Reason for optimism

[Vandy187187]

AJ Swann. Kid is legit. Barely any experience, no INT, 8 TD. Made some great plays. As long as he is our QB we are in good shape for a long time.

[Vandy187187]

Even CJF didn't have a "franchise QB"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkC5SyfsXmo

[UltimateVUFan]

Color me pessimistic. I fear we lose him in the off-season when the big boys take notice. There seems to be no oversight anymore when it comes to roster tampering. And Swann is a desirable candidate for big time programs.
Really hope I’m unnecessarily paranoid. I’ve just come to expect the worst when it comes to VU football.

[commadore]

Get that boy an NIL deal!

[charlestonalum]

Color me pessimistic. I fear we lose him in the off-season when the big boys take notice. There seems to be no oversight anymore when it comes to roster tampering. And Swann is a desirable candidate for big time programs.
Really hope I’m unnecessarily paranoid. I’ve just come to expect the worst when it comes to VU football.

Unfounded fear: Swann was an early commitment and came to campus in January. He is #1 QB on a team he came to rebuild. Not the least bit worried about Swann. Before the Georgia game he said: "I am glad to be on my team." He means it and things can only get better at VU for him and team.

[alathIN]

I'll go you one more. Or maybe 16 more.
Swann isn't the only freshman who is starting or playing a major role. Hansen, McGowan, Xavier Castillo, Smith, Gillespie, Agu, Lee, Truesdell, Russell, Patterson, Richard, Ouatarra, Mann, Diakite, and Skinner. All freshmen or redshirt freshmen. All on the 2 deep and getting meaningful snaps. Also worth mentioning is Capers, who if healthy was projected to be the team's best pass rush DL.
This says a couple things to me:
1. When underclassmen get this much playing time there will be a lot of mistakes and they will get schooled sometimes.
2. The incoming talent is beating out the upperclassmen talent in many cases. Lea & Co are bringing in a higher level of talent.
3. These guys will all get better not just in future seasons, but even within this season as they gain experience.

[Johnmn555]

It may not happen with Swann or happen this year, but it may well happen with some other key player after a breakout year. If it does happen, it will be very damaging to the "improvement" narrative. You may be naive if you aren't holding your breath on this.

[Dore2Dore]

agree - hope we are not the "development team" for the elite

[charlestonalum]

agree - hope we are not the "development team" for the elite

This is a fear at every program, arguably a greater concern at the Bamas and Clemsons of the world who have second stringers who could be first stringers at some other aspiring team that has a big NIL bankroll beckoning. I can argue this is a bigger problem at other places than Vanderbilt for a number of good reasons.

[commadore]

agree - hope we are not the "development team" for the elite

This is a fear at every program, arguably a greater concern at the Bamas and Clemsons of the world who have second stringers who could be first stringers at some other aspiring team that has a big NIL bankroll beckoning. I can argue this is a bigger problem at other places than Vanderbilt for a number of good reasons.

Is that why Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama all have guys from Vanderbilt playing now?

[baseball1234]

Color me pessimistic. I fear we lose him in the off-season when the big boys take notice. There seems to be no oversight anymore when it comes to roster tampering. And Swann is a desirable candidate for big time programs.
Really hope I’m unnecessarily paranoid. I’ve just come to expect the worst when it comes to VU football.

If that happens I am done with being a fan of our football team. We will never be able to get over the hump if the diamonds in the rough leave after having success.

[vandy05]

agree - hope we are not the "development team" for the elite

This is a fear at every program, arguably a greater concern at the Bamas and Clemsons of the world who have second stringers who could be first stringers at some other aspiring team that has a big NIL bankroll beckoning. I can argue this is a bigger problem at other places than Vanderbilt for a number of good reasons.

Is that why Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama all have guys from Vanderbilt playing now?

This article makes me weep

https://sports.yahoo.com/alabama-ot-tyl ... p_catchall

[Johnmn555]

Really, what is the impact if Bama loses a couple of second stringers. What is the impact if we lose a budding star?

[BrentVU]

This article makes me weep

https://sports.yahoo.com/alabama-ot-tyl ... p_catchall

Alabama's All-American Will Anderson had two unassisted sacks against A.J. Swann from his right end position, and was credited with half of a third. Lined up against him was sophomore LT Gunnar Hansen, playing in only his fifth game ever. All well and good. But one wonders... might it have been any different if Anderson had been lined up against a more experienced LT Steen playing out his fifth-year senior year for Vandy?

[charlestonalum]

This is a fear at every program, arguably a greater concern at the Bamas and Clemsons of the world who have second stringers who could be first stringers at some other aspiring team that has a big NIL bankroll beckoning. I can argue this is a bigger problem at other places than Vanderbilt for a number of good reasons.

Is that why Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama all have guys from Vanderbilt playing now?

This article makes me weep

https://sports.yahoo.com/alabama-ot-tyl ... p_catchall

Steen played 3 years for us and graduated last May with 2 years of eligibility remaining - I do not know his whole story but he may have wanted graduate school in a subject we did not have or that VU wouldn't admit him to Graduate school or he thought if he used his last 2 years at Bama he would have a better shot at the NFL. The point is he played for us for 3 years (red-shirted 1 year) before leaving like most of us have done after getting our degree. We got a PG kicker from Bama that has had 3 years of eligibility, has won some games for us (and Bama lost to UT because they did not have him) so I guess we might have come out ahead on this one particular comparison.
Who is playing at Georgia that we lost in the portal? The Auburn transfer followed his coach, Mason. I still maintain we stand to benefit more from the portal than we will lose from it simply because we do not have a plethora of players that are desirable to other SEC teams and the ones who tend to come here do so because they want to be at VU. Time will tell, but I am optimistic - the NIL money will be the one issue that hurts us, but not sure how big a factor that is.

[commadore]

Is that why Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama all have guys from Vanderbilt playing now?

This article makes me weep

https://sports.yahoo.com/alabama-ot-tyl ... p_catchall

Steen played 3 years for us and graduated last May with 2 years of eligibility remaining - I do not know his whole story but he may have wanted graduate school in a subject we did not have or that VU wouldn't admit him to Graduate school or he thought if he used his last 2 years at Bama he would have a better shot at the NFL. The point is he played for us for 3 years (red-shirted 1 year) before leaving like most of us have done after getting our degree. We got a PG kicker from Bama that has had 3 years of eligibility, has won some games for us (and Bama lost to UT because they did not have him) so I guess we might have come out ahead on this one particular comparison.
Who is playing at Georgia that we lost in the portal? The Auburn transfer followed his coach, Mason. I still maintain we stand to benefit more from the portal than we will lose from it simply because we do not have a plethora of players that are desirable to other SEC teams and the ones who tend to come here do so because they want to be at VU. Time will tell, but I am optimistic - the NIL money will be the one issue that hurts us, but not sure how big a factor that is.

I don't remember who it was, I just remember a tackle and the guy said "a transfer from Vanderbilt."

[Seadog73]

It was Tyler Steen who transferred from VU to Bama after last season. And Bama starting inside LB Henry To'o To'o transferred from Tennessee the year before.

[vandy05]

Is that why Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama all have guys from Vanderbilt playing now?

This article makes me weep

https://sports.yahoo.com/alabama-ot-tyl ... p_catchall

Steen played 3 years for us and graduated last May with 2 years of eligibility remaining - I do not know his whole story but he may have wanted graduate school in a subject we did not have or that VU wouldn't admit him to Graduate school or he thought if he used his last 2 years at Bama he would have a better shot at the NFL. The point is he played for us for 3 years (red-shirted 1 year) before leaving like most of us have done after getting our degree. We got a PG kicker from Bama that has had 3 years of eligibility, has won some games for us (and Bama lost to UT because they did not have him) so I guess we might have come out ahead on this one particular comparison.
Who is playing at Georgia that we lost in the portal? The Auburn transfer followed his coach, Mason. I still maintain we stand to benefit more from the portal than we will lose from it simply because we do not have a plethora of players that are desirable to other SEC teams and the ones who tend to come here do so because they want to be at VU. Time will tell, but I am optimistic - the NIL money will be the one issue that hurts us, but not sure how big a factor that is.

I should be clear. No ill will for, or towards, Steen. He did what was best for him for whatever reasons he had. It just makes me weep because our team would be better if he were on it.

I hope you're right in that we'll benefit more from the portal than we will lose from it. But I could see scenarios like this one play out with some decent regularity. And its not that we need to worry about losing role players or backups to other SEC team. You can lose players to any school. Might MTSU have an interest in one of our backups? I could easily see that. You can lose players up and down. My personal opinion is that we're actually uniquely, and poorly, positioned to take advantage of the portal. We can lose players to Bama if they are really good. We can lose players to MTSU if they're one of our backups. And we have limited access to other school's portal players. Hope I'm wrong though.

[Seadog73]

Speaking of the portal, I wonder how Cam Johnson and Amir Abdul-Rahman are doing?

[Dorefrom88]

Speaking of the portal, I wonder how Cam Johnson and Amir Abdul-Rahman are doing?

Cam Johnson - https://www.espn.com/college-football/p ... am-johnson
Amir Abdul-Rahman -
https://www.espn.com/college-football/p ... dur-rahman

It looks like Cam isn't getting on the field much, and Amir is getting more targets than he did at Vanderbilt.