VU Football

Coach Mason and his staff added 2 more commitments for this exciting and highly promising 2018 class as 5.6/85 3 star wide receiver Amir Abdur-Rahman, and under the radar defensive end Lorenzo Surgers have dropped anchor with the Commodores. 

Amir is a 6’4″,200 pound receiver out of Mays High School in Atlanta. He put together an awesome senior season catching 35 passes for 758 yards and 17 TDs for his Mays team that finished  11-2 overall and 8-0 in their region and reached the Class 6A third round in the playoffs in the second highest classification in Georgia. Georgia has 7 classes of high school football.

Really like this pickup. He chose us over other offers from South Florida, Iowa State, Maryland, Wake Forest and Florida International, all bowl teams except for Maryland, but Maryland has been recruiting well under soon to be 3rd year coach D.J. Durkin. Iowa State had a highly impressive Liberty Bowl victory over Memphis and defeated Oklahoma on the road and TCU at home this season. They’re up and coming and pretty much there to be a big factor in college football. Matt Campbell is one of the top young coaches in football. He’s outstanding.

South Florida under Charlie Strong was extremely impressive in their Birmingham Bowl victory over Texas Tech last season, 38-34. Their only losses came to what turned out one of the best teams in the country in Central Florida, losing 49-42 at UCF. UCF, of course, defeated Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Day. South Florida also lost to a very good at times Houston team. South Florida finished the season 10-2, losing a game to Hurricane Irma.

Wake Forest defeated Texas A&M in the Belk Bowl, 55-52, and finished its season at 8-5. Coach Dave Clawson has the Wake program on an upward trajectory. And Florida International, though they lost in their Bad Boy Mowers Gaspirilla Bowl Game to Temple, 28-3, is trending well. They lost their starting quarterback in the bowl game on the third play of the game, and that really devastated their team and diminished their chances of winning that game greatly. They still finished 8-5 and would have had a very good chance of knocking off Temple if their quarterback had not gotten injured. Butch Davis, a talented veteran coach, has his program trending very well.

So all those schools are high quality programs and watching Amir’s film I can see why they wanted him. His size, at 6’4″, 195, is terrific, and he catches anything within reach. His wingspan is perfect for catching the 50-50 balls in the air, and man can he take it to the house. I watched house call after house call on tape. He’s a very physical wide out as well. Really love this pickup from the greater Atlanta area. Amir is our third stud wide receiver pickup to go along with 4 star signee Camron Johnson out of Brentwood Academy (TN) and 5.7 and 86 3 star C.J. Bolar out of Purvis, Mississippi. Camron is 6’0″, 180 and C.J. is 6’2″, 185. Coach Mason and the coaches like the length we’re getting at wide out. We’ve got quite a receiving corps lined up for next season and beyond that. I like what junior Kalija Lipscomb (rising junior, 6’1″, 200), Ohio State transfer Alex Stump (6’3″, 210, eligible next season), a rising junior, explosive junior speedster Donaven Tennyson (5’10”, 185 runs a 4.4 and shown he’s got take it to the house ability every time he touches the ball), redshirt freshmen Chris Pierce (6’4″, 208), redshirt freshmen James Bostic (6’3″, 208) and redshirt sophomore Jackson Winrow (6’1″, 195) all can do. Add these 3 talented freshmen in the mix and next season, along with the future, looks extremely bright. Add super talented tight ends Jared Pinkney and Sam Dobbs and the receiving corps has a chance to be spectacular next season, to go along with one of the best returning quarterbacks in the SEC in Kyle Shurmur. Kyle is not going to only make noise in the conference, he’ll be a big name nationally. Love to see what Kyle will do next season.

The other addition to this class comes out of Cary, North Carolina. He is Lorenza Surgers, a 6’7″, 225 pound defensive end. Lorenza is rated a 2 star by Rivals and not ranked by 247, but I’m seeing more of a 5.6, 85 3 star here. His film is super impressive. Lorenza is a sacking, tackling machine. He was a UConn commit, but switched to VU today. I’m high on Lorenza and he joins former 4 star Rutger Reitmaier in this defensive line class. Rutger was a 4 star by Rivals and ESPN out of high school and an 88, 3 star when he signed with Oregon in 2017. He wanted to be closer to home and he wanted to play for Coach Mason and Vanderbilt. Rutger is 6’3″, 295 and will play defensive tackle for us, but can probably move over to the edge if need be because he’s so athletic. I don’t know why some people are saying on the boards that this team does not have enough defensive linemen. We’ve got 3 deep talent on the line and with potential superstars Charles Wright, Dare and Dayo Odeyinbo and a massive amount of younger talent. We’ve got the makings of a very talented defensive front. We’ll have some youth out there at times, but I’m confident in this group. We’ll see if Coach Mason adds another D lineman or another player of 2 before signing day Wednesday. There are still some other candidates and we have a good chance of getting more graduate transfers in. Will keep you posted. Apparently, we have some transfers that may come after signing day, so a lot to get excited about.

Our 3rd commitment of the 2018 class to go along with our 17 man signing class is 5.6 and 87, 3 star cornerback Rayshad Williams out of Memphis. Shad had opened up his recruiting, but everybody feels good that Shad will announce on Wednesday that he’ll be a Commodore. That is the optimistic hope. Shad would round out a fantastic secondary class and we might add one more when all is said and done. Really want Shad coming our way. He’s 6’4″, 180. Love the height. We’ve got some guys in this secondary class that can help us right away. They are talents. Want Shad to be a part of that group along with 4 star safety Brendon Harris (6’0″, 205), 89 and 5.7, 3 star corner Tre Douglas (6’2″, 180), 87 and 5.6 3 star safety Deshaun Jerkins (5 11.5″, 195), 5.6 and 85 3 star safety Maxwell Worship (6’1″,198). So this is an exceptional secondary class and adding a corner of Rayshad’s ability and possibly adding a commit/signee out of Andalusia, Alabama Bridges Anderson (6’3″, 180), a highly underrated player who intercepted 7 passes this season and is impressive on film and can also play wide receiver. We’ll see if the staff will add Bridges come Wednesday. Always like Alabama players. Some of the toughest and most talented pound for pound in the country. 

There are also going to be 4 new coaches on the staff next season. Jason Tarver, an NFL veteran and a coach who was co defensive coordinator with Coach Mason when they were at Stanford and had stellar defenses, is set to become the defensive coordinator. I like that Coach Mason has a guy he can rely on, so he can be more like a Bill Belichick, who can still coach defense, but be heavily involved in all aspects of the team and not be distracted when making major decisions in games like going for it on 4th down, onside kicking, things of that nature. I really like that for DMase. Tarver has a solid reputation as he has been defensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders from 2012-14, and was a senior defensive assistant for the 49ers over the last 3 years. Like what we’re getting here. He brings more toughness and intensity to this defense that Coach Mason and his staff has.

Aaron Moorehead will be our new wide receivers coach taking the spot vacated by Cortez Hankton who took the same position at Georgia. Moorehead has been the receivers coach at Texas A&M the last 3 years and coached the electric Christian Kirk, who will be a high draft pick come April, a 1st or 2nd round guy. Also like what we’re getting here in Moorehead.

Shawn Mennenga will serve as our special teams and tight end coach. He comes to VU after serving the last 7 years as the Cleveland Browns special teams assistant. The special teams were the lone bright spot for the Browns over the last several years as their punting, kickoff and punt coverage and return games excelled in the NFL. He could add a lot to our special teams.

Finally, Terrence Brown is expected to coach our cornerbacks. Brown was a graduate assistant at Washington for their talented secondary the last 3 years. He had 2 All Americans, Budda Baker and Sidney Jones, under his watch and the Huskies intercepted 49 passes over the last 3 years. Brown was a 2 year starter under Coach Mason at Stanford and started 14 games his senior year in 2012, a year in which Stanford went 12-2 won their first PAC-12 championship in 13 years, and won the Rose Bowl.

I really like what Moorehead, Brown and Tarver can do in recruiting also. Moorehead and Brown are young, energetic guys who will be relentless on the recruiting trail much like our younger coaches Chris Marve (inside linebackers), Marc Mattioli (safeties) and C.J. Ah You (defensive line) are. 

So I like what this team can do next season. I like it a lot. I see us being highly competitive in every game and winning quite a few. I like 7-9 victories in 2018. Hoping for better of course, but I like this team to do well regardless with the talent we have returning and the studs we have coming in. 

Basketball

We took another tough loss Saturday Night to Auburn, 93-81, at Auburn, but the great Jeff Roberson finished with 30 points and played a phenomenal game. JRobe and Riley keep playing at a tremendously high level. A friend of mine and I were talking about it, and we think we can do some damage in the SEC Tournament in St. Louis, March 7-11. This team was highly competitive with Auburn and should have defeated Kentucky on the road last Tuesday, losing in overtime, 83-81. But I like this group and what they can do the rest of this season. We can make a run to end this month and get to the tournament with a ton of momentum. I like the way Saben Lee is playing. Maxwell Evans, another freshman, played very well Saturday Night. Max is a competitor like Saben. Clevon Brown did some good things as did Joe Toye, and Payton Willis was awesome shooting the ball in overtime against Kentucky hitting 2 deep 3’s. Like where Payton is at. Ejike Obinna is still developing as a freshman, but he can still help us a lot this season. He’s big at 6’10”, 234, likes to mix it up, will be a terrific rebounder and defender, hopefully this season, and can score down low. Like Ejike very much. I still believe in Djery Baptiste as well. Djery’s massive size at 6’10”, 235 is something you can’t teach as they say, and he’s shown some offensive skills. He just needs to get a little more confident down low, and if he does, he can be a dominant type player. He wants to be. So I believe in what this team can do going forward. While Tuesday and Saturday weren’t the results we wanted, we went toe to toe with a good Kentucky team at Rupp, and an Auburn team that looks Final Four-like. So we can play with anybody on a neutral court. This week it’s Georgia @ home Wednesday at 7:30 PM on the SEC Network, and @ Arkansas on Saturday at 7:30 PM on the SEC Network. So another important and challenging week for our growing team.

Women’s tennis doin some massive work

Vanderbilt women’s tennis coach Geoff McDonald is very careful about not getting too high or too low, which is a perfect demeanor for tennis, any sport for that matter, but his No.2 ranked Dores team just knocked off No.1 Stanford at Currey Tennis Center on Saturday, 7-0. The great Astra Sharma, who’s not ranked nationally yet because she’s been playing professionally most recently in doubles in something called the Australian Open, wow, won 3-6, 6-3,6-3 over No.13 (nationally) Michaela Gordon. No.4 Fernanda Contreras won at No.2 singles. No.19 Christina Rosca won at No.3. Emma Kurtz, No.96 Summer Dvorak and freshman Amanda Meyer all won at 4, 5 and 6 respectively. It was a masterful performance by this amazing group of women, who excel both on the court and in the classroom. The women also defeated No.16 Baylor on Friday, 6-1. Next up is the national team indoors starting Thursday. I’m going to catch up with Geoffrey in the next couple of weeks to get his insight on his program for the rest of this season. So far it’s super good. Will also talk to Men’s Golf coach Scott Limbaugh about his highly promising, talented team in the next couple of weeks. Be on the lookout for that.

Baseball

Also, I promise I will have the piece with Coach Corbin up in the next couple of days. Sorry for the delay, but I know you’ll enjoy hearing the great Corbs talk about his exciting 2018 team. Just a preview of it. Our junior class will be our leaders and our freshman class was the No.1 class in the country as ranked by Perfect Game and Baseball America, so the talent is off the charts good this season. We’ve only got one senior in lefty Paxton Stover, but Paxton shows good ability and will help us, and our sophomore class will be solid also. So I’ll have it for you in the next couple of days, I promise.