I’m going to elaborate more in the near future on our amazing men’s basketball coach, Mark Byington, and his thrilling 2025-26 team, our terrific women’s bball coach, Shea Ralph, and her electric point guard Mikayla Blakes, who could be the national player of the year this year in women’s college basketball. Mikayla poured in 40 the other night at Memphis in an exhibition victory by the women. Of course, there’s Corbs and baseball. Always fun to talk about. Brodie, Brayden, Rustan, Colin Barczi will all be back among others with a lot of promising players and arms that could lead us to Omaha once again under the leadership of the great one. Another great one, Coach Scott Limbaugh, has assembled another terrific men’s golf team that won three tournaments this fall, has an exciting leader in Wells Williams, and some terrific players including the No.1 freshmen class in the country. I see a very deep run for Scott’s group. This could very well be the year we capture it all. And Coach Darren Ambrose and our No.8 nationally ranked women’s soccer team finished second in the SEC with a sterling 13-3-1 overall record and 7-2-1 in the conference, and face the winner of No.7 South Carolina and No.10 Alabama on Tuesday Nov. 4th in the second round of the SEC Soccer Tournament at the Brosnaham Soccer Complex in Pensacola. Game time is 11:30 A.M. CT and will be telecasted by the SEC Network. Coach Mark B. and his electric Dores men’s bball team, that won both exhibition games, including an 89-67 victory over UAB on the road, and is led by returners, point guard Tyler Tanner, power forward Devin McGlockton and small forward and sharpshooter Tyler Nickel, who will headline a talented collection of newcomers into what is expected to be a highly successful ’25-’26 season that could lead to a deep run into March AND April. We open this Monday, 11/3, at home versus Lipscomb at 7 P.M. on SEC Network +. Can’t wait to see the guys compete. Coach Ralph and the women start off in Paris vs California this Monday, 11/3, as well, facing Cal-Berkeley at 1:30 P.M. on ESPNU. In Mikayla’s big 40 point game against Memphis, we won 104-68 at the Fed Ex Forum in the River City. Coach Ralph just landed five star commitment guard commitment Olivia Jones to the 2026 class. So, our basketball teams are cookin. Can’t wait to see them compete. So, there is so much to be excited about about in Vanderbilt Athletics. The unsung heroes of our tremendous sports success are our Athletics Director Candice Storey Lee and Chancellor Daniel Diermeier. Both Candice and Chancellor Diermeier had and have a vision for this athletics program that along with Clark, Corbs, Mark, Scott, Shea and Darren and the other coaches, is second to nobody in the country and that vision is coming to fruition. Things couldn’t be better with Vanderbilt University Athletics thanks to Candice and Chanceller Diermeier and our dedicated coaches and student-athletes.

More on our other teams in the near future, but today we have a date with the Texas Longhorns at DKR Stadium in Austin at 11 A.M. CT on ABC. Texas is favored by 3 1/2 in this matchup. Arch Manning was questionable with a concussion this week, but was cleared to play on Friday. We need our front seven to harass him the entire game and make his life for 3 1/2 hours today very uncomfortable. Our great defensive ends, Khordae Sydnor and Miles Capers, need to be the wrecking balls on the edge that they’ve been all season, and I expect them to be just that. Texas’ offense line is its weakness and we need to take advantage of that. I love what I’m seeing out of Zaylin Wood, Joshua Singh and Glenn Seabrooks III in the interior of our d line, and there are several guys up front who are stellar and can wreak havoc on Manning and the Texas offense. Our linebackers, Bryan Longwell, Logan Patterson, Nick Rinaldi and Bryce Cowan, among others, need to be very good as well. And I expect them to be just that. Those guys always bring the energy and passion to the games. The secondary, led by boundary safety CJ Heard and corner Martel Hight, need to be sharp back there and come with a couple of picks and another takeaway or two. I like what our defense can do. Now to our offense.

It starts with Diego and his effectiveness, and our stellar offensive line, which had a few more issues last Saturday against a stout Missouri front, and will need to hold another very stout d front in check. We need center Jordan White (6″2″, 309), guards Cade McConnell (6’5″, 323) and Chase Mitchell (6’4″, 340), and tackles Bryce Henderson (6’8″,325) and Isaia Glass (6’4″, 311) to be their stout selves and protect Diego and open holes for Seddy and MK Young. What an 80 yard house call by MK last Saturday. That and CJ’s strip of the Missouri running back were the plays of the game. Would love to see Diego, Seddy and MK have explosive plays in the running game. And Junior, Eli, Tre and Cole, among others, will need to be clutch in the passing game on the other side of Diego’s throws. It’s going to take a team effort. If you’ve ever heard Clark’s motivational talks before games, you know our players will be ready. Heck, it’s all week with Clark. Our great coach is the master motivator. Offensive coordinator Tim Beck and defensive coordinator Steve Gregory will have their respective charges ready. Love what Special Associate Coach Jerry Kill has brought to our organization. He’s brought more toughness and major energy. We’ve got to be the tougher team today. I think we will be. What will it take? Just that, toughness and energy, along with great execution, explosive plays and two or three turnovers going our way and a clean game on our end offensively and in the penalty department. We need Diego to be Diego and our offense and defense to rally around him. That’s when we’re at our best. As Clubber Lang said when he was asked before his fight against Rocky, what his prediction was before the fight: “Pain.” Just want to be physical, make several explosive plays and come out of Texas with another notch in our belt and take another step closer to reaching our goal of getting in the Playoff and winning the National Championship.

Vanderbilt 24, Texas 21