Clark Lea and analytics

After Sedrick Hemingway gapped Bama's D on the TD run Vandy's coach only gave him the ball 4 or 5 more times. I wondered why. It looked like Wommack ditched the Robber concepts out of the 3-3-5 and played more of a straight version. Lea countered this by throwing on 1st down and running more QB Power and lead plays trying to get a +1 blocking match up, especially when Bama only had 6 players in the box. This is what the analytics say to do.

On every possession but one- from Vandy's second possession in the 2nd QTR to their last two possessions in the 4th- Vandy either threw or ran Pavia on every first down. I think this backfired on the Sabb pick. Vandy had either called a pass or ran Pavia on so many consecutive first down plays that everyone's eyes were on him, and Sabb was able to bait Pavia into throwing a pick.

I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that Vandy's coaches and staff were also trying get get Pavia's stats up and it backfired on them. I'm still not sure how effective Wommack's adjustments would have been if Vandy still relied on the ground game from the running backs. I am happy that Wommack did make the adjustments he did.