Advertisement
football Edit

Commodores lose Norman

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Vanderbilt running back Warren Norman's sophomore season has come to a close, head coach Robbie Caldwell announced on Monday. The 2009 SEC Freshman of the Year and the team's current leading rusher, sustained a wrist injury during the second half of the Commodores 49-14 defeat at Arkansas over the weekend and will have surgery to repair the injury soon. He will also have minor surgery on the knee he injured prior to the start of the 2010 season.
Easily the offense's top performer this season, Norman rushed for 459 yards and four touchdowns on 77 carries in the Commodores first eight games. He also averaged 25.4 yards on kickoff returns and caught 11 passes for 110 yards. Through 20 career games, Norman has accounted for 3,068 all-purpose yards and 11 total touchdowns.
Advertisement
His loss presents quite a problem to an offense that was already among the SEC and nation's worst in total yardage, scoring and third down conversion success rate.
Fellow sophomore Zac Stacy should take over as the starter at running back while senior Kennard Reeves and Wesley Tate will likely see carries increase as well during the next four games. Vanderbilt made a change in offensive coordinators last Monday, naming running back coach Des Kitchings as the new play-caller, but the offense was unable to lean on it's running backs in Kitchings first game over the weekend, and the core only logged 18 combined carries. Stacy is second on the team in rushing, with 321 yards and three scores on 56 carries. Tate and Reeves have combined to rush for 151 yards on 40 total carries.
The 2-6 Commodores will host Florida this Saturday in the first of three November home games. Kickoff is set for 11:21 a.m.
Advertisement