Hey gang!! Our league auto-renewed this year, with the following teams. If you all do or don't want to play again please let me know either way. New spots will be first come/first serve. I'll make the deadline, Thursday September 1st. Draft will be Sunday or Monday September 4 or 5 around 7:30 or so, give me input as to which you prefer.

"The Anchor of Gold" @cmoore83
"Derek Mason's Shoes"
"Susan Wente's Hawg" @kt4dores
"Captain Spaulding" @conluk
"Mt. Pleasant Dores"
"The Smokin' Jays"
"Marauders"
"KOOZIES"
"Kisslamed"
"Fighting Scotsman" @glh4vu
"The Slingers"
"Cousin Greg"

We'll start with some visitor feedback. Beginning with one of Vanderbilt newest 2023 targets who was on campus for an unofficial yesterday for the game.

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"Vanderbilt was great," Foster noted. "The hospitality, campus, facilities and etc are great. Definitely in my top schools. I can see myself playing here one day and helping them continue building the program."

Commodores are his first power five offer. Foster also has offers from Marshall, Army, Navy, and others. He plays both sides of the ball for his high school, but Vandy is recruiting him as a safety.

Foster says he plans to return to Vanderbilt again later this season. He also noted that Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, Troy, and UAB are some other programs that have started following him and expressing some interest.

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I love standards and accountability. I love winning more.

I get whatever Smith did was worth some suspension. I also feel like not having him available hurts this team. He needs to be playing and suffer some other way. There's more than one way to make a point. Unsuspend him already.

the first 2 games were not going to tell us much. Wake should be a good indicator of where this team is.

More from kicker commit Brock Taylor. His thoughts on Vandy’s 2-0 start and recapping his recruiting process with the Commodores

Down 2 TDs to Florida State. Shocking a Brian Kelly team would disappoint in a big game.

I don’t know if Davis , Lee, Ouatara and company will be better, but we need help there in the worst way. We can’t rush from the edge and we can’t get penetration and plug the gaps.

I don’t know who Seabass is (sorry, Seabass—I left Tennessee after I graduated), but he is an excellent guest. I’ve really enjoyed the casts with him, as well as the ones with Corey and Will They are equally insightful and entertaining in different ways. Great job and thanks also to the excellent sponsors!

Go ahead and take the over 61! A lot of points scored next weekend! Vandy will score 28 by themselves

First of all, we are 2-0. That's great!

Unfortunately, last night's performance against Elon showed that most of last years problems are still around, primarily defensively. Western Kentucky beat Hawaii 49-17, so you can see just how awful Hawaii is and that you can't take anything away from that game.

Against Elon, we had no pass rush, our corners couldn't cover freaking Elon's receivers, and apparently with the game on the line, the offense stalled, all of this against a high school team.

Yeah, I hear some of you talk about the injuries. Should those really matter against Elon? Nope. They didn't matter in getting leads of 21-0 and 35-10. But, since they cut the lead to 4 points and 11 for the final score, now the injuries are an excuse? It shouldn't matter against the second worse team on our schedule.

Lea, as we all know, has his hands full. Hawaii made us think great progress had been made in the off season, and offensively, maybe we have. Defensively, this team is going to get destroyed from here on out. If Elon can score 32 on our defense, well, you can see the future, and it isn't pretty.

Is it possible that Lea and his staff have been holding some things back, playcalling wise, to not show anything for Wake? Yep, it's possible. For our sake, we had better hope so, or we just saw our last W this season.

Here's the official thread for pre-game, in-game and post-game thoughts.

I like the new coaching staff they seem to have a lot more fire on the sidelines and even Coach Lea seem to get fired up.

Can't judge the new PA guy when you couldn't even hear him.

We were up 21-0 in the first quarter. I stopped paying attention.

Now I look, and Elon has 2nd and goal down 11.....

I guess we aren't as good as we thought.

How freaking bad is Hawaii??

Vanderbilt Commodores

Departed or expected to depart: Scotty Pippen Jr., (20.4 PPG), Rodney Chatman (7.8 PPG), Jamaine Mann (4.6 PPG), Peyton Daniels (3.0 PPG), Shane Dezonie (2.4 PPG), Drew Weikert (2.2 PPG), Terren Frank (2.1 PPG), Gabe Dorsey (0.7 PPG)
Expected to return: Jordan Wright (12.3 PPG), Myles Stute (8.5 PPG), Liam Robbins (6.8 PPG), Trey Thomas (5.8 PPG), Quentin Millora-Brown (5.3 PPG), Tyrin Lawrence (3.8 PPG)
Newcomers: Lee Dort (four-star), Noah Shelby (four-star), Colin Smith (four-star), Malik Dia (four-star), Paul Lewis (three-star), Ezra Manjon (15.0 PPG at UC Davis), Emmanuel Ansong (11.0 PPG at Green Bay)

Second-half defensive struggles, did it feel like they won that game?
We know how hard winning is, we won’t miss an opportunity to celebrate
But they didn’t find their highest level as a team
“There’s a lot of learning in this game.”
They had opportunities to separate
They did a good job at the last of the first half and the first of the second half
Elon’s WRs did a good job on a couple of TD grabs
Last week they synched all 3 phases and tonight they didn’t
But they love learning from good results and the team fought for that.

Evaluation of Mike tonight
Set a school record for touchdowns
He’s a playmaker
He wants him to find more consistency
It’s about capitalizing on all the plays
They love he’s on their side
“As he goes, we go on offense. There were times he was magnificent.”
Wants to see the chemistry build between he and Sheppard

Asked about being able to rotate players and why they stuck with BJ Anderson
When a guy’s not capable, they pull him out
He expressed the disappointment to the staff
They have good young players ready to contribute
Right when they could have separated, they left their starters in and thinks they wore down
Said Anderson doesn’t commit PI’s like that in practice and part of that is the wear and tear of the game
He’s a good player, they have to position him better than they did tonight


What was the issue with the passing defense?
Elon found space, Vandy had breakdowns, then Elon made plays
Their margins are so small
On the Wright TD, they didn’t play half-field at depth
There was a double-move and a contested catch and he thought the Vandy DB had the pick
They lost their technique and played out of character

The two fourth-down run stops
They were huge
They’re still disappointed but those plays are reflective of grit and determination
As hard and frustrating as the 4th quarter was, those guys dug in and made stops
They want to not be in those situations
Was happy the defense stepped up and kept more points off the board

What happened on the onside kick?
Sheppard went up and got it but has to come down with it
He took a shot and the ball came loose
They recovered it before it went out of bounds
There may have been a chance to grab it earlier
If the ball gets to Sheppard they feel good about it
Chance for improvement
To miss there and come out with a positive result is a great chance to grow

Asked about Mike getting hit late a few times
He’ll fight for his team and players
He didn’t think there was bad intent there but they have to stand up for each other
They can’t afford to not put their best in the best possible situations and that means Mike running the ball
The inability to separate is frustrating and they need to create distance but that wasn’t the case tonight, they needed their best at the end and Mike continued to fight in put himself in that situation

Asked about having a chance to be 3-0 if they beat Wake
Wake is a standard-bearer, he and Dave Clawson are friends
It’ll be fun to compete against them
They’ll have to get healthy
They have to grow a lot
They left too much on the field

How optimistic are they that they can get some guys back next week
Some will be available and some won’t
They’ll know more tomorrow
A few guys were “right on the fringe of being able to play” and they didn’t want to put them in a bad spot
Some guys are longer-term

What did he tell the team between 3rd and 4th quarter when they huddled?
He wanted them to know the magnitude of the situation and where they were
There’s a lot of game left to play
Inspired them to stay in the fight and play with total effort
You could argue the results were mixed
They have to find consistency
Leaving the locker room, they were in lockstep. They see things the same. There were a lot of congratulations but also knowledge they have a long way to go.
They felt great about putting distance between them and Hawaii
They didn’t do that tonight but they’ll learn from that.
“The truth always lies somewhere in between.”

A team improves the most between week one to week two. Wakes offense is going to pull a Hawaii on us. Was Bobby Johnson up in the coaches box because I have seen that defense before. Davis and Lee coming back but until the figure out how to stop a 3 step drop? Luckily the offense put up 42.

And not in a good way. Dude is dumpster juice. Please send his ass back to Charlottesville. He made literally zero adjustments during the game. Fire his ass now.

Always flip on Wyoming when they are playing. Love their color scheme and logo.

Facilities are super nice, continues to put into perspective how far behind we are.

Tennessee took 23 seconds to go up 7-0 on Ball State.

Missouri and Louisiana Tech tonight at 7 Central also.

Why is it, no matter who the Head Coach is or who the defensive coordinator is, or who the players are Vanderbilt defense makes an average to below average quarterback look like an all-American? How many times has a fourth sting QB come off the party deck at the fraternity house and lead his team to victory over us? Elon’s QB duo picked us apart and they will be an average to below average team in the Colonial Athletic Association. It is so frustrating to watch it happen over and over, year after year. Thank goodness they made some boneheaded play calls at the end of the game to give us the victory.

Great- the Oline looked on the same page. I can’t recall one noticeable miscommunication. Hawaii never looked dominate, and rarely won individual match ups. Can you say that at any point last year? I don’t think so. That’s major progress.

Good- The linebackers/ back 7 filled gaps fairly consistently. At no point last year could you say that. They played with some anger and got some big hits on the ball carriers.

Concerning- when Hawaii was fresh and able to be balanced, they won a lot of battles in the trenches against the DL. The DL did not look good the first 20 mins of the game.

Great- R Davis looked as advertised. He was explosive with his movements and if I was a new fan I would have no idea he had a foot injury last year. Very good news.

Good- The freshmen were impactful on special teams. And that is what we need so starters don’t have to waste energy because of horrible depth. Langston Patterson had two tackles I believe. One I know was solo.

concerning- The secondary playing 12 yards off the WRs. Derek Mason shed a tear last night watching the alignment, and seeing it work at times. But Lordy do I hate it. I know giving up the big play is the major concern but getting popped for 5-7 yards a play drives me insane.

Great- Turnovers and sacks. Sure it’s a bad team but Vandy played bad teams last year and outside of the occasional interception, there wasn’t much excitement on defense. The fact that two of the turnovers were simply caused by monster hits is the type of energy this team needs. Any kind of pressure on the QB is an improvement over last year. No matter the opponent.

Good- Vanderbilts version of the military academy offense worked. Wright kept the defense on their heels, and allowed the sideline to sideline plays to open up. Will this work against better teams? If Wright can average 4-5 yards a run, I think it will. His speed is a concern. And if it works against lower tier SeC teams and the remaining NonCon teams, it’s a successful offense. It’s a military academy type offense. There is no denying it. You run a lot to set up a chunk play pass. It worked one time last night with Wright using the Jet sweep to set up a wide open TE “deep” ball. It wasn’t a pretty throw, but it got there.

concerning- 3rd and 4th down play calling. It was rough. Particularly 4th down. 5-11 on 3rd and 1-5 on 4th. But the early 4th down attempts were atrocious. I’m not sure what Lynch was trying to do but he needs to spend the flight home rethinking his approach.

great- the kicking game. Punting/kickoff/FG all looked competent. Considering we give scholarships for the positions that should be expected.

good-coaching. Overall I was happy with coaching and the energy. It was hard to see how it looked throughout the game but the coaches looked engaged when the team got punched in the mouth early. They made the adjustments needed on offense after the rough start. IE- let the big boys eat. They got rid of the pants last year that only went down 3/4 of their legs it appears. The polos looked atrocious. They will need to re-evaluate that. They effectively got the young players in. Didn’t love how long Wright/starters stayed in during the 3rd quarter but I guess with no preseason, you want to get live reps. 8.5/10.

The bad- It shouldn’t be controversial to say- the passing game is terrible. Wright throws falling back no matter the situation. And it sucks because I really think this skill unit is good. The TE have good hands, and the WR were creating separation. the Oline from the start looked good in pass pro. But if it’s not a screen or within 1 yard of the line of scrimmage, I don’t think they will have any consistency. Can Wright throw a lob? Sure. But that is a risky play every time it’s in the air. Wright got incredibly lucky it wasn’t 14-0 after a brick handed Hawaii player dropped a sure pick 6. Wright showed the offense can be efficient without a pass game. But it’s going to draw a lot of comments in the game threads when Vu has to pass the ball.

overall- any win is a good win for this team. James Franklin rightly celebrated like it was the super bowl no matter the opponent. It’s a big deal for VU. Soak it in. Don’t come in flat against Elon. And I can not wait for the wake game. That will show us a lot more about what to expect going forward. No, we are not likely to win a couple SEC games, but they could at least be entertaining with the potential to finally end the losing streak. 4-0 to start the season. You heard it hear first a month ago. And I remember the wake bet I made.