Vanderbilt at Hawaii Prediction For Week 0
Odds, best bets and analysis for this college football matchup
Matthew Horner - Jul 26, 2022, 4:30pm EDT
Vanderbilt Commodores
Last year under first-year coach Clark Lea was a forgettable one. A 2-10 campaign that started with a blowout loss to East Tennessee State is never the way you want to start your coaching tenure with any school. They came so close to being 0-12 on the year, and a slim 30-28 victory over pathetic UConn is as good as a loss in my book. Still, you can't expect miracles in Year 1, and Lea has the background as a great recruiter and defensive mind to be able to turn this program around. Their 2022 recruiting class pales in comparison to the rest of the SEC, but it is still far better than anything they have had recently. It's a top-40ish class that will bring in some much-needed talent and depth to the team. Simply put, any talent that this team can bring in is an instant upgrade over what they had in 2021. It isn't totally impossible for Vanderbilt to become a good football program, but the SEC is so good and so talented, it will be hard for them to convince recruits to go there instead of some of these other schools.
Vanderbilt will need to build its brand on what its head coach knows best: defense and running the football. If they can develop into a physical football team that Lea is famous for coaching, they can make it work and have success. Just don't expect that to happen in 2022.
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors
After the disastrous end to the Todd Graham era, where virtually the entire football program quit the team after several serious accusations of abuse and neglect were thrown at Graham, Hawaii hired legendary quarterback Timmy Chang to take over and do his best to salvage what is left of the team. The good news for Chang is that he has inherited a program that earned four straight bowl bids, even with all of their problems, but now needs to be rebuilt again from the ground up. They also lost their home stadium in all the fuss, so the school has seen much better days.
While they did lose most of their players and stars from previous seasons to the transfer portal, Chang has done a good job at utilizing it himself to bring some players in that want to help the program get back to its glory. He doesn't have any head coaching experience, but his time as a QB at Hawaii ensures that he knows the program and he knows what it takes to win here. This rebuild won't be as challenging as I think many people believe. It's going to take some time and work, but they will start to look like a contender again within a year or two in my opinion.
Vanderbilt at Hawaii Prediction
I usually don't bet on these types of games to be completely honest. There is too much unknown for Hawaii after what they just went through, and Vanderbilt is still a very bad football team. I would just stay away, but if you had to bet it, I guess I would take Vandy -7.
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