Tag: Ken Seals

Tale of the Tape: Auburn vs. Vanderbilt

The heavily favored Auburn Tigers travel to Nashville this week to take on Vanderbilt this week. Will this game be closer than expected?

The 4-4 Auburn Tigers will put on their dancing shoes on Saturday when they travel to Broadway to take on the 2-7 Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville.

Quarterback [autotag]Payton Thorne[/autotag] and the Auburn offensive line look to keep the good times rolling in Music City after coming off arguably their best game of the season.

Vanderbilt on the other hand could really use somebody to step up, as the Commodores have lost 7 straight games after starting 2-0.

The different directions of these two teams explain why Auburn is favored by a 12.5-points on the road in this one, according to BetMGM.

ESPN FPI also believes in the Tigers’ chances to take a wrecking ball to the Commodores. The Index is giving Auburn an 84.1% chance to win.

That is by far the highest Auburn has been favored in FPI since their game against Samford all the way back in September.

Will the tale of the tape show us Auburn will set the world on fire and take care of business, or does a closer look show us this game might be closer than expected?

As always, we’ll start with the quarterbacks.

Starting quarterback [autotag]Payton Thorne [/autotag] played his best as an Auburn Tiger last week in the win over Mississippi State.

The transfer has struggled most of the season, but threw for 230 yards and 3 touchdowns in last week’s victory, putting his season totals at 1,075 yards and 8 touchdowns in 8 games.

Auburn’s “QB1” has also been a threat with the legs, rushing for 297 yards and 2 touchdowns this season.

Vanderbilt’s quarterback situation on the other hand has been more disgusting than the floors at Tootsie’s.

The Commodores started the season with sophomore [autotag]AJ Swann[/autotag]. Swann went on to start Vanderbilt’s first 5 games of the season, throwing for 1,290 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions before going down with a shoulder injury.

Senior [autotag]Ken Seals [/autotag] took over as the de-facto starter and threw for 740 yards and 5 touchdowns in his first 3 starts before getting benched in favor of redshirt freshman [autotag]Walter Taylor[/autotag] last week against Ole Miss.

I’m giving the edge to Thorne and Auburn in this category due to the simple fact Vanderbilt’s quarterback situation is a mess.

The skill position battle is a little bit murkier. Vanderbilt has the best receiver in this game, [autotag]Will Sheppard[/autotag], but it’s hard to judge how much of his output is attributed to the Commodores always playing from behind.

I will say Auburn running back [autotag]Jarquez Hunter[/autotag] is the most talented player for either team on the offensive side of the ball. That fact alone gives the Tigers the edge in the skill position battle, although it’s close.

Auburn also gets the edge up front. [autotag]Gunner Britton[/autotag] is not only the best lineman in this game, but he has also become one of the premier blockers in the SEC.

The Tigers has the edge across the offensive side of the ball.

On the defensive side of things, it’s not even close. Auburn boasts one of the best defenses in the SEC (22.5 opponents PPG), while Vanderbilt has arguably the worst (36 opponents PPG).

The talent gap on the defensive side of the ball is bigger than Dolly Parton’s Brentwood mansion.

After taking a closer look at this game, it’s clear why Auburn is favored by 12.5 points. The Tigers have an incredible chance to come out of Nashville one win away from being bowl-eligible.

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SEC QB rankings at regular season’s end: Kyle Trask just means more

The Heisman Trophy may not go to a quarterback after all this year, but there’s no denying how close Trask and Jones have remained.

An unprecedented 2020 college football season has finally reached its end in the SEC, and we’ve seen plenty of surprises and shuffling around at quarterback this year.

One of the biggest storylines of the year has been the competition between Florida’s Kyle Trask and Alabama’s Mac Jones vying for the Heisman Trophy.

But it looks as if the honors might not go to a quarterback at all anymore (enter DeVonta Smith, who is coming off a performance with 15 receptions, 189 yards and two touchdowns).

Here’s a look at where each quarterback in the conference stands at regular season’s end.

1. Kyle Trask, Florida.

Kyle Trask and Mac Jones have remained about as close as they could be all year, and the separating factor is the fact that Trask has been more essential to his team as a whole — while performing at an exceptionally high level — than any other quarterback in the country has.

The Heisman Trophy probably won’t be coming back to Florida after Trask threw two interceptions against LSU (though only one of them was really on him) and the heartbreaking loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship in which Trask took a sack on Florida’s Hail Mary attempt.

He’s completed just under 70% of his passes for 4,125 yards with 43 touchdowns (an FBS best) and five interceptions this season, also breaking Danny Wuerffel’s touchdown record this season.

He clinches the No. 1 spot by a hair with the Cotton Bowl left on schedule.

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Five halftime notes: Gators lead at the half but Vandy put up a fight

Florida Gators football faces the Vanderbilt Commodores on the road and after the first half hold a 17-10 lead. Here are five reasons why.

The opening half of the football game between the Florida Gators and the Vanderbilt Commodores did not go quite how UF fans expected, with Vandy leading the game at the end of the first quarter, 10-7, despite Kyle Trask setting a new SEC record with his touchdown throw.

In the second quarter, the two teams traded a pair of punts before Florida’s offense started to click. The Gators tied the game on a field goal with under four minutes left, then took the lead on a fantastic catch by Trevon Grimes to give them a 17-10 lead heading into the halftime locker room.

Now that the first half is complete, let us look at the five major points from the opening thirty minutes.

Best of highlights: LSU downs Vanderbilt, 41-7

Looking at some of the best plays of LSU’s 41-7 road victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday.

The LSU Tigers bounced back from a disappointing 44-34 loss the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Week 1, toppling the Vanderbilt Commodores, 41-7 on the road in Vanderbilt Stadium on Saturday night.

One of the most important takeaways of the night was that quarterback Myles Brennan looked much-improved, appearing much more calm and decisive in the pocket than we saw him look against the Bulldogs.

The defense also stepped up and looked more competent than they did against Mississippi State, showing improved tackling and sacking Vanderbilt quarterback Ken Seals three times.

Here’s a look at some of the most exciting plays of the game as LSU evened out its record.

The Tigers will face the Missouri Tigers up next as they return to Tiger Stadium for an 8 p.m. CST kickoff Saturday.

HALFTIME: LSU leads Vanderbilt 21-7, highlights

The Tigers’ offense seems to have found its rhythm, but the Commodores haven’t fallen too far behind.

The LSU Tigers had a chance to get their feet under them in the Week 2 road matchup against the Vanderbilt Commodores, and they seem to be doing just that through the first two quarters of action.

The offense struggled to find anything resembling a sense of rhythm in last week’s 44-34 loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs, but quarterback Myles Brennan and Co. have put up 258 yards of total offense to Vanderbilt’s 203 yards, and look to have the momentum despite an overthrown ball that resulted in an interception for Brennan.

LSU also looks more steady on defense, getting a good amount of pressure and tackling much better than last week. At the end of the second quarter, the LSU defense has one sack on Ken Seals credited to defensive tackle Siaki Ika, and 47 total tackles. Safety JaCoby Stevens is responsible for 10 of those with five solo tackles, unexpectedly a leader on defense.

Vanderbilt is keeping pace, though, showing the ability to move the ball downfield against a historically stout Tigers defense under new defensive coordinator Bo Pelini.

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The Tigers lead the Commodores, 21-7 after a promising Vanderbilt drive that ultimately amounted to nothing after a missed field goal by Pierson Cook, and they’ll aim to finish the job as they get back to the field after the half.

Here’s a look at some of the best plays on the game on both sides through the first half:

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LSU-Vanderbilt: Previewing Commodores QB Ken Seals

Seals finished out his debut, 20-of-29 passing for 150 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

The word “elite” probably isn’t the first one that comes to mind when thinking of the quarterback position at Vanderbilt in recent history, but the Commodores head into Saturday’s matchup against the LSU Tigers with an impressive true freshman at the helm in Ken Seals.

Just one game in, Seals is already showing he has the makings of becoming a true SEC quarterback — something that should bring excitement for Commodores fans in the coming seasons.

The stats sheet won’t tell you that story, though.

Seals finished out his debut, 20-of-29 passing for 150 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions in Vanderbilt’s 17-12 loss to the Texas A&M Aggies.

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There are reasons to look to the film itself as opposed to the numbers when evaluating any quarterback, and that’s definitely the case with Seals. He looked calm and collected behind a sometimes shaky Vanderbilt offensive line, delivering on a wide range of plays in an offense that went up-tempo.

He sees the field well, and his decision-making didn’t falter the same way we’ve seen at times from inexperienced college quarterbacks trying to settle in.

“I thought he was cool, I thought he was calm. He was poised—never really got too high, never really got too low,” head coach Derek Mason said. “He made a lot of people forget that he is an 18-year-old freshman.”

The Tigers and Commodores are set to kick off at 6:30 p.m. CST in Vanderbilt Stadium on Saturday night.

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LSU-Vanderbilt: Four things to know ahead of the game

LSU hasn’t lost in Nashville since 1990. Coming off a crushing loss, the Tigers face a Vanderbilt team that could impress for another week.

As LSU looks to avenge last week’s season-opening loss to Mississippi State, their opponent this week, the Vanderbilt Commodores, look like a much improved team from a season ago.

Last September, the Tigers went into Nashville and dismantled the Commodores defense in a 66-38 win in which Joe Burrow tossed six touchdown passes.

This past Saturday, Vanderbilt held Texas A&M to just 17 points in a five-point loss, and achieved over 100 rushing yards from two stout running backs in Ja’veon Marlow and Jamauri Wakefield.

Heading into the Tigers’ second game of the 2020 season, here are four things to know about the match-up with the Commodores.

LSU hasn’t lost in Nashville since 1990

The last four games played in Nashville have resulted in a Tigers victory. Most recently, the Tigers blew out Vanderbilt 66-38 last season. The Tigers are riding an eight-game winning streak in the overall series.

Leave no doubt, this year’s installment of the series could be a lot closer than it looks on paper. The Commodores looked impressive last week in a hostile environment in College Station. The way LSU played could give Vanderbilt  an early advantage if the Tigers start slow.

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