What time today?

The United States Women's Soccer Team WON GOLD, beating Brazil (1-0) !!!!!!!

That single US goal was scored by Mallory Swanson. Throughout the 2024 Olympics, Mallory has led the US team in goals scored with 4 along with 2 assists. She is a star, but it's far from her first time in the spotlight.

I remember seeing Mallory in the Atlanta Braves dugout after they won the 2021 World Series.
I know she's not a Vanderbilt alumna, but damnit folks I've adopted her as one of ours (since she married VandyBoys royalty).
How cool is the Swanson family: a World Series ring and an OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL !!!!!!!

PS: Mallory wore # 9 not # 7 so I'm going to go play that weird song "Revolution 9" off The Beatles "White Album" to celebrate (#9,#9,#9).
PPS: Coach Darren Ambrose (and maybe ADCSL) need to approach Mallory about a visit with the VU women's team. Soccer season begins Thursday August 15th.

We are allowed to keep scrimmage stats, I’m taking notes and will compile them later.

We’re not gonna do a rapid reaction so we don’t detract from the premium content but Billy and I intend to do a post scrimmage pod with a little analysis. Also taking questions.

Feel free to ask about scrimmage or football as a whole. We’ll answer what we’re allowed to.

-On the quarterback battle; I'd still give Pavia the edge. I think Johnson or Dickey would probably have to visibly outplay him the rest of the way, although there hasn't seemed to be a ton of consistent separation. Think he's a guy that you don't fully know what they've got in until the lights come on. I don't fully buy the "he had a good game against Auburn so he's gonna be good in the SEC" narrative because of his power five games the year before and arm strength, but I do think there's something to be said for an old guy who knows the system and is a proven commodity at this level.

-Their talent at running back is fine, just don't know if they'll be able to open enough lanes. I'll believe they can against SEC teams when I see it.

-Wide receivers, man. That's been a disappointing room thus far. Quincy Skinner has been about as good as I thought, he's made some plays. Junior Sherrill looks a bit better than last year. Not sure if either can shoulder the load. Think there's a chance Cole Spence leads them in receiving. Loic Fouonji can go up and get it but hasn't created separation, not many guys consistently have. Tristen Brown has been good. Not much out of the other transfer receivers. Hoskins may be a good fit for the offense if they're looking at a lot of short/intermediate.

-Tight end is their best position group on offense. May be their best on the roster.

-Offensive line looks better to me. Hard to take a step back from where it was last year. I like Chase Mitchell and Misael Sandoval at tackle, although Sandoval will take his lumps. Not sure which side each will end up on. They have talent there, my concern is still that the defensive lines in the league have a lot more. Maybe Beck can scheme around that.

-Thought it was interesting that Ghaali Muhammed-Langford mentioned that running backs will be asked to run block. Could give you a look at what they may do formationally. I expect that there may be some multiple-back sets as well as a lot of multiple tight end sets, that would be a good use of their personnel.

Listening to it, I appreciate Luke's historical knowledge of VU football going back to the 80s. In comparing this year's offense to the '82 team, I like the comparison and hope it bears out as much as possible. I wasn't a fan of VU that long ago, but have heard a lot about the 1982 Vandy offense. Think Watson was the OC then? Being creative, matching scheme to talent on hand and getting the 11 best on the field even if that means 3 TE sets. Luke's comments about this year's defense are encouraging as well.

Don’t know how to send a screenshot in rivals so here’s the link.

We dropped the ball and had the time wrong. We’ll make up for it tomorrow at the scrimmage. Sorry about that. We did go over there for pressers that will be out shortly plus I’ve got two features in the works.

Tim Beck podcast will come out at 3:00 today.

As I watched the final strike that cemented Tennessee as the national champions in baseball, it solidified something that I've long dreaded. Vanderbilt has nothing it can hold over Tennessee or any other SEC team. We are on the verge of total irrelevance, in every aspect. Football is a dumpster fire, men's basketball is starting over from scratch, and baseball, which was once our golden child, is not even the premier program in Tennessee, let alone college baseball. The only major sport trending up is women's basketball and I don't see us taking the leap to be real contender any time soon. We are in dire straits.
There are some things that can get better, of course. We can get a new football coach if this season proves disastrous again. Mark Byington has excited me so far and could potentially turn things around. Corbin, meanwhile, might finally figure out that college baseball is different than it was pre-NIL/transfer portal and adjust to it (much like Coach K adjusted to the one-and-done era to continue Duke's success in men's basketball). If none of these happen this upcoming season though, I think it will be too late for us to catch back up. College sports are moving fast and right now it seems incredibly unclear whether or not Vanderbilt has the capability to keep up (regardless of our recent influx in NIL money). This upcoming season is make-or-break for Vanderbilt's athletic department. They will either sink or swim. If they sink, I don't feel great about their chances of ever resurfacing.

Hey, this is just the annual reminder that we could very much use sponsors for the coming year. As you may have read in another post, Anchor Impact has dropped its partnership with us, which leaves a big hole in a lot of future plans we had that I don't have an immediate remedy to fill.

We could very much use a content sponsor for football, or anything else right now. If you're interested, please reach out to me at chrislee70@gmail.com. Advertising support is crucial to what we are able to do.

Thanks,

Chris

About 8-9 months ago it was being reported that Vanderbilt had accumulated a war chest for NIL that would be as high as 3rd in the SEC behind Texas and Texas A&M…

Now, @Chris Lee is saying that NIL pool is dried up.

What does that mean?

I think we were all ready to fire Clark Lea then he went to his dad’s wealthy buddies and raised some cash so we assumed he was safe through year 5 because of it. The logic simply being if this guy raised the money and these people believe in Lea enough to give it to him, he at least deserves a couple of years to see if it makes a difference.

Right?

Finding out that there is no more money has to mean Lea’s head is back on the chopping block. Right? If he goes 3-9 or worse, he’s gotta be fired. Right?

I’m just trying to make sense of Chris’ comments that VU’s NIL program is drying up or dried up and how that impacts Clark Lea’s future.

Amazing how just 9 months ago we all thought we were finally able to compete and build teams with money like the other 15 teams in the league and now…. POOF, it’s all gone…

With the season approximately 3 weeks away, it is time to see what everyone is expecting. How many games does VU win in football this season?

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Bat testing before every game night help some, I still think teams will slip illegal bats in games through a dugout stash but I guess it cut down some.

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They better get cranking on that North Endzone Facility….

This isn’t necessarily a question about what you think the AD’s minimal record will be to keep Clark, but what would yours be?

For me, if he goes 3-9 and doesn’t look competitive in the SEC again then they need to move on. That would make him 12-36 (2-30) in 4 years. I think it would take a complete disaster for Vandy to make a move, but curious to hear everyone’s thoughts on this.

Let’s hope for a good season and this discussion doesn’t even matter

I call my thoughts about Vanderbilt football being realistic, but some in here think I'm just being negative.

For the record, everywhere I go, work, friends, etc, think that I'm one of the most positive people they know.

So, I've done some thinking on the matter. Since it’s just in here that I am thought of this way, it's got to be that I've been a Vanderbilt football fan for all of my soon to be 58 years, and it's just taken away any hope I have of my team, or the players on it, having success in football. Having only 4 or 5 winning seasons since 1966 does that to some people. The only ones that I actually remember are the '82, '12, and '13 seasons. I was only 8 in the '74 season.

Anyways, my point by being "negative" about Vanderbilt football is me trying to tell most of you to not fall for the hype that I've fallen for most of my life, that our players and coaches just simply aren't good enough. But, that's not fair to you. A lot of you still want to have hope, even though I believe most of you are smart enough to know what's coming, you just don't want to admit it. I used to be the same way, so, I get it.

Anyway, this is a long winded way of me saying that I will back off of some of the "negativity" in respect to you wanting to be excited for the season.

I hope this season is one we all enjoy! Anchor Down! ⚓️👇

I grew up in the metro Boston area towards the tail end of Drew Bledsoe’s tenure as the Pats starter and I watched the entire Brady era. The Pats have not only fallen off a cliff in qb play but so has the fan base and media with how they evaluate quarterback talent. People who used to appreciate smart football now think Joe FREAKING Milton is good. Oh, how the mighty have fallen 🤦‍♂️

Joe Milton is so bad and lackluster, I wouldn’t even want him as a Vandy quarterback. That’s a low bar and he can’t even meet it. He has no touch. Everything is a fastball. He has no pocket presence and can’t really run. Despite having good talent around him at Michigan and UT, he could not take his game to the next level.

UT kicked his ass to the curb because they were scared he would lose against Iowa. An Iowa team who threw for 60 yards against those toolbags in Orange. 60! But I forgot, he can throw an orange over 100 yards! Because everyone knows you can play qb if you can chuck fruit…

Stupidity like this is why I tune into the Plaster Show when Boston media guys talk about college ball. Sports talk shows in Boston don’t know jack s*** about college football. And now the radio waves will be filled for the next week with jackasses praising this loser who used to wear puke orange. Just brutal

Anyone watch the Colorado vs Nevada game and recognize the uniforms? Nevada is wearing their leagues version of the VandyBoys Sunday unis.

Playing game now. Actual VU ratings....

Overall: 77
Offense: 71
Defense: 74