Rich Scangarello Relates to Vanderbilt's Struggles Amidst SEC Adjustment
You've likely read this story before.
As head coach Mark Stoops has taken the Kentucky football program from the basement of the SEC to the mezzanine —bordering on upper echelon— there's one program that's remained in that basement.
The Vanderbilt Commodores will enter Kroger Field on Saturday with a 3-6 (0-5 SEC) record, having lost hope on yet another season of college football. Barring a miraculous three-game winning streak to close out the season, 2022 will be the ninth-straight losing season for Vandy.
Throughout nine games, the Commodores are allowing an average of 36.8 points and 472.9 yards-per-game, both of which rank near the bottom of all 131 Division I programs.
Kentucky catches Vandy at an opportune time, kicking off a three-game home stand to finish the season. To no surprise at all, Stoops isn't overlooking the Dores, and neither is offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello:
"Heading into this week with playing Vandy, then again everybody just thinks that it is not a very good football team – that is not true," Stoops said at his game-week presser on Monday.
"They're going to come in here, they're going to bring it and we're going to have to sustain it for four quarters, take care of the football or we're gonna be in for a long day," Scangarello added following practice on Tuesday.
Clark Lea is amidst his second season as head coach in Nashville, and it hasn't taken long for him to experience the same struggles that many former Vandy head coaches have gone through over the years.
What's clear to Scangarello, however, is that there's been a hustle and toughness instilled to this rendition of the Commodores. He points to a 3-point loss to Missouri, the same team that nearly took down the Wildcats last weekend in Columbia:
"They play very, very hard. Just watching them play Missouri, that's a team we just took to the wire, they took 'em to the wire too, one break goes a different way, they win that football game."
Sure, Vandy has taken more than its fair share of licks, including a 55-3 loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa and a 55-0 shutout in Athens against Georgia, but this team hasn't laid down for anyone all season.
"They strain, they had Ole Miss at halftime in a barnburner. They play hard, it didn't matter in the last play against Georgia when they're on the field, they're straining. You know that they're coached right, they play hard, they have pride," Scangarello said.
Being in his first season in the SEC, Scangarello can relate to the newfound, nonstop challenge that is presented to you as both a player and a coach, whether you're ready for it or not. Vandy is doing it's best to fight each week, but in this conference, the Commodores usually find themselves outmatched.
After all, playing on the road against Nick Saban and Kirby Smart really seems more like a punishment than an opportunity.
"I mean they've played a brutal schedule. This conference, every week it's a different group of relentless offenses, tempo and pass rushers and all this," Scangarello said. "They have a sound scheme and they play very hard...nothing's easy in this conference."
Scangarello would go on to relate the college football season in general to the NFL, citing that in the pros, it's okay to lose a few games over the course of the season. Once you drop one or two in college, however, it's the end of the world:
"(College) is a different pressure, putting it on 18, 19 and 20-year-olds, the immense pressure that they have to learn from and grind through, outside influences and things that go on. It is very, very challenging."
That pressure hits extra hard when looking at a team like Vanderbilt, who seems to be ever-struggling despite making progress. At the end of the day, that win-loss record speaks volumes.
To make matters worse, Vandy's starting quarterback AJ Swann, as well as a pair of offensive linemen are reportedly out for Saturday's game against Kentucky. Lea said on Tuesday that the Commodores were also dealing with a flu outbreak ahead of the team's trip to Lexington.
The longer you stay in the basement, the harder it becomes to get out. Vandy currently finds itself stuck in quicksand, unable to make any progress.
Kentucky won't change its preparation ahead of Saturday and will treat the 'Dores just the same as it did for Tennessee and as it will for Georgia next weekend. ESPN analytics currently give the Wildcats an 88.6 percent chance to win on Saturday as they attempt to build some momentum heading into the final stretch of the 2022 campaign.
Kentucky Football News
Kentucky will be without punter Colin Goodfellow for the rest of the season. For more on the injury and others ahead of the Cats' matchup against Vanderbilt, click here.
Linebacker DeAndre Square has returned to the depth chart after not playing against Mizzou.
The Wildcats will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. EST next weekend against Georgia
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