Vanderbilt vs East Tennessee State 9/4/21 College Football Picks, Odds, Predictions
East Tennessee State Buccaneers (0-0) vs. Vanderbilt Commodores (0-0)
September 4, 2021 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: Vanderbilt Commodores -21.5
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The Vanderbilt Commodores meet the East Tennessee State Buccaneers Saturday in week 1 college football action from Vanderbilt Stadium. This will be the first game of the 2021 season for both teams. East Tennessee State is coming off a 4-2 record last year for a second-place conference finish. As for the Commodores, they had a disappointing campaign last season with a winless record. Check back all season long for free college football picks at Sports Chat Place.
East Tennessee State managed to play six games in the spring (with a couple of cancellations mixed in there), finishing the campaign 4-2 overall. That effort put the Buccaneers in second place in the Southern Conference standings, just behind VMI.
The Buccaneers started out at 1-1 with a win over Samford and a loss to Furman. After that it was three straight wins for East Tennessee State as they took out the Citadel, Western Carolina and VMI. The Bucs ended the year with a 21-13 loss to Mercer on April 10, however.
Over on the Vanderbilt side, they had quite the forgettable season in 2020, dropping all of their games for an 0-9 finish and a basement spot in the East Division of the Southeastern Conference. Granted, the Commodores were projected to finish in last place before the season started.
Vanderbilt’s losses came courtesy of Texas A&M, LSU, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Florida, Missouri and Tennessee. Only a few of the games failed to be outright blowout defeats for the Commodores.
The Buccaneers are 0-4 ATS in their last four games overall and 0-4 ATS in the last four road games.
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt is 7-15 ATS in their last 22 overall and 1-4 ATS in their last five home games. The Commodores are 1-5 ATS in their last six in September and 1-5 ATS in their last six on turf.
PICK: I’m going to try Vanderbilt here, but probably avoiding this situation entirely. The Commodores are certainly well aware of their number one problem, and that’s scoring. Vanderbilt had a max of 35 points last year, and scored 17 points or fewer in seven games. The offense averaged 330 yards per game and the rushing attack was nonexistent. In short it was a mess. That said, there are reasons to be optimistic with new OC David Raih, and leading receiver Cam Johnson headlines a returning group of promising players. The offensive line really needs to step it up in the running game, but with a few tweaks we could see some wins for Vanderbilt in 2021.