2023 Vanderbilt Football Schedule Preview (Game-By-Game Analysis)

Chris Lee and Blake Lovell of Southeastern 14 here continuing our preview series of SEC schedule today we get to the Vanderbilt Commodores and Blake schedule a big thing for Vandy in the past no Alabama that's been a soul-crushing game and you look at this one and Vanderbilt's just got six home games but it's got a manageable non-conference schedule including a couple of winnable road trips it's got a rematch with Hawaii team that it slaughtered a year ago and it's the only SEC team with two bye weeks by virtue of that week Zero game with Y also and maybe this is the most important thing here for Vanderbilt as it approaches its season The Commodores no longer have that 26 game SEC losing streak so I think a manageable schedule combined with some optimism with two SEC wins at the end of last season to have folks in Nashville feeling a little better about this year I would hope so yeah schedule sets up pretty nicely I think the non-conference games are all winnable and you know said no Alabama There's No LSU no a m those are probably your projected top three in the west and you do have to make the trip to Oxford as usual but you know I think just not having those top three teams at least what we expect in the west will help you've got those kind of games against Missouri Auburn um you know at Florida maybe I think Florida is a team that we just probably don't have a great sense of what they're going to be and that's probably more on the lower side right now in terms of the projections so you know those kind of games that one two wins here or there I mean that's that puts you right there in terms of the ball conversation and so that's always important for Vanderbilt so yeah I think this schedule sets up a lot nicer and some of the ones they've had previously so let's hop right into it a week zero game with Hawaii that's a game that Vanderbilt won last year by 53 points that was in Hawaii this is Timmy Chang's second year at his alma mater not the hot mess that he inherited last year but still maybe a bottom 10 or 15 team in the FBS that's a game that Vanderbilt should win week two Vanderbilt gets its FCS game that against Alabama a m that a team I think that went four and eight last year and lost 59 to nothing to UAB that is one that the Commodores should win the road trip to Wake Forest will be trickier than maybe something wake is losing Sam Hortman but that's a team that's been to a bowl seven straight years and then a game against Barry Odom's new team that UNLV that'll be in Vegas the first four I'm not going to say Vandy is is going to run the table and go 4-0 but it's a possibility and certainly you would expect nothing worse than three and one at that stage yeah I mean I think if you're an improved team I think you've they should be 4-0 I mean Wake Forest like you said they've Still Got Talent there and they've kind of become one of those teams that you just sort of expect them to to plug and replace and I think you know Dave clawson's done a pretty good job but I mean Saint Martin was obviously a big part of that and and lose your top receiver too and so I think that's a winnable game for sure for Vanderbilt I'm curious you know if you had to put the spread on that right now what would that be between those two teams because um you know I think it's it's at least an interesting game and so I'm not again I'm not saying very much necessarily should be 4-0 but I think they've got a good chance to be 4-0 after those first four games you know we have got some Talent there but even with Barry Odom coming in I think that's still that's still a game Vanderbilt should win again if they're going to be a team that's improved in the SEC and gonna have a chance to go to a bowl game I think that's just the kind of game you have to win so two and two would be um not good in terms of Vanderbilt's bullhope setting into the SEC play but I think like you mentioned if you go three and one I think they got a chance to go 4-0 um you're sitting in a really good spot with what I think are some pretty winnable games just based on that how the schedule plays out uh you know the rest of the way with a couple of those SEC games yeah I kind of see their schedule in in three General segments we we hit the first four games that's the non-conference portion that's where available's got to make some hay to get to a bowl game the second part of that is these next three games Kentucky and Missouri at home and then at Florida now last year Vanderbilt beat Kentucky in Lexington it beat Florida in Nashville and it played Missouri and Columbia to within I think it was maybe a field goal I don't remember but that game came down to like the last two minutes I think vanity had the ball on Missouri side of the field with a chance to get a first down and maybe a win and didn't so those were three games last year that Vandy either won or was that close to winning Commodores really need to get one or two here in that portion if they're going to go bowling and and maybe two given the last five that we'll speak about in just a moment well I mean look they could be both eligible by October the 7th if everything you know kind of goes according to plan like we said what if they go 4-0 um in those non-conference games and then win one against Missouri and then beat either Kentucky or Florida which as we talked about kind of what last year how that unfolded but um I'm pretty high on Kentucky I think that's going to be a challenging one I know we kind of would have said the same thing last year but I think this Kentucky team as we'll talk about in our previews this summer um I think they've got a chance to have a really nice season so I think that'll be a tough one to get but Missouri certainly a winnable game again I'm not saying Kentucky's not but um Missouri is one that you looked at in circle that's like that's always one we circle with Vanderbilt Missouri for both teams how important it is um just to win that game given what the rest of your schedule looks like now that Tennessee has kind of took that step forward George is obviously what Georgia is South Carolina's taking a step forward so so yeah I think beating a team like Missouri is crucial and you know as we'll get into with that that Florida game I mean it's I just don't think expectations are very high for Florida heading into the season that could change depending on what we see from the Gators in that first month or so but um to me these all three feel like winning more games for Vanderbilt but like we said that is all on the the setup of them just being an improved team and and I think we'll we'll find that out and there's four games just with those non-conference opponents yeah I think the Wake Forest came to backtrack a little bit but will be the one that'll be very telling that'll be the litmus test I think to whether this team is is maybe all capable or not that might be overstating it but just to piggyback off what you said okay now we get to the last five games and boy it becomes a different Universe here uh Georgia at Ole Miss Auburn at South Carolina at Tennessee I'm just going to go ahead and throw the first and last games out Georgia and at Tennessee I don't see Vandy having a chance Tennessee maybe you've seen vanity do pretty well in that series the last decade you know sometimes when the wheels fall apart in Knoxville uh it can go bad quickly I don't see that happening Georgia they have no shot so let's focus on the middle three of that sequence at Ole Miss Auburn at South Carolina Ole Miss trounce Vanderbilt a year ago and has won that series Pretty decisively in the last two or three years South Carolina those games have been close but Carolina I think has won every one of them since 2009 on and they play every year which brings me to Auburn that Auburn another program where it can go either way new coach that you freeze you would rather have this game on the schedule last year than this year and you would rather have Auburn I think sooner than later when it's getting used to a new coach and new schemes uh I don't know those Auburn South Carolina games seem to be probably the most winnable for Vandy and and maybe Auburn at home and again a lot of that depends on Auburn you have seen Auburn Seasons where they come in with big expectations and boy when it goes bad it spirals down in a hurry you've also seen it go the other way where expectations were were here and the season ended up there so those are that's the last five of this of the schedule but I think Auburn is the one that I'm sort of circling there oh for sure I mean I I would again I'd maybe flip the Auburn and Missouri games and feel maybe a little bit better about where things would be at that point because they would still be adjusting I think it'll take a little time and look I don't even know if it's going to happen in year one under he freeze I think there will still be some things talent wise they'll have to to fix but um you know overall I I still think like I said earlier I still think you'd rather get Auburn than any of those other teams that probably are projected much higher like Alabama LSU a m and so forth so you know just to get that game in Nashville I think is is nice to have um but again a lot of that's going to be dependent on Auburn more so maybe than Vanderbilt because I think Auburn just with they're another team it's just really hard to know what you're going to get uh right off the bat and where they'll be come you know first week in November so the Ole Miss game yeah that's a challenging one I think just going on the road um South Carolina another team that I I don't think Vanderbilt you know probably wins that game um in either scenario but I do think that's another one you'd probably rather have early in the season versus late because guess what we've seen South Carolina play some pretty good football late in the season uh recently if if you've forgotten that so yeah I don't love that setup either um and so yeah I mean the Georgia Tennessee games are just they're going to be very tough and by the way we're going to do our game by game predictions for every team in the SEC we'll do those uh here in several weeks probably in July sometime so we're just kind of previewing the schedule now but I don't think I'll be I'll be pulling it upset for vanderbond and those Georgia Tennessee games but the others are interesting and again that's why like you said a minute ago Vanderbilt really needs to do their work early on win a couple of those swing games as I call them uh because otherwise you know you maybe put yourself in a in sort of those must win situations against an Auburn or not South Carolina and as we said just hard to know exactly where those two teams will be and and Vanderbilt is probably the underdog in both of those if I would have to guess um perhaps right now so it'll be interesting to see if Clark Lee can make that jump from five and seven to to six and six or maybe even seven and six in the regular season or maybe seven and six with the bowl game I guess is a better way to put it um anyway we will cover every SEC team's schedule best way to see all those hit the Subscribe button enable your notifications and hit the like button that helps our analytics that helps us get noticed for Blake Lovell I'm Chris Lee we're Southeastern 14. thank you for watching our schedule preview available for the coming football season