Football had a tremendous performance on Saturday in Vanderbilt Stadium as the defense and the offense really anchored down to capture the 21-17 SEC victory over the Kentucky Wildcats before over 30,000 vocal Dores’ fans. We moved to 4-6 overall on the season and 2-4 in the SEC with games at home Saturday versus A&M (6:30 PM CT/7:30 PM ET SEC Network) and at UT, Saturday, Nov. 28th, @ 3 PM CT/4 PM CT on the SEC Network. If we win both we go to a bowl game which would be an amazing accomplishment for this football program under second year Coach Derek Mason. It’s been a successful season so far, and there were all kind of recruits lined up Saturday at the stadium. Four-star cornerback Joejuan Williams, one of our key targets, was at the game among many other key guys. High three star running back Trevor Speights from Texas, will be at our game versus A&M Saturday. We could have a very strong finish to recruiting. Like the 12 guys we have so far.
But back to our present team. True freshman Kyle Shurmur played terrifically in only his second college start. Kyle finished the day going 13-for-26 for 166 yards, two TDs and no ints. Shurms took care of the ball, made some really nice throws and ran the offense superbly. He hooked up with sophomore Caleb Scott for what was the play of the game. With us leading 14-10 late in the second quarter, after a Shurmur to Kyle Anderton four yard TD pass that was created by an excellent strip of the ball carrier by Caleb “Zu” Azubike and an outstanding, diving fumble recovery by Jay Woods, and an Oren Burks int that he took to the house from 30 yards out, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig went deep into his bag of tricks. After a UK timeout with :37 left in the second quarter and the ball at the UK 37 yard line, the offense went back onto the field. But Scott ran onto the field and got inside the numbers of the field, then headed back towards the sideline. The UK defense had no clue that he was still on the field and was inbounds. We snapped the ball to Kyle and he flipped a beautiful pass to Caleb, who caught the ball at the UK 15, and cruised into the end zone to put us up 21-10 as we went into halftime. It was brilliant.
When I was playing football in my earlier years, which was a pretty good while ago, I was on the sixth grade team for my school, and we were scrimmaging our seventh grade team. We were a pretty decent team, but our seventh grade group was very good and loved knocking us around. They were just bigger than us. So to score, we had to come up with something out of the box. One of our receivers, who is on this blog, stayed on the sideline while the other 10 of us broke the huddle. When we snapped the ball, the defense came charging in and our quarterback threw it to our wide receiver on our “Sleeper” play. It worked. Our guy caught it and took it to the house. The seventh grade quarterback, who was a good player who also played safety, was so angry that we scored on them that he chased our guy down through the end zone about 10 yards passed the end line and tackled him. It was pretty hilarious.
Offensive standouts
1. Kyle: Outstanding leadership and performance. We’re going to be pretty happy with Shurms under center for the rest of this year and the next three years. Deuce Wallace is coming in, too, and Johnny McCrary still has good talent. We’ve also got Wade Freebeck and Shawn Stankavage, so we’re in good shape at quarterback the rest of this season and in the future.
2. Caleb Scott: The sophomore from Georgia, whose dad, Chuck, was an awesome tight end for us in the late 80’s, is going to be a star. Caleb caught three passes for 87 yards and had that super seven. He made a catch on the sideline of a throw from Kyle that he took another 25 yards down the field, but the refs ruled him out after 12 yards. I thought they missed the call and Caleb had stayed in bounds. Caleb played terrifically. With Caleb, Trent Sherfield, Latevius Rayford, Ronald Monroe and our tight ends, our passing game is going to be cookin this week and next. I expect Coach Ludwig to open the playbook even more this week against A&M and use our wide outs and tight ends more in the passing game.
3. Ralph Webb: Typical hard-nosed Ralph-like game. Thirty three carries 113 yards, and some tough ones at that. Just missed taking it to the house a couple of times. Ralph has plenty of explosive plays left in him the rest of this season and going forward. He’s just a sophomore.
4. Spencer Pulley, Jake Bernstein and the rest of the offensive line: The guys played awesome. They were physical on the run and excellent in pass blocking. Kyle didn’t hit the turf one time. Zero sacks. I’ll mention the other guys too: Barrett Gouger, Will Holden and Bailey Granier. Those guys played some outstanding, physical football. A lot of credit goes to O line coach Kevin Lightner for really developing our guys. Losing Andrew Jelks before the season was a blow, but the guys have made up for it. Andrew will be back next year, which is exciting. We’ve got good depth on the line, too. The future looks very bright up front. We have two good offensive tackles coming in and we have another, Grayson Stover from Florida, a high three-star, who we are heavily pursuing. Love the way our line has come together.
Defensive standouts
1. Oren Burks: Oren had two ints on the day. His first was a catch of a batted away ball by our stud cornerback Torren McGaster. Oren intercepted Torren’s tipped ball in the end zone to keep the Wildcats from scoring. Oren also had the pick six. Just read where Oren was named SEC defensive player of the week. That’s awesome for Oren and a testament to how good this defense is under Coach Mason and his coaches. Love what Chris Marve is doing out there. He is an active defensive coach for us. Chris is a defensive graduate assistant, but signals in the calls from Coach Mason. He’s such a great guy and a great role model for our players. Defensive line coach Frank Maile, linebackers coach Kenwick Thompson, cornerbacks coach Brett Maxie and safeties coach Mark Mattioli also deserve a lot of credit. Coach Mason runs the show, but we’ve got a great staff of coaches.
2. “Zu”: Caleb Azubike played like the Caleb Azubike we’ve been used to the last two to three years. Zu has had injury issues this season, but he really made a statement on Saturday with two sacks, a forced fumble, three tackles for loss, and the sack that ended the game. Awesome to have Zu back healthy and playing Caleb Azubike football.
3. Zach Cunningham: Zach just does it every week. Zach finished the day with 10 tackles and was all over the field. He’s incredible. He’s the most underrated linebacker in the country, but not for long. Zach is making a name for himself and he’s just a sophomore.
4. Torren McGaster: Torren is another guy who is one of the best cornerbacks in the SEC. He’s making a name for himself too. Torren finished with six tackles, one for loss and two pass breakups including that key Oren interception in our end zone that Torren made possible by knocking the ball away from the receiver. Torren is a junior.
Our entire defense is swarming to the football and making game changing plays. The awesome Stephen Weatherly and Adam Butler, Jay Woods, Torey Agee, Nifae Lealao, Darreon Herring, one of our key leaders out there, and Landon Stokes, are all dominating up front. Andrew Williamson, Torren, Tre Herndon and Oren are playing excellent back four football for us too. We’ve got guys like Ryan White, Tre Bell, Jahmel McIntosh and Tre Tarpley who are also excellent players in the secondary. Sophomore Emmanuel Smith and his younger brother, freshman Josh Smith, are emerging at nickel back and outside linebacker respectively, and are going to be excellent players for us. They already are good. Two plays that may have gone unnoticed, but I’m sure the coaches have noticed, was the contain play by Josh on an outside run by Kentucky running back Boom Williams. Williams is an explosive player and had some good runs against us, but Josh made an excellent contain play that led to a tackle for loss by Torren of about 12 yards. The other was Tre Herndon hustling and catching Williams on what looked like a 75 yard TD run. Tre got Williams tackled Williams at the seven. Kentucky took it in from there, but it was terrific hustle by Tre. A play like that can save a football game.
The whole defense was exceptional like we’ve become accustomed to with this group. It just keeps getting better and better with our defense.
The special teams play of the game was made by freshman safety Andrew Rector, who blocked a Kentucky punt. All these guys who are making plays for us are coming back. But guys like Zu, Darreon and Steven Scheu are seniors and they want to get it done now. The future is here right now, right in front of us, and I know these guys are going to take advantage of it. They’re awesome kids, who KNOW they can win every time out now.
Now it’s on to A&M. They’ve got a quarterback in Kyler Murray who can make explosive plays and a guy off the bench if Murray struggles, Kyle Allen, who can throw it all over the field. They have a ton of playmakers and freshman Christian Kirk is one of the most dangerous wide receivers/ punt returners in the SEC, if not the country. So we have our work cut out for us. Tre Carson is a solid running back as well for the Aggies. We’ll have to play swarming, aggressive and smart defense against these guys and we HAVE to tackle well, both between the tackles and in space. Offensively, we need to run the football well and have Kyle, the receivers and the tight ends have very good games because we’re going to need to put points on the board. Our advantage will be our physicality. A&M is 7-3 overall and 3-3 in the conference and they’re playing for a good bowl game. It’s the most important game on the schedule because it’s the next one and we’re playing for postseason purposes now. Huge one Saturday, but so proud of the tremendous effort by our talented football team on Saturday. Time to get back to work.
Basketball
Nice win by our guys Friday night, 80-41, over Austin Peay. Wade Baldwin IV, WB4, led the way with 14. Luke Kornet had 13 points and 13 boards, and Damian Jones finished with 12 and five pulls. We were 32-of-72 from the field, 44%, eight of 19 from three, 42% and 8-of-15 from the line, 53%, which needs to improve and should. We’ve got too many good shooters to struggle from the line. Luke really played an outstanding game. Riley LaChance and Matthew Fisher-Davis (MFD) played well also. Freshman Camron Justice was two-for-three from deep. Camron was a prolific shooter in Kentucky the last three years and really brings some outside shooting to go along with the awesome shooting of Riley, Wade, MFD and Luke. Nolan Cressler, our transfer from Cornell, is another guy to get excited about. Nolan only hit one trifecta, but he averaged 16 points two years ago at Cornell and is an outstanding three point marksman. Very excited about freshmen Joseph Toye and Samir Sehic. Both are going to be outstanding players for us, Joseph at the three, and Samir down low. Samir had seven pulls on the night. He’s physical. Joe was a perfect three-for-three from the field and sank his only trifecta attempt. Both, along with Camron, are ready to be major contributors to what looks like a very special team. Kevin may be redshirting 6’11” big man Djery Baptiste, but Djery will be a force when he gets his offensive game going and he’ll be a sheriff underneath for us in the future. Our defense was really good on Friday night as well. We have the athletes to play outstanding defense. The present looks terrific and the future looks just as terrific with the guys we have now and the youth of this team. We’re young age-wise, but we gained so much experience last year. We’re ready to make a statement both in the SEC and nationally. Gardner-Webb tonight at 7 PM CT/8 PM ET on the SEC Network+ channel online. The Runnin’ Bulldogs have one of the most experienced starting fives in college basketball with four seniors and a junior starting. They lost Friday to Iowa, 74-59, but Iowa is a good team, so we need to be laced up and ready to go tonight.
We have now sank 932 three-pointers in a row since the inception of the three point line, trailing only UNLV in the category for most in the history of the line. Princeton, UNLV and us are the only three teams in the country to make at least one three pointer in every game since the inception of the three point line in 1986-87. This team should keep that going throughout this season with the shooters we have without a doubt, and maybe UNLV will stumble. This team has plans to do special things this season.
Jay Cutler
Jay played spectacularly in the Bears 37-13 victory over the St. Louis Rams in St. Louis yesterday. Jay finished the game against a pretty good defense 19-of-24 for 258 yards and three touchdowns and finished with a quarterback rating of 151. 158.3 is perfect, so Jay was about as good as you can get under center yesterday. The Bears moved to 4-5 on the season and Green Bay lost, falling to 6-3 on the season. So it’s getting interesting for the Midway guys. The Bears host Peyton and the Broncos this Sunday at Soldiuh Field at noon CT/1 PM ET on CBS. Should be a classic. The Broncos got crushed by KC yesterday, and Peyton had a terrible day throwing four interceptions. The Broncos have lost two in a row after having started the season 7-0. The way Jay and the offense is playing and the way the defense is really starting to get it going under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, a great one who came over from the 49ers where they had exceptional defenses under him, we have a good shot with the Broncos and getting to 5-5 will clearly put us in the hunt for a playoff spot. We then visit Green Bay Thanksgiving night (7:30 PM CT/8:30 PM ET on NBC, Thursday, Nov. 26th). If we can handle the Broncos, the game at Green Bay will be outrageously huge. Just heard that Peyton has a partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot, and will be out and Brock Osweiler will start in his place. Still have to play well. The Broncos have a very good defense and a good running game.
Tight end Zach Miller was tremendous again catching five passes for 107 yards including an 83 yard house call on a short pass from Jay that Zach caught at the Bears 17 and just flew by everybody for the seven. What an athlete. Matt Forte better hurry up and get back because Jeremy Langford, the rooking running back out of Michigan State, is playing tremendous football for Chicago. Jeremy ran for 73 yards and a seven and caught seven passes for 109 yards and a seven as well. He’s awesome. Ka’ Deem Carey played excellent football as well running for 56 yards on 14 carries. Of course the Bears will welcome Matt back with open arms when he returns from injury, but we’ve got some pretty good options if he can’t make it back soon. Alshon Jeffery only caught three passes for 23 yards, but he’s a huge part of this offense and will be heavily involved in the game plan against Denver and Green Bay. Love the way the defense is playing also. LaMarr Houston has found himself under Fangio and is playing outstanding at defensive end/outside linebacker. He’s always been a stellar player, but is starting to get back to his old form when he was at Kansas City this season. Kyle Fuller and Tracy Porter are playing exceptional football at corner and safety respectively, and Shea McClellan was excellent at linebacker yesterday. This team has it going.
JMatt
Not the best game for the Eagles yesterday as they lost to the Dolphins, 20-19. JMatt had three receptions for 21 yards, but starting quarterback Sam Bradford was knocked out of the game with a concussion and a shoulder injury, so that didn’t help. Mark Sanchez couldn’t really get the offense going. I do believe in Sanchez going forward if Bradford is out for a while. I think he can get the job done with the weaponry around him. The Eagles dropped to 4-5 on the season and host Tampa Bay Sunday, then play Thanksgiving Day at the Lions on FOX at 11:30 AM CT/12:30 PM ET. That’s November 26th as well. The Giants lost to the Patriots in a heartbreaker yesterday, and fell to 5-5, so we’re right there. It’s time for this team to get hot. I watched the preseason and Sanchez threw it to Jordan a lot, so he should get a lot of opportunities even if Bradford is out a while. Eagles need to start winning.
Fes
Festus Ezeli is still making his mark for the Golden State Warriors and they are the best team in the NBA right now at a perfect 11-0. Fes is getting a lot of time and playing very well. The Warriors’ coaches really like his toughness and lunch pale/hard hat mentality. The Warriors play the Toronto Raptors tomorrow night in Oracle Arena, so I’ll get some intel on Fes from that game. This is a super team.
Jon Curran, Luke List, Brandt
JC finished in a tie for 29th at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Jon finished -8 for the tournament shooting 68-71-67-70. He played well and picked up a good check. Luke List played but did not make the cut, but Luke, Jon and Brandt are all playing this week at the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Ga. Awesome to have all three guys competing. Graeme McDowell won the OHL yesterday in a playoff. Glad to see Brandt back out there and always love seeing Luke and JC compete, too. I’m just really happy for Luke, as he’s worked so hard to make the Tour. JC, too. Brandt is loaded with talent and a major is certainly attainable this year. Brandt’s work with superb teacher Butch Harmon has already paid dividends and it will again this season. Brandt always plays well at Augusta and the U.S Open., the Open Championship and the PGA are at three classic courses this year. The U.S. Open is at the venerable Oakmont Country Club where Angel “El Pato” Cabrera won in 2007, and the PGA is at historic Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey, just outside of NYC. It’s a classic as well. Phil won the PGA Championship there in 2005, one of his five majors. That’s sensational. The Open Championship will be played at the famous Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland. Would love for Brandt to get as many majors as possible in his career. This could very well be his year. Would love to see JC and Luke compete at those venues as well. They’ll both have to win on tour this season to get in those events prior to them starting.
Final notes
Our women’s cross country team has won two Southern meets that are big deals and are going to the NCAA’s. I’ll find out more, but this team is apparently pretty awesome. Actually we won the NCAA regional at Alabama on Nov.13th, this past Friday, and are running in the NCAA Championships on Nov. 21st, Saturday, at Louisville, Kentucky. Our coach, Steve Keith, is doing an exceptional job. Will have more on the girls after the meet on Saturday. Caroline Pietrzyk, a freshman from Malibu, Cali, finished second at the regionals. Caroline is a talent.
And our women’s basketball team started off well with a W over Mississippi Valley State, 89-39. There is good talent on this team and Coach Melanie Balcomb’s 2016 recruiting class is in the top 20 in the country with some outstanding players, who just signed up with us. The girls are getting it going. We have a somewhat younger group, but I like the makeup of this group and the future ahead.
Will have a breakdown of tonight’s game against Gardner-Webb tomorrow in the AM. Great stuff going on.