Vanderbilt Football: Can Derek Mason and Kyle Shurmur win in 2018?
2018 schedule and predictions
|
Week |
Date
Opponent
H/A
1
Sep. 1
Middle Tennessee
Home
2
Sep. 8
Nevada
Home
3
Sep. 15
Notre Dame
Away
4
Sep. 22
South Carolina
Home
5
Sep. 29
Tennessee State
Home
6
Oct. 6
Georgia
Away
7
Oct. 13
Florida
Home
8
Oct. 20
Kentucky
Away
9
Oct. 27
Arkansas
Away
10
Nov. 3
BYE
11
Nov. 10
Missouri
Away
12
Nov. 17
Ole Miss
Home
13
Nov. 23
Tennessee
Home
Vanderbilt enters the 2018 season as the S&P+’s 75th team in the country. Vanderbilt needs to break the .500 barrier in order to keep their positive recruiting momentum going and to ensure Derek Mason keeps his job. One area the Commodores must improve upon is their special teams. The S&P+ ranked the Vanderbilt kicking game as 128th in the country and that won’t win Coach Mason any close football games of which he’ll be in quite a few in 2018.
The Commodores start the season off with two home games against opponents they should be able to beat before a road trip to South Bend to face the Fighting Irish. Mason’s program could start the year 2-1 and with positive momentum heading into SEC play.
Vanderbilt then hosts improving South Carolina, and then FCS local opponent Tennessee State before a road trip to Athens to face the pre-season top-5 Bulldogs. The ‘Doors then host Florida and new coach Dan Mullen. While Will Muschamp has improved the Gamecocks, Vandy should be able to beat TSU leaving them 1-3 over this tough four-game run.
Vandy then has road trips to Kentucky and Arkansas, both possible wins, before their bye week. The Commodores could be sitting above .500 with a 5-4 record heading into the home stretch of the 2018 season.
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After the bye week, they travel to Missouri before hosting Ole Miss and rival Tennessee. The Volunteers have a new coach in Jeremy Pruitt but Mason’s squad dominated the bad Volunteers in 2017 and could come away with another victory in 2018.