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Box Score
| Five Factors | Vanderbilt | Alabama A&M |
|---|---|---|
| Five Factors | Vanderbilt | Alabama A&M |
| Plays | 65 | 66 |
| Total Yards | 469 | 266 |
| Yards Per Play | 7.22 | 4.03 |
| Rushing Attempts | 32 | 30 |
| Rushing Yards | 219 | 141 |
| Rushing YPP | 6.84 | 4.70 |
| Passing Attempts | 33 | 36 |
| Passing Yards | 250 | 125 |
| Passing YPP | 7.58 | 3.47 |
| Rushing Success Rate | 68.75% | 40.00% |
| Passing Success Rate | 42.42% | 25.00% |
| Success Rate | 55.38% | 31.82% |
| Avg. Field Position | 43.5 | 22.2 |
| PP40 | 5.63 | 4.33 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 1 |
Tennessean: Grading Vanderbilt football’s win over Alabama A&M
247 Sports: Vanderbilt finishes strong to top Alabama A&M
Associated Press: Swann throws 2 TD passes to Sheppard, Vanderbilt beats Alabama A&M 47-13
The Vanderbilt Hustler: Vanderbilt thrashes Alabama A&M 47-13, improves to 2-0
The Vanderbilt Hustler: Commodore Brunch Week One: Flashes of progression
A slow start on Saturday night made us think Vanderbilt’s 47-13 win over Alabama A&M was shakier than it was. But really, the first half — after which Vanderbilt led 12-3 — was a single clock-chewing drive to open the game by Alabama A&M, followed by Vanderbilt shooting itself in the foot a couple of times (along with blocking a punt for a safety.)
After the opening drive — which took nearly nine minutes off the clock as Alabama A&M ran 20 plays and went 71 yards before settling for a short field goal — the Bulldogs had a 26 percent success rate. They couldn’t move the ball with any consistency; their scoring after that came on a 62-yard pass on busted coverage and a late field goal drive against Vanderbilt’s backups. The reason why Vanderbilt went into halftime up 12-3 came down to a failed fourth-down conversion and an interception in the end zone.
If you’re going to have a half like that, it’s probably good to do it against Alabama A&M is the point. Against an SEC team, Vanderbilt likely would have been out of it by halftime, but there’s a lot more margin for error against an FCS team.
Individual Stats
Passing
| Passing | Comp | Att | Comp % | Yds | TD | INT | Sacks | Yds Lost | Net Yds | Success Rate | YPP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Passing | Comp | Att | Comp % | Yds | TD | INT | Sacks | Yds Lost | Net Yds | Success Rate | YPP |
| AJ Swann | 15 | 29 | 51.72% | 194 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 192 | 36.67% | 6.4 |
| Ken Seals | 2 | 2 | 100.00% | 52 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 100.00% | 26.0 |
Clearly, this wasn’t a good game for AJ Swann, especially considering the competition; completing barely 50 percent of your passes for a 36.7 percent success rate against an FCS team is ... not good.
All four quarterbacks got into the game, though only Swann and Seals attempted a pass. As far as Seals goes, well, he’s still the backup, but it’s good to know that Vanderbilt probably won’t miss a beat if he has to play for an extended period of time.
Rushing
| Rushing | Att | Yds | YPA | TD | Success | Success Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rushing | Att | Yds | YPA | TD | Success | Success Rate |
| Sedrick Alexander | 12 | 87 | 7.25 | 2 | 6 | 50.00% |
| Patrick Smith | 10 | 50 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 80.00% |
| Chase Gillespie | 5 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 60.00% |
| AJ Swann | 2 | 26 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 100.00% |
| Junior Sherrill | 1 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 1 | 100.00% |
| Jayden McGowan | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 100.00% |
| Walter Taylor | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 100.00% |
Sedrick Alexander had the highlight-reel run in the second half, though I still think we’ll see a lot of splitting the workload here, because I still don’t think there’s a ton of separation among the top three running backs.
Receiving
| Receiving | Targets | Catches | Yds | TD | Catch Rate | Yds/Target | Yds/Catch | Success | Success Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving | Targets | Catches | Yds | TD | Catch Rate | Yds/Target | Yds/Catch | Success | Success Rate |
| Jayden McGowan | 11 | 6 | 70 | 0 | 54.55% | 6.4 | 11.7 | 4 | 36.36% |
| Will Sheppard | 8 | 6 | 62 | 2 | 75.00% | 7.8 | 10.3 | 4 | 50.00% |
| London Humphreys | 3 | 1 | 23 | 0 | 33.33% | 7.7 | 23.0 | 1 | 33.33% |
| Logan Kyle | 2 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 50.00% | 6.0 | 12.0 | 1 | 50.00% |
| Gamarion Carter | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0.0 | #DIV/0! | 0 | 0.00% |
| Junior Sherrill | 1 | 1 | 35 | 0 | 100.00% | 35.0 | 35.0 | 1 | 100.00% |
| Justin Ball | 1 | 1 | 27 | 0 | 100.00% | 27.0 | 27.0 | 1 | 100.00% |
| Kamrean Johnson | 1 | 1 | 17 | 1 | 100.00% | 17.0 | 17.0 | 1 | 100.00% |
| Quincy Skinner | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0.0 | #DIV/0! | 0 | 0.00% |
A pretty heavy focus on Jayden McGowan and Will Sheppard — for good reason — though the ball is getting spread around quite a bit. I am interested to see how much London Humphreys and Junior Sherrill, both freshmen, get involved as the season goes on.
Participation Report
In a game like this, who didn’t play is probably more useful than who did. On offense, Logan Kyle and Grayson Morgan both got their first career start, the latter in relief of an injured Junior Uzebu; on defense, Martel Hight got his first career start.
The list of true freshmen who played on Saturday: Hight, Sedrick Alexander (who rushed for two touchdowns), Kamrean Johnson (who caught a touchdown pass), Bryan Longwell (who blocked a punt), London Humphreys, Junior Sherrill, and De’Marion Thomas. It’s probably fair to assume everyone else is redshirting.
What’s Next
Vanderbilt travels to Wake Forest for its first road game of the season at 10 AM CT on Saturday. Yeah, that’s an early kick.
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