Miami Student

Issue date: 10/30/07 Section: Sports

Despite leading early in the second half, the Miami football team dropped its second game in a row, falling to Vanderbilt, 24-13.

Taking a break from Mid-American Conference action, the Miami University RedHawks traveled to Nashville, Tenn. to take on the Commodores from Vanderbilt University. Although taking the lead 13-10 early in the second half, the Commodores eventually battled back and won 24-13, sending the 'Hawks to their second straight loss.

"We didn't make enough plays on either side of the ball," Miami Head Coach Shane Montgomery said. "One thing that we thought about going into the game was that they had a very experienced offensive line with five fifth-year seniors and a very good defensive line, and they started to control the line of scrimmage towards the end."

Vanderbilt, a team that features 16 juniors and 11 seniors, was coming off of a stunning upset win on the road against then No. 6 ranked University of South Carolina, carried the momentum into Saturday's game.

Miami found it difficult to move the ball against Vanderbilt's defense which was ranked 14th in the country in total yards allowed. The RedHawks collected just 26 total rushing yards and were held to 238 total yards of offense.

"They were the 14th ranked defense in the country," Montgomery said. "In the SEC going against Georgia, Alabama, Auburn and South Carolina in the last four weeks. They're pretty good defensively. We knew we were going to have to be creative trying to find ways to run the ball. We ran the ball OK in the first half. Once we got behind there, we started to throw the ball a little bit more and ended up with five sacks, which is where they take the yardage that takes away from your running games. We realized we were going against one of the top 20 defenses in the country and it was going to be a tough match up."

Junior linebacker Joey Hudson noted a bright spot in the game was Miami's ability to create turnovers while on defense. The 'Hawks forced four Vanderbilt turnovers, and while on offense, didn't turn the ball over once.

"We played really hard," Hudson said. "It was weird because it's never as bad as you think it is, and coming off the field I thought it was pretty bad. Watching the film is different though because you can't here anything. You just see what happens between the whistles, and I thought after watching film, that we played really hard, and really aggressive. It just came down to us not making enough plays, that's all it was. There were a lot of times when we should have stopped them."

Continued...

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