FAYETTEVILLE — Vanderbilt will have a new offensive coordinator for Saturday night’s game at Arkansas.
Des Kitchings has been promoted to offensive coordinator and will call plays, Commodores Coach Robbie Caldwell announced Monday at his weekly news conference.
Kitchings is replacing Jimmy Kiser, who will continue to be the team’s quarterbacks coach. Kitchings also will continue to coach the running backs.
Vanderbilt (2-5, 1-3) ranks last in the SEC in several categories, including total offense (305.9 yards per game), scoring offense (18.9points), third-down conversions (23.6 percent), time of possession (25:23) and first downs (13.6).
After the Commodores beat Eastern Michigan 52-6 for their most points in 11 years, they have scored a combined seven points in the last two games, losing at Georgia 43-0 and to South Carolina 21-7.
“As far as getting ready for Arkansas, I sat down and evaluated where we are, what we want to accomplish, where we are headed, consulted with our coaches and staff and I came to the decision to make Des Kitchings our offensive coordinator, so Jimmy Kiser can concentrate on making our quarterbacks the best they can be,” Caldwell said. “Why Des Kitchings? Des is a great coach, who is a student of the game. He loves the game, has a great deal of experience and has paid his dues here.
“In 35 years, or however long I’ve coached, I’ve never seen someone take to it as quickly as he has.”
Kitchings, 32, played receiver at Furman for Bobby Johnson, who was Vanderbilt’s coach for eight seasons before retiring in July.
“[Kitchings] cut his teeth at Furman playing for Coach Johnson, so our system is ingrained in him,” Caldwell said. “He is excited and our staff is excited. I think our players will be refreshed and ready to play for him.”
Kiser had been calling the plays for several seasons, though this was his first year having the offensive coordinator title.
“The thing that impresses me more than anything is how Coach Kiser feels about it,” Caldwell said. “He’s been a champion about it and he’s ready to go.
“Vanderbilt is very lucky to have him here and I’m proud to have him on our staff.”
Caldwell said he doesn’t anticipate that changing coordinators in the middle of the season will be a problem.
“For a lot of people it can be very difficult, but for the men we have here at Vanderbilt and the kind of coaches we have, I don’t think it will be very difficult at all,” he said. “Everybody is on board with it and excited about it.”
Kitchings told reporters he was surprised Sunday night when Caldwell informed him he had been promoted to offensive coordinator.
“I can’t say you’ll see a big difference at this stage of the season,” Kitchings said. “That would be unfair to the kids.
“But there are some things we’d like to try to do differently, maybe give us a better chance to be efficient on offense and score some points.
“In football, you have to win two downs - first down and third down. If we’re able to do that, then we can stay on the field longer, have more plays, more yards and more opportunities to score points.”
After Vanderbilt was held to 70 yards and three first downs in the second half against South Carolina, Caldwell indicated in his postgame news conferences that changes were imminent.
“We’ve got to do something different,” Caldwell said at the time. “We have to maintain some clock and do some things. We’ll make some adjustments.”
Vanderbilt junior quarterback Larry Smith has completed 85 of 164 passes for 1,005 yards and 5 touchdowns with 4 interceptions. His 143.6 passing yards per game rank 10th in the SEC.
Sophomore tailbacks Warren Norman and Zac Stacy have rushed for a combined 692 yards and seven touchdowns.
“We don’t have playmakers offensively, and the closest thing we have to it is our running backs, and we have to find more ways to get them the ball,” Caldwell said. “We have to do different things and look at different things. I’m not going to tell you what we’re going to do offensively.
“You’ll notice a different approach.
Sports, Pages 17 on 10/26/2010