- (Sports Network) - Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson said the
Commodores are expected to make a change at quarterback for Saturday's road
game at Georgia and will go with junior Mackenzi Adams instead of senior Chris
Nickson.

The change comes on the heels of a 17-14 loss over the weekend to Mississippi
State, when Vandy had its lowest offensive output of Johnson's tenure with
only 107 yards of total offense. It was the fewest yards by the Commodores
since 1996.

"Mackenzi will practice with the first group this week and he will get the
majority of the reps this week," said Johnson. "In being said, that means he
will play Saturday unless something very unusual happens in practice, but I
don't anticipate that. A lot of the things that went wrong last Saturday in
the first half weren't particularly Chris Nickson's fault. But at the same
time, when the offense wasn't doing much in the third quarter, our coaching
staff felt like we had to make a change. Mackenzi came in and did a good job
for us against Mississippi State, so we're going to see what he can do with it
against Georgia."

The Commodores are ranked 22nd this week, while Georgia is 10th. Vanderbilt
has the 117th-ranked offense in the nation.

Nickson was pulled from the Mississippi State game after throwing an
interception early in the fourth quarter, which led to the game-winning
touchdown. Adams, though, led the Commodores to a 10-play, 57-yard march,
which ended in a Jeff Jennings TD run, but Vandy couldn't come back.

"I think he will bring a fresh start to the team," Johnson said of Adams. "I
think Mackenzi has demonstrated that he can sit in the pocket and that he can
figure things out there on the field. He can find the open receivers and he
can do a good job of hitting the receivers. I don't think there is a big drop
off when you start running quarterback draws and options between our two
quarterbacks. Mackenzi is a good athlete and he has shown that he can make
some very fine runs this year."




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