Georgia Football 2017 Preview: Vanderbilt Commodores

How does 2017 stack up:

Derek Mason returns an experienced and team. He has 15 starters returning and the majority of his team is made up of letter-men. They return Quarterback Kyle Shurmur, who looked impressive at times last year. This team has a strong level of depth that Mason has built over the past few years so there is plenty of reasons for Vanderbilt fans to feel like 2017 is going to be another good year.

The issue they might have is that while not many players have moved on, the ones that have were pretty important. Zach Cunningham was quite possibly the best defensive player the Commodores have ever had. He was a terror against UGA last year and pretty much won that game single handed. He accounted for 19 tackles and 2.5 tackles for a loss. In a single game! Over the course of a season, he racked up 125 tackles and 16.5 tackles for a loss. That is incredibly production from a middle linebacker. It’s going to be really tough for Vanderbilt to replace that kind of production even with a group of players.

On the offensive side, they also lost left tackle Will Holden and center Barrett Gouger to the NFL. Holden was good enough to actually get drafted and was a the lynchpin of that line. While they have several experienced players capable of stepping in, those are big losses. If their O-line weakens, that could spell trouble for the season.