A Renaissance in Vanderbilt Football in 2021 and beyond, Dans going off with the bat and glove
Vanderbilt Football in 2021 has new direction under first year coach and former Commodore football player Clark Lea. Lea has an ambitious vision for his program and has me and many other people convinced he can turn this program’s fortunes around and get it back to the program that James Franklin put in place in 2011-13, and even better because Clark is committed to Vanderbilt, unlike Franklin.
He’s hired an excellent staff, the offense was electric in the spring game, the defense has been doing excellent work in fall camp and the strength and conditioning program has really paid dividends for our players. And with the Vandy United plan that has already been implemented into a new, phenomenal locker room with improvements to the stadium, the football operations center, a new indoor facility, 2 more practice fields for football and some major upgrades for Stack and the basketball program, all that’s left now is to have success on the field this fall and going forward. Lea finished off what was a strong 2021 signing class that Coach Mason had initiated. We have some excellent players in this freshmen class and Clark has the 35th ranked class in the 247 rankings for 2022, 11th in the SEC with some more marquee players who could be on their way to West End. I really like what our head man is doing. We have an outstanding young staff that averages 38 years of age with our oldest coach at 43 years old. Like the youth and enthusiasm, but with that comes a lot of coaching experience, some in the college game, some in the NFL. Our coaches are charged up to elevate this program to the highest level it can possibly achieve.
Here’s a look at our 2021 team.
Offense
Quarterback
Ken Seals returns for his sophomore campaign after putting together a pretty solid freshman season even though the team struggled mightily. Seals completed 186-of-288 passes, 65% for 1,928 yards, 12 TDs against 10 interceptions. I know Ken wants to cut down on the ints and increase the 7’s for sure, and with a year of experience under his belt having faced 9 SEC opponents last season (the Georgia game was canceled due to COVID issues on the team), Seals is poised for a big season. But the first thing he has to do is beat out another stellar quarterback, Mike Wright. Mike was only 6-of-10 last season with a TD and an int. But he threw for 2 TDs in the spring game, a 62 yarder to Will Sheppard who made a phenomenal reception. He also connected with the emerging talent Sheppard on a 24 yard TD that Sheppard jumped and reached over our defensive back to pull in. Sheppard also caught a 6 yard TD pass from Seals. Third string quarterback Jeremy Moussa also got into the act completing a 10 yard TD pass to Gavin Schoenwald and then threw a 68 yard TD pass to sophomore Logan Kyle. There were a lot of offensive fireworks in the spring game, but Clark said the defense wasn’t showing much. In the recently completed scrimmage this past Saturday, Seals was 15-of-23 for 147 yards, a TD, 1 fumble lost. Wright was 8-of-16 for 139 yards, 1 TD, and 8 rushes for 48 yards, but the quarterbacks were in no contact jerseys. Moussa is a solid quarterback as well, so the competition is fierce for the starting job. Clark said he might not announce until game week. He wants to keep the competition going. I’m predicting it’ll be Seals, due to his experience, but Wright is so talented and can really run, and has great touch on his throws, so there’s no guarantees Seals will be under center. Could be a 1 and 1A situation. Both players give us a chance to win several games this season, if our running backs, a fairly thin unit, can stay healthy and play well.
Running back
Re’Mahn Davis is a Temple transfer and shows a lot of toughness running the football. He had a 46 yard TD run in the spring game. I’ve very high on Re’Mahn. He only ran for 18 yards in the scrimmage Saturday, but it was reported by Robbie Weinstein of Vandy247, that he was not getting much blocking. The line will have to improve because the running backs we have, if given holes to run in, can excel. I really like Rocko Griffin, who can have a big year for us as well. Rocko played some as a freshman last year and I saw signs of real hard nosed running and breakaway speed. I like our first 2 guys. As you probably know, our top running back from last season, Keyon Henry-Brooks, transferred. He is now at Louisiana Tech. Bit of a blow, but I see Davis and Griffin filling that void quite nicely. We have a little concern over depth issues. We have a couple of guys, freshman Patrick Smith, who had 8 rushes for 25 yards on Saturday. Patrick rushed for 1,719 yards and 16 TDs on an 8-0 Holy Spirit team in New Jersey last season. So he’s a talent. James Ziglor, who was recruited as a defensive back, has moved to running back. In 2020, he had over 1,000 all purpose yards and 10 TDs for Harrison High School in Marietta, GA. As a junior, he accounted for 1,289 all purpose yards and scored 12 TDs, 6 rushing, 5 receiving and a house call on a kickoff return. Dylan Betts-Pauley is our third freshman, and at 5’11”, 225 brings a bruising, physical running style to the offense. Davis is 205, and Griffin is 203. Smith is 180 and Ziglor is 190. We may not have a ton of experience, but we certainly have talent.
Wide receiver
Now this is a loaded part of our football team. We return our 3 leading wide outs from last year in former 4 star Cam Johnson (6’0”, 190, 56 receptions, 545 yards and 3 TDs), Chris Pierce (6’4”, 235, 25 receptions, 371 yards and 5 TDs) and Amir Abdur-Rahman (6’4”, 215, 27, 406, 1 TD). This is a trifecta of terrific talent, that is going to stress out opposing defenses. With Chris and Amir out wide and Cam in the slot or split out wide, we can be electric in the passing game. Our running game will have to be a big factor in our offense as well, but the trifecta out wide is electrifying. Really excited to see our guys play at that position. And very good news to boot, is that our backups are stellar also Will Sheppard is a star in the making at 6’3”, 200. Logan Kyle, at 6’3”, 209, is too. High 3 star freshman Quincy Carter is turning heads in fall practice. Apparently, a tremendous talent who can help us this season. Quincy is 6’1”, 200. Devin Boddie Jr. has tremendous speed on the outside, 6th year player Tyrell Alexander is 6’1”, 195 and transferred to us from OK. State. He’s got talent. Freshman Gamarion Carter is 6”2’, 195, and also has shown talent in fall camp. I like the size, and speed of this group. We have the big 3 and several talented guys behind them.
Tight End
Another position of strength for this football team. Our great senior, Ben Bresnahan, leads the way. Ben is 6’4”, 243 and caught 28 passes for 300 yards and 4 TDs last season. He can catch 50 or 60 balls maybe more for us this year and get it in the end zone 8 or 9 times, even double digits. He’s a weapon and a leader on the team. Fellow senior Gavin Schoenwald is 6’4”, 243, and while he was hurt some last season, he showed immense talent in the spring game. Another big time weapon. Joel DeCoursey, 6’4”, 235, and Justin Ball, 6’6”, 245, are super backups and 6’8”, 280 pound Brayden Bapst is being worked at tight end as well and has shown a lot of talent this fall camp. So another strong position for our team.
O Line
We have tons of experience and excellent size returning up front. They had their struggles Saturday against our defense, but they’ve got almost 3 weeks to figure it out and the size and physicality is clearly there. Kevo Wesley is the starter at center right now. He’s 6’4”, 290. Not a lot of experience and Clark’s been concerned with some snap issues, but Kevo has good talent and can be ready for East Tennessee State on Sept. 4th. He is backed up by Dan Dawkins, 6’3”, 304 and Michael Warden, 6’2”, 286. That position is still up for grabs. Kevo could be the starter, but Dan was a 4 star recruit out of high school, so hoping he can get it going this fall and play a key role, either at center or at guard. Warden has shown some good flashes as well. Senior Bryce Bailey, 6’5”, 304, and senior Cole Clemens, 6’6”, 335, bring major experience and size to their right guard and left guard positions respectively. Sophomore Ben Cox (6’5”, 310), sophomore Jason Brooks, 6’4”, 295, and sophomore Jason Brooks (6”4”, 295) bring good depth to the position. Both Clemens and Bailey sat out last year due to COVID concerns, which was completely understandable, but it’s good to have them back. We still have COVID concerns in this country, but with much of the team being hopefully vaccinated, that’ll help this team play all 12, and optimistically 13 games. At right tackle, sophomore Bradley Ashmore has that position locked down. Ashmore is 6’6”, 290, but probably bigger now. Clark brought Ashmore to the media days because he’s shown so much leadership in the spring and summer. Feel good about Bradley at RT. At left tackle, junior Tyler Steen is the leader. Tyler is 6’5”, 315, so excellent size. Both Ashmore and Steen played a great deal last year in their freshmen seasons. Bapst, senior Jonathan Stewart 6’7”, 340, who was out last year due to COVID concerns but has a lot of experience, and junior Penn State transfer Junior Uzebu (6’6”, 326) will play key roles either in backing those guys up or winning the job at tackle. There are almost 3 weeks to determine the starters on the O Line, so there is constant evaluation.
Defense
D line
Some of the key guys up front are the great Elijah McCallister, 6’6”, 261 at defensive end/outside linebacker. Elijah is immensely talented and can dominate with sacks and tackles for loss. Another key leader is sophomore defensive tackle Daevion Davis, 6’2”, 285. Daevion is poised for a huge year. Daevion was out other representative at Media Days and is a total leader on this football team and can dominate in the middle. Senior Raashaan Wilkins Jr. is a 6’‘3”, 310 pounder who brings size and toughness up front. I’m excited to see 6’5”, 296 former 4 star Malik Langham play, and 6’5’, 318 pound fellow defensive tackle Derek Green. Langham transferred from Florida last season and Green came over from Oklahoma last season. Langham is a junior and Green is a sophomore. Sophomore Alex Williams, 6’6”, 265 is a defensive end who transferred from Ohio State last season and he and sophomore Nate Clifton, 6’5”, 280, bring some added talent to the bookends of the defensive line. Junior Christian James looks like he brings a good mean streak to the line from the looks of the spring game. He’s 6’4”, 275 at defensive end. And junior Lorenza Surgers is 6’5”, 265 at defensive end. Another big body on the outside. We have some talented freshmen in 4 star Marcus Bradley, 6’3”, 275, high 3 star Terion Sugick, 6’2’, 305, Devin Lee, a big pickup on signing day at 6’3’, 277, along with talented edge rusher Jacques Hunter, a 6’4”, 230, more of an outside linebacker type, and a talent from Valdosta, GA.
Linebacker
We run a 4-2-5 defense, with 4 defensive linemen, 2 linebackers, and 5 defensive backs. Anfernee Orji is our leading returning tackler and poised for a breakout season at inside backer. Anfernee is 6’2”, 230. He’s a total stud. Anfernee was a high 3 star by 247 sports and a 4 star by Rivals, and he has tremendous tackling skills and ball hawking skills. Like Anfernee in the middle. He will be backed up by senior Feleti Afemui, 6’3”, 245 and senior Brayden DeVault-Smith, 6’3”, 227. Solid position at an inside LB spot. The other inside spot is led by sophomore Ethan Barr, a 6’3”, 244 talent. Ethan got thrown into the fire as a freshman in 2020 and is a better player for it. Like what we’re getting from Ethan. Former high 4 star Alston Orji will back up Ethan. Alston, like his younger brother Anfernee, is such a talent at 6’2”, 236. He just needs to reach his potential in his senior season. Excited to see if Alston can finally perform up to his talent level. Tommy Eckels is a 6’2”, 225 outside linebacker who had 2 sacks on Saturday. So he could give us some help. We have some talented freshmen in 6’1’, 232 inside linebacker Michael Mincey, who was a big pickup for us on signing day. Also, freshmen Miles Capers, 6’5”, 230, and Errington Truesdell, 6’1”, 224, were talents coming out of high school. They could get some snaps, Mincey particularly. At our new anchor position, 6’4”, 230 pound super sophomore De’Rickey Wright brings his immense talent to that position. De’Rickey had a pick six on Saturday. He lost his mother to cancer last December, so really pulling for our young stud to have a huge year. I’m convinced he will. Such a great player. Senior Michael Owusu, 6’5”, 231, has great talent for the anchor position as well. Jaylen Mahoney, 5’11”, 191 will help us there as well. The Anchor position is a fifth defensive back/linebacker position for us.
Secondary
At cornerback, senior Allan George, 6’1”, 195 and Mahoney, are battling for the starting jobs. Allan had a really nice year in 2019, and after a tough season in 2020 for everybody, he’s poised to breakout. Mahoney brings great speed and athletic ability, and could be a guy we look at in punt and kickoff return. Gabe Jeudy-Lally could very well earn a starting assignment also. He’s been impressive in fall camp and started putting it together last season at the end of the year. Very exciting player. Gabe is 6’1”, 186. Always like that length at corner. B.J. Anderson was hurt all last season but played with George at Andalusia, AL. High School and is a very good talent as well. B.J., a junior, is 6’1”, 195. He could really help us if he’s healthy. Freshman Tyson Russell has been impressive in camp. He’s 5’11’, 180.
At safety, Maxwell Worship is ready to break out this season. When Max blocked a punt his freshman season, I thought he was going to be superb, and I still think he can be. This year is his year to stand out. Another talented safety is Dashaun Jerkins, 6’0”, 200. Both Worship and Jerkins are seniors, so that’s super leadership on the backend. Guys like Justin Harris, 6’1”, 195, and Brendan Harris, 6’1”, 214, a junior and a senior respectively, are excellent talents as well. Justin is playing some at corner too, with his length. Sophomore Chase Lloyd, 6’2”, 203, is another who can help us at safety. John Howse IV, a highly rated freshman at 6’2”, 190, can give us a lift at corner or safety. Really like his length for corner. Awesome athlete.
Our 2022 class is ranked 35th in the country. Caleb Coley is our highest rated player right now at an 88, 3 star corner, but we’ve got a lot of highly ranked 3 stars, and the film on our 19 man class is impressive. We have 2 running backs committed, 2 linebackers, an excellent quarterback in high three star Drew Dickey, 6’1”, 204, a large group of defensive backs, 2 or 3 athletes/receivers, 2 offensive tackles and 3 defensive linemen and a kicker. So it’s an excellent group. We plan on adding to this class. We’re in the lead for a high 3 star offensive tackle from MBA in Nashville and a 4 star linebacker out of Georgia. Some key players to get and, of course, lock in these guys who are committed.
On our quarterbacks’ sizes, Seals is 6’3”, 220, Wright is 6’4”, 190, and Moussa is 6’3”, 225.
Our kicker is Alabama transfer Joseph Bulovas. He was pretty strong for the Crimson Tide most of the time, and I see him being reliable in clutch moments. Pierson Cooke is backing Bulovas up. Cam Johnson can be electric as a punt returner and Allan George is another who can help us there along with Jaylen Mahoney and Devin Boddie. Jr. Will Sheppard and Cam could return kicks. Boddie and Mahoney are other candidates. Not totally clear on kickoff return, but I’ll keep you posted. Punter is Harrison Cooke and he seems reliable, 40+ yard punts with good hang time, can punt teams deep in their territory.
Schedule
All games on Saturdays
Sept. 4th. vs East Tennessee State 7 PM CT ESPN+/SEC Net+
Sept. 11th, @Colorado State, 9 PM CT CBS Sports Network.
Sept. 18th vs. Stanford, 7 PM CT ESPNU
Rest of these times/TV to be determined
Sept. 25th, vs Georgia
Oct. 2nd vs UConn
Oct. 9th @Florida
Oct. 16th @South Carolina
Oct. 23rd, vs. Miss State
Oct. 30th vs. Mizzou
Nov. 6th, Off
Nov. 13th, vs Kentucky
Nov. 20th @ Ole Miss
Nov. 27th, @ Tennessee
Dec. 4th SEC Championship
As far as predicting how we’ll do, I don’t ever want to put a limit on how many games our team can win because as major competitors, they want to win every game. I guess for projections sake, I would say, 6 wins +1 with a bowl victory for 7 wins, or 7 wins +1 bowl victory for 8 wins would be a very solid season. Beyond that would be a spectacular first season for Coach Lea. Getting to a bowl game is a major boost to recruiting and winning a bowl game is even bigger. So it’s very important that we make a bowl game and win it. We have the talent to do that. But we want to win all 12 and take it from there. I know our coaching staff just wants to defeat ETSU right now, so that’s the approach I’ll take as well. But those scenarios above would all be successful seasons. I would stress though that if we get to a bowl game, we need to win it.
I like the makeup of this team, and Coach Lea has assembled a superb staff. Our players are as motivated as I’ve ever seen Vanderbilt teams. They want to win. They’re tired of unsuccessful results. They’re ready to earn several victories this season and going forward. I see that happening under Clark Lea.
Dansby Swanson
Dans is hitting it through the roof right now. In his last 4 games he’s hitting .529 with 4 homers and 10 Ribeyes. His average through 13 games in August is .385. He has 4 homers and 13 Ribbies this month. He is now hitting .265 with 24 homers and 70 RBIs. He’s set the record for home runs by a Braves shortstop. All that while playing spectacular shortstop. Dans has always been a superb defensive player both in college and professionally and now his bat is reverting back to his VU days under Corbs when he was hitting .330-.340 with 20 homer, 60 RBI seasons. Love what I’m seeing out of Dans and his Atlanta Braves. The Braves just finished sweeping the Nationals in D.C. over the weekend and are now 62-56 and in first place in the NL East. They lead the Phillies by a game. The Phillies are 61-57. The Mets are 2 1/2 back at 59-58. The Bravos are 8-2 in their last 10. Losing Ronald Acuna seemed like a major blow to the teams’ chances when it happened. But with the great Freddie Freeman hitting third, the awesome Austin Riley hitting fourth and Dans hitting fifth, the Braves have the most potent 3-4-5 hitting trifecta in Major League Baseball. Ozzie Albies is a stellar leadoff hitter as well. There is a lot of optimism in the ATL right now and with good reason. Dans and his Braves, if the pitching can hold up, particularly in the bullpen, starters are pretty solid, could have a magical season in 2021.
I’ll have more on our MLBers coming up. David Price has been pitching well as a starter for the Dodgers. David pitches tonight. Sonny and Mike MInor have had their moments. Walker Buehler could win the Cy Young this year. He’s spectacular. Bryan Reynolds is hitting .309 with good power numbers for the Pirates. Tony Kemp is doing good work for the excellent Oakland A’s. Yaz and Curt Casali are stellar players on the team with the best record in baseball, the San Francisco Giants at 76-42. So, awesome stuff from our guys. Will keep you more informed on our MLBers. Sorry I hadn’t been in touch as much lately on our pros. Took me a while to get over the CWS championship loss, but back and like the VU team we have returning next season. Really upset about Kumar’s deal with the Mets. Outrageously bad form by the New York Mets. Kumar WILL get another shot in the Majors soon after he does well in the offseason in an Arizona League, somewhere like that. He’s got the tools to be a superstar. Pumped Jack was the second pick by the Rangers. Excited to see Jack compete very soon on the big league level. Both guys gave us so much. Kumar won the national championship for us in 2019. He deserved a much better fate than he got. The Mets will regret the day they did that to Kumar. Hoping Kumar can land with the Braves next season and make the Mets pay for their outlaw behavior. We got some other guys drafted, so, as usual, a lot of our guys to keep up with this season and in the future. It’s something else what Tim Corbin does with our program. Will NEVER take it for granted. Dom Keegen. Tate Kolwyck, and Isaiah Thomas are all coming back. We’ll have Enrique, Javy Vaz, a healthy Carter Young, he was really banged up the last month of the season with his separated shoulder injury, so he’ll be stellar in 2022, and we’ve got some really fine young talent. Our pitchers, starting with Nick Maldonado, who was so good in 2021, Christian Little, Patrick Reilly and others will need to step up. But, we should have a special group next season with a chance to win it all in Omaha.
I’m also ecstatic on what Stack is doing in basketball. His 2021 and 2022 recruiting are and were through the roof good. Maybe one of the biggest stories in Vanderbilt basketball history is the return of Scottie Pippen Jr. Just totally elated that Pipp decided to come back for his junior year as our spectacular point guard. With PIpp leading the way along with the talented and athletic small forward Jordan Wright and tough guard and super shooter Trey Thomas along with some other solid returning players and some new players who are super talented, we can make the tournament and do damage there next season. I expect that to happen. And Stack already has secured 6’9”, 245 5 star center Lee Dort and 6’2’, 4 star point guard Noah Shelby, both out of Greenhill School in Addison, TX, for 2022,. We also have point guard Presley Patterson from Knoxville Catholic High School coming in. I’m sure Presley is an excellent player as well as Stack has a keen eye for under the radar talent as Trey Thomas is a testament to. Trey was a 2 star out of high school and he’s going to play like a high 4 star for us in 2021-22. So I’m really amped up for this season and the future for our basketball program under Stack.
With Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and AD Candice Story Lee’s commitment to our football and basketball programs, those 2 programs can become elite to match our baseball program and our women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse and our terrific men’s golf team under Scott Limbaugh.
Scott has the 2 best freshmen in the country coming into the program in Gordon Sargent and Jackson Van Paris, and the talented William Moll, Harrison Ott, Cole Sherwood and Reid Davenport are all back. So, 2022 promises to be special under Coach Limbaugh.
Women’s Soccer Coach Darren Ambrose has a special group this fall too that can go a long way in the SEC and the National Tournaments.
I like Coach Aleke Tsoubanos to get our women’s tennis program back to national prominence as well. Women’s Lacrosse is a top 25 program.
Will keep you posted on everything VU sports related, fall practice happenings, any commits, and bball and baseball and men’s golf happenings.
John Augenstein shot -8 at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C. on the PGA Tour yesterday to finish tied for 37th. Good paycheck for John and a good experience for him. Brandt and Luke are in the Fed Ex Playoffs and need to play well this week at the Northern Trust to advance to the top 70 at the BMW Championship the following week. The Northern Trust is being played at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, right outside NYC. The BMW Championship will be played at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mill, MD. The Tour Championship will be played at East Lake in Atlanta comprised of the top 30 golfers playing for the coveted Fed Ex Cup and the life changing check that comes with it. Will Gordon is still competing hard on the PGA Tour and his time will come in the near future. Matthias Schwab has played well on the European Tour and is making his mark in global golf. So, great stuff from our golf alums.