Improbably, Vanderbilt is one of the nine 3-0 teams in the Southeastern Conference.
The Commodores (3-0, 0-0 SEC) will look to stay perfect Saturday in their conference opener at Auburn (2-1, 0-1).
Vanderbilt was the beneficiary of one of the greatest gaffes in college football history last weekend as North Carolina State quarterback CJ Bailey fumbled in his own end zone while trying to run out the clock with a 31-28 lead.
Vanderbilt’s Cayden Daniels recovered the Music City Miscue for the score and a stunning 35-31 victory.
Before that unreal sequence, teams with the lead in the final 10 seconds were 1,046-1 over the past 20 seasons.
Commodores head coach Clark Lea looks for freshman quarterback Jared Curtis to build off the dramatic win in his first career start.
“The offense has a chance to continue to organize around Jared,” Lea said Monday. “I think he showed everything that we know him to be. There’s obviously week-by-week improvement for him. I want to see the run game get going. Auburn’s not going to make that easy.”
The Commodores gained 132 yards on 24 carries against the Wolfpack.
A homegrown product and five-star recruit, Curtis flipped his commitment from Georgia to stay in Nashville.
He is 41 of 65 for 547 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions and earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors Monday.
Auburn coach Alex Golesh was disappointed by his defense’s performance in surrendering 495 evenly distributed yards (243 rushing, 253 passing) to Florida in a 44-39 defeat last Saturday.
“A team that’s playing with a freshman quarterback who’s playing really well, coming off a big win on Saturday night at home,” Golesh said of Vanderbilt on Monday. “Again, offensively similar to what we just saw. Multiple in every imaginable way of both personnel, formationally, tempo, using it in and out.”
Tigers quarterback Byrum Brown is 64-of-99 passing for 756 yards with five TDs and four picks. He has rushed for 180 yards on 52 carries with two scores.
