Just saw our former WR commit Dorian Williams is now at Ohio St as a walk-on.

@Sean_Williams , @Billy Derrick , What is the story there?

I've been looking at a few games of NMSU's 2023 season. I'm no expert, just an interested fan. I'd like to make a few comments about the NMSU offense after watching a limited amount of play. Maybe some knowledgeable coaches or fans can add to this assessment.

Comments:

• I'm not sure what I would call this offense. It's primarily a spread offense with a lot of option--and a lot of passing. There is misdirection, eye candy, and distribution to many different playmakers. Coach Beck attacks the whole field, both vertically and horizontally. A defender has nowhere to hide.
• With Pavia at QB, at least, Beck's offense generates many explosive plays--both in the air and on the ground. Maybe fans shouldn't step out for a hotdog when we have the ball. They might miss a big play!
• Someone with more technical expertise would have to confirm this, but my observation is that Beck is not locked into any particular formation or play series. He appears to have several that he prefers, but he doesn't seem particularly predictable. I think the best way to predict what he will do is for a DC to line up in a certain way to try to influence Beck to run the plays he likes to use against particular defenses.
• I don't know that SEC teams will typically run unsound defenses. However, it looks to me that Beck will make an unsound defense pay dearly. Coach Beck may be 60 years old, but he seems to have great expertise in taking advantage of a defense's weaknesses. He can make the defense look silly.
• I've changed my mind about Pavia. I knew he was supposed to be good. I think he is even better than good. He's creative, tough, a winner, and a leader. I really don't see how he could not start next season if he's physically ready.
• The other side of this is that I really, really hope that Nate Johnson quickly picks up this offense. Though I expect Pavia to start, I think Johnson could in time turn on his electric play in Beck's offense and light up the scoreboard. Pavia is savvy, etc. He knows how to make the right decisions in the offense. Sometimes the "Red Sea splits” in the middle of the line. If Pavia can take it to the house sometimes when this happens, maybe Nate can do it even more.

P.S. A couple of further comments:

(1) Beck can keep it powerfully simple. If the opposing secondary drops a defender far off a receiver, Beck sometimes spreads the field and has Pavia quickly toss the ball to that receiver. If they give the offense an easy six or seven yards, he’ll take it. No need to use Mason’s “impose your will” approach.

(2) On one midrange TD pass, NMSU lined up in a shotgun “full house backfield” with a wide receiver to each side. Using maximum protection coupled with single coverage, Pavia threaded the needle to one of the receivers who ran a simple post route for the touchdown. Pitch and catch. I assume Beck spotted a mismatch. Why make something complicated and difficult?

WATCH:

Login to view embedded media
LISTEN:

Login to view embedded media

D1 Baseball already has the top 100 college players ranked for next year’s draft. A lot are from the SEC.
UT - 8
LSU - 6
A&M - 5
Georgia- 4
Arky - 3
Auburn-3
Florida - 2
Vanderbilt - 2

Vandy at No. 18

Login to view embedded media

Clark is the 5th highest.

Login to view embedded media

College baseball has reportedly settled at a permissible 34 full scholarships as part of the settlement in the House vs. NCAA case. Source D1 Baseball.

Understandably, no mention of VU in this "100 Days to Go Before the Season Starts) article other than the "indirect" connection to these two coaches:

Dusty May, Michigan Wolverines: After a historic Final Four run with Florida Atlantic in 2023, May was a top candidate for coaching vacancies in that offseason but stayed in Boca Raton -- as did the bulk of that team -- for another run. He now replaces Fab Five member Juwan Howard at Michigan, and will attempt to reboot a program that won just eight games in last season and now has more league competition with the addition of four former Pac-12 schools.

Danny Sprinkle, Washington Huskies: After winning the Mountain West in his first and only season at Utah State, Sprinkle heads west for his, and Washington's, first season in the Big Ten. He has enjoyed a remarkable career to date, winning coach of the year in both the Mountain West and the Big Sky in the past three years. His rebuild process was anchored by star Great Osobor, whom he's coached at both Utah State and Montana State.

A look across the country here:

Login to view embedded media
Vandy just recently offered back on July 4th

Login to view embedded media

If Clark Lea's Media Day performance was milquetoast, what are we calling this?
Login to view embedded media

My son is 4 games into his Vandy dynasty, and half the team is transferring.

This game is going to be more difficult than the Elden Ring DLC.

Four-star Danielle Osho has included Vanderbilt in her Top 6.

The 6-foot-1 guard is the 34th best player in the Class of 2025.
Login to view embedded media

...will be held on Saturday, August 24th from 2-4pm inside the Indoor Facility:

I’ve asked this a few times and if somebody gave me an answer, I missed it so forgive me if that’s the case.

We are 2 or 3 years into this project (Vandy United), and I still haven’t heard what the plan is for the majority of the football stadium.

Bathrooms, vending, seating? For the 28,000 or so who sit in the bleachers and have the worst fan experience in the country (or one of), what is the plan?

Have they announced it?

Are they going to just leave us hanging?

Has anybody heard anything?

I’ve told this story before but my wife had to miss a little more than 1/4 of the Vandy - Bama game because she had to go to the bathroom and she declared she would never come back. She’s been true to her word since then but I grabbed 2 season tickets this year and may try to trick her into going but am worried it’ll be the same experience for us as it was then.

From his instagram story on Saturday, Diego Pavia seems to be making his presence felt in Nashville. He was out at the Barstool Nashville bar with Gunnar Hansen (and possibly other members of the o line).

Also seen in the video were a Bottle Girl with a sign that said “QB1 @ Vandy” on it or something to that effect.

I like Pavia’s swagger and smart quarterbacks take care of their o line. Hopefully that can translate to some more on field success for a program that definitely needs it.

. Cubs: Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS (Calif.)
The Vanderbilt recruit is the best prep arm in the class and gives high school powerhouse Corona HS two potential first-rounders. The 6-foot-4 Hernandez has three quality pitches with a smooth and clean delivery, showing off a mid-90s fastball, a very good changeup and good feel to spin a breaking ball.

I was kind of hopeful about seeing an improvement in all of the major sports until reading some comments made by Chris Lee. I don't disagree with or question anything Chris said and that is why I am no longer very optimistic about any improvement. By improvement, I mean reaching a level of being a true competitor on the SEC level. In baseball, it would mean a return to a level of excellence in the SEC. These are my observations:
1. Does Vandy really have the NIL resources available to compete? And if it does, does it make much difference due to other factors such a history of losing, academic expectations, others?
2. If indeed, Vandy is getting commitments from C's instead of A's and B's, over a period of time, can it ever compete on an SEC level or simply have that one good year when things go right, and the team over-achieves?
3. With players sometimes being so well-compensated, is it reasonable to expect them to attend class if they have no real interest in doing so? Not just at Vanderbilt. We know Vanderbilt will always require this and rightly so. But is it time for the NCAA to admit that these athletes are being admitted to school to play not necessarily to receive a degree.
4. However, it does not matter whether I am full of optimism or feel there is very little hope, I will be there every game cheering for the Black and Gold, expecting (or at least hoping) to win. Anchor Down.

Even though SPJ is entering his third pro season, he is still playing in the summer league. Most of his playing time came during the grizzlies historic injury riddled season last year. He did well with his opportunities as the starting PG. This summer league though, he has established that he belongs in the NBA.

Through Summer league, SPJ has avg 20ppg/5reb/8.2ast/3.2stls and recorded the 6th ever triple double in a SL game last night. He is 5-0 in Vegas and has winning point differential of 11.6. He was robbed of SL MVP but did make the Summer league All star team. Tonight at 7 central he will carry the Grizzlies through the Summer league Championship game.

He’s done enough for an nba contract and a role as the backup PG over Derrick Rose in my opinion.

Strolling to the park today and they were having a city tournament. 2k cash prize so it was all d1 players or former d1 players . One dude was absolutely dominating the in the semis . Asked around it was Dylan Charrap, 5 star recruit for vandy . Pretty cool to see this randomly at the park next to my house where I walk my baby to play everyday !

I've been struggling a bit with what to say here, because there are confidences to protect and things to verify that may be tough to verify, and those sorts of things.

And I also don't want to be the dummy that throws something out there, and then everyone gets their hopes up if I find out something is not correct, and then be responsible for all that. God knows you guys have suffered enough from that and I don't want to be responsible for more of it.

And God knows I've had "the right people" tell me plenty of things in my earlier years that never came to fruition, even things that were "guaranteed." And in hindsight it was all, as someone who knows how these things go. "always a shell game." And that's left a mark on me too.

And because of that, there's been a lot of "should I post my thoughts or not?" kind of thinking where I toggle between posting something or not posting something.

That said, I have been hearing from multiple places that Vanderbilt's NIL efforts have taken off in ways I would have never anticipated. On Friday, I got a figure of about $5-6 million for football that I feel, based on where I got it, is pretty accurate.

Today I have been hearing that it's taken off substantially from there and that was just three days ago. I would prefer not to quote numbers so that I don't have to walk something back that was wrong but Friday's number was already in a decent place, and a lot further along than where they were even a few weeks ago.

I'll try to do a little more digging tomorrow and find out if what I heard was in the ballpark. I have a place I can go for that but out of respect I'll not make that phone call or phone calls at this hour tonight.

Clark Lea had a way he wanted to build the program, he's spent years contemplating how to build it and then the world changed beneath his feet as soon as he got the job. While the rest of the world was figuring out NIL he was busy dealing with the damage left behind from 2020 and just trying to restore sanity and mental health. And at Vanderbilt that's just so much to bite off at once.

Add in a losing tradition and everything else that comes with it, and you get what you get. And I'm not saying Clark didn't make mistakes or mishandle things, because he did. But the weight of what he has to deal with can crush anybody, and the climate of college football goes totally against what he's trying to do, but I think that hit them squarely in the face this year and it's forced philosophical changes.

I hope the game changes because I think it's in an awful place, but until it does, you have to do what you have to do to win. And he knows that.

And I think more importantly, enough of the right people feel confident in saying that the people that need to "get it," get it.

And I think they now have enough to where, if someone's concern is, "Well, why should I throw my money into this if there won't be enough to make a difference," there's enough there where that shouldn't be a factor. And it's easier to raise more once you get to that point.

There are going to be challenge even if they get the resources other SEC schools have because you have the element of class and admissions and those things, and I do wonder how many of these players, when they're making so much money, have that kind of mindset.

But they've also lost a lot of players who could do the work because, who wants to come get their brains beat in on Saturday when they could be on the other sideline? And in the past, any message was drowned out because, no matter how much Vanderbilt wanted to say it was committed, the facilities told a different story. And there was nothing anyone on staff could do about it.

But you fund enough NIL.... well, people can say what you want but the money talks. And it puts a lot of stuff on the table that wasn't there before. And if it doesn't work out with this staff, word will get around in the coaching community and it's a more attractive job to the next time.

And it's something that can be controlled out of the reach of the school, which is the part that I think makes this different.

This isn't going to be easy no matter what, but for the first time in a while, I think there are indications they might have a chance. The next couple of months will tell us a lot.