Vandy recruiting class is so far so good

Right now, Vandy has eight verbal commitments – o-lineman Gouger, d-back Head, linebackers Sealand and Herring, and defensive ends Griffin, Banks, Weatherly and Dawson.

This time last season, we had only one – tackle James Lewis, who’s about to start his Vandy career.

As you know last season’s class was a revolving door, with 13 recruits committed when James Franklin was hired, but that number quickly shrank to only six, with the following guys either jumping ship or being thrown overboard:

• WR Courtney Bynes to Western Michigan
• RB Marquis Sumler to Western Kentucky
• RB JJ Keels to South Alabama
• QB Shaun White to MTSU
• QB Damien Fleming to Florida A&M
• DE Keith Heitzman to Michigan
• OL Alex Barr to NC State

Looks like only the last two guys jumped ship as opposed to being thrown overboard. In retrospect, it’s unbelievable what Franklin did in such a short time:

• He held on to 80 percent of a solid offensive line class, keeping top recruits James Lewis and Jake Bernstein, as well as Spencer Pulley and Jose Valedon.
• He kept cornerback Derek King, who’d turned down offers to Auburn and UT.
• He replaced Bynes with athletes Jacquese Kirk, Jahmel McIntosh and Darrien Bryant.
• He replaced running backs Sumler and Keels with the more highly regarded Mitchell Hester and Jerron Seymour.
• He replaced quarterbacks White and Fleming with four-star Lafonte Thorougood, three-star Josh Grady, and raw talent Kris Kentera.
• He stole Thourogood from Virginia Tech, McIntosh from Memphis, four-star athlete Dillon van der Wal from Arizona State, and hulking defensive end Barron Dixon from Mississippi State.
• He also added a big Barden clone at tight end in Steven Scheu; an athletic safety, Larry Franklin; another big strong safety who could play LB, Andrew Williamson; a quick defensive end, Jimmy Stewart; and raw but versatile lineman Joe Townsend.

Not bad, huh?

We’re rumored to be getting a boatload more commitments any day now. It’ll be interesting to see what Franklin does with a full recruiting season.

And it’ll be interesting to see if some of our recruits jump ship when the season starts and the inevitable losses come while Franklin rebuilds. In 2009, after the bowl victory, we had 11 commitments by the end of June. Two of them, TE Davis Dudchock and QB Nash Nance, jumped ship.

Wonder how Nash likes carrying that orange clipboard? He’d better get used to it.

Six commitments on one day? Vandy fans dare to dream

ESPN's Jamie Newberg has a crazy, largely unsourced story speculating that six Tennessee prospects are going to meet up at a sports bar in Nashville next week and commit to Vanderbilt.

I love it. At the least, Vandy fans and one guy in the national media really believe in James Franklin.

Let's take a quick look at these six guys who could commit to Vandy — or not — in the order I'd like to get ’em:

• Drae Bowles: A 6-1, 205-pound WR who gets 4 stars across the board. We just don't sign guys like this, ever. Getting a 4-star wideout would be a huge step for the Commodores, and that's why he's my most coveted recruit.
• Blake Bars: A 6-5, 275-pound offensive tackle from MBA, Wesley Johnson's alma mater in Nashville; four stars from Rivals, three each from the other guys. He'd be our highest rated OL recruit probably ever.
• Brian Kimbrow: A 5-9, 165-pound athlete who's probably the fastest player in the 2012 signing class and who has an offer from USC, which means he has an offer from everybody else too. Why is he not my No. 1 recruit? Well, a 165-pound guy who's considering playing running back behind our O-line? How smart is he? But seriously, I'd love to have an electrifying athlete like this guy wearing black and gold.
• Andrew Jelks: A 6-6, 260-pound offensive tackle who's a rock-solid 3-star recruit and who's highly coveted by the Vols, who know something about recruiting O-linemen. It would be a huge deal to land two true tackles like Bars and Jelks.
• Caleb Azubike: A raw, 6-5, 240-pound DE who runs a 4.7 40 and is a solid 3 star recruit in everybody's book. With all the DEs we've already got verbals from, we don't badly need him, but why not get another big strong fast guy?
• Corey Batey: Another private school guy from Nashville, he's a 6-1, 185-pound WR who gets 3 stars from Rivals, 2 from Scout and none for the time being from ESPN. He does run a 4.4 40. But so does John Cole. Not convinced that this is our guy.

Vandy signs Paris Head, gains key ground at Buford HS

Maybe you’ve heard that Vandy just got its eighth verbal commitment, from defensive back Paris Head. This is a big deal because Head is a big, strong, fast kid who can play corner or safety or even wide receiver. You may have heard we need more receivers.

But it’s an even bigger deal because he’s from a major talent pipeline in the Atlanta area. Remember how we worried about losing Ted Cain, a pretty lousy offensive coordinator but a solid recruiter in the Atlanta area?

Well, Coach Franklin and his staff are taking it to the next level. Seven of their verbal commitments are from the Atlanta area, and the eighth is in Chattanooga, right on the Georgia line.

Paris Head is one of ten major college prospects graduating next spring from Buford High School. Nice place to get a foothold, huh?

The other schools – Tucker (4-star DE Josh Dawson and 4-star LB Jacob Sealand), North Atlanta (4-star DE/OLB Stephen Weatherly), North Cobb (3-star DE Tre Griffin), East Paulding (3-star DE Ladarius Banks) and especially Stephenson in Stone Mountain (4-star LB Darreon Herring) – all have multiple prospects this year and more on the way for the 2013 signing class.

Speaking of Stephenson High School, which is also the home of sophomore safety Kenny Ladler, that school has a whopping 21 major college prospects this season and at least six already on the radar for 2013.

While Tre Griffin is probably our lowest rated prospect at this point, he’s from North Cobb High School, which already has three prospects on the 2013 radar.

Walton High School, home of junior punter Richard Kent and redshirt freshman defensive end Kyle Woestmann, has at least three prospects as well. Camden County, home of junior tackle Ryan Seymour, and Collins Hill, home of senior defensive tackle T.J. Greenstone, also have some good looking prospects.

So getting Paris Head was a big deal, because it further plants the Vandy flag in Atlanta, where there are a ton of great prospects who’ve yet to commit – or who can be stolen on signing day.

COMING SOON
In case you've been wondering, we plan to crank back up here at Moral Victory as we approach the start of football season. Some questions we'll answer:

• What's up with all the defensive ends we're signing?
• Where will our incoming freshmen, especially all those guys listed as athletes, "jumbo athletes" or at multiple positions, end up playing for us?
• How are we looking at quarterback after the not-very-surprising departure of Charlie Goro and all the rumors swirling about Austyn Carta-Samuels transferring from Wyoming?

Anything else you'd like to talk about?

Prep linebackers choosing Vandy before they get left behind

We’ve established that Vanderbilt needs linebackers, especially outside guys, in the worst way, and the Commodores have certainly extended scholarship offers to a bunch of them.

But until this week, we had only one verbal commitment, from DE Tre Griffin of Kennessaw, Ga.

That didn’t mean kids weren’t interested. Lots of good student athletes, particularly in the Atlanta area, are interested in Vanderbilt. But like any kid, they’re also interested in getting lots of offers from big football schools so even if they choose Vandy they can say they chose the Dores over Georgia or Auburn or whatever.

So the conventional wisdom is that you sit back with your Vandy offer, see what else you can get, and then make a decision. Because the Vandy offer will always be there, right?

Wrong.

On Sunday, Jacob Sealand, a great-looking outside backer from Tucker, Ga., with offers from Miss State, UNC, South Carolina and Virginia Tech, chose the Commodores and then the next day rejected an offer from Miami. (OT Barrett Gouger from Chattanooga also committed.)

That opened the floodgates.

Yesterday, Darreon Herring, an outside backer from Stone Mountain with offers from Nebraska and Clemson, committed to Vandy, and so did Stephen Weatherly, another outside guy from Atlanta with offers from Ole Miss and Illinois.

And DE Ladarius Banks from Dallas, Ga., also chose the Dores.

Oh, and did we mention that Sealand, Herring and Weatherly are all on ESPN's 150 Watch list?

If you're a linebacker or defensive end prospect, your Vandy offer suddenly isn't such a sure thing. Because at some point we're gonna check linebacker off our list and begin stockpiling at other positions.

These guys told the AJC that Coach Franklin has them pumped up to turn the Vandy program around.

Word’s getting out. If you’re a great student-athlete and you want to be part of the biggest turnaround in college football history, you’d better get on board fast.

Thanks for checking up on me

Hey gang, thanks for continuing to visit and comment on MV! even though I haven't posted anything in a long time. The haiku was especially touching, and I'm not being sarcastic.

Yes, I am fine. This has been an especially busy spring. I've been busy with my day job as a newspaper editor, and also am teaching a couple of freshman composition classes at the local university and am actually enjoying it, and then three of my kids are on Little League baseball teams and the oldest is playing travel ball which is a strange world indeed. Oh, and I'm trying to teach my 15-year-old daughter to drive. And I'm trying to figure out an acceptable way to observe my 20th wedding anniversary, which is in less than a month.

Any advice is welcome.

Also, I haven't felt much urgency in regards to the Vandy football program. Usually at this time of year, I'm blogging about the 5-star recruits who are considering Vandy, as well as every Commodore player's odds of starring or starting or even just seeing the field next season.

But the arrival of James Franklin has changed all that. For one thing, Vandy fans on chat boards seem particularly excited about the 5-star players who've listed Vanderbilt as one of their top 20 schools. It's always been this way, folks, even before Coach Franklin. Bobby Johnson was a likable guy, and lots of superstar athletes during his tenure showed strong interest in Vandy, probably to send a signal to their mamas that they were serious about academics.

I'm no longer interested in which players say they might want to attend Vandy. There's two reasons for this: Lafonte Thourogood and Dillon van der Wal. Franklin hadn't even unpacked in Nashville when he stole these kids from Virginia Tech and Arizona State. He didn't ALMOST steal these kids, like BoJo had done so many times before. No, he actually did it. And these guys showed up on our commitment list out of the blue, and at the last minute.

So it really doesn't matter in May who says they love Vandy or another school or who says they're committing to Vandy or another school. It ain't over until they fax in their John Hancocks in February. Yeah, we were looking for moral victories in recruiting because we wanted to feel good about something. But we just had our best recruiting class in recent memory from a coach hired only a month or two, and so I'm gonna just sit back and watch who he signs next February and in the meantime I'm not going to worry about who's got VU in his top 20. You can only attend one school at a time. (Even if you're Cam Newton.)

Also, I don't want to speculate about who's going to play and who's not because I think the freshmen really are going to get a shot to play, especially at the skill positions.

Larry Smith looked like the starter in the spring and Jordan Rodgers still hasn't gotten the reps he needed. But if we don't win (and it could happen — Lou Holtz went winless in his first season at South Carolina and Nick Saban lost to UAB in his first season at LSU and to a directional Louisiana college in his first season at Bama) then expect to see Franklin toss the keys to Lafonte or Josh Grady.

Other players who'll be tough to keep off the field include RB Jarod Seymour, WR/DB Jacquese Kirk, DB Derek King and safeties Larry Franklin and Jahmel McIntosh.

It'll also be interesting to see what Franklin does with what he calls his "jumbo athletes." Dillon van der Wal and Darien Bryant can both play tight end but won't be needed immediately because of seniors Barden and Monahan and depth in sophomores Mason Johnston and Fitz Lassing. So do you send them over to the D-Line? Van der Wal could be a beast at defensive end or even left tackle, but that would take a lot of training table meals. He could have an immediate impact as a target on offense. Remember Thomas Welch played some TE before converting to OT and getting drafted.

Like I say, it'll be interesting.

I'll have more later. Sorry to drop off the radar for so long. Thanks for checking up on me.

Vanderbilt schedules a road game with Ohio State in 2013; now let's load up on some cupcakes!

Surely you’ve heard by now that Vandy has scheduled an away game with Ohio State in 2013. I immediately remembered James Franklin the day he was hired saying that the SEC schedule was plenty tough and that he planned to line up non-conference games that would (1) give us a win and (2) build our confidence.

But the Tennessean is reporting that David Williams had scheduled this game himself before Robbie Caldwell got the boot. So Franklin was probably talking about not scheduling any national powers because he knew he had to PLAY OHIO STATE IN FREAKING COLUMBUS.

Actually, I’m not too upset about it. If we’d dropped Elon on this year’s schedule and suddenly added the Buckeyes, I’d be plenty ticked. But this year’s schedule is just about perfect for us. We’ve got an FCS team in Elon, a mid-major in Army and two decent programs in rebuilding mode in UConn and Wake, and three of them at home.

Next season we’re probably looking at home games with Western Kentucky and Wake, a road game at Northwestern and let’s hope a cupcake to be named later.

We’ve got two years to prepare for Ohio State, which will be our season opener. It’s just the kind of game that can get kids fired up and might even help us recruit. Look, we’re not talking about the OSU game ruining our chances at a national championship. The year we went to the Music City Bowl, we lost to stinking Duke at home on homecoming. If we win the games we have a chance of winning then Ohio State isn’t going to derail our bowl hopes. By the way, our other non-conference games in 2013 are likely at Wake Forest and at home against Northwestern and Austin Peay (now we’re cooking with gas!).

Here’s a look at our rough draft non-conference and rotating conference schedules for the next five seasons. Keep in mind that every year we play Ole Miss and the five other East teams – South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky.

2011
SEC: At Alabama, Arkansas
Other: Elon, UConn, Army, at Wake Forest

2012
SEC: Alabama, at Auburn
Other: Western Kentucky (?), at Northwestern, Wake Forest, TBA

2013
SEC: at Miss State, Auburn
Other: at Ohio State, Northwestern, Austin Peay, at Wake Forest

2014
SEC: Miss State, at LSU
Other: at Northwestern, Wake Forest, TBA, TBA

2015
SEC: at Arkansas, LSU
Other: Western Kentucky?, MTSU, Memphis?, TBA

Just how many Vanderbilt defensive backs are better than its second-, third- and fourth-best linebackers?

You may recall that on Saturday we commented on Dexter Daniels moving from linebacker to end and Al Owens moving from safety to outside linebacker, and then we analyzed all the moves we’ve been making in an effort to compensate for our lack of true linebackers.

It took awhile, but eventually Jeff Lockridge, whose full-time job is covering Vanderbilt sports, wrote a story for Monday’s Tennessean that quoted James Franklin saying this: “It doesn’t make sense (to stay in a 4-3) if your fifth and sixth DBs are better than your second, third or fourth linebacker. Let’s get our best guys on the field and put them in a position to be successful, and I think that will also allow us to be faster.”

That naturally leads people to say we should start running a 3-4 defense because that’s what Nick Saban does, and he’s pretty successful. But Saban also has access to a noseguard who’s a dozen cheeseburgers shy of 400 pounds, a stable of ends faster than our linebackers and larger than our defensive tackles, and a bunch of NFL linebackers.

So Franklin’s not talking about running an Alabama-style 3-4. He’s talking about getting our fastest, most athletic and best football players on the field even though they may not be card-carrying linebackers or NFL prospects at whatever position they happen to be playing. He’s talking about going to nickel and even dime packages, or maybe just moving some of our safeties to linebacker. I’ll tell you this: Sean Richardson would be a helacious outside linebacker.

Which brings us to this question: Who are the best guys in our back seven? I think Franklin is being generous to our linebackers when he says our fifth and sixth DBs may be better than our second, third or fourth linebackers. We may have at least 10 DBs better than our third or fourth linebackers.

In fact, I’ve got nine Commodore DBs – six corners and three safeties – ranked ahead of Vandy’s No. 2 linebacker; 11 DBs – six corners and five safeties – ranked ahead of our third and fourth backers; and 13 DBs – six corners and seven safeties – ranked ahead of our fifth backer.

Man, we’re stockpiling talent at safety! We’re not going to leave them all there, I tell you that.

Anyway, here’s how I rank the athletes in our back seven (you know I expect you to disagree and to tell me why):

1. Chris Marve, R-Sr, LB (6-0, 235): Our best defensive player and NFL prospect. All-American candidate. Enough said.

2. Casey Hayward, Sr, CB (6-0, 185): Our best defensive back and cover man; has started 24 straight games since his sophomore opener. Also an All-American candidate.

3. Sean Richardson, Sr, S (6-2, 215): A wicked hitter who sometimes struggles in coverage. Has 22 career starts at strong safety. An All-SEC candidate.

4. Eddie Foster, Jr, CB (5-10, 175): Arguably our fastest player; started every game last season plus four as a true freshman. Had a game-turning pick-six in the upset of Ole Miss.

5. Kenny Ladler, So, S (6-1, 205): The first early enrollee in modern VU history, he started nine games last season at free safety. Not a burner but always seems to get there in time.

6. Andre Hal, So, CB (6-0, 185): A talented cover man who started two games last season as a true freshman. He could easily be Hayward’s heir apparent as the Commodores’ shut-down corner.

7. Trey Wilson, Jr, CB (6-0, 190): Has played in every game since arriving on campus, with one start. Having a great spring and could leap-frog Foster and Hal on the depth chart.

8. Eric Samuels, Jr, S/CB (6-0, 200): One of the team’s best athletes, he’s practicing at safety and could crack the starting lineup at nickel back. Hasn’t come close to reaching his potential.

9. Steven Clarke, So, CB (5-10, 190): Overshadowed by his big-name teammates in the secondary of his Miami high school, Clarke surprised VU fans by getting big minutes against SEC opponents.

10. Derek King, Fr, CB/ATH (5-11, 195): A big-time recruit coveted by Auburn and Tennessee, King’s expected to make a splash as soon as he arrives on campus.

11. Chase Garnham, So, OLB (6-3, 225): A raw talent who was moved from safety his senior year in high school. Has great feet and speed to burn. Played special teams last season while slower, veteran linebackers got the defensive minutes.

12. Andre Simmons, So, S (6-0, 205): A great athlete and ferocious hitter who played mostly special teams last season and is raring to see more action.

13. Karl Butler, So, S (6-1, 205): Like Simmons, was impressive enough to play right away as a freshman but spent most of his time learning the ropes behind Richardson, Ladler and Fullam.

14. Archibald Barnes, R-Jr, OLB (6-4, 228): Came to campus as an athlete and considered at receiver and safety before sticking at LB. Listed as a preseason starter last year, but was replaced early on by slower senior Nate Campbell. A nice athlete, but may not be an SEC linebacker.

15. Tristan Strong, R-Jr, OLB (6-1, 235): Was a solid prospect with an offer from Auburn, but has battled injuries and like Barnes has the look of a versatile athlete instead of an everyday starter.

16. Larry Franklin, Fr, S (6-1, 212): A rock-solid prospect who could be a force at safety or, as the team’s biggest safety, move to linebacker. This guy could either redshirt or rocket up the depth chart in the preseason.

17. Javon Marshall, R-So, S (5-10, 195): The rare secondary prospect to redshirt, he battled injuries early as a redshirt frosh but eventually became a stalwart on special teams. A solid hitter with good speed.

18. DeAndre Jones, R-Jr, MLB (6-1, 235): A good-looking athlete who was a better prospect coming out of Memphis than Chris Marve. But he’s struggled with injuries and has been unable to crack a lackluster lineup. He could leap up the charts or disappear.

19. Jahmel McIntosh, Fr, S/CB (6-1, 200): Like Karl Butler last year, he’s athletic enough to play corner but big and strong enough to likely land at safety or warrant a future move to linebacker. If the receiving corps goes belly up, he could get a look there too this season.

20. Jimmy Stewart, Fr, OLB (6-3, 210): Franklin loves this kid, whom he stole from Maryland; he’s awfully light to play end right now and will get a shot in the preseason at outside backer.

21. Jacquese Kirk, Fr, CB/WR (6-0, 160): With his slight stature and with our gaping holes at receiver, he’ll probably wind up on offense. But there’s no doubt he could play corner if needed – don’t forget that Eddie Foster weighed 160 as a freshman starter.

22. Andrew Williamson, Fr, S (6-1, 195): Not as vaunted as the other recruits, but a big tough kid who may redshirt but could also surprise some people and eventually wind up at linebacker.

23. Blake Gowder, R-Fr (6-2, 225): An all-purpose athlete with fine ball skills, Gowder’s moving from H-back to backer. This may not be his last position change.

24. Al Owens, R-Jr, OLB (6-2, 215): Played in one game last season, while a host of true freshmen saw the field. The move to linebacker is his last chance to play, and his odds are long.

25. Andrew East, R-Fr, MLB (6-1, 225): Recruited as a longsnapper, East has never been expected to carry the team as a defensive player.

These are just our preseason rankings. It’ll be interesting as the season progresses to see who rises and who drops.