Three Keys: Vanderbilt vs Georgia State

NASHVILLE---Vanderbilt football takes the field looking for revenge Saturday against Georgia State after the Commodores' 36-32 loss in Atlanta last season.

Clark Lea's team entered that game with what he pinpointed as a lack of intensity and focus throughout the week. Now, they look to avoid making the same mistake twice.

Here's three things Vanderbilt needs to do in order to get revenge.

As simple as it sounds, Vanderbilt has to want to win badly

Most of the mainstays on this Vanderbilt team remember the feeling they had as they left the turf at Turner Field and the Georgia State students spilled out onto the playing surface. If they don’t, they should. 

If Vanderbilt can take in that memory and play as if it badly wants to get some revenge against this Georgia State program, that could give it some closure on a 2024 loss that showed it that it isn’t all that invincible. 

A win could also prove that Vanderbilt has a different level of maturity as a program than it did a season ago when it left its matchup with Georgia State to chance and ultimately lost 36-32 to a less talented team. 

Time for it to reverse that. 

Can Vanderbilt make Georgia State’s offense one dimensional?

Georgia State found a way to find some success in the run game against Ole Miss and Memphis, but it lost each of those games by a significant amount. 

Why? 

It couldn’t move the ball through the air with any sort of consistency. When Georgia State got going against Murray State, its veteran quarterback TJ Finley was lighting it up while its running game was complementing him. 

Vanderbilt will have to find a way to either slow down the run game or Finley if it’s going to win this one by a significant amount. 

Slow down Ted Hurst

Hurst may be the most well known group of five player that Vanderbilt has faced recently and for good reason. 

The Georgia State receiver was good enough to take a step forward and transfer up to a power-five school, but he opted to return to Georgia State and has two games this season in which he racked up over 90 receiving yards. 

Hurst went for seven receptions, 128 yards and two touchdowns against Vanderbilt last season and appeared to be the best player on the field in stretches. He’ll be one of Vanderbilt’s corner’s biggest tests to this point.