Critical Season For CCL's Future

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Nashmann
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Critical Season For CCL's Future

Post by Nashmann »

This season or recruiting cycle will be critical to the success or failure of the CCL era. How he handles these three things:

1. Slowing the rush to the portal by key players. (Davis & Wright already gone)
2. Retaining and signing the current recruiting commits.
3. Hitting the portal early and in bringing players that can enhance the team's play and record.


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Re: Critical Season For CCL's Future

Post by MtJulietVUFan »

I love the special teams (punter and kicker) transfer strategy. I think Vandy could be a continual really good selling point for that. I would most like to see some secondary and OL guys coming in.

And you're right this is a critical season. not only in all the ways you mentioned, but the 5-7 record accelerated the timeline. That was what most realistic folks thought by year 3. You can't have expectations of going backward. Now this year the bar will be 6-6 (yeah I know they'll say they want to win every game, but realistically...) and bowl game as an expectation.

And the front-loaded "winnable games" schedule is ideal for a team with less depth and where injuries really take their toll as a season progresses. Bank those wins early. 3 of those first 6 we'll be favored in and the other 3 we'll go in with a legit chance.
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Re: Critical Season For CCL's Future

Post by Nashmann »

He will not only have to replace some key players but bring better ones than ranking us 14th....in SEC. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC soon makes it all the more critical to recruit better especially playing the portal game!!
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Re: Critical Season For CCL's Future

Post by vandy05 »

Nashmann wrote: Mon Dec 05, 2022 7:34 pm He will not only have to replace some key players but bring better ones than ranking us 14th....in SEC. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC soon makes it all the more critical to recruit better especially playing the portal game!!
The portal I agree with. But I disagree strongly with those who say we will never get anywhere being 14 out of 14 recruiting in this league. It will definitely require outcoaching and outplaying on some Saturdays to get where we want to be. But the difference between 14 and 9 in this league is barely anything in terms of recruiting rankings. We were 14th in the 2022 rankings and Auburn was 9th. According to 247 our recruits garnered 211.97 points and Auburn's garnered 229.35. That's less than 10% better. I think we can manage to overcome that on a given Saturday. Its just not that much. The difference between 11 and 14 is less than 5%. If we can win 4 non-conference games and beat somewhere between 2-4 SEC games each year we will have a good program in my estimation.
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Re: Critical Season For CCL's Future

Post by alathIN »

I've heard Barton Simmons say that the success in recruiting classes for Vanderbilt - in the near future - will be more about minimizing the number of strikeouts that how many home runs we get.
A 3 star who comes to Vanderbilt, stays in the program, and becomes a legit SEC starter as a Junior or Senior adds more than UF's four star who gets arrested three times and drops out of football.
In my years as a VU fan, most of our teams would have been improved more by adding solid depth of SEC-capable players than adding a couple-few star players. This year's team for example would have benefitted hugely from having 3 or 4 more DBs who were just decent average SEC players. Maloney and Taylor were both stellar, but some of their teammates got exposed on a regular basis. I do think we have some decent DB talent on the roster but they're underclassmen, which leads to getting burned by mistakes. I think Lea and Simmons can accomplish a lot with 3-4 classes that are defined by the lower end still being contributors.
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