Vanderbilt is set to face Northern Illinois on the road this weekend for its final non-conference match-up of the 2022 campaign. This won't be the Commodores first visit to NIU, but it has been a while. Vandy last played in DeKalb back in 1997, with the Dores earning a 17-7 victory.
Flash forward to today and Vandy is coming of its first loss of the season when No. 19 Wake Forest earned a 45-25 victory against the Commodores last Saturday. It was a humbling blow for Vanderbilt, which had been riding high off two straight wins to start the season.
Now second-year head coach Clark Lea is eager to see how his team responds after the season’s first true dose of adversity.
“This is about this team, where it currently is, trying to bounce back from a game where we didn’t perform at our level,” Lea said about his program’s next challenge. “And we’re competing against a good team. We’ve got to show maturity to quickly get past that, taking the learning with us and go on the road and be road warriors.
A Look at Vanderbilt
Senior running back Ray Davis has led the Vanderbilt rushing attack through the first three games. He has 269 rushing yards on the season, averaging 89.7 yards per contest. Junior wide receiver Will Sheppard hauled in his fifth receiving touchdown on the season in the matchup with No. 23 Wake Forest. With the score, Sheppard extended his touchdown streak to four games dating to last season.
Freshman quarterback AJ Swann recorded his first career passing touchdown against Wake Forest. Swann finished 8-of-11 for 146 passing yards with a pair of scores. Junior quarterback Mike Wright accounted for a program-record six touchdowns — four passing and two rushing — in the win over Elon. He became the first Vanderbilt quarterback to account for six scores in a single game.
Freshman wideout Jayden McGowan turned in his first career 100-yard receiving game against Elon. McGowan finished the contest with four catches for 116 yards and a touchdown, and was named SEC Freshman of the Week. He became the fifth Commodore to earn SEC Freshman of the Week honors since it was instituted in 2004.
The Commodores’ 63 points in the season opener at Hawaii marked the most for the program since Vanderbilt defeated Davidson, 63-8, in 1969. The 53-point win was the program’s largest since a 58-0 win over Presbyterian on Sept. 17, 2012.
The Dores picked up a pair of defensive touchdowns against the Rainbow Warriors, returning two fumbles for scores. It marked the first time that Vanderbilt has had multiple defensive scores since the Commodore defense scored twice against LSU on Sept. 21, 2019.
Vanderbilt chose eight team captains for the 2022 campaign: Ethan Barr, Ben Bresnahan, Daevion Davis, Jaylen Mahoney, Elijah McAllister, Anfernee Orji, Gavin Schoenwald and Mike Wright.
A Look at Northern Illinois
NIU is coming off a 38-35 loss at Tulsa as the Golden Hurricane scored in the final minute and thwarted the Huskies' last drive with an interception. NIU overcame a 24-7 halftime deficit to take a 28-24 lead with 14:50 to play as the game featured four lead changes in the final period. The Huskies are the defending Mid-American Conference Champions and are one of just five teams from a non-autonomous (Group of 5) league with 100 or more wins since 2010.
Northern Illinois enters the Vanderbilt game with 101. NIU was selected by the league media and coaches to claim the MAC West title. In 34 games since Thomas Hammock took the reigns of the Huskie program in 2019, 21 have been decided by one score (eight points or less) with 10 of those determined by three points or fewer. NIU is 7-3 since 2019 in games within that three-point margin, including a 4-0 mark in 2021. Over the last two seasons, NIU is 8-4 in one score games.
NIU head coach Thomas Hammock, a two-time first team CoSIDA Academic All-American who rushed for over 1,000 yards to lead the Huskies in both 2000 and 2001, is in his fourth season as head coach at his alma mater. Hammock, a finalist for Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year honors a year ago, will be inducted into the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame on October 8.
Linebacker Kyle Pugh has made NCAA FBS history as he is back for his eighth season at NIU. Pugh saw his 2017 and 2019 seasons cut short, missed 2021 with a knee injury sustained in the spring, and earned the COVID-19 "re-do" for 2020. He earned All-MAC honors in 2018 and 2020 and has 11 tackles this season, including eight in the season opener versus Eastern Illinois.