Nashville, TN – Attempting to build on their unusual, quick, 2-0 start, the Vanderbilt Commodores took a turn for the normal when the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest (2-0) derailed their early season momentum with a 45-25 win in newly-named First Bank Stadium. To the delight of Deacon fans, QB Sam Hartman returned to start his first game of 2022. Out of action in Week One, due to a blood clot, the medical staff at WFU cleared the red-shirt Junior to resume play. He followed up last year’s stats in style completing 18 of 27 passes for 300 yards and four TDs.
Guest Game Analyst (GGA) Jim “Bug-a-lug” Harton (Wake Forest grad and fan) commented that the Deacons played much better with Hartman back this weekend. Bug-a-lug attended the Deacon opener against VMI. Though backup QB Mitch Griffis performed well, he reported the O-line performed inadequately, called for too many holding calls. HC Dave Clawson most likely addressed this at practice since, and Hartman’s leadership on the field probably affected this as well.
Neither offense got off to a fast start exchanging punts, but the Commodores started the scoring with Joe Bulova’s 35-yard FG to take the lead. Wake drove to the Vandy seven, but three consecutive rush attempts by RB Justice Ellison at the goal line forced the Deacons to turn the ball over on downs. This prompted first-time GGA Dave Hickman (Illinois/NIU alum, 82nd Airbourne vet) to wonder aloud. “Why go with the same play a third time if the first two didn’t work?” The only benefit noted came as the result of Vanderbilt starting from their one. That paid off.
Deacon Defense
Sprinting right under pressure, Commodore QB Mike Wright (8 for 15, 35 yards, one INT, 17 yards rushing) lofted a pass that got tipped and then picked by DB Colby Davis. Davis sprinted back across the field and toward the end zone for a 31-yard touchdown. The defensive score seemed to spark the offense on this rainy day from then on. Coming into this game, Wright had passed for six TDs and ran for four compiling over 700 yards of offense against Hawaii and Elon. The Deacon defense played much tougher than those two opponents.
New DC Brad Lambert from Purdue may already be making some improvements to make this unit stronger in 2022. Last year, the Deacon defense allowed over 30 points seven times relying on the offense that scored 41 ppg. Lambert’s Boilermakers held competition to 30 points or less nine times in 12 games for a 22.4 ppg average.
The Wake defense allowed no yards on the next Commodore possession. The offense took over from their 32. Hartman went to work right way throwing the ball down the middle to WR AT Perry (five catches, 142 yards, one TD). In stride, Perry made the over-the-shoulder catch and raced 68 yards for Wake’s 14-3 lead. Forcing a Wright fumble, the Deacon offense started this time at Vanderbilt’s 32 going into the second quarter.
Playing in the rain
A thirty-yard pass to Donovan Green set up Hartman’s next TD pass to RB Christian Turner from the two. Later in the period, another punt by Vandy resulted in a turnover as Wakes’ returner mishandled the punt to set the Dore’s at WFU’s 24. RB RE’Mahn Davis carried five times for his eventual score on a two-yard run to cut the lead down, 21-10. We’d seen Davis perform in 2019 for Temple in a Military Bowl loss to North Carolina. The half came to an end. Our GGA’s and cohorts went below the stands for halftime to dry off some while the intermittent ran continued.
Deacons pour it on
To start the third, Hartman ran his run-pass option skillfully delaying hand-offs to backs while looking for open receivers. He connected with Perry once again for a 49-yard pickup to the 25. A nine-yard pass to TE Taylor Morin who snagged a low pass by his ankles resulted in a 28-10 lead for the Deacons. Davis fumbled the ball away for the Commodores, and Wake looked to capitalize again at the VU 18-yard line. Hartman’s pass to Cameron Hite from 17 yards out increased the growing margin for the visitors, 35-10. Vanderbilt HC Clark Lea had experienced enough frustration on offense. AJ Swann (8 of 11, 146 yards, two TDs) replaced Mike Wright.
The Wright move?
Swann made a difference right away. His 50-yard completion to Jayden McGowan put the Dore’s at the WFU 24. On a fourth and 18, his pass to Will Sheppard put them at the six. From there, they connected again for a score. Swann ran for two points on the conversion to trail heading into the final period, 35-18.
With the ensuing kickoff, the Deacons didn’t let up. The offense traveled 75 yards for a score. RB Quinton Cooley (9 carries, 57 yards, one TD) raced it into the end zone from the 24. The Deacon defense forced another punt. Using clock, Clawson’s offense ran 14 plays to get into FG position for Matthew Dennis’s 21-yard FG for a commanding lead of 45-18 with 4:48 left to play. With a Wake Forest second team defense taking over to get some needed reps, Vandy started from their 25. Swann led another drive culminating in a seven-yard TD pass to TE Gavin Schoenwald. The Deacons can chalk that drive up to experience under their new defensive coordinator. Final score: Wake Forest Demon Deacons 45 – Vanderbilt Commodores 25.
“Oh, here’s to Wake Forest!”
Bug-a-lug and his wife Courtenay topped off their enjoyable vacation week in Tennessee with the WFU victory. He confirmed the update of my Wake Forest moniker with me having personally seen his Deacons win 11 of 12 games collegefootballfan.com has attended. With the one blemish on the 11-1 record coming in a 62-59 OT loss to Louisville in 2019, in Wake Forest circles they call me, “11 and almost 0 Koreivo!” The previous week, having attended Alabama’s 55-0 win over Utah State, Deacon Blue (11-1) leads The Crimson Tide (10-1) with the best winning percentage of all FBS teams we’ve seen in action. Deacon Blue is the name of a winner in our world.
Next up!
No. 19 Wake (2-0) heads back to Winston-Salem to host Liberty (2-0), winner over Alabama-Birmingham Saturday, 21-14. The Commodores (2-1) head to De Kalb, IL to take on Dave Hickman’s alma mater, Northern Illinois (1-1). Give Vanderbilt some credit here. It’s an unusual move for Power Five teams to visit a Group of Five campus. We’d like to see more of that. Surely the SEC advised Vanderbilt against this.
Speaking of the SEC, Collegefootballfan.com travels “the Plains” of Auburn (2-0) in a rematch there for its home-and-home series with No. 22 Penn State (2-0). Last season, the Nittany Lions defeated the Tigers in State College, 28-20. We’ll be meeting up with our long-time Auburn friend and alum, Charlie Murren, for that one.
– ed. by Steve Koreivo, Author of “Tales from the Tailgate: From the Fan who’s seen ‘em all!” Click on the title to read about the first of 11 Demon Deacon wins when they visited the University of Richmond in 1981. Our first encounter with Vanderbilt football didn’t occur until 1995 at South Carolina. Warning: It isn’t pretty. However, we note that we later attended a bowl victory by the Commodores in 2008. These are only two of the 120 teams in the FBS we saw play in person for our first time. Lots of other college football adventures tell when “we saw ‘em all”.
