The Vanderbilt Commodores are resting this week and resting happily.
After losing earlier this month to the Southeastern Conference's ranked Eastern Division trio of Georgia, Florida and Kentucky, the Commodores produced an offensive eruption last Saturday in a 45-31 victory at Arkansas. Vanderbilt improved to 4-5 overall and 1-5 in SEC play, leaving Derek Mason's Commodores with the task of winning two of their final three games after this weekend's open date against Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee to attain bowl eligibility.
"There is a lot left in this football team," Mason said Saturday during a news conference in Fayetteville, "but they had to get one before they could do anything else."
Mason's self-described "three-headed monster" of redshirt junior running back Ke'Shawn Vaughn, junior receiver Kalija Lipscomb and redshirt junior tight end Jared Pinkney proved too much for the Razorbacks to handle. Pinkney and Lipscomb combined on nine catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns, while Vaughn posted a career-best performance with 26 rushes for 172 yards (6.6 per carry) and three scores.
Vaughn, a Nashville resident who began his college career at Illinois before transferring, had a 43-yard run and a 75-yard reception to help Vanderbilt build a 21-3 lead over visiting Florida on Oct. 13. He suffered a leg injury in the second quarter, however, and the offense sputtered most of the second half in the 37-27 defeat.
The 5-foot-10, 215-pounder did not travel to the 14-7 loss at Kentucky on Oct. 20, but the shredding of Arkansas has Vaughn at 667 yards for the season, which includes an average of 6.8 yards per rush.
"I've felt like he's had games like this all season," Pinkney said in Fayetteville. "He had 26 carries, and the yards piled up. He's averaged more than 6 yards throughout the whole year, so if you give him more carries, the yards will come."
Said Vaughn: "Taking that week off had its advantages."
Vanderbilt senior quarterback Kyle Shurmur completed 13 of 19 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns against the Razorbacks, giving the son of New York Giants coach Pat Shurmur three consecutive years of at least 2,000 aerial yards.
It does not take a dormitory filled with Vanderbilt history majors to realize the Commodores have been 4-5 at this point for three consecutive seasons and that the remaining schedule mirrors their 2016 stretch run. Vandy fell at Missouri two years ago to fall to 4-6, but they used stellar offensive showings to close out with wins over Ole Miss (38-17) and Tennessee (45-34) and earn a bid to the Independence Bowl.
That has been the only bowl appearance for the Commodores since Mason arrived in 2014, but if their offense can finish what it started at Arkansas, this year's team could be playing past November.
"We gave them a landscape of the big picture a few weeks ago," Mason said. "We knew how tough the schedule was going to be, and we understood what was in front of us. I think our guys went out and had a chance against Florida and left it out there, and then we went to Kentucky, played hard but came up short.
"When you look at our schedule, it gives us a chance, but I don't want our guys to focus on the schedule. We'll continue to process what's available to us, but right now our goal each week is to go 1-0."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.