Vanderbilt Football’s Plan to Take Pressure off Pavia: The Run Game

Last season, Vanderbilt’s running game did not go how they probably planned it out to be.

The Commodores ranked 13th in the SEC in rushing offense and 12th in the conference in rushing touchdowns. In fact, the team’s leading rusher was not even a running back, it was quarterback Diego Pavia. Pavia led the roster with 801 yards on the ground on 192 rushing attempts, which is good for 4.6 yards per carry.

Running back Sedrick Alexander led the running back room with 586 yards on 164 carries, or 3.6 yards per carry. His longest run of the season was 31 yards. If Vanderbilt wants to take the next step and surpass its win total from the 2024-2025 season, they are going to need to find their run game and head coach Clark Lea knows it.

Moreover, a running game needs to show up in order to not rely as heavily on the play of Pavia. 

“Look, Diego, we don't talk about self-preservation, but we need to build ways in our system that do protect him, and I see that more as establishing a run game through the tailback,” Lea said Monday in his press conference at SEC Media Days.

The good news for Lea and his team is they are going into this fall with plenty of confidence in the running back room.

“If we can do a better job of moving people at the point of attack in our offensive line, we believe in our running backs. I think we have a good group of running backs that can become some of the best in the conference,” Lea said.

Alexander will be the one anchoring the backfield and will need to have a breakout season for a running game to be an established dimension in the Vanderbilt offense. Lea feels that upgrading on the offensive line over the offseason may give Alexander the opportunity to do just that.

“Seddy is a player that he had to play early for us and it's hard, especially in our league as a running back, it's hard to grind out yards in the SEC. We've been developing in the offensive line, too. But from the very first time we saw him carry the ball on our campus we knew that he had physical traits, mental traits.” Lea said of Alexander. “We've improved in our front and we believe there are opportunities for him and the rest of the running backs to, again, establish themselves as featured players in our league. But I'm proud of Seddy.”

 Whether Vanderbilt can go from near the bottom of the conference to one of the top rushing attacks has yet to be seen and only time will tell. But if the Commodores are able to establish a running game, it will almost certainly open up the playbook not just for Pavia, but for the offense as a whole.

It also helps in the sense of Pavia’s health. The fewer hits he takes while taking off and running, the better it is for the maximization of his health and his availability to compete at the highest level he can.

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