Per a VU press release:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In support of recovery efforts following devastating wildfires on Maui, Vanderbilt Athletics has announced that a portion of proceeds from each ticket sold to the Commodores’ season-opening football game against Hawai’i will be donated to the Hawai’i Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund.

In order to make a donation, Dore fans must purchase tickets to the contest in advance by clicking HERE.

The Maui Strong Fund is providing financial resources that can be deployed quickly, with a focus on rapid response and recovery for the devastating wildfires on Maui. Funding will support evolving needs, including shelter, food, financial assistance, and other services as identified by the organization’s partners doing critical work on Maui.

The Commodores are set to play host to Hawai’i on Saturday, Aug. 26 at FirstBank Stadium, with kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on the SEC Network. It’s the second season in a row that the Commodores will face the Rainbow Warriors to begin the year after travelling to Honolulu last fall.

Wednesday, August 16 (Practice No. 17)
Practice was mostly outdoors, with much of the roster getting in on 11-on-11 work. We are now at the “there’s not much new to be seen here” point of fall camp, so, rather than re-hashing observations I’ve made other days, I’ll share thoughts in what I think is settled on this roster and what isn’t.

Where I am reasonably certain:

1. The quarterback pecking order. AJ Swann’s going to start, Ken Seals will be the backup, and I think Drew Dickey, the No. 3.
2. The starting offensive line—from left to right, Gunnar Hansen, Delfin Xavier Castillo, Julian Hernandez, Bradley Ashmore, Junior Uzebu—hasn’t changed all camp and there’s no reason to think it will.
3. I don’t think you’ll see a true freshman offensive lineman play meaningful snaps this year.
4. WR Will Sheppard is the best player on the team, and I think he’ll be joined by Quincy Skinner (Z) and Jayden McGowan (slot). And I think London Humphries and Junior Sherrill will see WR reps in the opener, too.
5. I think RB Patrick Smith will be the starter.
6. TE Justin Ball will start, and TE Logan Kyle will play a good bit as the second-best tight end.
7. Along the DL and LB corps, NT Devin Lee, DT Nate Clifton and Star Aeneas DiCosmo, along with WLB Kane Patterson, should start.
8. CB BJ Anderson will start, SS Jaylen Mahoney will also, and I think FS De’Rickey Wright should also, though Marlen Sewell has played more (due to Wright being out) and done things at times

Where I am less certain:

1. Who starts opposite Anderson at the other corner? It sure looked like it’d be Martel Hight last week and then it sure looked like that would be Tyson Russell the last 4-5 practices. Based on that and history, my assumption was that Russell had probably won the job—he’s been there two years longer—I was told today that might not necessarily be the case. So that’s probably my top question at this point.
2. The next-biggest question is placekicker, where Kansas transfer Jacob Borcilla and Brock Taylor are battling it out, and my perception is that Taylor (who has a big leg) has improved as camp has gone on. My gut feeling is Borcilla and I’d be mildly surprised if he’s not the guy, but perhaps the last week matters. Oh, and Clark Lea hinted Sunday that Will Faris (the only returnee of the three) might be the kickoff guy.
3. Ethan Barr (still out) or Langston Patterson at MLB? I think Patterson is the flashier player and better pass-rush option but they still seem to lean Barr here.
4. The backup there is a question. They like Bryan Longwell and so do I, but they like Nick Rinaldi also (and I share the sentiment that he can help). I think both will play but I’m not certain about a pecking order there.
5. Will Chase Gillespie or Sedrick Alexander be the second-team RB? (My guess it’s the order I listed).
6. What is WR Gamarion Carter’s role? It’s not as if he’s been bad, they just have so many options. And that possibly includes walk-on Richie Hoskins who (and I am not exaggerating here) does something good in just about every practice.
7. Is Leyton Nelson the top backup option at both tackles? My guess is that he is but you could see Charlie Clark as the backup RT or David Siegel as the top backup at either.
8. What do they do at the end spot vacated by the Darren Agu injury? Again, my guess is Yilanan Outtara starts here but Linus Zunk, Brayden Bapst and Alex Brown have played a good bit at that spot. Nate Clifton has (and could) also move over one spot and play outside, which could mean Daevion Davis starts inside in that event.
9. What do do with this year’s CJ-Taylor-lite Bryce Cowan, who has been a LB and is behind Taylor at anchor?
10. Whether they’ll go Will Sheppard or Martel Hight returning punts could be a question of preference. I just haven’t seen any game-breaking ability in Sheppard as a returner, but he doesn’t drop the ball, either. I think that Hight probably brings more explosiveness here.

Two other notes:

• I forgot to report this earlier, but Tommy Eckels—a walk-on who played all 12 games last year—isn’t with the team this year and is done with football.
• Don’t sleep on Daevon Walker as a future corner who can help. Someone brought his name up to me today; this wasn’t just a “he’s not going to play at receiver, so let’s move him over here,” move as they really think he has potential there.

Vanderbilt men's golf has 6 players competing in the US Amateur this week. The most of any college program

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Today’s mailbag is sponsored by Sutherland & Belk, a family owned injury law firm. If you or a loved one has been hurt in an accident, give Taylor or Russell a call at 615-846-6200 to see what your rights are and if they can help.
Our guest line is presented by Jon Levin and the Maynard Nexuses government contracts group. Maynard Nexuses advises government contractors on all aspects of their needs, with a proud focus on matching legal solutions to business needs.

We'll mostly focus on the newcomers for football and maybe if we have some time, on hoops newcomers too. I've got a pretty tight window between a radio guest spot and needing to get to practice.

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Whatever he’s doing, get all the guys on the team doing it.

Section 238, row 5, seats 17-18, with parking pass in the Circle 75 Parkway lot.

Would like to get $75/per ticket as that’s what I paid for them. Parking would be no charge.

Hate I’m not going to be able to go, but life happens.

Want to get them in the hands of folks that can use them!! And if I can help out a Vandy fan then that’s even better!!

PM me if you’re interested.

Not listed on my Xfinity program guide for the first time i've noticed. OTOH, i don't recall anything being on there for... maybe years. However, for those addicts, like me, youtube provides 30 mins. of uninterrupted tiles turning over. I probably won't watch it more than 2-3 times a day. Not the entire 30 mins, anyway.
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Was thinking about going this year with my two young kids (4 and 2). For anyone that’s been, think it would be fun for kids of that age?

I'll have a piece up in the coming days on getting in and out of the stadium (could be wrong, I'm not sure it's going to be the disaster everyone suspects but we'll see).

More interestingly, I don't remember if this was made public, but, they plan to have the basketball building in the closed end zone done next year in time for the season. So even though things won't be complete until 2025, at least things will start to look a lot better.

So they just released this morning single game tix for UGA for certain groups (some if not all season tix holders). It will be open to the public on Thursday am.

HOWEVER, it is also parents weekend and they opened those tickets up to parents, also today.

Seems like a pretty clever way to make a little more black and gold.

The best NSD story ever. RIP in peace.

Vanderbilt took us on a tour to show us how we and fans would be getting in and out of the stadium. I've taken some pictures and some other things to help people know where the entrance points will be and will try to write an article on that in a day or two, along with parking and tailgating info (nothing has really changed there).

This was practice No. 16. At this point, we don't really learn much more at every additional practice than what we knew already, so, I'll give my thoughts on the depth chart and quick position-by-positon takes here shortly.