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The Opposition: Vanderbilt’s defense will test Houston’s offense

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Houston will be the third top 15 offense Vanderbilt faces this season. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Cougar asked the Vanderbilt Hustler’s sports editor, Ben Weinrib, to write about the matchup against Houston. Here’s what he had to say.

Vanderbilt University’s Commodores will head to Houston and face yet another high-profile offense. It’s become a common theme for them this season, yet their defense has remained strong.

Houston will be the third top-15 offense the Commodores face this season, following a 14-12 loss to Western Kentucky University and a 27-16 loss to the University of Mississippi. That’s not even mentioning 37th-ranked Middle Tennessee State University, who Vanderbilt held to 13 points in its second win of the season.

An improved defense has been the key for Vanderbilt this season.  After being last in the Southeastern Conference, allowing 33.2 points per game, Vanderbilt is now second in the SEC, allowing just 16.3 points per game. That’s especially impressive considering the teams they’ve played are averaging 28.1 points per game on the season.

The big change for Vanderbilt has been their play calling on defense. The personnel is almost exactly the same as last season, but now head coach Derek Mason has taken over as the de facto defensive coordinator.

Mason was one of the best defensive coordinators in the nation at Stanford – he was nominated for the Broyles Award in 2012 for top assistant – and when he fired his defensive coordinator David Kotulski after one season, he figured he was the best option to fill the DC role.

The results, clearly, speak for themselves. However, Vanderbilt will face a new challenge this week in Houston and Heisman candidate Greg Ward Jr.

Vanderbilt has faced several strong quarterbacks before but none have the skill set of Ward. Western Kentucky’s Brandon Doughty (2nd), Ole Miss’ Chad Kelly (8th), and Middle Tennessee’s Brent Stockstill (9th) all are top 10 in the nation in passing yards, but only Kelly among them has rushed for positive yardage on the season (141).

Ward, (however), is completely different. He has 33rd in the nation with 247.7 passing yards per game but also second among all quarterbacks with 96.7 rushing yards per game. Mason has had success against running quarterbacks while at Stanford, but this is something the Commodores defense hasn’t seen yet while Mason has been calling plays.

Luckily for the Commodores, Houston will not be at full strength offensively with a myriad of injuries to the offensive line. The Cougars are starting a true freshman at center and a pair of redshirt freshmen at each guard position.

With last year’s leading tackler Nigel Bowden still out with a concussion, this could be another game for budding star and inside linebacker Zach Cunningham to step up against a premier offensive weapon. This game will come down to which top-flight unit can come out on top: a premier offense or premier defense.

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