If you were looking for reasons to be optimistic about the direction of the Vanderbilt football program in the second year of the Clark Lea era, well, you got them in the first half of Saturday’s game.
The Commodores held Ole Miss to a field goal on its opening drive and then, after Vanderbilt’s first offensive drive bogged down deep in Ole Miss territory, the Commodores evened the score at 3 on a Joseph Bulovas field goal. Then, the defense held on fourth down on the Rebels’ ensuing drive and Vanderbilt responded with a scoring drive, capped by a 36-yard catch and run by Jayden McGowan to make the score 10-3.