NASHVILLE — Vanderbilt football had another undesirable weekend at home, losing their fourth straight game of the season and moving to 0-4 in SEC play.
The Commodores were taken down by Arkansas by a score of 31-21. Vanderbilt freshman quarterback threw an ill-advised interception in the final four minutes of the game and his team never saw the ball again until it was a two-possession game with just a few seconds remaining.
There were a few individually good performances by Vanderbilt players and some other performances that were not so good and need to be better going forward. Following a fourth consecutive loss that dropped Vanderbilt under .500 on the season, here is this week’s Vanderbilt football stock exchange.
Who Raised Their Stock
Junior Sherrill
It was another great day for wide receiver Junior Sherrill and the connection he has with his starting quarterback. Sherrill was targeted 11 times in the game and caught eight passes for 99 yards and a touchdown that was dropped perfectly in the bucket by Jared Curtis.
Sherrill has continued to separate himself from the rest of Vanderbilt’s pass catchers and it showed again Saturday night. Sherrill was the only Vanderbilt player to be targeted more than four times and catch more than three passes.
While Vanderbilt’s season has not gone in the direction that it wanted it to, Sherrill has been a bright spot for Vanderbilt’s offense each and every week. Though his effort did not produce a win against Arkansas, Sherrill’s target share and production shows plenty of reason for optimism going forward.
Bryan Longwell
Vanderbilt veteran linebacker Bryan Longwell was everywhere Saturday, finishing with a team-high 13 tackles. Four of his tackles were solo tackles and 1.5 of his tackles for tackles for loss. In addition to that, Longwell also had two pass break-ups.
Although Vanderbilt’s defense looked vulnerable in the second half for another week, Longwell was one of the Vanderbilt defenders that walked off the field Saturday night with a performance to be happy about.
Longwell finished with four more tackles than the next Vanderbilt defender in the game. Vanderbilt’s coaching staff should be happy to see how Longwell has produced defensively. One of the Commodores leaders on defense should always be expected to perform well, but Saturday, Longwell had an extra good day.
Expect Longwell to continue to raise his stock individually throughout the rest of the season.
Sedrick Alexander
Last week, Vanderbilt running back Sedrick Alexander was on the wrong side of the stock exchange list for how little of a factor he was against Ole Miss. This weekend, however, Alexander ends up on the right side of the Vanderbilt stock exchange list.
Alexander was far more involved this week, carrying the ball 10 times for 57 yards and a touchdown. He also caught three passes for 40 yards out of the backfield as well. Even though Vanderbilt did not win the game, Alexander was a factor in the game and made his mark.
The most encouraging part about Alexander’s performance was how involved he was. Though 10 carries may not seem like much for the Commodores’ starting running back, it was enough to leave his own mark on the game. When he is given the opportunities, Alexander will eventually find ways to take advantage of them like he did against Arkansas.
Who Lowered Their Stock
Jared Curtis
It was not an awful day from Curtis, but it was not a great day for him either. Curtis completed 19 of his 31 passes for 231 yards and a touchdown and two interceptions. He was not the sole reason Vanderbilt lost the game, but his mistakes did factor into the end result.
The first interception, Curtis stared down an Arkansas defender and still threw it to his receiver that was guard by Joker Johnson. Johnson returned that interception for a touchdown and it gave the Razorbacks a free six points. The second interception, Curtis was trying to play the role of a hero and he did not succeed in his effort. Curtis threw an ill-advised pass right to the Arkansas defense with a chance to tie the game at 28 in the final few minutes on the line.
The mistakes from Curtis were crucial and he deserves some of the blame in the Vanderbilt loss. But that is the Jared Curtis experience as well. Shades of NFL-type throws occurred, but so did the backbreaking mistakes that took points off the board for Vanderbilt and gave points to Arkansas.
Next week’s challenge against Kentucky will be interesting to see how Curtis bounces back.
Steve Gregory
For the second week in a row, Vanderbilt defensive coordinator Steve Gregory ends up on the wrong side of the stock exchange list. The Commodores defense was beaten badly and was handled by Arkansas.
It was a back-and-forth game in the first half, but Arkansas’ offense started to explode in the third quarter. Vanderbilt allowed Arkansas to hit just under 200 yards of offense in the third quarter alone. As if that was not bad enough, Vanderbilt allowed a 50% conversion rate on third down. In total, Vanderbilt’s defense surrendered 438 yards of offense after barely hitting 500 total yards the past two weekends combined.
Whether it is a scheme or a playcalling issue or an execution issue, it is abundantly clear that Gregory’s defense has plenty of things to clean up going into its next game against a good Kentucky team. Clark Lea is not going to change the defensive play caller, which is good news for Gregory. The bad news for Gregory is that his unit is continuing to reel after starting 3-0. The defense has to take great strides of improvement over the next few weeks to get back a sense of confidence in the defense.
Cayden Daniels
Vanderbilt cornerback Cayden Daniels had an overwhelming day to say the least against Arkansas. The Commodores defensive back was noticeably a nonfactor in the game Saturday.
Daniels finished the game with just one tackle. That is not the way he had been playing up until this past weekend. Daniels started the game in the first and second halves, but it did not feel like he got as much playing time in between the start and finishes to both halves.
Maybe that could just be a one time thing, though. Either way, it is not a great thing Daniels only had one tackle in the game.
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