. We’re on the path to 0-10. Just hit record on the DVR and have a nice day with the family (nice being relative, as we’re still in a raging wildfire of a pandemic). I’m planning to grill outside with the Special Lady. Find your own version of that, and then, later, watch this bludgeoning with the ability to fast forward through the commercials (and potentially the 2nd half). Don’t say you weren’t warned.

The Pick: Jortsville 69 (nice) - Vanderbilt 17.

The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: ARKANSAS (+2) over the Gumbo Bengals. What will be the thing to get DACOACHO shit-canned? The current sexual assault cover-ups, or losing to Arky a year after winning the title? You don’t have to be as cynical as me to know that for LSU, it’s the latter.

Stan Overby

I think my previews this week pretty much spelled my thoughts out, and interestingly enough I am seeing almost the exact same thoughts on predictions from my fellow writers. I have no reason to believe that Florida won’t hang 60 on us (they’re average 45 or so anyway and our defense is just that bad). Where I think we’ll have some surprise is in our offense’s ability to score. I just don’t think the Gators are all that good defensively, and Todd Grantham is a raging jacka$$ (just like everyone knows). (Ed. Note: this is actually too kind a description of Todd Grantham.)

The Pick: 63-31 Gators

The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: Is it an upset if the better team just flat out wins? I think Arkansas is better than LSU overall. Pig Sooie here.

DoreonthePlains

Florida’s offense is nearly as good as LSU’s last season. The difference is that Vanderbilt has an offense that can stay on the field. Yes, the Commodores scored 24 points on offense (and 14 on defense), but none of Vanderbilt’s drives lasted more than 4 minutes. Ken Seals and company have shown the ability to sustain drives all season, even if early in the season those drives kept faltering in enemy territory. Vanderbilt possessing the ball will keep the score under 66 even if Florida very likely scores TD on every offensive possession.

I think the game is an interesting challenge for Seals. The coaches know they will have to score a lot to keep pace. I want to see how Seals handles it. I would expect to see the typical offense with Keyon Henry-Brooks (if healthy) and/or Ja’Veon Marlow carrying the ball a lot, but Seals will eventually have to face the pressure of trying to keep his team in the game or get them back into it.

The Pick: Florida 53, Vanderbilt 31

The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: Let’s make it a clean sweep kiss of death for Arkansas. We all think they win that game. So they will probably lose 45-0 because of course.