Consider this fact: Over the past three seasons, Vanderbilt tailbacks rushed for 84 yards or more just six times. Redshirt junior Jared Hawkins has already done that twice in just two starts.

“He doesn’t say much,” quarterback Chris Nickson said of Hawkins. “He just goes out and gets the job done.”

Hawkins, who has rushed for 242 yards and three scores, and the rest of the Commodores look continue their success in the ground game this Saturday in Oxford.



Let the D.J. Moore for Heisman campaign begin. The junior piled up a career-high 206 total yards on just seven touches in Vanderbilt’s 38-21 victory over Rice.

“It takes a special man to be D.J. Moore,” Nickson said. “He has a great ability to do whatever he wants to do. He does it with ease, it seems like. He has a confidence about him that only the great players have.”

Moore ranks second in the SEC in punt-return average, fourth in all-purpose yards per game, tied for third in passes defended per game and fourth in interceptions.

Within the same notebook, The Nashville City Paper’s Brett Hait discusses Vanderbilt’s climb in the polls and Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt’s high praise of Nickson.



The Tennessean’s Mo Patton has a bunch of nuggets in this football notebook:

1) Wide receiver Andrew Diamonde, a Clemson transfer, could make his debut Saturday after being sidelined with a toe injury. Meanwhile, seniors George Smith and Jeff Jennings will be out for at least one more week.

2) Vanderbilt has two of the top seven rushers in the SEC. Nickson is fifth, while Hawkins is tied for sixth.

3) The Dores also have four of the top 13 tacklers in the SEC. Linebacker Patrick Benoist leads the league with 30, while safety Ryan Hamilton (24) is sixth, cornerback Myron Lewis (21) is seventh and safety Reshard Langford (20) is tied for 11th.

4) Hamilton earned the team’s defensive player of the week honors, while offensive tackle Reilly Lauer and Hawkins were named the offensive players of the week and Bryant Hahnfeldt and D.J. Moore shared specialist honors.

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