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Here's an early look at Purdue's first opponent in 2019, the Vanderbilt Commodore:

Time: Noon

Location: Ross-Ade Stadium

Surface: Natural Grass

Capacity: 57,236 (Tickets Available)

Schedule/records: Vanderbilt 0-1 in 2019, 6-7 in 2018; Purdue 0-1 in 2019, 6-7 in 2018

Series notes: Vanderbilt leads the all-time series 2-0 shutting out Purdue 26-0 in 1942 in Nashville and 3-0 in '41 in West Lafayette.

TV: BTN

Early line: Purdue -10

Vanderbilt, playing at home in what was in essence a road game with 80 percent of the fans dressed in Georgia red got smacked in the mouth early trailing 21-0 midway through the second quarter. From that point forward, the Commodores evened things up a bit holding the Bulldogs to just nine points. Vandy was also hampered by six first half penalties. Georgia, with one of the premier running games, pounded the home team averaging 8.1 yards per carry.

Wide receiver Kalija Lipscomb and tight end Jared Pinkney are two of the featured guys to watch in the Vanderbilt passing game. Sophomores C.J. Bolar and Amir Abdur-Rahman and redshirt freshman Cam Johnson round out a very talented receiving corp. Quarterback Riley Neal, who was brought in as a grad transfer from Ball State to replace Kyle Shurmur, struggled hitting 14-of-25 for just 85 yards against an ultra quick Georgia defense, Vandy wasn't able to showcase its desire to utilize a downfield passing game. Neal, a 6-foot-6, 225-pounder from Yorktown, Indiana, was in a competition with junior Deuce Wallace in spring practice and preseason camp. There are some rumbling of a quarterback controversy headed into Week 2 as Wallace made an appearance against the Bulldogs (2 of 6, 24 yards).

'Dores running back Ke'Shawn Vaughn, a native of Nashville will be making his return visit to Ross-Ade Stadium. Vaughn was recruited heavily by coach Darrell Hazell's staff, losing out to Illinois in the end. Back in 2015, Vaughn, then a freshman, rushed for 180 yards on just 16 carries as the Illini embarrassed Purdue 48-14. He left Champaign-Urbana after the 2016 season, and rushed for over 1,200 yards in 2018, his first season of eligibility at Vandy. He picked up 74 hard-earned rushing rushing yards in 15 carries against Georgia.

Vanderbilt has been to a bowl game twice in the past three seasons; the school's 17 wins over that stretch are the third most in a three-year period since the 1970s; and the Commodores have won three straight against rival Tennessee — something that had not happened since the 1920s.

Yet, Mason has yet to record a winning season (he is 24–39 overall), and the defense — his area of expertise — was stout in 2016, but has regressed a bit in the past couple of seasons. Still, it held Georgia to just nine points in the game's final 38 minutes Saturday.

In the first season under coordinator Jason Tarver, Vanderbilt managed to improve its scoring defense from 31.3 points per game in 2017 to 26.6 in 2018. Yet, it ranked in the bottom three of the SEC in run defense, total defense and third down stops and it gave up 325 rushing yards to Georgia in the season opener.

The Boilermakers are looking for their first win over an SEC foe in Ross-Ade Stadium. Vandy is just the second SEC team it has faced in the regular season, as the Boilermakers battled Missouri each the last two seasons. It faced Kentucky three times in the regular season (1895, 1914 and '15), but the Wildcats were not in the SEC at the time as the league as it is known today didn't form until 1932.. Purdue also beat Mississippi 27-7 in its undefeated 1929 season, but Ole Miss was in the Southern Conference. Purdue also defeated another current member Texas A&M in 1967 in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, when the Aggies were part of the Southwest Conference.

All told, the Boilermakers are 2-6 against SEC opponents (1-3 in the regular season and 1-3 in bowl games) with its lone regular season victory coming in a 35-3 win at Missouri in 2017. Its other victory over an SEC foe was a 27-22 win over Tennessee in the 1979 Bluebonnet Bowl.

"They have experience. When you play someone the caliber of (No. 3 ranked) Georgia in the first game it is a tough task.

"Vanderbilt will be big and physical. They always try to run the football and not beat themselves, and they have done that well. They have a Stanford-style defense that is always a challenge to move the ball against. We will have to be more physical than we have been, that is for sure."

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