Tennessee football: 5 Vanderbilt Commodores to watch vs. Vols

Tennessee football will need to contain certain players at Vandy if they want to make a bowl game. Here are five Commodores to watch against the Volunteers.

The Vanderbilt Commodores have beaten Tennessee football each of the last two years, and they have a few key players on the team that were part of both victories. Now, they’re going to try to make it three in a row for the first time since Robert Neyland took over the Vols.

With a bowl game on the line for both teams, that gives UT two reasons to desperately want to avoid losing in Nashville Saturday under first-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt. Coming off a 50-17 loss to the Missouri Tigers, however, that could be a tougher task than we thought it would be.

If Tennessee football is going to finally be able to shake this weird losing streak to Vandy, which actually includes four defeats in six years, they’re going to have to do everything they can to contain quite a few key weapons that Derek Mason has. As we said, some of them may be familiar faces who have given the Vols hell in the past.

Derek Mason has a much more balanced team than he has had in years past, one that can win by running the ball, passing the ball or creating big plays on defense. Given what we saw against Mizzou just last week, a team like that is the Vols’ biggest weakness.

However, we have to assume that Vanderbilt doesn’t have the same talent as Missouri. They do have some key players, though, and some may even be better than the key players on the Tigers, even if the same depth isn’t there.

So let’s go ahead and take a look at who is going to be a factor for the Commodores on Saturday against the Vols. These are five Vanderbilt players to watch for when they host Tennessee football in Nashville.