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Signee superlatives

Most intriguing: Humphries - with that speed and his relatively raw football skills, we may have a superstar. Hope he starts at KR and PR from day 1.
Space eaters: Miles and Thomas. My two favorite of the OLs and DLs and players I was afraid we'd lose until they signed. Critical part of our turnaround to get players like these two.
Immediate Impact: Hight - hope he has been working out. We need DBs now.
One Of Them Has To Work: the three RBs - Doesn't matter which among Sedrick, AJ or Deago, but we desperately need one of them to flash early and often.
Best Keep: Sherrill (even if Pimpton signs) - not losing a local kid who absolutely can contribute was important
MVP: Crisp - early commit at a position of need who set the tone for this class

FB Recruiting Tuesday recruiting notes

- Vanderbilt picked up a commitment from Wisconsin defensive end Evan Herrmann yesterday. The 6-foot-6 and 210-pound defensive end decommitted from Wyoming and committed to Vanderbilt after an official visit. He talks about it in the interview that we did.

I could tell in my phone interview, Herrmann was bothered by decommitting from Wyoming. Wyoming had recruited him for a long time, and their head coach flew out to watch him play basketball a couple of weeks ago. It was a tough decision for him, but he made the best choice for himself. Herrmann doesn't want much press about his Vanderbilt commitment in respect to Wyoming. I know some will likely mock that decision, but I get it. These schools put in a ton of work on these prospects, and it hurts to lose them late in the process. My interview with Herrmann is below.

Herrmann talks Vanderbilt commitment and more

- We know of two early enrollees in this class. Ethan Crisp and Sedrick Alexander both let us know that they will early enroll at Vanderbilt. Kenric Lanier would have been an early enrollee, but it won't be at Vanderbilt.

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- Vanderbilt defensive tackle commit De'Marion Thomas will sign with Vanderbilt tomorrow. He said that Stanford, SMU, and Houston all made late pushes to get him to visit, but he told them that he was firm in his Vanderbilt commitment.

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- As for tomorrow, Vanderbilt fans should be looking for the announcements of Vanderbilt commitments of Ka'Morreun Pimpton and Junior Sherrill. As it has been talked about, Texas and LSU are pursuing Pimpton where he visited the past two weekends. UAB and Trent Dilfer are pursuing Junior Sherrill. We reached out to Sherrill on whether he visited UAB and got no response. That isn't cause for concern as Sherrill hasn't been a big talker on social media throughout his recruitment.

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- With the loss of Lanier, Vanderbilt fans should be on the lookout for the announcement of Jaelen Smith. The Texas wide receiver had Vanderbilt in the top three among Michigan State and Minnesota. We've been told that Minnesota isn't an option for him now. Smith was supposed to visit Vanderbilt this past weekend, but we can't confirm that he made the trip.

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- That's the update for this morning. That's not a lot and much of it repeated, but it gives an idea of where Vanderbilt is right now. As always, Vanderbilt could add some surprises tomorrow. If we get any updates today, we will put in this thread.

Our current roster situation

So I had made the thread about our roster departures where we’re at about 21 open spots and after the new QB commit that brings us to 20 commit. Are we in a scholarship “crunch” right now? The only non-grad transfers out of their own volition are Mike Wright and Rocko. So we’ve had pretty much none of the guys from the 2020-2022 classes that aren’t getting any PT transfer out. I know the education might keep people wanting to stay here, but @Chris Lee has said Clark has pretty much run guys off before. We’re still sitting here with a bunch of guys on the roster that have been here a while and have no path to significant playing time taking up spots on the team? Is this a choice from Lea, the school, or what? Because you’d think we would want close at least 30 open spots to get 25ish high schoolers and 5 or 6 transfers. But we’re canceling solid transfer recruits visits, focusing on a 3rd freshman RB who’s gonna sign in the spring instead of a transfer, and potentially having flips from Western Michigan, Wyoming, and San Diego State late in the class. One of those is fine, but with all 3 it seems like we’re taking guys way down the board right now but also have scholarship trouble at the same time. I just have a lot of questions right now.

Another paradox on West End

You're not, under ALMOST any circumstances, supposed to pull against your team. It’s just not right.

But, I'm really having a hard time pulling for this basketball team right now. Chris has put the semi-hypothetical magic number of SEC wins for Stack to keep his job at 5-6.

I want Vanderbilt to win every game, I'm a fan, that's how we're roll.

But, much like the recent Mason situation, doesn’t Stack barely winning enough games to keep his job do more harm than good? Look at the hole Lea is having to dig out of. Do we want the next hoops coach to have to do the same thing?

I personally think 9-9 is the MINIMUM record that's acceptable in the SEC this year. Anything less, and we should be looking for a new coach.

But man, it sure feels weird almost pulling against your current team for a possible future of success.

And, do we really trust these people running the athletic department to make a good hire? I mean, someone else besides Turner signed off on signing a basketball HC with zero college HC experience AFTER we went 0-18. Can we trust them to make a good hire? Can we afford to not try?

It's just a weird time in the current history of this once proud program.

Between Vandy basketball and the Titans, it sucks being a sports fan in Nashville

I caught the end of the Titans very forgettable performance and subsequent loss to the mediocre Chargers today. Maybe they should've fired the OC two weeks ago, in addition to former GM Jon Robinson. This is the first time the Titans have lost four consecutive games in seven years, according to the local news. And Vandy is under .500 in non-conference play, with no relief in sight with the tough SEC schedule looming large in a couple of weeks.

Vanderbilt Basketball Coaching Hot Board 12/19

I think it is more than fair at this point to say Vanderbilt should be preparing to hire a Men's Basketball coach at the end of this season. As much as I wanted Stackhouse to work out, this year has made it really clear that the program is not heading in a good direction. This season has reminded me a lot of the back end of the Derek Mason era. It was really clear after year 6 that Vandy Football was heading in a bad direction, but the admin decided to give Mason year 7 and it set back the program and Clark's rebuild by multiple years. They can't afford to make the same mistake with Stackhouse. Barring a huge turnaround, it is hard to see the team finishing much better than 12-19 (5-13) this year. The record alone should be enough to make a change, but the recruiting has not been great either and the incoming class is not good enough to justify giving him another year.

This offseason could prove to be a great opportunity for Vanderbilt to make a change as there is not expected to be much coaching turnover in the SEC. With South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Missouri making coaching changes last offseason, it is hard to see more than one other SEC job coming open barring unexpected firings or a coach getting hired away. Being one of the only SEC jobs on the market makes the job much more attractive and could lead to having better candidates that are interested. This is an opportunity that Vanderbilt needs to capitalize on. With that, let' get to the hot board.

Realistic, Good Candidates

  1. Grant McCasland (North Texas): 20-12 in his lone season at Arkansas State. 132-72 in five full seasons at North Texas, currently in his sixth. Has one two regular season championships and one conference tournament championship in five years. Was an assistant under Scott Drew at Baylor and is known to be a good recruiter.

  1. Pat Kelsey (College of Charleston): 186-95 in nine seasons at Winthrop before taking the CoC job in 2021. At Winthrop, he won four regular season conference championships and three conference tournament championships. He went 17-15 in his first season at Charleston (they went 9-10 the year before he took over). They are currently 11-1 with wins over Davidson, Colorado State, and Virginia Tech. He also has a top 60 recruit in the class of 2023 committed to Charleston.

  1. Bob Richey (Furman): 117-49 in six seasons at Furman. Has not taken Furman to the NCAA tournament, but has consistently won and is known to be a very good offensive mind. Biggest knock here is he has no Power 5 experience as he started his career as an assistant at Charleston and Furman, respectively.

  1. Niko Medved (Colorado State): Led rebuilds at Furman and Drake before going to Colorado State in 2018. 77-46 in four seasons at Colorado State, including an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament last season and finished the year ranked 24th in the AP Poll.

  1. Jordan Mincy (Jacksonville): Took over a Jacksonville program that went 14-18 and 11-13 the two years before he arrived and led them to a 21-10 record and one game away from the NCAA Tournament in his first year. Has Power 5 experience as an assistant at Florida under Mike White.

Takeaways: McCasland and Kelsey stand out above the rest for me here, but three out of five of these coaches have won at multiple spots and you could feel pretty good if your search came down to a couple of these guys. Kelsey would be my pick, as he has proved he can win and he is a young guy that puts in a lot of effort into building the fan base at Charleston and getting the school/community involved, and I think that is something that is sorely needed here.

Dream Candidates

  1. Jay Wright: I would make Jay Wright convince me that he did not want to coach again before I moved on to someone else. Feels like he would only coach again if it was at a school that is similar to Villanova and Vandy fits that bill, so maybe he’d want to take on the SEC.

  1. Sitting P5 Head Coaches: I think there is a lot to sell with this job with the new facility being built and the SEC becoming better in basketball every year. I am curious to hear any Power 5 coaches that anyone here thinks they could have a shot at or should reach out to.

Why you shouldn't decommit from Vandy, Minnesota WR edition

I looked at all of our decommits for the past decade. Outside of the year CJF left and took the recruiting class, which is a bit of an anomaly, only two players (Ford and Taylor) have made the pros. One other plays in Canada. The more likely story is that of the WR (Andre MacDonald) who went to Minnesota (sound familiar)? AndreMacDonald was a 4 star receiver who flipped to commit for the UMN. Unlike Lanier, he was actually from Minnesota. He was suspended as a sophomore, transferred to UW-River Falls as a junior, and dropped off the earth thereafter. He did play briefly for the Minnesota Warriors team, where he competed with players from Hamline University and such, and had a total of under 500 yards receiving post high school (though he did throw an interception, which is cool). I think you have to pay to play for the Minnesota Warriors, so it's the equivalent of a club team. Maybe Kenric Lanier will not follow the glorious path of Andre MacDonald, but to be fair, Andre MacDonald was more highly rated than Kenric Lanier, so there's that...
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