Vanderbilt started spring practice this morning around 8. Everything was open and here’s a report on what’s notable.
Vanderbilt’s policies of day-by-day reporting on depth charts, and reporting on injuries before the school gets those out there remain. Other than that, most everything is fair game.
Full disclosure—I spent a lot of time trying to see who was where and what’s different, who stands where in the pecking order. I’ll probably need another day of that just to make sure I’ve got that right in my notes and that sometimes takes away from seeing who did what. I also missed the first 30 minutes thanks to a traffic jam.
Anyway…
What’s changed
Today was mostly drills and 7-on-7 skeleton work, but a few guys did some things of note:
Vanderbilt’s policies of day-by-day reporting on depth charts, and reporting on injuries before the school gets those out there remain. Other than that, most everything is fair game.
Full disclosure—I spent a lot of time trying to see who was where and what’s different, who stands where in the pecking order. I’ll probably need another day of that just to make sure I’ve got that right in my notes and that sometimes takes away from seeing who did what. I also missed the first 30 minutes thanks to a traffic jam.
Anyway…
What’s changed
- Logan Kyle has moved from wide receiver to tight end.
- Ben Cox, who has started several games along the offensive line, has taken medial retirement.
- De’Rickey Wright is now strictly a safety and so is Jaylen Mahoney.
- I was told that several heights and weights had changed, that would require a deeper dive against past reported heights and weights that I don’t have the time to undertake right now. But they are reflected at the roster on VUCommodores.com, I’m told.
Today was mostly drills and 7-on-7 skeleton work, but a few guys did some things of note:
- WR Quincy Skinner had a couple of nice TD catches in 7-on-7 work, at least one of which came from QB Drew Dickey.
- WR Wilson Long had probably the longest catch of the day, that also going for a TD.
- WR Richie Hoskins also had one of the day’s better catches, that also going for a TD.
- S Marlen Sewell had a nice pick and added a short return after it.
- They don’t have any scholarship kickers in camp, so, that leaves Will Faris as the best option for now.
- I did spot early enrollees—LB Ethan Crisp, RB Sedrick Alexander—out there getting a little time.
- DL Miles Capers (recovering from surgery—present but not doing much that I saw)
- DL Bradley Mann (recovering from surgery—present but not doing much that I saw)
- WR Will Sheppard (load management)
- DB/LB CJ Taylor load management)
- TE Justin Ball (not sure if it’s load management or injury-related, I didn’t see anything to indicate injury)
- DL Yilanan Outtara (not sure if it’s load management or injury-related, I didn’t see anything to indicate injury)
- I’m pretty sure there were others but those are the ones I noticed. Will follow up more with this one on Thursday. After some reflection, I don't recall seeing DL Daevion Davis or DL Devin Lee participating. I'd have probably noticed if they did. I may be wrong there but it's something for me to watch next time.
- Former players Will Holden and Oren Burks were present.
- There was talk from players and also coach Clark Lea of a bowl game. I don’t recall this being discussed the past two years but clearly this is a goal and they are not shy about discussing it. This means absolutely nothing but fans want to know these things, and there is a very clear sense of optimism prevalent between the way the team progressed at season’s end, facilities coming, etc.
