At the beginning of the season, I would’ve never thought that it would now be one of the slimmest rooms on the team. We are basically down to two backs if I’m correct, and to me Patrick Smith is not between the tackles back. If Davis goes out, we’re in a world of hurt.

Their sideline celebration is trash.

Login to view embedded media
Chris tell us something

The emerging 2023 DE out of Kansas City recaps his Vandy visit and has plans to return in December for an OV

Obviously, I'm ticked about the second half of the game. Just a poor performance but I was doing some stuff with the family so I listened through the Vanderbilt App with an Airpod in and the radio broadcast is brutal, minus Norman Jordan's insight. So, instead of griping about the game, I want to air my grievances regarding the state of the radio broadcast as a whole.

• They take a commercial break during a player injury and come back to Andrew stating that fans wouldn't have wanted to hear the previous play that they missed any way. I don't recall now if it was a touchdown or just a first down but the producer dropped the ball sending to a commercial on that.
• Kevin Ingram's mic was on at one point when it should have just been going to the team. You clearly hear him say, "Shepherd headed to the locker room," then Andrew kicks down to Kevin where he gives an official report about "14 heading down the tunnel". Once again, poor job on the production team.
• Finally, Andrew was handed a note regarding 1st downs in the second half and he rattles off something along the lines of "Vandy with their second 1st down." Then he proceeds to joke about how the stats guy probably thinks he's an idiot.

And this is the state of Vandy athletics. Give me Joe Fisher. Good grief.

I had a friend ask me why I religiously watch Vanderbilt football games. He asked if I know we are not competing to win the SEC how can I justify watching. I told him I watch Vanderbilt and college football for different reasons than just to see who wins the championship. Follow the storylines of a season, the intense rivalries and underlying hatred and pettiness. I find myself rooting for the individual kids on Vanderbilt's roster. I watch to see improvement and hope for wins. I'm not sure what I expect out of the rest of the year, I would love to win a few games but if we win one or none I'll still be back next year. I am watching for the future. It may be a sad fan existence but it is the existence we have chosen (or been born into).

SO I ask you this, what are you watching for the rest of the year? Individual performances, Individual improvements, team identity, close games, SEC wins, or anything else that could draw you to watch Vanderbilt football. I'm genuinely interested.

Login to view embedded media
Summarizing what Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said regarding Vanderbilt heading into Saturday's matchup....

- Has a lot of respect for Clark Lea. Alumnus of his school, similar to him. Always respected the job he did. Says he did a tremendous job when he was at Wake Forest. They copied a lot of the things he did defensively there and competed against him as a defensive coordinator at Notre Dame as well.

- Gotten to know Lea better through SEC meetings and loves the way he carries himself and the way he leads his program.

- Says Vandy has improved a lot from year one to year two under Lea. Said they played well against Ole Miss, came out and attacked and reiterates they are well-coached. Says Vandy is one of the most improved teams in the league in terms of how they are playing right now.

- Says he's learned studying schemes from Clark Lea. Mentioned his defenses at Notre Dame had elite tackling, were really physical, and disguised things really well. Says Lea was the architect of that and they copied a lot of those things in the offseasons.

Login to view embedded media
Another 2023 offer this morning

Login to view embedded media

Ray Davis is a great running back. But Rocko Griffin is strong through the gaps and quicker to the outside and through the hole. I just don’t understand why he didn’t play more.

Login to view embedded media
The Commodores are five games into the season, and Chris Lee and Seabass dissect what they've seen so far, from the blowout of Hawaii to a blowout loss to Alabama. Also, in addition to winning games ,there are some cultural changes Vanderbilt must undergo to start winning back fans, what does that look like?

So who are the DLs we are recruiting and are we hitting the transfer portal for some?

We'll add them as we get them, also please welcome @drew_toennies to the staff to assist in football recruiting coverage. He'll be chiming in with some visitor feedback as well.

First up...

Login to view embedded media
"I feel like we have won the games we should and we fought hard the first half versus Ole Miss. There are definitely some great flashes. Coach Lea and the staff are definitely building something great."

You sure don’t see it yet . We look every bit as slow as last year, which is to say way too slow to cover in the SEC . We were told about “measurable traits” and speed and athleticism coming with this freshman class. Where is it ? The freshmen are Gaskins, Sannieniola, Berry, Ogochukwu, Wharton, Riley, and Richard. ( Cowan grew into a linebacker). Current high school commits include Hight and McBride . Can we hope for a serviceable SEC level secondary from that group ? Too early to say ?

I keep trying to get there but can't quite get over the hump. Every time I'm almost in, something happens to make me pull the toe out of the water. Took my sons today and had a great time. Vandyville was poppin'. Crowd was good. Team was hype on the side line pregame. Team fought and played hard and gave me some hope.

Told my boys when Ole Miss got the ball right before half if they scored it would snowball 2nd half.

The 2nd half collapse was swift and powerful. I guess that's better than the slow methodical bleedouts I have seen but man, we were up at halftime then halfway through the 3rd quarter, the game was over. I hated our playcalling 2nd half.

Some of the issues on defense are personnel-related but some are coaching-related. We have guys in the wrong positions frequently which is concerning.

CCL is obviously not a quick fix guy, but I am still hopeful he is a learning creature who can lay foundational blocks and get better and better each year. I *think* we are better this year but having a QB that can complete a pass makes everything look better.

I am certainly not a "we have to wait 4 years" guy before we can evaluate a coach. That's ludicrous and no AD thinks that way. We can judge non-personnel related portions of the team while still realizing that the talent needs to be upgraded. As a fan for 50 years, I have said that almost every year I have been a fan (we need better players).

Because my daughter had a softball tournament out there. Half of her team decided to stay and watch UTjr’s softball team play because a few players from the MOJO Softball organization my daughter plays for plays there. My daughter begged me to stay and watch with her teammates (who she routinely trashed for being UTjr fans). After I said no she hit me with,” You’re just saying no because you’re mad UTjr has a softball team and Vanderbilt doesn’t.” True story.

Long story short we ended up going. The UTjr softball girls were awesome, super classy, and I think I may have 9 yr old daughter who is on the fence now. The whole team lined up and autographed anything our girls wanted autographed and thanked them for coming out and watching them play.

This trip may have been the biggest mistake of my life but the UTjr softball team was super classy and I appreciated the that.

Does anyone have Bridge Level season tickets? Or has anyone sat up there enough to have an opinion about upgrading season tickets to that section?
Vanderbilt was gracious enough to give us complimentary Bridge Level tickets. I had never been up there before. For people who sit up there regularly, what do you see as the pros and cons vs being down lower (in our case very low)? Is it worth the price to upgrade? Our season tickets now are Sec E Row 8.

For Wake, I noticed it was a pretty different vibe up there... maybe because everyone was so comfortable in their padded seats. But for a pregnant lady, the ease of getting in, our, and around up there was great.

Is the comfort level worth being so far removed from the rowdies and sideline up front? Also, how often do you find opponent fans sitting up there?

Are we recruiting him?
I think he should be a top focus for Vanderbilt as a whole.
One thing we lack as a fan base is Youth .. If we got a kid like Bronny in here I feel like we could make huge progress in that . He’s a high four star.. with millions on his Twitter, twitch etc and a kid who wouldn’t be too pressed about NIL deals due to already being the son of a Billionaire. We would sale out basketball games like crazy

Eight ball says “YES”!

Opened at -38 1/2 I believe.

Story on Evan Herrmann in article form

Says Georgia Tech is his leader right now. The former Virginia commit was planning to visit Vanderbilt, but didn't have a date set.

We needed some help today. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a receiver have 247 yards… I didn’t get to see much of the game but my lord…

Post predictions and game-related thoughts below! Go Dores!

in the Mountain West, or AAC, once the decent teams go to Big 12.