Lighter day today, we both thought defense won.

Offense (Joey):

-Didn't see anything that'd make me think anything contrary to what I said about Diego Pavia being the leader for the starting job, he was fine today but what really stood out to me was the way he commanded the huddle. He's really leading and taking ownership. Seems like he's more of a leader than the other QBs. Johnson didn't have a great day, missed some he needs to be making. Dickey threw a pick as did Berlowitz. I'm still not sure my read on Dickey vs Berlowitz, Berlowitz flashes a lot but Dickey may be more steady.

-Sedrick Alexander continues to make flash plays. He's gonna be improved I'd think. Didn't see much out of the other guys. I don't hate the thought of Moni Jones being the second guy in carries rather than Newberry. I will say that I think the ceiling is higher with Newberry. If all goes right he's the two.

-Junior Sherrill stood out among receivers but wasn't excellent, I'd say pretty good. He's gonna be used in a lot of different ways. Probably won't be deep ball reliant like he was a little last year. Quiet day for Quincy Skinner. Loic Fouonji was targeted a bunch but didn't make a ton of plays. Think his route running may need some work, Micah Bell's does too. If I had to pinpoint a freshman receiver to play I'd say Tristen Brown but Joseph McVay may not be far behind.

-Cole Spence is good every day and will be a factor. If he's not their leading receiver I think it'll be because of attention. That could open it up for Eli Stowers, who seems to be getting a better feel as he goes. He's gonna be more of a receiver than a true TE I would think. Think Kameran Johnson is the three and Tyler Fortenberry is the the four.

-Wanted to watch more line play than I did today but they seem to be starting to narrow down what they've got.

DEFENSE (Billy):
- Bryce Cowan caused an interception that Kolbey Taylor caught

-Jovan Haye said that Zaylin Wood can play the inside and outside and that Khordae Sydnor is emerging as a vocal leader as is Aeneas DiCosmo, Darren Agu's focus is getting healthier

- Tyson Russell had a good looking PBU

- Bradley Mann carried his good play over and had a nice deflection at the line of scrimmage

- Martel Hight had an impressive interception, which was one of the first flashes I’ve seen from him in a while

- Jaylin Lackey impressed again today

- The more I see of the defensive line, the more I think they will be more of a factor than they were last season

- Taco Wright struggled in coverage

Another big story was the guys who weren't live and did work on the side.

Those included:
Gunnar Hansen
Devin Lee
Boubacar Diakite
Jeremiah Dillon
Boski Barrett
Alvin Williamson
Grayson Morgan
Christian James
Dariyan Wiley
Josh Raymond
Witt Edwards

2025 Ryder Cup Captain, Keegan Bradley has just named his 2nd Vice Captain, Brandt Snedeker.

But who has some extra tickets for Virginia Tech?

Yes I still have season tickets BUT sounds like @ChesterCopperpot1 has convinced my fantasy football group to attend the game and then have the Live draft in Nashville after the game…. So will have 5 Memphians with me while only having 2 tickets.

If you do have ANY extras, I’ll take them. Thanks in advance!

Of the Vandy Boys in the Cape League this summer, here’s a couple of interesting hitting stats according to the CCBL website of the Vandy Biys who qualify so far based on plate appearances. The pitchers don’t have enough appearances yet to have fully displayed stats:

Braden Holcomb is having a solid start to the season and is hitting .313 with 2 RBI. That’s a good sign considering a few things (1) the amount he struck out this season, (2) he’s facing top of the line pitching every game, and (3) he’s using a wooden bat. We all know the power is there with him and it’s nice to see him showing some plate discipline.

JD Rogers is also hitting well at .400.

Both Kozeal and Davis are hitting below the Mendoza line right now at .182 and .143 respectively. Both of these guys are too talented to hit that way the whole summer and I expect them to bounce back.

I’ll post another one of these and include the pitchers once they have more game by game splits.

Three-star Matthew Parker was briefly committed to the Commodores this summer, but a recent flip to Baylor has Vandy back at zero OL commits in this year's class. They are hoping to get Pierre Louis, a rising three-star prospect, on campus at some point this fall but the competition keeps getting more fierce. More above.

Will Watson Brown be joining the George Plaster show soon.

If so I have more questions...

BTW his show is a huge improvement over both what's on that few hours....

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It's August 1st, so schools are sending out official offers to their commitments and top targets. Here is a graphic from RB commit Gabe Fields

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and it doesn't, of course. But it does. Comments? Questions? Threats? "You're so stupid you wouldn't know a football from a hole in the ground" 's?

Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas, and Alabama a top of the initial AP Top 25 poll

Larry Black

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Jovan Haye

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Linus Zunk

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De'Marion Thomas

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Sigh. Seemingly our best freshman per camp reports . Tough break for him. Fortuna just won’t smile on us.

With Coleman out, does this open up an opportunity for Fortenberry? I remember when he was added via the portal, he was touted as a flex tight end and a receiving threat. How he has been doing in camp?

This is up there for me, may be my favorite feature.

A snapshot of three-star safety Jordan Crim, whom Vanderbilt offered during the month of July

Clark Lea:

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Tim Beck:

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Cole Spence:

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Bryan Longwell:

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WATCH:

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LISTEN:

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Vanderbilt just wrapped it's first scrimmage of the fall.

Offense (Joey):

-Thought the defense won the day, although I think the offense technically won the scoring.

-Ball security was an issue. Some of that was defense making plays but a lot of it was bad decision making out of the quarterbacks. Some fumbles too. Penalties were also an issue. There were some operational errors that plagued them.

-To me Diego Pavia looked like the best quarterback today. The operation seemed to be much cleaner with him running it, the ball wasn't pushed down the field much with him but he seemed to find guys and his drives were consistently the longest out of the main starters I thought. He seems to have a real connection with Cole Spence, the arc he puts on the ball fits well with a 6-foot-7 guy like that. He did try to force a throw from out of the pocket and was intercepted, though.

-Nate Johnson just seemed to be a little off with his timing and communication. Also made some bad throws for interceptions and put the ball on the ground. Pavia definitely had a better day. Johnson still has the measurables but I think there's a lot more to this competition. I also wonder what could be different if quarterbacks were live.

-Drew Dickey was ok, felt like the ball didn't move much with him out there but it did more than I thought. No turnovers from what I remember. Berlowitz made some awesome throws and moved the ball well at times but also made some really bad ones that seemed to be communication issues.

-Jeremy St Hilare and Whit Muschamp both only got a few reps but made some really nice throws. Think both have bright futures.

-The running backs and the running game were definitely better than I expected. Sedrick Alexander wasn't out there long but he made the run of the day that Clark Lea called "different" than he'd seen from any backs last year. That was called back but the breakaway and open field ability was impressive there. AJ Newberry had some flashes but put it on the ground and failed to come up with a catch that led to an INT.

-The backup running back battle rages on. I like Newberry as the second back, but will have to see more to declare it. Moni Jones was good in short yardage but Chase Gillespie took advantage of all of his carries and might've been the best back considering usage. Johann Cardenas got a lot of carries and was good but competition wasn't high for him.

-Receivers weren't awesome but there were some flash plays. Thought Skinner was quiet. Sherrill was fine but not super standoutish. Richie Hoskins was the regular that stood out. Long TD catch from Pavia, seems like he'll be a good fit for what they want to do. Joseph McVay was the other standout, just kept making plays. His yards will probably stand out in Chris' stats. Finally saw something from Micah Bell at the end of practice. His speed is an asset, just don't know how much they'll be able to utilize it. They'll have to be creative there.

-Brycen Coleman is out for awhile with a broken collarbone. Won't cost him the season. Would've been a nice player to have, but he wasn't someone they were relying on.

-The offensive line was the positive for me. I thought they did give the quarterbacks some time and they also opened up a good bit of running lanes. Not a whole lot of sacks in the stats I'd think. Steven Hubbard is emerging as a leader in my mind.

Defense (Billy):

-I thought they won the day, but not by much, there were still some mistakes that were made.

-CJ Taylor still had a brace on his left knee, but looked to be flying around the field, which is a good sign. He laid a couple pretty good licks, one in particular on Cole Spence. Looks as if he has warmed up to the safety position. I have a feeling he’ll be head hunting quite often this season, just needs to be weary of targeting.

-Prince Kollie looked good when he was in, he made a couple strong hits. He’s still behind Patterson and Longwell in my mind though.

-The defense as a whole looked to be pressuring early, but Pavia did a good job of counteracting that with creativity.


-Tyson Russell covered and tackled well for the most part, but still had a couple lapses.

-Steven Sannieniola made a really good tackle in the open field, he was flying around all night. This needs to be the year he takes a big jump.

-Marlen Sewell looked pretty good, he seems to be playing with much more confidence thus far.

-Khordae Sydnor was really active. He had at least one sack that I can remember. Check with Chris’ stats to confirm.

-Bradley Mann looked better than I anticipated. He had a sack and forced a fumble on AJ Newberry (I think)

-Jeff Ugo should’ve had an interception, but he made up for it later

-Random note, but a Cleveland Browns scout was in attendance

-Taco Wright struggled a little bit with open field tackling and also dropped wehat would’ve been an easy pick six. He did make up for that later though, by forcing a tipped interception

-Kolbey Taylor was talking a LOT. He made a really good play on Quincy Skinner in the endzone and gave him an earful. That’s exactly what this defense needed after last season.

-Jaylin Lackey made a really good open field tackle on Newberr and almost had an interception. I was encouraged by his play tonight, he’ll have to play some this season with Jones and Davis out.

-Dontae Carter didn’t stand out as much as I thought he might, but he also didn’t make any obvious mistakes either. He caught a tipped interception that caught my eye.

-Hopefully, that’s enough info. Let me know if you have any questions.

We tried to keep stats at the scrimmage between the three of us. The degree of probability that we got all these right is exceptionally low but I have decent confidence that we are close.

I'll start with rushing, and then I'll do passing and receiving, and then defensive stats. I'm tabulating these right now so I'll post them in different posts as I do them.

Anyway... rushing stats:

Gillespie: 9 - 48
Newberry: 8 - 31
Cardenas: 8 - 29
Nate Johnson: 8 - 29
Moni Jones: 9 - 18
Lassiter: 1 - 14
St. Hilaire: 2 - 10
Alexander: 3 - 7 (NOTE: had a pretty spectacular TD run wiped out by a downfield hold by a wide receiver)
Hoskins: 1 - 6
Pavia: 3 - 6
Sherrill: 3 - 6
Wells: 1 - 4
Balis: 1 - 3
Dickey: 2 - 1
Berlowitz: 2 - minus-10

What time today?