{"id":2821,"date":"2016-10-23T19:43:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T23:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=2821"},"modified":"2018-01-12T23:55:52","modified_gmt":"2018-01-13T04:55:52","slug":"vanderbilt-tame-tennessee-state-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2016\/10\/23\/vanderbilt-tame-tennessee-state-tigers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vanderbilt Commodores Tame Tennessee State Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vanderbilt Commodores Tame Tennessee State Tigers on Homecoming<\/h3>\n
\"Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt Commodores Head Coach Derek Mason talks to his players. (Photo by: Kate Pearson-Halyburton, LWOS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Vanderbilt Commodores<\/strong> are on a roll of firsts as they sail into the bye week. Last week their 17-16 win over Georgia<\/strong> was their first conference road win in the Derek Mason<\/strong><\/a> era. Yesterday marked their first back-to-back win under Mason. It was their fifth homecoming win in the last six seasons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tennessee State<\/strong>\u00a0came into the game looking for an upset. The\u00a0Tigers<\/strong>\u00a0struck first and fast when quarterback Ronald Butler<\/strong> hit receiver Patrick Smith<\/strong> on the second play from scrimmage with a 93-yard touchdown pass.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"#23
#23 Khari Blasingame of the Vanderbilt Commodores makes a touchdown against the Tennessee State Tigers on Saturday, October 22, 2016. (Photo by: Kate Pearson-Halyburton, LWOS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vanderbilt immediately answered with seven points of their own. “It was a rough start, but offensively, I thought they came on and did a really good job of answering back.” Mason said.\u00a0Darrius Sims<\/strong><\/a> set up the touchdown that would put Vandy on top. With a 33-yard run to the 3, Khari Blasingame<\/strong><\/a> finished the 78-yard drive. Just like that, Vandy was up 21-17 with 1:46 left in the half.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

Black Death<\/h3>\n

The Black Death Defense came out ready to kill after the half. \u00a0TSU had scored at least 30 points in every game this season, but the Dores defense tamed the Tigers. Oren Burks<\/strong><\/a> collected his third sack of the season, Vandy’s seventh. That five-yard loss from Burks forced a field goal attempt to sustain the Dores lead, and the TSU offense was shut out the second half. The Tigers made a fourth quarter push only to have the momentum swing back into Vandy’s favor, as the Commodores’ Ryan White<\/a> <\/strong>forced a fumble, and Dare Odeyingbo<\/a><\/strong> recovered at the Vandy 30. \u00a0\u201cFrom the last two weeks, we were able to just be consistent and stick to the game plan,\u201d defensive lineman Nifae Lealao<\/a><\/strong> said. \u201cJust trying to go 1-0 each week and have that as our driving focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dynamic Duo and Then Some<\/h3>\n

Vandy’s run game racked up 358 yards. In fact, that is the most rushing yardage in a single game since 2012. Running back Ralph Webb<\/a><\/strong> had 125 yards, coupled with\u00a0Khari Blasingame<\/a><\/strong>, who rushed 14 times for 100 yards and three touchdowns. Blasingame credited the offensive line\u00a0“The power was huge. The offensive linemen did a really good job of staying with their man, moving people. Those holes were huge. You could have put a truck through those things.” \u00a0Darrius Sims<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and Josh Crawford<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0contributed 50 yards on five carries, 49 yards on six carries respectively. Coach Mason\u00a0praised the running game \u201cTo have two running backs to go over 100 yards, and rush for right around 350, it\u2019s pretty impressive, I don\u2019t care who you\u2019re playing,\u201d<\/p>\n

Momentum<\/h3>\n

As the Commodores ride the momentum of the last two weeks into the bye, they will rest up and reload. \u201cNow, we get a chance to rest \u2013 much-needed rest after eight games,\u201d Mason said. \u201c[We have] four games left. Now, we have to make a run.\u201d Their next four games are conference match-ups. \u00a0They will kick off November in Auburn, followed by a trip to Missouri on November 12th before bringing it back to Nashville against Ole Miss on November 19th. They will finish up\u00a0the season against in-state rival, Tennessee, on Thanksgiving weekend. \u00a0Vandy is 4-4 entering the bye week, and the pre-season hopes of going bowling are alive and well in Nashville.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vanderbilt victory flags celebrate a touchdown against Tennessee State Tigers on Saturday, October 22, 2016. (Photo by: Kate Pearson-Halyburton, LWOS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vanderbilt Commodores Tame Tennessee State Tigers on Homecoming The Vanderbilt Commodores are on a roll of firsts as they sail into the bye week. Last week their 17-16 win over Georgia was their first conference road win in the Derek Mason era. Yesterday marked their first back-to-back win under Mason. It was their fifth homecoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1643,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[79,128,131,372,130,844,96],"class_list":["post-2821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sec","tag-college-football","tag-derek-mason","tag-khari-blasingame","tag-oren-burks","tag-ralph-webb","tag-tennessee-state-tigers","tag-vanderbilt-commodores"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}