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Vanderbilt will open its season by hosting Lipscomb on November 4th.

This is the third year in a row that Shea Ralph has hosted the Bisons.

I have also been told this is an 11 am tipoff game and is the Education Game.

Presented by Sutherland and Belk. Go…

• Pavia looked to be in full control again. The offense, as a whole, looked better than yesterday and I would say won the day. Despite a few offensive line inconsistencies, the offense moved the ball fairly effectively.
• Pavia threw a seed to Eli Stowers for a solid chunk gain that caught my eye. I think today was the best day for Stowers thus far, he honestly hadn't popped much until today. The tight end position continues to impress. Spence made a few grabs for chunk gains from Pavia.
• The Pavia to Sherrill connection continued today. Today was a really solid day for Sherrill, he torched the secondary on several occasions. Between him, Skinner, Spence, Stowers, and Johnson, they may have just enough to be dangerous in the play-action game.
• Nate Johnson was slightly improved today, but still inconsistent for the most part. He did hit Joseph McVay in the red zone on a nice pass and catch.
• McVay is starting to take some strides. Similar to Humphries and Sherrill, he and Tristen Brown could continue the trend of freshman receivers making an immediate impact. They certainly need all the depth they can get in the receiver room.
• Meanwhile, Micah Bell had a pretty nice catch on a decent route in the endzone. I still think he'll be a gadget guy, but if he could develop into a decent route runner, that would be huge. Not saying I expect that, but I do think he's gotten better.
• Xavier Castillo struggled in pass protection today - the offensive line was inconsistent as a whole today. Can’t afford injuries there.
• Christian James was back in action.
• Kolbey Taylor was back.

Off to the side:

• Gabe Fisher
• Jeremiah Dillon
• Grayson Morgan
• Moni Jones

Let me know if you guys have any questions. I'll have more notes after speaking to Coach Klenakis, Steven Hubbard, and Cade McConnell.

The second of our Wolf built in double ovens went kaput. We had quite a few reliability issues through the years, and won’t replace with another wolf. Would appreciate the benefit of your experience / recommendations

No Joey or Chris today so here's my best shot at a report:

• As a whole, the offense looked better than yesterday, but the defense still won the day, from my view.
• Once again, Pavia looked better overall than Nate Johnson in live periods and had a clear command of the offense, just like yesterday. It's pretty clear he's the most accurate QB on the team and throws the most catchable ball. He did throw an early interception, but the receiver fell so it was uncontested.
• One of the highlights was another Pavia touchdown to Cole Spence in the red zone. Spence has emerged as a consistent performer and could even have the biggest role out of all the tight ends.
• Pavia also hit Junior Sherrill for a long touchdown. That connection seems to be getting stronger and stronger. I'm pretty close to calling Sherrill the best receiver on the team. He's starting to stand out more and more.
• Nate Johnson looked inaccurate and out of sync with the receivers today.
• Brock Taylor drilled a 48-yard FG. I think he has the chance the be one of the better kickers Vandy's had in a while.
• Eli Stowers and Tristen Brown performed well in 1-on-1s.
• Tyson Russell made a nice play on Skinner in 1-on-1s.
• Khordae Sydnor was active today.
• Martel Hight made a nice deflection, he's made a couple of noticeable plays in the last couple of practices.
• Bryan Longwell had an interception that was tipped in the air.
• The same guys that were off to the side yesterday were also off to the side today.

Let me know if you guys have any questions.

Contains some good highlight reels of Pavia passing and running. Arm looks a bit stronger than I thought on some of these deep balls. Still not ideal, but serviceable if somebody busts open on a double move.

It sure would be nice if somebody mentioned that Dansby Swanson's wife, Mallory, won US a gold today. She was the only scorer to beat Brazil to win the Olympic soccer

Hard to argue with this logic.

Not sure if others saw this but Chris said that the Vanderbilt Anchor Collective decided to leave and bow out of their agreement to sponsor this site.

To me, a complete bonehead move to not attempt to make inroads with their fanbase on this site. This place has the largest group of Vandy fans anywhere, you’d think they wanted to engage.

Just another example of poor leadership on West End imho.

Our defense:

My biggest concern is can we contain Drones running. Our D practicing against Pavia and Johnson will help, but he's had some monster rushing games at 20+ carries a game. 2 of his last 4 were for 130+ yards albeit against BC and Tulane. Mobile QB's have traditionally burned us in the past.

Va Tech was 1st in conference play rush yards per game, and 2nd in yards per carry. 3 out of their last 6 games rushed for over 300 yards in games. Really need our Dline and linebackers to be stout. Maybe have Taylor spying Drones.

All indications seem that Drones is an adequate but not spectacular passer. But his running threat leads to easy throws. limiting him to that dimension of his game is key. Johnson running scout team against our defense will be good practice at contain for them.

Ironically this is one team where bend don't break might have actually been a good philosophy. Their one glaring weakness seems to be 3rd down conversion percentage, where they were near the bottom of the conference. Alot of their offensive success came from big chunk plays. If we can force them into an obvious passing down we have a good shot.


Our offense:
Tech was number 1 in conference play with lowest YPC against them. Terrible matchup for this offensive system. However they did have trouble early on in the year, specifically vs ODU, a very outmatched but option oriented offense, which indicates they might be susceptible to some early misdirection in obscuring their assignments in run D.

Tech's passing D was middle of the road, 9th in YPA against and QB Rating against in conference play. Pavia has to be the play here as we need his accuracy (even if its just intermediate throws) to prevent a total stacking of the box.

Another area of weakness for their D: Redzone conversion % and TD percentage, and they also struggled a bit on 3rd and less than 3 yards, 12th out of 14 teams in conference. If this offense can stay on schedule and sustain drives (probably this systems greatest strength) there is a decent shot of scoring once we get to the red zone.


I'll most likely continue to post little interesting stat tidbits in this thread as I observe them.

Clark Lea:

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Miles Capers:

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Kam Johnson:

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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.