Larry Smith does his talking on the practice field; Mo Patton's back, and so is Chris Johnson

Ah, it's nice to have Mo Patton back from vacation, though he certainly deserved a break before the upcoming college football season, which more or less kicks off this week with SEC Media Days.

The Vandy beat writer for the Tennessean has a new story today about Larry Smith. Whoever writes Mo's online headlines always tries to push his stories in another direction. Today's Web headline: "Music City Bowl star wants to start for Vanderbilt."

But here's what Larry tells Mo:

"We're just trying to improve overall as a team, not just individually. I'm getting mental reps, physical reps, doing the best I can do when I'm in there."

And: "I'm feeling pretty comfortable right now. I wouldn't say I'm an upperclassman now, but I'm one of the older guys, with two classes under me. It seems like only yesterday I was a freshman and looking up to the other guys. The roles have kinda changed now."

Is Larry getting interview tips from Crash Davis? Anyway, everybody wants to report on the so-called quarterback controversy, but nobody — Coach Johnson, Larry, Mackenzi, teammates — are saying anything. Well, they're saying something without saying something.

Of course Larry wants to start. And Mackenzi wants to start, too.


CHRIS JOHNSON'S BACK:

Mo has an interesting blog post about Chris Johnson, writing that the senior linebacker and special teams ace, who's already graduated and was applying to business schools, got accepted to Vanderbilt's prestigious Owen School of Management. He's got a year of eligibility left, he's on campus, so what the heck, why not play SEC football for another year?

He's in summer workouts and Mo says that Bobby Johnson wants him on the team and plans to play him on special teams, where Mo reminds us that during his career Chris has put both Ole Miss' Dexter McCluster and Georgia's Thomas Jones on the injured reserve list.

Not that football players like to brag about that sort of thing.

B. Johnson also says that C. Johnson might play a little linebacker. The reason for being non-committal? The Commodores are stacked at backer, with returning starters Chris Marve, Patrick Benoist and John Stokes, as well as seasoned veterans Brent Trice, Nate Campbell and Austin Newton, as well as talented redshirt freshmen DeAndre Jones, Tristan Strong, Dexter Daniels and Archie Barnes, plus another fifth-year senior who's due a breakout year, Brandon Bryant.