I get so frustrated reading the articles from the local and statewide writers about Vanderbilt UT games. It is so easy to state the obvious, talent gap, Vanderbilt stinks, Tennessee is awesome, and my personal favorites the benches in memorial and the it is a home game for the visiting team. Can someone please move beyond the low hanging fruit and point out the truth that makes all of these tired negatives reality.

My hat is off and my heart is full for these young men and women who play for VU and must fight against all the negativity around them. Keep fighting. Keep recruiting. Keep improving.

Lipscomb Academy (Tenn.) 2025 defensive tackle Amir Leonard-Jean Charles was one of several intriguing in-state recruitment targets at West End yesterday to catch Vanderbilt take on Tennessee in the final week of college football's regular season.

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The 6-foot-4, 295-pound recruit out of Nashville, Tennessee spoke with VandySportsDotCom about how it felt to visit the Commodores again and detailed his favorite moments from the gameday experience.

"It was a great time, and my favorite part was definitely watching the crowd and watching the players during pregame warmups," Charles said. "I also just loved how loud it was."

Charles, who was on another visit to West End earlier this season, said that he reconnected with Vanderbilt assistant coach and defensive line coach Larry Black and said they had another great conversation.

"I met with Coach Black and it was an amazing time like always," Charles said. "Every time I talk to the coaches it's a fun time. The process of building a relationship with them has been great from the first time I met with them to now."

During the pregame, Charles said that he was watching the Commodores' defensive line, adding that they were looking solid the entire time he was in attendance in the 56-0 blowout loss to Tennessee.

"During the pregame, I was watching the whole defensive line and they looked great," Charles said. "I was just watching them the whole time I was there."

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Charles said that he's eager to continue to build a relationship with the Commodores' coaching staff and was impressed with the victories over SEC foes Florida and Kentucky. Charles said he thinks Vanderbilt could a good team in a few years.

"I'm interested in how they develop their players throughout the offseason and seeing how they change," Charles said. "Vandy started to look good at the end of the season and I think in two or three years, they might be a pretty solid team."

Does Mike Wright have small hands? I noticed in both the Wake and TN games, when it was raining, he had major issues gripping the football. I like the moxy and stress that Wright can put on an opposing defense with his running ability, but it seems if the weather is bad, he has no business on the field.

Article about Vanderbilt's newest commit.

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For all of the good he has done this year, he's trying his best to undo it tonight. So much for the " he's not playing Swann because of the concussion" bs.

You put in by far the best passer on the roster down 35-0 against the worst pass defense in the SEC, but not when the game was still winnable and Wright was obviously struggling? Seriously?

Entering a big college football time with the Portal decisions by Dec 5th.

1st time VU has entered this with some demand for it’s top players. Next year’s season’s expected outcome will be directly impacted by these decisions.

I hope the VU collective led by Jason Burns will start paying off to retain our top players. Even if they do this, how will it be structured so that it does not ruin team chenistry?

Different times in building a roster in college football and at VU. Could turn out to be good or bad; we will see.

One thing I did notice is it looks like the staff started letting McGowen return kick offs about 2 to 3 games ago and he did a great job

#1- The defense looks much faster all around. It was hard to gauge the defense with 3 defensive linemen out as well as several in the secondary out, but it wasn't hard to notice that speed defensively is a priority. Adding speed and running to the football gives you shot defensively. As others have stated, the linebacker group looks to be solid, and I liked what I saw from Daniel Martin and CJ Taylor. Add D'Rickey Wright to the mix and you've got several safety/linebacker types which adds more speed. That gives Vanderbilt a chance against today's spread offenses. It will be interesting to how that translates to teams that run down hill at you. Thankfully, there aren't many of those in today's game.

#2- The wide receivers surprised me. Will Sheppard is the only known commodity, but I liked what I saw from Jayden McGowan, Quincy Skinner, and Logan Kyle. There are some pieces that they can do some work. Good job by the staff finding McGowan. Despite not being highly rated, his speed is going to help this offense. Devin Boddie is a similar type body that can do some of those things. The tight end group looks solid.

#3- It's hard to gauge the offensive front with three defensive linemen out, but it looks like the improvement last season has carried over into the spring. In my opinion, the ingredients for success is to run the football (shorten the game), play solid defense, and be solid in the kicking game in order to keep things close in order to have a chance to win. I like the running backs in Rocko Griffin and Patrick Smith. I also like Re'Mahn Davis once healthy. All three got differing styles which I think helps. I also think Mike Wright's running ability could put some pressure on defenses. The thing with him is he's got to be consistent in the passing game and get rid of the ball on time. I think play action and moving the pocket in sprint out could really this offense.

It's going to be interesting when Vanderbilt adds their transfer portal guys in Jacob Brammer, Myles Cecil, Matt Hayball, and Jeremy Lucien. Need to hit on those guys. I also think a guy like Cooper Lutz will help boost the special teams. The addition of speed with young guys should also help the special team units.

Barton’s appearance begins at approximately 30:15.

Outstanding discussion of the football program.

Barton discusses CJ Taylor.

Thanh’s to AnnArborDore for mentioning Barton’s appearance. I was unaware of it.

Here's the place for pre-, in- and post-game thoughts. Obviously I'll be there to cover.

What are Billy Napier and Mark Stoops thinking right now

Suffice to say, I can easily now see how the team could have gotten a little puffed up from the "streak" we were on, coaches included. What an absolute lack of preparedness to play this game, I have no idea what the game plan was, especially with the late insert of Swann who after all that was healthy... Sheesh. Now I'm back to a healthy skepticism of everything Vandy FB

OPENING
Want to start by honoring the guys who played their last game tonight
Disappointed isn’t the right word, it was painful
They put a lot into this and it got away from them
The guys here the first two seasons jumped fully in and he wants to thank them for their contributions
They can feel however they can’t to feel , they were beat up by the result but that won’t affect them going forward
They’ll unpack the season and be on a path to further improvement in January
As far as tonight, credit TN and Josh Heupel, they bounced back from a tough game and had great effort on their end
They sustained a few drives but had self-inflicted wounds
The first drive was about the long throw
The second was about missed opportunities
They settled into the game defensively they wanted to play in the first half and then came the punt return
The second half was an unfortunate swing, three consecutive possessions started at midfield
He still felt they’d be in position to hold on but they played unstructured against the run and it’s uncharacteristic, where they were a step short or out of a gap TN made them pay
They didn’t tackle well but they were slow getting to the fit and playing against good players
The game got away from them and the explosive TDs hurt
They’ll bottle up the emotion around tonight and apply it to January
But tonight is about honoring the guys who played their last and the legacy they’ll leave
Their future is bright and they love where they’re headed



Decision to go to AJ and then back to Mike
Mike has been a great bright spot this season, he was resilient and battled through personal disappointment
He led them to consecutive league wins
AJ hadn’t played football in a few weeks and they wanted to give Mike the chance
When they knew they had to throw to win, AJ positioned them best
After four scores they decided it was time to get the ball on the perimeter and get the vertical passing game going
The overturned double move hurt, they were unable to find the end zone
AJ was banged up and they wanted to protect him after that last hit, they didn’t want him to end the season battling an injury

A lot of first-down runs early and conservative play-calling after UT gave up 63 points last week, what was behind that?
What they did was their identity and it’s worked
They wanted to establish the run game
They were able to get some conversations on second down early
What he saw was rhythm was killed on self-inflicted wounds
They played to their identity, part of that is to limit possessions
They had a breakdown in complementary football and paid for it in field position

Do you wish you’d taken more shots downfield early?
Seemed to indicate yes
When they got across the 50 and wanted to put the ball up more, the breakdowns happened and they were struggling to get ahead of schedule
They want high-percentage plays and first- and second-down efficiency
They thought the naked bootleg was good

The success he’s had this season, what has to change to get better against the very best teams like tonight
Every game has a different narrative
It’s about maximizing opportunity and explosive TDs
Alabama hit some double moves on them
Every snap matters
TN out-ran them on the perimeter at times
Against Georgia you saw an offense that sputtered and they missed opportunities there with Sheppard and McGowan
The best teams in this league don’t miss their opportunities
When they won it was the opposite
When there are opportunities they have to become dangerous
They can’t have situations like tonight
The coverage units have to down the ball and get the defense out there
The fourth-down stop hurt early in the first half

What happened on special teams?
They had two returners, they got out-leveraged and couldn’t cut the ball off
The others were about not winning one-on-ones
They weren’t collapsing coverage and the ball got out on them

Thoughts on the season overall
They’ve shown progress
Tonight was painful, he hurts for the team and fans
To have made the strides they made, they wanted to extend the season
They’ve had a lot of fun the last few weeks
There’s a belief they’re closing the gaps
It’s inevitable they’ll continue to improve
When they got here they were in a tough place
They’re bigger, faster and stronger and there’s a gradual closing of the gap
The process is righteous, it doesn’t deliver them where they want to be but they have to stay patient


CJ Taylor
He couldn’t finish the game
He was x-rayed and it wasn’t a fracture

For as much as we have praised Lea and Co the last two weeks, he deserves a ton of criticism tonight. An estrogen-filled game plan on offense. Team didn’t look ready. Much more energy on vols sideline pregame.

Just a miserable night. Sat by some of the most obnoxious vol fans in the world. Kept throwing the VFL gang sign in my face all night and screamed relentlessly at anybody that had vandy gear on. Just looking for a fight.

Still a successful season and I’m sure I am being very gloom and doom right now but he gave back a lot of the equity he built up over the last couple of weeks with that performance (or lack thereof) tonight. Just a pathetic performance in every area. Beyond disappointing.

Feel for them. Put in years of training and workouts and this is your last game at home.

I was at the game. Just now got on the board since before the game. Right when I walked in that stadium I knew it was bad vibes. Orange everywhere. Had about 6 trash ut fans sitting right next to me. This ut team is a totally different ut team that played last week. Man, college football is weird. This game definitely brought me back down to earth. I thought we had momentum after the 2 sec wins to at least make it a close game against ut. However, I am still happy we got 2 sec wins this year. If you would’ve told me before this season that we would have 5 wins I would’ve been very happy. Oh well, flush it. Let’s finish this 2023 class out strong. Anchor down for life.

No excuse for tonight’s performance. It was terrible from the staff to the players to water boys & trainers. Crowd was awful but expected weather was miserable and probably hurt us more than it helped afterall.

Credit to UT, they have a very good team and were embarrassed last week. They came out focused, we played poorly and they whipped us from the start. It stings given the opportunity with Milton at QB but the fact of the matter is with this team you don’t have the personnel to line up and play an elite team (which UT is) a very competitive game. In my heart of hearts I hoped for a W after the last 2 weeks but knew something like 38-10 was more likely. Play badly and 56-0 can happen in a hurry,

All that said this season was an off the rails success. It says a lot about the talent level of the program but 5-7 with 2 SEC wins 15 months after watching ETSU completely dominate us on the LOS is nothing to be ashamed of.

Incredibly tough schedule with 3 teams who will be playing in NY6 bowls, top 10 OM & top 20 Wake, a top 25 UK win at the time we played and SC will end up top 20.

I always thought the most likely outcome for this season was 3-9 (with 2-10 a real possibility). The season was a big success.

On to next year I think the answer is clear at QB and will see Swann announced as the starter at the end of spring ball. I hope Mike is convinced to stay around and that his best shot at the next level is to move to WR and Vandy uses him in some creative roles next year. With the OL coming back Swann will have an opportunity to be successful.

Next years schedule is a dream compared to what 22 looked like:

Hawaii
Alabama A&M
@ Wake
@ UNLV
UK
Mizzou
@UF
UGA
@Ole Miss
Auburn
@South Carolina
@ UT

A big opportunity to start fast.

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It's taking a bit to process so it may not show up right away.

I absolutely hate this and hope the administration tries to stop it....but there is little hope for that.

The only thing that would beat breaking it up would be to beat them....send them home with a loss.A band of red necks

Says no rain Saturday on my Apple weather. Just mostly cloudy. Let’s go!

**** Lea

Some expected visitors for Saturday's game vs. Tennessee:

Commits:

Cooper Starks
Ethan Crisp
Barrett Maddox
Anthony Miles
London Humphreys
Jr. Sherrill

2023's:

Dante Kelly, S, Leflore Co. (Miss.) - former Miss. State commit. Visited Vandy in the spring
Cameron Vaughn, QB, Tempe (Ga.) - has FCS offers from Jacksonville State, EKU, Chattanooga
Emmanuel Deng, CB, Centerville (Oh.) - Penn commit
Eli Freeman, OL, Lebanon (Tenn.) - Ball State commit

2024 Targets:

Marcellus Barnes, Jr., DB, McCallie
Hank Weber, DE, Brentwood Academy
Crews Law, LB, CPA
Ondre Evans, ATH, CPA
Luke Masterson, OL, FRA
Eddie Tuerk, DE, Lyons Township (Ill.)
Jayden Jackson, DL, IMG Academy (Fla.)
Cole Mullins, LB, Mill Creek (Ga.)
Kamron Mikell, ATH, Statesboro (Ga.)
Kahnen Daniels, ATH, West Point (Miss.)
Andrew Pederson, OL, Brentwood Academy - no Vandy offer, but offers from Marshall, Central Michigan, and Toledo

2025's:

Chauncey Gooden, OL, Lipscomb Academy - offers from Vandy, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Louisville, Arkansas
Amir Leonard-Jean Charles, DT, Lipscomb Academy - Auburn, Ole Miss, Georgia offers
Ryan Ghea, TE, Milton (Ga.) - offers from Wisconsin, South Carolina, Louisville, Clemson, others
Sam Haley, DE/LB, Ensworth (Ga.) - South Carolina offer
Mason Mims, QB, Oxford (Miss.) - offers from Pitt, Troy
Ethan Carson, ATH, Blackman

2026's:

Jonaz Walton, ATH, Carrollton (Ga.) Central - Georgia, Georgia Tech offers

Why didn’t Swan start earlier? I know Lea wanted to play right because he earned it but at 14 to nothing and they’re stacking the box and he can’t throw. It was obvious swan needs to be in the game. Yet Lea waits till it’s 35 to nothing so now the defense just pins their ears back and blitzes swan for the rest of the game. It’s just stupid coaching. Tennessee’s defense is good against the run and bad against the pass and we start our worst passer have some balls and sit Wright and play swan