4^th quarter

14:55: Barden with his 4^th catch of the game, open over the middle for 14 yards.

10:45: Barden with a good block to seal a hole on a touchdown run by the quarterback.

10:25: Marve whiffs on a tackle.

9:41: Marve almost allows another completion, but Jordan Reed, the Florida tight end who Marve has struggled with all game, drops the ball.

7:31: Barden with another fantastic block, this time on a pass block.

6:08: Nothing to do with anything, but the refs miss an obvious PI here. The Vanderbilt receiver was blatantly shoved from behind by the defender on a catchable ball, but no call.

5:05: Marve in on a tackle for no gain.

4:34: Marve with a nice stuff for a little gain, 3^rd down stop.

3:55: Marve with a nice spin to shed a block.

3:01: Marve in on a short tackle.

2:13: Jeff Demps hasn’t had a big run yet to this point in this game, but still has 100 yards on 21 carries. Here he gets his big one, 57 yards, touchdown.

0:00: Marve had a very good game against Alabama, leading the charge as a 6-0 240 pound middle linebacker as Vanderbilt held Trent Richardson to one of his worst games of the season, 107 yards on 19 carrries (3^rd lowest rushing total of the year). Vanderbilt has one of the best and most underrated defenses in the country and Marve is a big part of the reason why. However, Marve was not nearly as good in this one. He had just 4 tackles and several poor plays against the run as Vanderbilt allowed 197 yards rushing.

Marve also struggled in coverage. He let Florida receiver Jordan Reed catch 3 passes for 29 yards and allowed another big gain when he vacated his zone on a play action fake. On the season, Marve has 65 tackles, 6 for loss, 1 sack, 1 pick, and 2 pass deflections. He looks like an early day 3 prospect in the 4^th round range unless he can bounce back with a strong finish to his senior season.

Speaking of Florida having a huge game on the ground, Jeff Demps led the way with Chris Rainey out with injury. Demps rushed for 158 yards and 2 scores on 23 carries, including a 57 yard touchdown run late. Demps is small at 5-7 191, but he’s one of the fastest people in the world. A former track star, Demps runs a 10.1 100 meter and can reportedly run a 40 as fast as 4.18.

He’s a bit undersized at 5-7 191, but he did a much better job of running in between the tackles and getting short chunks of yardage in this one. That 57 yarder was his only big gain and take that away, he still had 22 carries for 101 yards and a score against a good Vanderbilt defense. He’s short and tough to find behind the line, but he needs to run with better pad level. He’s not skinny and 191 pounds at 5-7 allows him to be like a Darren Sproles type, short, but stocky and powerful. However, he’s been too boom or bust this season. He wasn’t in this one, but 2 for 10, 3 for 4, 2 for 0, and 8 for 12 yard performances are going to limit this speedster to the late rounds.

Marve isn’t the only draftable prospect on Vanderbilt’s defense. Defensive end Tim Fugger, safety Sean Richardson, and cornerback Casey Hayward are all likely to get drafted at different points in the 2012 NFL Draft. Hayward is the highest rated and could go in the first round. A complete player, Hayward has 36 tackles, 6.5 for loss, 5 interceptions, and 9 pass breakups. Hayward was matched up with Florida’s Andre DuBose at several points in this one. DuBose has beat higher rated cornerbacks like Dre Kirkpatrick and Morris Claiborne for long touchdowns this year, but Hayward didn’t have much trouble with the speedy DuBose. DuBose caught 2 passes for 29 yards and didn’t score. Hayward also had 3 tackles for loss in this one. He’s a first rounder in my book.

The defensive end Tim Fugger is filling up the stat sheet as well, but he’s not the best athlete or the biggest player so he looks like a late rounder. Fugger has 5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss on the season, as well as 3 pass breakups. He got consistent pressure tonight against Florida’s Xavier Nixon, a talented player. He also got a pass deflection. The 6-4 250 pounder looks to be moving up boards and could go in the middle of day 3 as a 3-4 outside linebacker.

Sean Richardson is the final of the 4 good defensive players on Vanderbilt’s underrated squad. The big 6-2 220 pound safety had 10 tackles, 9 in the first half. He has 44 tackles, 5.5 for loss, 2 sacks, and a pass breakup on the season. He’s not great in coverage, but he’s a good run stopper and looks like a mid to late rounder as a strong safety.

On to the offensive side of the ball, I was very impressed by Brandon Barden. Barden had just 6 catches on the season coming into this game, but it’s tough to tell why from this tape. In this one, he had 4 catches for 51 yards. He showed everything you like out of a tight end. He showed smooth hands, good speed, good route running ability and instincts, and the ability to catch the ball in stride and make use of space after the catch. He also is a very good run and pass blocker, even at 6-5 245. He looked like the real deal in this one, lining up at both tight end and fullback.

Barden did have 34 catches for 425 yards and 3 touchdowns last season and he has been dealing with a few injuries, as well as inconsistencies at the quarterback position, so those could be to blame for his low catch total. However, he has everything the scouts like out of a tight end and with some track record of success, he could see his stock go up significantly once teams get him in individual drills as we get closer to draft day. The 6-5 245 pound tight end looks like a mid rounder in my book, probably around round 4, maybe 5.