NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Vanderbilt Commodores finally proved they could play offense and score lots of points. It's a big confidence booster for a team that has struggled to do both, and the timing couldn't be better.
The Commodores (2-3, 1-1) enter the heart of their Southeastern Conference schedule with the next six inside the league. It all starts Saturday when they visit Georgia (2-4, 1-3), a team looking up at Vanderbilt in the SEC East standings.
Coach Robbie Caldwell said Monday that a 52-6 win over winless Eastern Michigan last weekend provided a great opportunity for his offense just to work. They piled up their most points since a 58-0 win over The Citadel in 1999. They piled up 558 yards total offense, their most since the 2009 opener.
"It gives them a great deal of confidence, the repetitions, getting to do some things more than once. That was big for us," Caldwell said.
The Commodores needed the offensive production for a team that still ranks last in the league with 125 points scored even after that big win. The big win allowed coaches to get lots of players game experience.
"I think that's the first time we've done that since I've been here that we've been able to play every person that was on the sideline," Caldwell said. "A big boost for us."
On the field, quarterback Larry Smith had his longest completion of his career with a 65-yard toss to Udom Umoh. That also was the longest catch of Umoh's career. Turner Wimberly had his longest catch at 33 yards, while Zac Stacy had his longest touchdown run for 61 yards. Mason Johnson's first career catch was a 1-yard TD.
John Cole had his longest catch of 57 yards to go with his longest punt return of 54 yards. He finished with 103 yards receiving, the first Vandy receiver to top 100 yards since Sean Walker had 138 against Duke on Oct. 25, 2008.
Smith finished with 253 yards and two touchdowns for the second-best game of his career. Caldwell said that could have been more if not for the coaches playing so many players. Eleven different Commodores caught passes against Eastern Michigan.
"We've been working on throwing the ball down the field ...," Caldwell said. "One thing Larry faces a difficult task of is we're having to play a lot of folks. The reason for that is we know that injuries are forthcoming. It's just a part of the game, and we've got to be prepared. Sometimes in the past, maybe we held those guys and limped down the stretch."
The Commodores still had some problems with a botched snap and Smith overthrew a receiver in the end zone.
Still, they managed to move up to 79th in total offense averaging 350.2 yards per game and 52 points pushed them to 78th in scoring offense with 25 points per game.
This is an offense that scored 28 points in beating Mississippi on Sept. 18 but just no more than 21 in losses to Northwestern and Connecticut.
"Now we go into the meat of the schedule it gets more difficult," Cole said. " We (need) to keep going. That's important."
Tuesday
June 10th, 2025
4:48PM
