Clark leads his charges versus Kentucky Saturday at 2:30 P.M. Central on ESPN. (Photo courtesy of USA Today).

Our Vanderbilt Football team heads into a massive contest versus the Kentucky Wildcats Saturday at 2:30 P.M. CT on ESPN at the great First Bank Stadium on the West End.

Clark, Diego and our 14th ranked football team (College Football Playoff Rankings) are now 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the SEC and we get a shot to enhance our chances at the College Football Playoff with a victory over a highly improved Mark Stoops’ Kentucky team. We are an 8 1/2 point favorite. I’m expecting a close game against a team with a young, very much improving QB and a couple of stellar running backs. But I believe in our guys. Diego, Eli, Junior, Seddy and company need to have strong games and our defense needs to return to its earlier season form, which I expect it to after a bye week and a chance for Clark and DC Steve Gregory to improve our group for its final two games. Excited to see the fellas go at it Saturday. I’ll try to elaborate more on Monday. What a season it’s been for Clark and the team and there’s a lot left to play for with the playoff squarely in our sights. Just need to take care of business against Kentucky and our goals will still be in front of us. I hope our super Athletics Director, Candice Storey Lee, can sign Clark to a 15-20 year contract and keep him in Nashville for the duration of his career. Got to have Clark. We’ve got three, 4 star commits and several high three stars for the 2026 class-signing day is Wednesday, December 3rd, and we’re in it for 5 star quarterback and Georgia commit Jared Curtis from Nashville Christian School in his hometown of Nashville, TN. There’s some serious talk of Jared de-committing from Georgia and signing to play for Clark and the Dores. That would be a coup of all time in Vanderbilt Athletics. Will keep you posted. Quarterback Michael Mitchell Jr. has de-committed from VU, which I hate to see, but it could mean that we have a good shot with Jared. Hate to lose a quarterback commit, or any commit for that matter, but will keep you posted on how things progress with Jared. Gotta take care of business tomorrow at FirstBank though, and stay very much alive in this Playoff hunt.

Mark and the Men’s Bball team with another 100+ point game in a 109-74 victory over Texas Southern. That was our fourth 100 point+ game in a row. Our three great returning players, Tyler Tanner (20 points, 7 assists), Tyler Nickel (20 points, 5 rebounds) and Devin McGlockton (14 points, 6 boards) led the way once again. Coach Byington said that his best recruiting job was getting these three stellar players and young guys to return to our team. They are tremendous leaders and players. Mark said when he’s about to talk to the team after huddling with his coaches during a timeout, our players are already talking about what we should do, and he says that’s the sign of a great team. We had 7 guys score in double figures. We have some super first year players. I’ll elaborate more on our great team once this season progresses some more. Next up is the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas next Wednesday, 11/26, with an 11 A.M. tipoff versus Western Kentucky. The game will be broadcast by ESPN. We’ll play Thursday and Friday there as well. Those games will be on the ESPN networks as well. Western Ky is 4-0 right now. Pretty good field in the tournament. Teams like St. Mary’s, Wichita State and VA Tech are in it. Will have more next week. 

Corbs has got our baseball team working extremely hard in offseason workouts as always. I’ve seen Instagram and Twitter stuff of our teams working out. They’re doing serious training because they are serious about going to Omaha and winning it all once again under their legendary coach. Like the arms, our position players, our speed, our solid power and potentially superb defense. With Brodie Johnston, Braden Holcombe and Rustan Rigdon and others, we’ve got the foundation for excellence in 2026. Can’t wait to see the guys compete. Will keep you apprised of the team’s progress and will be all in come time the season starts.

The prolific Scott Limbaugh landed our second No.1 nationally ranked Men’s Golf Class in a row in 2026. Our 2025 class was No.1 also, and we signed the No.1 and No. players in the country in this class. That’s knock your socks off great work by Coach Limbaugh and his coaches. We’ve got the number three ranked team in the country heading into the 2026 season and we’re led by our great senior, Wells Williams, who’s up for all kinds of awards nationally. Love what Wells and the fellas can do this season. Under Coach Limbaugh’s leadership our goal is winning it all as well. That’s what we plan on shooting for in 2026. Our next match is Monday through Wednesday, February 16th-18th, 2026, at the Watersound Invitational in Panama City, FL.  on the Third Golf Course. Will keep you posted on any news up until then and definitely keep you posted when the season commences.

Coach Shea Ralph has our women’s basketball team at 4-0, and we’re playing Alabama State right now and leading 80-28. Our superstar Mikayla Blakes finished with 19 points and is taking the rest of the game off as we’re comfortably handling this game. The awesome Mikayla is averaging 24 on the season. There is 8:43 left in the fourth quarter. We’re playing exceptional basketball under the prolific Coach Ralph. Our goals for both basketball teams are playing in April without a doubt.

After today, we play Tennessee State this Sunday at 12 P.M. on SEC Network+, and then head to the Virgin Islands to play in the Paradise Jam versus Oregon State on Thanksgiving night at 7. The game will be broadcast by ESPN+. We’ll then either play Virginia Tech or BYU at the Jam on Friday, 11/28 on ESPN+.  

And, finally, and as importantly, Coach Darren Ambrose and his VU Soccer team is in the second round of the Women’s NCAA Soccer Championships. Our No.1 seeded Dores, which won the SEC Tournament on an amazing penalty kick finish and a phenomenal effort by goalie Sara Wojdelko as we defeated LSU 8-7 in the penalty kicks. It was a tremendously superb effort by the women and Sara. Coach Ambrose and the team face 8th seeded Clemson today at 6 P.M. CT at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex with a right to go to the Sweet 16 on the line. Our game will be broadcast by ESPN+. Hope Coach Ambrose and the women can keep it rolling.

Will have more coming up in the upcoming weeks. Have an awesome weekend, Go Dores and Anchor Down.