Vanderbilt, yes Vanderbilt, has a shot to make the College Football Playoff. It\u2019s hard to believe, but it\u2019s a possibility if they can finish the season with consecutive wins off a bye week. <\/p>\n
A rivalry game in Knoxville against Tennessee awaits. But first, they\u2019ve got to face a Kentucky team that\u2019s on a three-game winning streak. <\/p>\n
Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea<\/a> is not overlooking the Wildcats. In fact, he\u2019s always admired Mark Stoops<\/a> and previously shared at SEC Media Days that he modeled his program\u2019s rebuild after Kentucky. Even though it wasn\u2019t always pretty for the Wildcats, they\u2019re playing their best football in November. <\/p>\n \u201cYou got a team that\u2019s growing in chemistry as the year goes on, which in the portal era, I think takes time sometimes to get people on the same page,\u201d Lea said on the SEC Coaches Teleconference. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re growing their chemistry. They\u2019re also playing complementary football, and they do it with talented players and talented coaches, so no mystery in this league. Every team is dangerous; this one, in particular, is hitting a stride here late in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarities between Kentucky and Vanderbilt <\/p>\n When coaches from the SEC turn on the tape, they\u2019re always quick to note Kentucky\u2019s physicality. Lea expects nothing less from a Mark Stoops team. He believes it\u2019s made a big difference down the stretch for the Cats. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to Coach Stoops, who I think is a remarkable program-builder in this league. You see his toughness in his team, his resilience in his team,\u201d Lea said<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cObviously, it\u2019s a testament to his players. They have good players who are playing well. The quarterback makes it go on offense. He\u2019s got some really talented people in the backfield and talented people on the perimeter. But you can see him stepping in and playing with some chemistry and connection with the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n The teams aren\u2019t so different from one another. Diego Pavia<\/a> is the heart and soul of the Vanderbilt Commodores. Cutter Boley<\/a> has elevated the play of his entire team. Despite their impressive numbers, they aren\u2019t eager to get into track meets, setting this game up to be one with minimal possessions. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re playing a game control style on offense that starts with what has been an effective\u00a0run\u00a0game. Both of their running backs are super talented guys. Very similar to how we have played,\u201d said the Vanderbilt head coach. <\/p>\n \u201cThey set themselves up with convertible third downs. They\u2019ve established rhythm on first and second down. They put the quarterback in winning positions that way, and he has grown comfortable. When he\u2019s throwing the ball to Kendrick Law<\/a>, that\u2019s a really good player out there that takes the attention of all 11 guys.\u201d<\/p>\n The Vanderbilt defense has struggled to slow down opponents. It could create a shootout at FirstBank Stadium. Kickoff is Saturday at 3:30 PM ET on ESPN. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vanderbilt, yes Vanderbilt, has a shot to make the College Football Playoff. It\u2019s hard to believe, but it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-307105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}