Football Thursday's spring practice report

Chris Lee · Mar 2, 2023

I got to catch about half of practice today. It was in shells and there was a good amount of 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 scrimmage work. Here is what I saw.

OFFENSE
Here’s my stab at a first-team depth chart. Full disclosure—this is my opinion based about 85% on what I’m seeing and 15% gut feeling. So, if you snuck a glimpse of practice the last two days and are thinking, “Wait! But I saw this guy running first team yesterday and he’s not on your list!” Then my response would be “It’s spring practice and you see a lot of mixing and matching.
I have an idea of the second team but it’s not fully-formed and there’s more rotating there and so I’d rather wait another practice or two rather than get it wrong.
Anyway…

QB AJ Swann
RB Patrick Smith
WR Will Sheppard
WR Quincy Skinner
WR Jayden McGowan
TE Cole Spence
LT Gunnar Hansen
LG Delfin Xavier Castillo
C Julian Hernandez
RG Bradley Ashmore
RT Junior Uzebu

If I were to replace one guy, it might be McGowan with WR Gamarion Carter. I can’t recall seeing McGowan out there but I didn’t try to verify that either; his name came up in conversation post-practice and it occurred to me that I hadn’t noticed him doing anything the first two practices and that’s unusual. Carter had a nice catch or two today for long gains (one from QB Drew Dickey) and McGowan had some ball security issues last year. So, way-too-early observation but that’s something I’ll watch.
Backup QB Ken Seals threw the ball pretty well today when I saw him.
TE Logan Kyle made a long play or two. Tight ends coach Justin Lustig said they’re trying to get him to 225 and he’s not there yet (he said he was 223) but that it appears he’s not lost speed. So I’m interested to see what kind of role he could have as a pass-catcher.
For whatever it’s worth, they’ve developed a nice corps of walk-on wideouts, which includes Landon Wells, Richie Hoskins, Hutch Baird and Wilson Long, with Hoskins and Long looking like the top two in the group. I’m not saying any of these guys are going to do huge things, but I’ve seen scholarship wide receivers here worse than Long, for sure. The bigger point of importance here is that they are trying hard to improve their walk-on program, which is important because it gives you more competitive practices and also prevents you from grabbing a random person on campus to fill a big role late in the season, not that this would ever happen.

DEFENSE
My crack at starters:
Star Darren Agu
DT Daevion Davis
DT Christian James
DE Nate Clifton
LB Kane Patterson
LB Ethan Barr
Anc CJ Taylor
CB Ja’Dais Richard
CB BJ Anderson
FS De’Rickey Wright
SS Jaylen Mahoney

I did see Davis out there for a spell today, I’d noted on Tuesday that I didn’t remember seeing him getting any snaps.
Defensive highlight of the day: S Marlen Sewell picked QB Walter Taylor and it’s probably a pick-6 if it plays out.
LB Nick Rinaldi is a true linebacker now. Rinaldi played the star position last year. If you recall last year, Rinaldi was a tremendous athlete who started playing HS football as a senior and was a star immediately. He walked on to Vanderbilt and was actually getting defensive reps in spots of SEC games that were still in doubt last year, which is pretty tremendous for a walk-on with a year of experience. They really love him and his work ethic and he’ll be a big help on special teams.
Stanford transfer Aeneas DiCosmo is getting some reps at the star spot. I’m not sure how much the’ll want Taylor off the field but I think he’ll get some time.
BJ Diakate, who played some at anchor last year and is still in that role, has been sidelined though I can’t spot anything that looks serious and it could be load management.
Vanderbilt is listing Agu as just “DE” and so my assumption that he’s in the “anchor” spot could be wrong. They list several other guys at LB/DE, which is how they code that on the roster. I’ll see if I can follow up here.

This and that

Former Vandy/NFL offensive linemen Will Holden and Chris Williams were there. Holden was there Monday and I’ve seen Williams around a lot since Clark Lea has been the coach.
Today’s post-practice speaker was David Cutcliffe, the former Ole Miss and Duke coach who now works for the SEC. He’s a liaison between the conference office and the coaches, and, as someone from the school said to me, seems to understand the value that Vanderbilt can add to the league by being good. He got a nice ovation and spoke with a player or two afterwards.
There’s another practice on Saturday but it will not be a scrimmage. It’s the same time as the baseball game with a ranked Maryland team and I’ll be covering the baseball game instead. I’ve tried to see if I can get someone to go in my place but no luck so far.

godores94 · Mar 2, 2023