College Football Week 2 looks terrific

College Football transitions into week 2 with some nice matchups led off by the Crimson Tide traveling to Austin to face the Longhorns. Auburn has a home game with San Jose State and there are a couple of nice matchups within the SEC. The UAB Blazers hit the road to try to avenge an embarrassing defeat at Protective Stadium last season. Some national tilts look fascinating as well. Here is this Saturday’s lineup along with predictions.

Last Week, Straight up, 18-4, ATS, 12-10

No.1 Alabama @ Texas

DKR-Memorial Stadium, Austin

11 AM CT

FOX

Gus, he’ll be more amped up than ever if that’s possible, Joel, Jenny

Crimson Tide by 20

Surprisingly, Texas leads this series, 7-1-1, with the one loss to the Crimson Tide coming in the 2009 National Championship Game. Mack Brown is still complaining that if Colt McCoy hadn’t been injured early in the game by Marcell Dareus, there would have been a different outcome. Guess we’ll never know, but could have been closer. I don’t know if you saw Brown’s locker room dance from last Saturday after the Tar Heels defeated App State, 63-61, but it was embarrassing. Wish he hadn’t done that. You’re not going to confuse Mack with Mickey J. UNC gave up 40 points in the fourth quarter. Gene Chizik’s defenses strike again. He may be better in the broadcast booth than he is on the field. We’ll see how Chiz’s defense develops. As for this game, Bryce Young is looking electric as usual, rushing for a hunge last Saturday against Utah State. He’s developing some excellent targets on the perimeter in Georgia transfer Jermaine Burton and Traeshon Holden. I liked what I saw out of freshman Kobe Prentice as well. Jahmyr Gibbs looks to be headed for a big year at running back if the line can block for him. This will be a good test for the Crimson Tide O Line on Saturday. Will Anderson Jr. looks better than ever, and can wreak havoc on Texas QB Quinn Ewers. Texas is going to be better this season and Sark is an excellent offensive coach and stellar recruiter. They are No.2 in the 247 Sports recruiting rankings for 2023 behind the Crimson Tide. They have 3, 5 stars committed, including all world quarterback Arch Manning, Peyton and Eli’s nephew, Cooper’s son, Archie’s grandson. But I like the Tide here. I see Bryce having a big day, and the defense clamping down on Ewers, though I believe in Bijan Robinson, the stellar tailback for the Horns. See him peeling off some nice runs. But the Tide advances in week 2.

Crimson Tide 42, Texas 21

San Jose State @ Auburn

Jordan-Hare Stadium

6:30 PM CT

ESPNU

Brian Custer, Dustin Fox, Lauren Sisler

Tigers by 23

The Tigers had an OK performance last Saturday. The running game was tremendous, with Tank Bigsby rushing for 147 yards and Robbie Ashford, who came on in relief of TJ Finley at quaterback, rushing for 68. Finley threw two interceptions, one right to the safety, hitting him in stride much like Tom Brady does with Mike Evans. However, Finley’s pass went to the wrong team. Ashford did a pretty solid job coming off the bench. Where is Zach Calzada? What’s happened to the guy? What has he not even been considered for the starting job? I’ve looked for it, but nobody is reporting on it. I’ll keep digging to find out. I don’t understand Bryan Harsin’s thinking here. You listen to Harsin talk and there is a lot of boring coach-speak coming out of his mouth. He’s articulate, somewhat, but there’s just not much substance there. I like the Tigers here, but they’ve got to get a lot better if they want to have a successful season. Penn State comes to the Plains next Saturday for a 2:30 PM CT kickoff on CBS.

Auburn 34, San Jose State 10

Samford @ No.2 Georgia

Sanford Stadium, Athens

3 PM CT

SEC Network

Taylor, Matt, Alyssa

Dawgs by 52

Kill.

Georgia 62, Samford 3

No.20 Kentucky @ No.12 Florida

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville

6 PM CT

ESPN

Tess, Gregory, McShay, Katie

Gators by 5

I’m bullish on Billy Napier, quarterback Anthony Richardson and the Gators after last Saturday’s 29-26 victory over then No.7 Utah. I’ll take Billy and Anthony in the Swamp on a Saturday Night over a pretty solid Kentucky team.

Gators, 31, Wildcats 24

South Carolina @ No. 16 Arkansas

Razorback Stadium, Fayetteville

11 AM CT

ESPN

Bob Wischusen (questions every coaching decision imaginable) Dan Orlovsky, Kris Budden

Hogs by 8

Early start, so I like a hard nosed, physical, very good game.

Arkansas 24, South Carolina 21

No.24 Tennessee @ No.17 Pittsburgh

Acrisure Stadium, PIttsburgh

2:30 PM CT

ABC

Sean, Todd, Molly

UT by 6

I like what Hendon Hooker is doing at quarterback for Josh Huepel and the Vols. I’m bullish on this group.

Tennessee 31, Pitt 24

App State @ No. 6 Texas A&M

Kyle Field, College Station

2:30 PM CT

ESPN2

Anish Shroff, Brock Osweiler, Taylor McGregor

A&M by 19

Never sure what to make of A&M under Fish. Haynes King has talent, but he’s erratic like all quarterbacks are under Fisher. I like the Aggies to win, but they need to improve significantly if they want to have a successful season, and that means double digit wins out there. Might not be attainable unless King can develop quickly.

A&M 35, App State 10

Mississippi State @ Arizona

Arizona Stadium, Tuscon

10 PM CT

Fox Sports 1

State by 10 1/2

Give me Leach and his Bullies against a PAC-12 team after dark.

Bullies 38, ‘Zona 24

Missouri @ Kansas State

Bill Snyder Family Stadium, “the Little Apple,” Manhattan, KS.

11 AM CT

ESPN2

Beth Mowins, Kirk Morrison, Stormy Buonatony, always a mouthful

K State by 7 1/2

I was tempted to pick the upset here, but I’ll stick with the favorite in a tight contest.

Kansas State 31, Mizzou 28

Central Arkansas @ No. 22 Ole Miss

Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Oxford

6 PM CT

ESPN+

Rebels by 34

I like Lane and his charges to get the job done at the Grove. Ole Miss has an excellent running game led by former TCU five star Zach Evans, who rushed for a buck 30 last Saturday against Troy. If they can develop one of their quarterbacks, it could be a really nice season for the Rebs.

Ole Miss 45, Central Ark. 10

Georgia Southern @ LSU

Tiger Stadium, Baaton Rouge, Louisiana, as Howard used to say

6:30 PM CT

SEC Network

Tom, Jordan, Cole

Tiguhs by 47 1/2

After Brian Kelly’s inauspicious start last Sunday with his special teams costing him the game, he needs to get it back together or there are going to be some upset Cajuns. Interestingly, Southern defeated Florida Memorial? 86-0. Southern University is also located in Baton Rouge.

LSU 52, Southern 3

No. 23 Wake Forest @ Vanderbilt

FirstBank Stadium, Nashvegas

11 AM CT

SEC Network

Dave, Deuce, Andraya

Demon Deacons by 12 1/2

The Demon Deacons welcome back quarterback Sam Hartman this week. He had a blood clot in August and was considered out indefinitely, but he’s full strength now. He accounted for 50 TDs last season, 39 through the air and 11 on the ground. He did throw 14 interceptions though, so if the Dores can get some pass rush, maybe that will create opportunities for their secondary. Mike Wright accounted for 6 TDs last Saturday Night in the Dores’ 42-31 victory over Elon, but the Commodores were not overly impressive in the second half as Elon very much outplayed them. It’s always a process for a new coach at Vanderbilt. Clark Lea is doing some good things, but I don’t see the Dores as good enough to prevail over Wake.

Wake Forest 35, Vandy 21

UAB @ Liberty

Williams Stadium, Lynchburg, VA.

5 PM CT

ESPN+

Blazers by 6 1/2

I had a couple of Blazer fans get on me last Thursday for not writing about their team, so here goes. UAB looks to be a strong outfit with a chance to win a lot of games this season. With their navigable schedule, they can get to double digit victories. There’s a a lot of talent on this squad. I like them to prevail on the road over Hugh Freeze and his Flames, that don’t look as good as usual.

UAB 28, Liberty 21

National games

USC 31, Stanford 21

Stanford Stadium, Stanford, CA.

6:30 PM CT

ABC

Reece, Chris at U.S. Open, Kirk, Holly

Trojans by 8 1/2

I’m not declaring them back yet, but this program looks promising again under Lincoln Riley.

Clemson 42, Furman 7

Memorial Stadium, Clemson

1:30 PM CT

ACC Network

Clemson by 44 1/2

Not a buyer of Clemson, yet. Not sure their starting quarterback is that good, but maybe their 5 star freshman backup is. Not selling them either. Just holding them for right now.

No.3 Ohio State 41, Arkansas State 7

Ohio Stadium, Columbus

11 AM CT

Big Ten Network

Buckeyes by 44 1/2

Not sure I’m a believer in this group, either. A decent Notre Dame team kept it close. I’d say Notre Dame is barely above average, if that. The Buckeyes aren’t very impressive at this point.

No.9 Baylor 35, No.21 BYU 34

LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, Utah

9:15 PM CT

ESPN

Mark Jones, RG III, Quint Kessenich

BYU by 3

This is one I might have to stay up for. Should be a classic. I’ll take the Bears in a slight upset in a hostile environment.

Oklahoma State 49, Arizona State 35

Boone Pickens Stadium, Stillwater, OK.

6:30 PM CT

ESPN2

Dave Flemming, Rod Gilmore, Tiffany Blackmon

Cowboys by 12 1/2

Derek Mason’s defense gave up 44 points to Central Michigan last Thursday Night. Central Michigan? I know about MACtion and all that, but come on, Mason. The Pokes score a lot, but Mason’s defense looks very questionable.

The spectacular Tim Corbin and his amazing team, MLB guys

Jackson Gillis closed the door on Clemson (Photo courtesy of Twitter).

The greatness of Tim Corbin was no more evident than Monday Night in our regional championship game versus Clemson at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson, S.C. 

Corbs went with Junior Matt Ruppenthal as our starter. Some people questioned the decision. I questioned it slightly. I was wrong as were the others. Corbs and Pitching Coach Scott "Brownie" Brown believed in Rupe 100% and "trusted" him, as Corbs said during the game to the ESPN3 commentators. And did Matt ever deliver. 

Corbs and Brownie also trusted "freshman," Jackson Gillis, and I put that in quotation marks because this young gun pitched like Mariano Rivera. Did he ever.

All in all, it was a sensational performance not only by our team, but also by our coaches. Corbs has had so many special seasons in his 15 years as head coach at Vanderbilt University, and this one ranks up there as one of his best, however it ends up. I'm optimistic that it'll be in Omaha, but whatever transpires the rest of the way, it's the way Coach Corbin has developed this group of players from a group that didn't look very good in the fall, according to Tim, to one that has developed into one of the best teams in the country.

We'll absolutely be tested in Corvallis this weekend versus Oregon State, but I really like where this team is at right now. They're not playing distraught over Donny Everett's passing, though I know there is still sadness, but they've now got the passion to play "with" number 41, as Corbs said to me three weeks ago. It's greatness. It's really phenomenal. It's strength through belief, strength through passion, strength through dedication to their late teammate, his amazing parents, Teddy and Susan, an amazingly focused discipline to be the best, and a passion for each other. It all starts with head coach Tim Corbin. It's been an amazing transformation of a college baseball team. 

And it really didn't totally click until last Friday. There were signs during the season that this team was very talented. But over the weekend in Clemson, they showed what type of team they can be. And it culminated with an absolutely terrific performance from Matt Ruppenthal, Will Toffey, and Jackson Gillis. But our other players were hugely clutch throughout the weekend. Here's what happened in the penultimate game on Monday Night.

Matt was called upon by Corbs and Brownie to give us 6 good innings or so, and that's exactly what he did. Matt didn't rely on his 12-6 curve as much, though he did use it, but he was also throwing it 88-90 MPH with his fastball and throwing strikes and getting outs. Matt went 6, gave up only 6 hits, 0 runs, with a walk and 5 K's. He threw 80 pitches with 51 for strikes against 29 balls. He was electric and dominant against a terrific hitting team in a very hitters friendly ballpark. It's almost like Coors Field in Colorado where the Colorado Rockies launch long ball after long ball. With the short porches in Clemson, guys like DH Seth Beer (16 homers), catcher Chris Williams, who hit but didn't catch due to a shoulder problem (14 homers), and shortstop Logan Davidson (12 homers) launched many balls into the seats this season. But Matt held them in check throughout his six innings of stellar work. He was phenomenal. Reed Hayes, our usual closer, came on in the 7th, as Corbs made a prescient decision to go with a guy who throws it 93-95 to mix it up from Matt's slower stuff. Reed got'em out 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th, but then had some struggles in the 8th. The Tigers loaded the bases in the bottom of the 8th with one out , and the powerhouse hitting Beer coming to the plate. Corbs went to Gillis out of the pen. Jackson not only has the demeanor of a veteran pitcher, he has the look. He just looks tough. Jackson struck out Beer on a 93 MPH heater. Then he got Chase Pinder, another .305 hitter with 7 homers, to ground out to third for the final out. Jackson got them out 1-2-3 in the 9th to clinch the 8-0 victory and a trip to Corvallis to face No.1 Oregon State. 

It was a masterful pitching performance by Matt and Jackson. Jackson could have earned Corbs' and Brownie's  trust as our closer. He sure looked spectacular against a very good hitting team in a major pressure cooker situation.

Meanwhile, Will Toffey continued his masterful hitting in the postseason with a 2 run shot and a 3 run shot. Wow, Toff is hitting on another level. Those were home runs 10 and 11 for Will, and with the 5 RBIs, he now has 62 on the season. He is hitting .350. 

Will was selected as Regional MVP. He was 9-for-19 over the weekend, a .474 average. He scored 8 runs and drove in 10. Ro Coleman was 3 for 5 in the game and freshman right fielder J.J. Bleday had a super game going 3-for-4 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. J.J. had 3 singles. Ro and Jeren Kendall were named to the All Tournament team. Jeren drove in 8 runs for the weekend, and Ro was spectacular, going 7-for-14 over the weekend. Ro played phenomenal left field as well, making highlight reel catch after highlight reel catch. He and Jeren were very instrumental in helping us win the Clemson regional. But the other guys, catcher Jason Delay, Reed Hayes as DH, second baseman Ethan Paul, and first baseman Julian Infante were also major reasons we advanced to the Super Regional. You can't forget the superb starting pitching performances of Patrick Raby on Friday, and Kyle on Saturday. Just an awesome team Regional victory.

Now we head out to the great Northwest to play the No.1 seed in the entire tournament and the top ranked team in the country, the Oregon State Beavers. They are 52-4. The Beavers also went 27-3 in the PAC-12. We are now 36-23-1. We've got our hands full. Game 1 is Friday Night at 8 CT on ESPN 2. Rabes gets the ball for us. Saturday Night's game is also at 8 CT, and that will be televised by ESPN. Sunday's game, if there is one, hope there's not, is to be determined for time and network if we split the first two games with the Beavers. 

Will have more on this ultra talented Oregon State team, and more on our ultra talented team coming up on Friday as I preview this blockbuster matchup.

David Price, Mike Minor, Sonny Gray, Pedro Alvarez

David

I watched David Price's performance from Saturday this morning and was very impressed. David had total command of the game leading his Boston Red Sox team to a 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. David went 7, gave up 3 hits, 1 run, with 1 walk and 7 K's. David threw 92 pitches, 55 for strikes against 37 balls. Craig Kimbrel came in and closed it out for Dave and the Bosox for his 16th save. 

David hit 94-95 some with his heater, but was using his cut fastball quite a bit, throwing it 88-90, and hitting his spots perfectly. He also used his change up quite a bit and it was a very effective pitch as well. He gave up a homer to Manny Machado, but giving up a homer to the star third baseman for the O's is something a lot of pitchers have to live with sometimes. But David was terrific overall.

The Red Sox also defeated the Yankees last night in the Bronx, 5-4, to move to 32-25 on the season, 1 game back of the Yanks in the American League East. So the Bosox are heating up. David pitches again tomorrow against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium @ 6 PM CT on ESPN. David will square off against Michael Pineda, who is 6-3 with a 3.76 ERA. In Pineda's last outing, he went 5 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays and gave up 5 runs on 10 hits, so he's hittable. The Yankees have some lumber though, so DP will have to be really on his game. David is now 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA, he has walked 3 and K'd 11. His WHIP  (walks plus hits per inning) is 0.67 which is fantastic. Like where the man is right now.

Mike Minor

Mike Minor has been unbelievably stellar for the Kansas City Royals (Photo courtesy of Beyond the Box Score).

Mike came in last night in the 9th for the KC Royals and pitched a really solid inning, giving up 1 run and striking out 1 with no walks, getting the victory to move to 3-1 on the season with a 2.12 ERA. Mike was hitting 95 with his fastball. He was throwing his slider 88 to 89, and pitched spectacularly well. Mike looks like he's back to being the pitcher he was when he was really cookin as a starter for the Braves in 2013. Mike has an 0.91 WHIP, so he's been terrific as well. Would love to see Mikey get another shot as a starter for KC. The Royals actually won it on a walk off homer by designated hitter Mike Moustakas in the bottom of the 9th to defeat the Houston Astros, which are 42-17 and uber hot, 9-7. The Royals moved to 25-32. They're in last place in the AL Central but only 5.5 games out of first place. The Minnesota Twins lead the Central at 29-25, so that division is up for grabs. The Astros are 13 games up on the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners in the AL West, so they are really dominating right now. Tony Kemp plays for the Fresno Grizzlies, the Astros triple A team, and he's been up to the big club this year like he was last year. Would really like to see Tony get a shot somewhere. He's just an injury away. He's hitting .288 for the Grizzlies, and playing outfield and second. Tony's such a super player. 

Mike is really hitting his stride right now for the Royals.

Sonny Gray

I thought Sonny pitched really well for the A's last Sunday in Oakland against the powerful Washington Nationals. He went 7, gave up 4 hits, 3 runs, with 3 walks and 6 K's. He threw 104 pitches with 63 for strikes against 41 balls. Sonny's fastball was hitting 93-95 and he hit 96 a couple of times. He located his fastball well, and his curve was outstanding. The Nationals are a tough group to pitch against, the best team in the NL at this point and a hitting machine, so I was impressed with Sonny's performance. There has been a lot of talk of Sonny being on the trade market. If that's the case, I hope he can land with a contender. The Cubs are interested from what I've heard. There are some other contenders he could go to. Would like to see Sonny on a team that is seriously in the playoff hunt. Sonny will pitch again Saturday at Tampa Bay against Erasmo Ramirez, who is in his first start for the Rays and has a 4.09 ERA. Sonny is now 2-2 with a 4.57 ERA and has a 1.21 WHIP, but I was very encouraged by his performance last Sunday against the best hitting team in baseball.

Pedro Alvarez

Pedro is still playing for the Norfolk Tides, the triple A club for the Orioles, and last night he went 1-for-2 with an RBI double to deep central field. That was his 41st RBI of the season, to go along with 13 home runs and a .235 average. That average doesn't look that great, but it's come up so much the last couple of weeks. Pedro has been tearing it up with the bat recently. He needs to get a shot with Baltimore. He's too valuable of a hitter and he can play first or in right field if the O's need him to. He's just an injury away, or if Chris Davis keeps striking out 44 percent of the time he's at the plate (88 strikeouts in 198 at bats), maybe he can take Davis's spot at first. Pedro's a better player in my opinion, and has a ton more heart than Davis does. It should happen soon. I don't know what I'm seeing differently than the Orioles brass is seeing, but I see a much better first baseman at Norfolk than I do in Baltimore. 

Tomorrow

Feature on one of our VU baseball superstars, who has an incredibly moving, powerful story.

Friday

Vanderbilt@ Oregon State

A preview of our Super Regional series at Corvallis, Oregon which promises to be a classic college baseball playoff series. 

Astra Sharma's fascinating journey

I had great intentions to write a deeply thought out  feature on Vanderbilt women's tennis redshirt junior Astra Sharma, the phenomenal Vanderbilt player, but then I spoke with Coach Geoff McDonald and Astra on Tuesday and their comments were so captivating that I decided to make this a Q&A with these engaging two people. This is Geoff's account of Astra, her background, what type of player she has become, and most importantly, the development of her as a person. I also got Astra's riveting comments about her life as a Vanderbilt tennis player, and as a student at one of the most academically demanding schools in the country. Here are Geoff and Astra.

DW: Tell me about Astra's backstory?

Geoff: We lost a recruit to Stanford. It's incredibly hard to recruit against Stanford. They have the best tennis tradition in the country. So we lost a kid to them. I got an email from a coach in Australia that said I'm coaching a really good student, and on top of that she has really high aspirations to play the game. She wants to be a pro if she can. He said she was the best athlete he'd ever seen on the court. He said she was a phenomenal athlete. My associate head coach, Aleke Tsoubanos, is married to an engineering professor, Jason Valentine. She is a co-head coach with me and was a 3 time All American here. She came to me and said Jason has a conference in Melbourne, Australia in December and what do I think if she took 10 days off and went with him to Australia. Sure enough the Australian juniors were at the same time. I said not only can you go, but we'll pay for it. It'll be a recruiting trip.

So she went and recruited Astra. She saw a lot of potential. Aleke said Astra was a bit raw, but her athleticism was off the charts. Not only that, Aleke said she was well spoken, respectful, just a good person. 

So Astra came to us and in her first year she suffered a hand and wrist over-use injury and it didn't heal. We wanted to rest it for 6 weeks thinking it would flare up again if we pushed her. So we redshirted her and what impressed me was I would give her a book to read and she'd read it. If I gave her an article or youtube clip, she'd read or watch. I had her, even when she was injured, practicing things that didn't hurt her hand like her toss, things you did that wouldn't hurt her injury but maybe help her game a little bit. She did every single thing I asked her to do with just a remarkable attitude.

It's hard to be redshirted. You feel like you're not part of things and you also wonder if you can ever get over the injury. But she began to play in the summer and she did solidly. My timetable for her was she's going to develop in a year or 2 and she's going to be quite good. The next spring (her sophomore season), she just took off and she was the story of the 2015 national championship team. Just an amazing effort by her. 

DW: Geoff, where have you seen the most improvement in her game?

GM: Understanding how to play, decision making. It's like baseball, there are a lot of nuances. There's a lot of stuff that if you don't understand, you're not going to do very well. Some matches you have to be really patient and play points out, and others you have to be more aggressive. It's a blend. What we've tried to teach is what we call, ball-court game. Most of the women's game is modeled on aggressive baseline play, but that's not a lot of variety and not a lot of net play, etc.. We try to teach her all court tennis which takes the longest to develop. 

DW: How is she doing with that?

GM: She's improving by the week really. It's just kind of fascinating, this year she was SEC player of the year and a lot of it was in difficult situations against the best players in the conference. She was able to come through.

DW: Will Astra be returning next season?

GM: She will come back, yes. She's going to play the pro tour this summer as an amateur from June to the beginning of the second semester (2018). You don't say this often, but she's good enough to get to the next level. She's got an extraordinary work ethic. She graduates next spring and she'll finish her course work. She's ahead on hours, and she has that season of eligibility because we redshirted her. Back in 2014, that was hard to do. We were tempted to play her, but I'm glad I held off because it's been good for her development. 

DW: Where do you see Astra's future in the pro game?

GM: I think Astra is good enough to become a top 50 player and become someone who plays in Grand Slams. I think she can do it. It's a hard journey, but she loves the game, she has the work ethic, she has good feet and she also has a really big heart. She's got pretty much what you need.

DW: What's your read on your team heading into the Sweet 16?

GM: I know what I'm going to get in terms of competitiveness. You don't know about winning and losing because everybody is so good at this level. But she's going to bring her all and that's all we focus on as a team. You can't control winning and losing, you can control your effort, your resiliency, the way you work at tennis. This team has done remarkably well. They're an overachieving group. We're excited for the opportunities before us Friday. There are 8 matches on Friday and we're down to that 16 (teams) and that's pretty exciting.

DW: How does Astra's opponent look from Cal?

GM: Maegan Manasse. She's a very good player. Each day, there's no such thing as a good draw. Everybody's good, you just go into that match and battle. If somebody beats you they really have to be good. We're a tough opponent as well. Maegan has been in the top 10, but has been a little down recently (she's at No.34). We tell them the rankings are a good sign post but that doesn't matter when you're playing. It doesn't matter who's seeded higher or who's ranked. It's a contest. 

DW: Can Astra reach No.1 in singles nationally?

GM: She is certainly capable. You can get hung up on rankings. Let the computers do that and you just focus on getting better and improving and have a mindset that you can keep improving in tennis and that's what we're working on now. We talked to the team a lot about let's get ready for this tournament not as a maintenance thing, but let's play to get better. We were on the court today from 8 AM to 3:30 PM with 5 players focusing on the little things to see what they can do to play a little bit better.

DW: You really like this team.

GM: Yeah, they're good. There haven't been many teams I didn't love. They have a 3.6 GPA. With all the traveling in the college game and missing classes and your team gets a 3.6, that's amazing. 

DW: How has Astra done academically?

GM: She got a 3.8 this time. She has a 3.4 overall GPA (majoring in Health, Medicine and Society). Her grades have gotten steadily better. When you're younger you have to take classes like Organic Chemistry and that makes it harder to get a good grade. She's done very well.

After speaking with Geoff, I got Astra on the phone. Here are Astra's comments.

DW: How does it feel to get to another Sweet 16?

AS: It was great to get by Clemson. They were a tough opponent.

DW: Tell me about your family?

AS: I have an older brother, Ashwin, who just graduated from the University of Pacific (Stockton, California). My younger sister, Tara, goes to a good university in Perth, Western Australia. She majors in Physics and Biology. She's a smart cookie. My parents are Dev and Susan. 

DW: How was it growing up in Perth, Australia?

AS: We actually moved over when I was little from Singapore. It was my dad and mom's decision because they wanted us to have a more well rounded life in sports and stuff which was a really good call. I enjoyed playing a lot of soccer and tennis, track and field and swimming. I was very active. It was just loads of fun. 

Perth is actually pretty similar to Nashville. It's a mediumish city (population 2 million). We lived in the suburbs. It's kind of a quiet, laid back sore of town (in southwestern Australia). It's not as busy as Melbourne or Brisbane. Still it can get pretty active. But I remember my childhood in Perth being pretty quiet. It's a very good family town, a really good place to raise a family. 

DW: What was your favorite sport growing up?

AS: I always really liked soccer, and I really liked track and field events. I liked the long jump, the triple jump, that sort of thing. I was actually a pretty good runner but I didn't enjoy it as much. I thought it was a bit boring. Growing up it was usually soccer and tennis. I narrowed it down to soccer and tennis when I was 13 or 14, and only chose tennis when I was about 16. 

DW: What attracted you to Vanderbilt?

AS: Actually I didn't know much about college tennis until I was in Melbourne and the assistant coach came to Australia. She talked to my coach and offered me a spot. Initially, I didn't want to come because I wanted to try my hand at the pro circuit. Then I decided to try college for a year and see how it goes because I was interested in getting a good education.

DW: What has been the key to your development as a tennis player?

AS: The main reason is the coaches, Coach McDonald and Coach Tsoubanos. They're the best coaches I've ever had in my life. I think I hit the jackpot with the right coaches. I'm very driven intrinsically. They just guide me and have challenged me to grow within myself and push myself more. Not so much physically, but mentally, and I think that's the biggest gain in my tennis, the mental aspect. Coach, from day 1, has been grooming me, I guess, with the books, and the lessons I learn every day. it's not a repetition, it's something different, something new. That's what I love. I've learned to appreciate so much more about the mental side, how to be a tennis player is what I've learned the most. 

DW: What would you say are the strengths of your game?

AS: I'm a pretty good athlete and I move very well. On the court I cover quite well. My biggest strengths on the court are my serve and my forehand. They've always been my go to weapons. I'm trying to develop my volley and I'm getting there right now. It's movement, serve and forehand that are my strengths.

DW; How hard is it to handle the academic demands at Vanderbilt and be an elite tennis player?

AS: It comes in waves. It can be really busy. It takes big time management and discipline. The day is really busy. I train twice a day. I get up in the morning, train, gym, class, lunch, come out again, hit, dinner. It's just non stop. The key is finding pockets of time (to study). The normal student can take off for a couple of hours and watch NetFlix. That's not an option when you know you have a paper due in 2 days, and you can't really take time off and waste one day. There's a lot of discipline and I think a lot of student athletes come out stronger from the college experience. I'm so much more aware of what it takes to do well in both areas. 

DW: How much better is it to be done with school and just be able to focus on tennis now?

AS: It's so much easier. There's so much more time to catch up on your sleep. My team, we've caught up. You always have a little bit of a sleep deficit during the season because you've gotta study. People aren't always going to have that 8 to 10 hours of sleep. Right now, everyone is feeling really great. Everything seems so much easier without having to do 2 to 3 hours of school work every night. We now go to practice, go to lunch, take a nap, come out again. It's so much better. I love it.

DW: What do you know about Cal and how do you think you stack up against their singles player (Maegan Manasse)?

AS: We haven't played them in recent memory. It's more about attitude and focus. I'm not too worried about how I stack up against someone.

DW: Where do you see your tennis future?

AS: I definitely want to try my hand at the pro circuit. I'll do a lot of that in the summer. I want to see different parts of the world and get to play the best tennis players in the world. So I'm very excited this summer to try that and see how it goes.

DW: What does it mean to get a degree from Vanderbilt?

AS: This has been one of the best experiences I've ever had. It's the best decision I could have made. Getting my degree will mean so much. 

DW: How has the experience shaped you?

AS: It's a very challenging academic school and it's not easy playing in the SEC and having the demands of an Ivy League. I'll be so proud and happy with this accomplishment. I'm very excited to get a degree. 

Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt University Athletics

Scott Limbaugh has built eliteness into the VU golf program, and they proved it over the weekend in Sea Island with more eliteness hopefully in store

True freshman John Augenstein was beyond clutch on Sunday and Monday

Vanderbilt University has made some superb hirings in the past several years. The hire of Tim Corbin in 2002 was spectacular. Tim is the best college baseball coach in the country and an institution, not only in the college game, but throughout baseball. Coach Corbin has built an phenomenal legacy at Vanderbilt. The hiring of Derek Mason by Athletics Director David Williams in 2014 is proving to be a genius move again as Derek is ready to take his Commodore football program to new heights, greater than the program's ever achieved. Two thousand seventeen looks electrically exciting for football. Commodore football is in tremendous hands. The hiring of Geoff McDonald for the women's tennis team back in the '90's has been a beyond spectacular. His program is as elite as it comes in college tennis and will be playing for its second national championship in the last 3 years in the next 2 weeks as the women's team starts NCAA tournament play. Williams' hire of Bryce Drew was superb. Bryce will have us competing for championships both in the SEC and nationally as soon as next year. The future couldn't be any brighter for Vanderbilt basketball with Bryce at the helm.

And golf has been nothing short of sensational under 5th year Coach Scott Limbaugh, who just led his amazing team to an SEC Championship at Sea Island Golf Club last weekend. The 36 year old LImbaugh got stellar play from freshman John Augenstein, who sank a birdie putt on the 20th hole to beat Florida last Sunday and win the semifinal match. Then, on top of that on Monday, the cagey freshman with all the pressure on the line, beat the Texas A&M player on the 23rd hole to help the Commodores capture their first SEC championship in the program's existence.That's some stellar stuff from John. 

But most all of the credit goes to Coach Limbaugh, the Childersburg, Alabama native, who was the lead recruiter at the University of Alabama and recruited Tide standouts Justin Thomas, Trey Mullinax, Bobby Wyatt among other, all 3 of whom are on the PGA Tour. Justin is having massive success. Alabama won the national championship in 2013 and 2014 with many of the players Limbaugh recruited. And he's continued that stellar tradition in Nashville, and that, along with his superior coaching ability, led the Commodores to the pinnacle of the SEC, the toughest conference in the country in most every sport imaginable, with the best athletes, the best competitors, the best coaches. Coach Limbaugh said he got congratulations from everybody, Tim Corbin and Bryce Drew sent texts, as did Justin Thomas and Trey Mullinax. He said the most meaningful thing though was seeing his wife Kate, his two young daughters, Malley and Annie, and his  year and a half old son, Thomas, after the team's amazing victory. Scott Limbaugh is not only a superb coach, he's an even better person. He's the personification of a Vanderbilt man. And we are fortunate and grateful to have him.

Now, while the players take a break and get ready for finals, but also get a chance to relish this phenomenal victory, Scott and I talked on Wednesday about the performance of his team last weekend, what this means for him and his program, and what lies ahead with the NCAA's, as capturing the national championship is next the next goal on the agenda for this tremendous team and their superior leader. 

DW: How's this week gone for you?

SL: "I just now started today to get my feet on the ground. Monday Night I had to hit the road recruiting, so I didn't get back till last night. But it's been overwhelming. I've had so many people reach out to me, it's awesome. All good stuff."

DW: Talk about the clutch play of John Augenstein, the clutch putt on Sunday against Florida and Monday, his play on Monday, how clutch it was.

SL: "I tell you what, it was the stuff you dream about. You talk to young kids, you try to sell'em on a vision. When we talked to John as a youngster, we sold him on doing a first time thing, and him being a crucial part of that her with him as a freshman. My gosh, the shots he made and the putt he made against Florida on the 20th hole, that was not an easy putt. It was about a cup outside on the left, fast, and he absolutely buried it. And then the final day, when Matthias lost control of his match a little bit and things started not looking as good for us as they had been, we talk all the time about, don't wait for somebody else to do the job that you can do yourself. Always know your match will matter, always know your score is going to count. Don't sit back and think somebody else is going to do the job. For us, we had a freshman. And I'll tell you what, I can't say enough about our assistant coach, Dusty Smith, the job he's done. He's been with us the whole time here and the job he's done and the development we've had with our younger players, that stuff just doesn't happen without Dusty. Dusty walked every hole with John and watched every shot this week. And obviously, the shot John hit on the 23rd hole (on Monday vs. A&M in the championship match), No.14 is the hardest hole on the course. The tour, when anybody plays there, it's the hardest hole on the course. The wind was blowing 30 off the left. You can't hit it left, you can't hit it right. The Texas A&M kid gets up there first and strikes it right down the middle. Honestly, John didn't have his A game this week, he had his A game in his heart, but he didn't have his A game because he is an absolute ball striker, and he didn't hit it that well. He won those matches on sheer resiliency and toughness and fight, because it wasn't always pretty. The one place you can't hit it on 14 is on the left, but you have just a little bit of room on the right. He hit it off a tree (off the tee) and it bounced off the cart path and I didn't think he had a shot, but I was allowing Coach Smith and John to do their thing, I just turned into a fan at that moment. I had walked the final round with Patrick (Martin, who won his match handily). The shot he hit, wind off to the left with a front left pin, it's a shot that's going to go down in our golf memory banks for a long, long time because it changed Vanderbilt golf. He hit that thing 12 feet from no man's land, and this other kid in the middle of the fairway, John had just tightened up the hole for him, and he just kind of scooped a pitching wedge short right of the green and he didn't hit a great chip. John almost made the birdie putt, left it a little short, and that kid had a par putt that was breaking about 2 feet and you just couldn't hardly make it. We were really fortunate that the ball just bounced our way that way that day, and that's just the way sports works isn't it?"

DW: How long was John's putt on Sunday, his birdie putt to beat Florida?

SL: "I'd say that was about 10 feet, downhill left to right. The boy from Florida almost made a birdie from about 15 feet, it hit the edge. John just knocked it in."

DW: Coach, what is Dusty's background?

SL: He was an All American (player) at Lamar and he was here for a year with the prior coach before I got here and honestly, when I got the job, I felt like I needed to do things to make my own program. But when my wife (Kate) and I met him we knew it was right. My wife is a former athlete, she played basketball at Alabama, and I trust her a lot in what we do here. We came up here to look at homes, and met Dusty and he just kept doing his job no matter what the future was, and he was just the right guy for me. He does an unbelievable job of relating to the players, an unbelievable job of player development, and just his and my personality work really well.

DW: Coach what are the players up to now, are they in exams?

SL: No, there is a dead period right now, their exams start Sunday or Monday and they're enjoying things right now. We've got good leadership on this team. Am I worried about our focus going forward?  Yeah I am because that's my job as a coach, because as Geoff McDonald has said to me, "Success is also adversity," and I'm well aware of that. We're getting an awful lot of pats on our back, so I kind of give them time after the SEC's, I follow the same model Coach (Jay) Seawell and I had at Alabama. There's a 3 week break between SEC's and (NCAA) Regionals and we're going to give our guys a break, to kind of catch their breath, focus on academics, and come the end of next week, it'll be time for us to reconvene and get going again. That's been our model here for my first four years here and we're not going to change that. 

DW: When is the selection Show?

SL: "It's Thursday, May 4th."

DW: Do you have any idea where we'll go?

SL: "We feel good. We moved to No.2 in the Golfstat poll which is what the NCAA uses for the regional seeding, and I would say there's an outside chance we could end the regular season No. 1 depending on how  (No.1) Southern Cal, (No.3) Oklahoma State some of those type teams do. But we feel good, and we're hopeful that we can get in the regional in Murfreesboro. Middle Tennessee is hosting it and we're hopeful we'll be able to gain the No.1 seed at that regional." 

DW: What does this mean to you personally?

SL: "Oh it's big. You sell a vision to young people and you think about it 4 1/2 to 5 years ago when we started here, the program was ranked 80th in the country and you sell a vision. I tell you the amount of support we've gotten from our athletic department, our administration has been truly nothing short of amazing. They have believed in me and what I've told them we'd have to do, what the vision I sold them on if they wanted a championship golf program. We needed a lot of things and we've had no pushback. So you're thankful to a lot of people, David Williams, and my former boss, Rod Williamson, and all of these people play integral parts in what we're doing. It was special for me. I had my wife, and my 3 little kids there. And I never thought about it being the first (SEC Championship for VU). I told Golfweek that was not a burden I carried with me, even though it's never been done. But I've done this long enough to know that knocking down that door after knocking on the door several times, was amazing. I'm just thrilled to death for our boys. Those guys on this team that bought into my vision because there was nothing that said I need to believe in him other than they just took a leap of faith in me and what we were trying to sell. And my gosh, it's such a thrill to see them hold up that trophy."

DW: Coach, that's awesome, really excited about the NCAA's but want you to enjoy this right now.

SL: "That's right. And that's the kind of mentality I've got. I'm a process guy and you want them to have the time to enjoy this one."

DW: Coach, finally, do you feel like the SEC's were really good preparation and do you feel good about the NCAA's?

SL: "Well when you look at it, David, my goodness, we had 10 of the teams in that SEC Championship ranked in the top 30. And we started the week saying, let's leave no doubts, this is our tournament, it's about us and what we need to do. We didn't just want to limp through stroke play and ease into match play. We wanted to dominate and that's what we talked about, and that's the kind of leadership our guys have, and that's the mentality we had all week. And I'm proud of that. We went into the final day of stroke play, we were in third place and our guys really dropped the hammer on the last 9 of stroke play (which we won), and any time you plant seeds like that in your competition's minds, in my opinion, it makes a huge difference. And we planted seeds in that stroke play that allowed us to really compete in every one of those matches."

Vanderbilt basketball has tremendous postseason opportunity, baseball, football, men's golf, women's tennis

Our Vanderbilt basketball team finished the season 19-15 after beating A&M and Florida in the SEC tournament, both teams for the third time. With those key victories, and a key victory on the road over Arkansas, and a strength of schedule that was No.1 in the country overall, the committee awarded us with a well deserved 9th seed in the West Regional of the NCAA Tournament.

We will play 8th seeded Northwestern in Salt Lake City, Thursday at 3:30 PM CT/4:30 PM ET on WTBS, which is channel 247 on DirecTV and channel 780 on Charter Spectrum. 

This is a classic matchup of two very elite academic schools that have done pretty darn well at sports. Interestingly though, this is Northwestern's first tournament appearance in its history. Northwestern has been playing basketball since 1904, 111 years. The NCAA tournament is in its 79th year. So, it's a huge deal for the Wildcats. But it's just as big of a deal for us.

Northwestern finished their season at 23-11 overall and 10-8 in the BIg Ten. They lost to highly seeded NCAA tournament teams Butler and Notre Dame in their pre-conference season. But both games were close. They lost to Butler, the No.4 seed in the South, 70-68 in Indianapolis. They lost to Notre Dame in Brooklyn at a preseason tournament, 70-66. Notre Dame is the 5th seed in the West Regional. They have a road win over Wisconsin, then ranked 7th in the country at the time and an 8 seed in the tournament in the East, 66-59. They also defeated Michigan at home on March 1st, 67-65, on an electric full court heave and score at the buzzer. Michigan just won the Big Ten tournament and is a 7 seed, which seems a little low, but the committee seems to value the regular season and the early tournament games more than the final games.

The Wildcats reached the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament in D. C. with victories over Rutgers, and a 72-64 upset victory over No.25 Maryland in the quarters. Maryland is a 6 seed in the West. The Wildcats lost to Wisconsin in the semis, 76-48, but I suspect, much like us, they were out of gas by that point.

The Wildcats are led in scoring by 6'3", 185 junior guard Bryant McIntosh, who averaged 14.4 ppg. and 6'5", small forward Scottie Lindsey, a junior, who averaged 14.2 per game. Their other double figure scorer is 6'7", 205 redshirt sophomore forward Vic Law, who averaged 12.4 ppg. Six-foot-8, 235 pound sophomore center Dererk Pardon averaged 8.5 points and 8 rebounds. 

They averaged  71 points a game and held opponents to 65 ppg. They out-rebounded opponents 36.2-35.4. They averaged 15 assists on the season against 10.5 turnovers. They shot 44% from the field, 34% from 3, and 75% from the line.

They have a good mix of veterans and younger players and their players are all experienced. We have our work cut out for us to win this ballgame. But we can absolutely win it. 

We averaged 71 points and gave up 68. We shot 43% from the field and 38% from 3. We also shot 78% from the stripe, which is outstanding. We averaged roughly 35 rebounds per game. MFD led us in scoring at 13.6 ppg. Luke was next at 13.2, Jeff was at 11 ppg, and Riley averaged 10.5. Riley was so good at the end of the season, and really all year. He shot 49 percent from 3 for the year, 68-for-138, that's outrageously good. He also led us at the stripe at 87%. Luke shot 85%, MFD shot 82% and JRobe shot 79%. We're outstanding from the stripe and from deep.

Nolan Cressler, Joe Toye and Payton Willis were very valuable players for us too. Djerry Baptiste and Clevon Brown will be very valuable pieces for us underneath in the postseason as well. They're both going to be very good players for us, and they need to step up for us now. Djerry can really help Luke out and Clevon can help Jeff out with some valuable minutes off the bench.

The keys to victory against Northwestern are, first, sinking several 3's. I don't want to put an absolute number on it, but 8 or better would help a lot. We have to hold our own on the glass with Luke, Jeff, Joe and our guards boarding well. We need to take care of the ball like we've done such a better job at the end of this season. We need to get some turnovers ourselves. We need to drive and score, which Nolan, Riley and Joe have been so good at and MFD can do. We need to pass it well to set up shooters and get some more backdoor scores, and we of course need to defend well. Keep them at 40% or less from the field and 34% or less from trifecta.

If we do all or  most of these things well, particularly shooting, defense and the glass, we'll move on and face the Gonzaga- South Dakota State winner on Saturday. Gonzaga is a prohibitive favorite in that game which tips off at 1 PM CT/2 PM ET in Salt Lake City on TBS.

So gigantic opportunity for our talented team that has improved so much throughout the season and is playing their best basketball right now, which is what you want. So can't wait.

Here is the video of the team's reaction to the NCAA announcement yesterday on CBS. It's pretty electric. 

***NOTE, This is from an email I sent out last night after the Northwestern game, Olivier Sarr is our 4 star 6'11', 225 recruit who we are pursuing intensely. I spelled Olivier's name Oliver. Apologize for the error. 

Baseball splits a doubleheader

Our No. 25 baseball team is now 11-6 on the season after splitting a doubleheader with St. Mary's yesterday, losing the first game 5-1, but winning the second game, 9-1. In the first game, Patrick Raby pitched a beauty of a game, but didn't get enough offensive help, hardly any, and had a couple of miscues in the field that didn't help either. Raby went 8.2 innings, throwing 118 pitches with 80 for strikes against 38 balls, an outstanding strike-ball ratio. Patrick gave up 6 hits, 5 runs, 3 earned, with 1 walk and 11 K's. Tough luck loss for Patrick, but like where he's at.

In the second game, the bats came alive and we got another stellar outing from freshman Drake Fellows. Jeren Kendall was 2-for-3 with a stolen base, his fifth, and three runs scored. Julian Infante was 2-for-2 with a ribbie and two runs scored. Third baseman Will Toffey was 2-for-4 with 4 Ribeyes, including a three-run triple. Super work by Will. Ro Coleman was 3-for-4 at the plate. 

Fellows went 8, throwing 101 pitches, 69 for strikes against 32 balls, an over 2 to 1 strike-ball ratio, so he was outstanding. Drake gave up 2 hits, one run, which was unearned, walked none and struck out 8. Reed Hayes finished it off in the 9th giving up a hit, no runs with a K. Drake moved t0 3-0 on the season and he now has  a 1.00 ERA, which is superb. Raby has a 1.40 ERA and he's now 2-2.

Infante is leading us in hitting at .359. Ro is next at .311. We're playing better, but need to brush up on our fielding. We've committed 22 errors in 17 games. That improvement will happen as we keep developing this season. We're always good in the field and we've got good defensive players, good players period.

Corbs seemed OK with the split. It was hard to hear him in his interview because Born in the USA was blasting out of the speakers at Hawkins Field. Good song, but the volume was intense. He liked the efforts and performances of Raby and Fellows and thought we got it going pretty well with the bats in the second game as we had 12 hits. Overall, he's cautiously optimistic about his team. That's my read on his thoughts. 

Next up is Western Kentucky tomorrow @ home, 4:30 PM CT. SEC Network+ will carry the game. Then we open the conference season @ Ole Miss with a weekend set. Friday's first pitch is at 7 PM CT, Saturday's game starts at 1:30 PM CT, and Sunday's game starts at 3 PM CT and will be televised by the SEC Network. Should be pretty electric  as we get into the conference schedule.

MLB guys

Some super news; Pedro got picked up by the Orioles on a minor league contract, meaning he'll not start out on the 40 man roster this spring but can get on the team with a good performance during March in the Grapefruit League. There is talk that Baltimore will try Pedro out in the outfield some, and then, when he makes the team, use him out there and at first some to spell starter Chris Davis. Pedro had a good year for the Birds last year, so I'm glad they picked him up again. He has been working out on his own and with a coach on his outfield skills and Pedro is an awesome athlete, so I see him getting the outfield down. He can really play some first, so I'd like to see him still get a shot there, too. His bat is too good not to be in the lineup frequently. I expect Pedro to be an Oriole when the season starts April 3rd. 

Mike Minor could be in the KC  Royals' rotation this season. I thought Mike looked good in the minors, and his stuff is ML:B starting material. David Price got a scare when his throwing elbow was having a lot of discomfort a couple of weeks ago. But Dave got it checked out and he's OK, and will be ready when the Red Sox open the season in April. ***Note, 3-17, David looks like he'll start on the 15 day DL, so we'll have to wait to see David start his 2017 season. No major injury though which is the good news. David will be back probably late April.

Sonny has been injured a little for the A's, some sort of lat issue, but he should be fine for the season. Dansby has had a little back problem, but he'll be ready when the Braves open the season. Braves are really building for the future. If they play .500 ball this season, that would be good, and get them ready for a big 2018 at their new stadium, SunTrust Park in Cobb County, which opens this season. Should be awesome.

And I expect Carson Fulmer to be a starter for the White Sox. I'm saying very likely this season.

There will be some other guys who might be in the big leagues this year. Ryan Flaherty should be back with the Orioles. Will keep you posted.  

Football

Sorry I'm late to report this but better late than never and certainly in this case. Alex Stump, a 2015 4 star wide receiver, has transferred to Vanderbilt from Ohio State. Alex is 6'3", 210, and his film in high school is superb. He played a game last year for the Buckeyes and caught a pass for 8 yards. But watching his high school film shows me that Alex is going to be exceptional for us. He will have to sit out this year, but will be eligible in 2018 and 2019. That's good news because we'll be losing C.J. Duncan, Trent Sherfield and Caleb Scott after this season. We have some young studs on the perimeter in Kalija Lipscomb and Donaven Tennyson, and we have some freshmen studs coming in, 6'4", 212 Chris Pierce and 6'3", 200 James Bostic. And with Jared Pinkney and Sam Dobbs at tight end, we should have some good weapons on offense in 2018 as well. But 2017 is here and we've got Duncan, Sherfield and Scott set for big senior seasons.

I spoke with Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig about 3 weeks ago, but have decided to wait until after spring practice is over and talk to him then, so he'll have a better handle on how the offense looks coming out of spring. We are having a Spring Showcase instead of a Spring game this year. It will be held Saturday, March 25th at 10 AM in Vanderbilt Stadium. In the past we've done kind of a goofy offense versus defense format, and coach Mason wants to get more out of the workout. So we will practice and do some scrimmaging. Excited to see what this team can do in 2017. We have a lot of good players back, and should be stellar on both sides of the ball. Hopefully, we'll keep improving in special teams too. We open the season Saturday, Sept. 2nd on the road against Middle Tennessee, in Murfreesboro. No time or TV yet. We play Alabama A&M at home, Kansas State at home and then open the SEC schedule at home against Alabama. Will be tough, but I just say bring it on. I have confidence in our coaches and our players.

We'll also play @ Florida, @ Ole Miss, @ South Carolina and @ Tennessee. We'll have home games against Georgia, Western Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. If things go right, we'll go 8-4, though we want to win'em all. 

Here are highlights of Alex Stump. We're going to like him. 

Alex Stump

Men's Golf

The No.1 Men's Golf team will be in Statesboro, Georgia this weekend playing at the Schenkel Invitational. No.2 Florida will also play with a host of other teams including Kentucky, North Carolina State, Notre Dame and UAB, Should be super competition for the team as they keep matriculating towards the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. The SEC Tournament will be held in Sea Island April 21-24. 

We won this event last year as Will Gordon shot a 63 on the final day and we finished -41 to win by 10 shots over second place finisher Wake Forest. Matthias Schwab, Patrick Martin, Will and company will have to play well as we face a tough field led by Florida. Note***Matthias is playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week. He is close to making the cut. Matthias earned the exemption by getting the sportsmanship award handed out by the tournament. Great stuff for Matthias.

PGA guys

In the pros, Luke List finished tied for 27th at the Valspar Championship yesterday, shooting -2 for the tournament. Adam Hadwin won at -14. Luke is now 21st in the Fed Ex Standings so in really good shape, and with a victory before the Masters, Luke will get in the Masters. So you never know and Luke's been playing better this year after starting off the season really well at the end of 2016. Brandt is 35th in the standings and both Brandt and Luke will play this weekend at the Arnie Invitational at Bay Hill. Jon Curran is not playing and stands 154 in the standings, so he has work to do. The top 125 qualify for the 2017-18 season, and there is a lot of golf left, so several opportunities to make up ground. Luke plays all the time, Brandt plays a lot for a star on the tour, and Jon probably needs to pick up the workload to get back to relevance on the Fed Ex list.

Women's Tennis

The No.10  women kept the machine rolling this weekend with a 5-2 victory over No. 23 Ole Miss. We improved to 9-4 overall and 4-0 in the SEC. That's outstanding. We won the doubles, and in singles, No.5 Astra Sharma got her 80th career victory at Vanderbilt, and Georgina Sellyn, Fernanda Contreras and Emily Smith all won. 

Next up, we'll be on the road @ No. 20 Kentucky 4 PM CT this Saturday.

D Mase gets a couple more huge anchors, Zach, Bryce, team, Corbs, baseball

Coach Derek Mason landed a couple of more commits yesterday and these are two huge gets for Derek and the staff. 

Hoss out of Utah for 2017

2017, 86 three-star Cole Clemens, a 6'5", 290 pound offensive linemen and first team All-State selection out of South Jordan, Utah, dropped anchor on Friday morning. Clemens just won his third Class 5A state title at Bingham High in Utah leading his offense that generated 4,788 total yards and 72 touchdowns with 3,097 yards and 51 of them coming on the ground. Clemens was a standout at a couple of Nike Camps this past year and had a really good camp at VU last June.

Cole chose us over offers from Virginia, BYU, Utah and several others. Those are all quality football programs. Utah and BYU always play hard-nosed, physical, solid football and are always good. Cole fit their profile and ours, so I like who we're getting. 

Watched Cole's film. He played right tackle for Bingham, and loves to bury people. He's got a super mean streak. Likes to get an opponent on the ground and keep'em down. He is a superb run blocker. Didn't see him doing much passing blocking because Bingham didn't need to pass that much because they were so good on the ground, but if you can run block, you can pass block. Work with Coach Dobson in the weight room and Coach Norcross on the field will have Cole ready to go. He looks like he could be a three year starter for us. Again, he just buries people. A typical Coach Mason player. Physical, hard-nosed, an excellent football player. Love Cole. 

Rocket Armed 2018 quarterback out of New Jersey

And we got a spectacular pickup in the 2018 class as 90, 4 star quarterback Allan Walters, from Peddie High School in Highstown, New Jersey, also committed yesterday. Walters chose us over Alabama, Michigan, Ole Miss, Kentucky and Louisville. Allen, a 6'2", 205 pound signal caller, threw for 1,373 yards and 15 touchdowns as a sophomore at Paramous Catholic in New Jersey. Then, after transferring to Peddie School in New Jersey for his junior year, Allen completed 58-of-80 passes, 73%, for 870 yards and six TDs as well as rushing for 103 yards in the first three games before sustaining a hairline fracture that cost him the rest of the season. Not sure if it was in the leg or the arm, but Allen will be fully recovered for his senior season. 

Watched film on AW. Wow, he's got a cannon for an arm and he's so accurate. Superb with the deep ball and intermediate throws. Handles the pocket really well, doesn't get sacked, steps up and hits his targets in stride. His arm and his accuracy are phenomenal. We're going to love Allen Walters. Just gotta keep him in the fold until signing day in February of 2018. We get a super quarterback every year. We've got a stellar one in Kyle now, with Wade Freebeck and the talented freshman Deuce Wallace waiting in the wings. Deuce is being redshirted. Jacob Free is coming in this '17 class, and Allen will be coming to the West End in 2018. Coach Mason and Ludwig are going to have fun with these quarterbacks.

So we have 13 commits right now. Cole joins 6'5", 290 pound high three star tackle Bryce Bailey out of Indiana, and three star tackle Grant Miller out of St. Thomas Aquinas Florida as our offensive line commits for this class. We did lose cornerback Adam Sparks. Adam decided to open his recruiting up. Sorry to see that, but we still have some really good opportunities at cornerback for this class. We already have 86 three star corner Randall Haynie out of Cardinal Gibbons in Fort Lauderdale and 85 three-star safety Tae Daley out of Warner Robbins, Georgia committed to this class. We've got some strong possibilities in 89 three-star corner Yusuf Corker out of Stockbridge, GA, and some others. We're also in it for some more offensive linemen as 6'8", 294 three star offensive tackle Jonathan Stewart out of Lawrenceville, GA., and 6'5", 270 pound offensive guard Jax Wacaser, an 85 three star out of Scottsdale, Arizona are both very interested. We've got some stud wide receivers we're looking at who are very interested in our program in 85 three star Austin Connor, a 6'0", 180 pounder out of Dutch Fork, SC, and solid three star Chris Pierce, a 6'4", 212 pound out of Smithfield, Virginia. We have other linemen, receivers, some linebackers and d ends, and a defensive tackle or two who are also very interested in the program. Will keep you posted as Coach Mason and the staff fill out what is a special class and keeps building for the 2018 class. Allen Walters is quite a start there.

The man just keeps on piling up the awards

Zach Cunningham 

Zach became Vanderbilt's first unanimous All-American on Wednesday after he was named first team All American by the American Football Coaches Association. Along with the AFCA honor, Zach was named Associated Press, Walter Camp Football Foundation, Football Writers Association of America and Sporting News All American. Wow. Zac was also named first team All American by CBS Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Phil Steele and SB Nation. The hits just keep on coming with Zach. And the good news is, we at least have one more game with Zach. Zach led the SEC in total tackles with 119, which ranked him 11th nationally. Zach also posted 16.5 tackles for loss, finishing second in the SEC behind Myles Garrett of A&M, and 22nd nationally. Zach's four fumble recoveries led the SEC and were second in the country. And Zach made two of the best plays in college football this season. His stop of lightning fast Georgia wide receiver Isiah McKenzie was epic and his leap and block of Auburn's Daniel Carlson's kick to give us a chance to win the game was beyond superb. What a phenomenal football player and an even better person. Can't wait to see Zach compete December 26th.

What a huge day December 26th will be when we face the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA. at 4 PM CT/5 PM ET on ESPN2. I'm having withdrawals from missing watching this electrically exciting team play. Can't wait to see the guys line it up again in Shreveport. More on the Independence Bowl leading up to the game next week along with any more recruiting or team news.

Bryce aims to get his team on track tonight in Memorial

Basketball

Bryce and the team host Chattanooga at Memorial tonight at 7:30 CT/8:30 ET on the SEC Network. Big game for us. Chattanooga is 8-2 and took Tennessee to the wire, and the Vols just took UNC to the wire in Chapel Hill last Sunday. This is a good basketball team we're playing, so we need to really play well and kickstart our season. Unfortunately, Cam Justice has decided to transfer. Sorry Cam made that decision. Hoping for the best for Cam in the future. We've got a pretty short bench with just 9 scholarship players, but they're good players and I believe in them. Know Bryce will get this team going. We've got good talent, we've just got to win games late, which we haven't been able to do so far. Shooting is pretty good. Matt Fisher-Davis and Riley are shooting it well, and Luke is playing pretty well. J Robe is doing a good job, and we're getting super play from freshman point guard Payton Willis. Joe Toye, Clevon Brown, Nolan Cressler and Djery Baptiste are all doing a good job off the bench. We're a good team, we just need to win tonight and get some momentum going as we head closer to the SEC opener December 29th @ LSU at 8 PM CT on ESPNU. We'll play a very good Dayton team before that at 6 PM this coming Wednesday at Dayton. Just need to win tonight. Will have a postgame on Monday.

Baseball and the man getting closer

Corbs, Baseball

The Commodores baseball team will play in at least 11 nationally televised games this coming season. We'll be playing the likes of Ole Miss, A&M, Florida and South Carolina on the SEC Network and other ESPN family of networks. Ready to see Jeren Kendall, Will Toffey, Kyle Wright and company compete in the 2017 season as we aim for another deep run in the postseason. Don't know a lot about this 2017 team yet. There are some unfamiliar names as we have a lot of youth on this team. But Corbs' recruiting has been through the roof good, so there is plenty of talent. May take some time for our team to develop and hit their stride, but the leadership is good with the three guys I mentioned along with super sophomores Alonzo Jones, Connor Kaiser, Ethan Paul, and Julian Infante. I like this makeup of this group the more I think about it. Will talk to Corbs in mid to late January for a preview of another riveting season in Vanderbilt baseball. Looking forward to catching up with the man. The baseball facility is fully funded and it's a go as we have secured our place as the premier baseball program in the country.

 Will never forget you Number 41. You will forever be with the program. This season is for Donny. 

Zach, team, Bball

Zach has reeled in the awards nationally and I couldn't think of a better player or person to win these awards. Zach, of course, was a first team All-SEC selection, but he also won four national awards, and I'd say they are counting. Zach was named Walter Camp First team All-American, USA Today first team All-American, Sports Illustrated, the Sporting News and SB Nation first team All-American.

Zach led the SEC in total tackles with 119, which ranked him 11th nationally. He also posted 16.5 tackles for loss, finishing second in the SEC, and 22nd nationally. Zach's four fumble recoveries were first in the conference and second nationally. 

Reuben Foster is a super linebacker for Alabama, but I thought Zach deserved the Butkus Award as the nation's best linebacker. Not only for the national numbers he put up, but also for the two massive game changing-season changing plays he made this season. Zach made a couple of the finest plays in college football this season. Zach had the huge tackle on Georgia's fourth and one, when the Dawgs handed it to lightning fast Isiah McKenzie to take it around the corner and get the first down late in the game and either tie it up with a kick or win the game with a seven. Zach came out of nowhere and laid the lumber on McKenzie, knocking him down for no gain and catapulting his team to a huge 13-10 victory in Athens and an epic finish to the regular season. Then, against Auburn, Zach made to me the best play made in the country this season, certainly the best in the SEC.  With Auburn leading us 23-16 late in the fourth quarter and superb kicker Daniel Carlson set to kick a 28 yard game clinching field goal, Zach charged in from the second level, leapt over the Auburn snapper and blocked Carlson's kick in an amazingly, epic, transcendent play. So memorable. It gave us a shot to win that game. It didn't work out for us, but it was a tremendous effort by Zach and the team on the road in a hostile environment against an Auburn team, that at the time, was one of the hottest teams in the country. To me, Zach will always be the Butkus Award winner. What a career this fine young man from Pinson, Alabama has had at Vanderbilt University. And he has at least one more and a stellar career in front of himself in the National Football League.

Up next for our seniors and our team, the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA. on Monday, December 26th @ 4 PM CT/5 PM ET on ESPN2 versus the North Carolina State Wolfpack. Ready to see our team compete one more time this season and see our guys like Zach, Will Holden, Ralph, Adam Butler, Torren McGaster, Barrett Gouger, Oren Burks, who may be back next year, and our super seniors and our super young players like Kyle, wide receivers Caleb Scott, C.J, Duncan, the awesome Trent Sherfield, the young, explosive Kalija Lipscomb, the emerging Donaven Tennyson, sophomore linebacker Josh Smith, junior safety Emanuel Smith,. Josh's brother, junior tight end Nathan Marcus, freshman cornerbacks Joejuan Williams and Donavan Sheffield and many other young guys  compete. Want to  see our older guys get a victory and impress the NFL scouts and our younger players win and gain valuable experience as we succeed on the field and get charged up for a potentially stellar 2017. 

The coaches are all over the country recruiting. Coach Mason and his coaches are everywhere looking at offensive linemen, wide receivers, defensive backs and some linebackers. Looks like we're set at running back next year. Ralph could be back, Dallas should be back, hopefully, the awesome Khari Blasingame, Josh Crawford, and potential all star in Jamauri Wakefield are waiting to create their legacies. Like what our backfield looks like next year. Other key players who will be back are defensive lineman Nifae Lealao, safeties LaDarius Wiley and Arnold Tarpley, awesome tight end Jared Pinkney, super young linebackers Jordan Griffin and Caleb Peart, emerging defensive end Dare Odeyingbo and so many others, many of which I listed above. The 2017 recruiting class is shaping up really well, and I'm extremely hyped up about the future, but also stoked for the bowl game and having our seniors go out as champions, which they are already. Will have a ton more on the Independence Bowl coming up in the next couple of weeks. Hope we have a huge contingency of the Vanderbilt family in Shreveport to pull on this terrific team.

Basketball

We lost a tough one last night in Murfreesboro to Middle Tennessee, but we've got an outstanding man leading our basketball program. Bryce will get us there. We're 5-5 right now, but we have good players and a super coaching staff. We'll keep improving this season and matriculating through  March. Believe in the man running the program. He'll make us great again.  

We were the better team; got robbed by a blown replay call

Coach Mason said he was going to talk to Commissioner Sankey and Steve Shaw, head of SEC refs, about that blown overturn by the replay ref in our game with Auburn. The SEC has always strictly interpreted the "indisputable evidence," rule in determining whether to  overturn the call on the field. There was no doubt that was not indisputable evidence that would lead to an overturn. I mean right as Kam Pettway was going to the ground he fumbled. Zach made another superb play. More on Zach later. It was pretty deflating and pretty hard to recover from when I was watching the game. I know it was hard on the players.

But it didn't go our way. Still a phenomenal effort by our football team. Zach's leaping block of Daniel Carlson's field goal attempt with Auburn leading 23-16 and trying to put the game away, was as good as it gets in football. Kam Chancellor did that for the Seahawks back in 2013 when they won the Super Bowl. He did it a couple of times that year. He, Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Marshawn Lynch and all those superb players on the Seattle Seahawks were key to  the Seahawks winning Super Bowl 48. But Chancellor's amazing play at safety and blocking field goals using that jumping over the center technique was off the charts football IQ and athletic ability. Zach has that phenomenal football intelligence and super gifted athletic ability as well. He's amazin. He should be heavily considered for the Butkus award and Bednarik Awards. Zach is a sensational football player, a total game changer on defense. As safety Ryan White said after the game, "I'm glad he's on our side."

Our whole defense fought and Coach Ludwig called a super game on offense. Coach Cameron Norcross has done a tremendous job with our offensive line. He's awesome. Our line is so good. Barrett Gouger, Will Holden, Justin Skule, Bruno Reagan, and Ean Pfeifer are awesome football players. 

Kyle Shurmur played a tremendous game. Kyle was pinpoint accurate with his passing. C.J. Duncan was terrific. Jared Pinkney caught a beautiful touchdown and made a super sprint into the end zone for a 7. Caleb Scott made some clutch catches. He played great. Trent Sherfield did some good things. Darrius Sims played well. Ralph and Khari had OK games, maybe not their best, but they ran hard against a good defensive front hard to run, and played their hearts out like the whole team did. They're both due good games next week against Missouri.

Kyle's interception was just a quarterback fighting hard to win a football game. That happens sometimes. I remember when I was a 7th grader, I was the quarterback for our team, and we were playing a rival to win our elementary championship. We were deep in our own territory with the ball, and I looked for my cousin, who was a very good wide receiver and whom I had hooked up with for six or seven TDs already that season. I didn't see a taller linebacker in the area. He stepped in front of the pass and made a pick six. I was pretty devastated after the game. My dad, who didn't say a lot, but always said something powerful and significant when he spoke, said to me after the loss, "You got a good arm." It was nice to have a great father. My cousin and one of my other best friends, who played on the team, have always kidded me about saying the guy was "too tall." It's something we've laughed about through the years. 

So it didn't work out this time. Kyle is still a superb quarterback with a tremendous future in the game. And we've got a Missouri game and two more, and most hopefully, three more games. So it's time to put this behind us and get back to work.

But an awesome effort by our football team. We were better than Auburn yesterday, and I'm personally excited to see what our team can do the rest of this season. We're @ Missouri next Saturday at 2:30 PM CT/3:30 PM ET on SEC Network. Time to get to work on the Mizzou Tigers this afternoon. Hope you had a great weekend. Have a piece coming up tomorrow on my conversation with our basketball coach, Bryce Drew. 

What a drive, what a victory, super Bball news, NFL players, DP, guys in the majors

Very proud of Coach Mason and the players for getting it done late on the road at Western Kentucky as the Commodores scored on the last play of regulation on a clutch Ralph Webb 3 yard run/dive and some clutch play by the offensive line, and the team scored a 7 in overtime and prevented Western from converting a 2 point conversion after their TD in a tremendous 31-30 victory.

With the victory, the team moves to 2-2 on the season and head into this Saturday's matchup with the Florida Gators at 11 AM CT/ Noon ET on the SEC Network with tons of momentum. 

The final drive of regulation with 1:02 left in the game and the team down 24-17 was Elway-eske in a way. It was beautiful. With the ball on our own 25, Kyle connected with tight end Jared Pinkney for 22 yards. Then Kyle connected with stud freshman wide out Kalija Lipscomb for 12 yards to the WKU 39. Kyle then hit Trent Sherfield for 24 yards to get the ball to the Western 15. We had no timeouts left and Kyle and the receivers still showed so much poise. After 2 incompletions, Kyle threw it for Trent close to the goal line. It was incomplete but Western was flagged for a pass interference penalty, so the ball was placed at the 2 yard line, first and goal. But there were only :03 left.

Western called two timeouts on defense before we ran our last play of the game. Coach Mason said afterwards that Coach Ludwig asked him what he wanted to do run or pass. Coach Mason said to run it. We ran it over the right side of our line and Ralph leapt into the end zone for the six. Tommy Openshaw connected on the extra point and we were going into overtime tied at 24.

We got the ball first in the OT, and Kyle hit Jared, who was super down the stretch, for a 14 yard gain to the Western 11. Ralph rushed for 7 yards to the Western 4. Ralph then rushed for 3 more yards to get us to first and goal at the one. After a couple of loss of yardage plays, we had the ball  third and goal at the Western 5, Kyle rolled to his right and found tight end Nathan Marcus open in the end zone for the 7. Tommy connected. We were up 31-24.

Western scored on an 8 yard TD pass, and, somewhat surprisingly, Coach Jeff Brohm went for 2. Our line batted the pass in the air and our defensive backs knocked it down to secure the gigantic victory, that puts us at 2-2 overall as we head back into conference play. We are 0-2 in the SEC, but a victory over Florida could really jump start this football team for the rest of the season. Last Saturday was a huge momentum and confidence builder for the team.

Ralph ran for 95 yards and three 7's, Kyle was 18-of-29 for 279 yards a TD along with an int, but was super clutch when it counted the most. C.J. Duncan caught five passes for 66 yards, Kalija caught 3 passes for 56 yards, Jared caught 3 for 41 yards, and Trent caught 2 for 38 yards. Our offense looked tremendous on that last drive and in the overtime period. Tons of credit goes to Coach Ludwig, Coach Mason, of course, for making the courageous run call on the last play of the game. Kyle and his awesome receiving corps and the awesome play of our offensive line were huge keys to the victory. We just wore them down at the end. Center Barrett Gouger, right guard Bruno Reagan, right tackle Justin Skule, left guard Delando Crooks, and left tackle Will Holden got the job done and done extremely well in the clutch. Really proud of our offense.

The defense may not have had their best game against Western, but there were some super individual efforts and some really good turnovers. Cornerback Torren McGaster finished with 9 tackles and a fumble recovery. Linebacker Zach Cunningham, as usual, had 9 tackles. Zach is just all over the field every game. He gives it max effort every time out, and he is a superb football player. Linebacker Ja'karri Thomas also had 9 tackles. Star linebacker/safety Oren Burks had four tackles and a tackle for loss. Zach and Ja'karri also had a tackle for loss. Zach had 1 1/2 TFL's. Taurean Ferguson had 5 tackles and a forced fumble. Tre Herndon played a super game with five tackles, a fumble recovery, that was caused by Taurean's strip on the Western running back at the goal line that popped into Tre's arms and he ran if back for 27 yards, and Tre also added an interception. While we gave up 496 yards of total offense, which is too much for our defense, we made some big plays. I know we'll be better against Florida.

Huge victory for a team that has now realized they can win these toss up games. Now it's onto Florida. Huge test for the team on Saturday, but I see us playing well and we could very well pull this out. The Gators lost to Tennessee, 38-28, in Knoxville last Saturday after squandering a 21-3 halftime lead. Florida is playing their backup quarterback, Austin Appleby, and he was pretty good for a while against the Vols finishing 23-of-39 for 296 yards and 3 TDs, so he's very capable. They've got a pretty good running game and a good defense, so it's a major test for our football team. Florida's stud receiver Antonio Callaway caught 4 passes for 134 yards against UT, but was hobbled some, so he could be a little banged up heading into Saturday. Anyway, we've just got to believe we can get this done and we will. 

Tremendous victory for Coach Mason and the team. So proud of them.

Huge news on the Basketball front

Superb new basketball commit Ejike Obinna

Vanderbilt basketball Coach Bryce Drew landed his third commitment for the 2017 class. Six foot-nine, 220 pound, 4 star power forward Ejike Obinna from Ashburn, Virginia has committed to VU. Watched Ejike on film and he looks tough, talented offensively and athletically, an enforcer on the defensive end, a ferocious rebounder, and a shot blocker. Huge pickup for Coach Drew and the staff. Ejike chose us over Clemson and Florida, who were other final contenders. Ejike had offers from close to 30 programs including LSU, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Missouri, Seton Hall, Miami, Texas A&M, West Virginia and Xavier. So Ekije is a huge get for the program. Well done by Coach Drew and the staff. 

Ekije joins four star point guard Saben Lee out of Tempe, Arizona and 4 star combo guard Maxwell Evans out of Bellaire, Texas. Pumped about football, but also getting pumped about basketball. Not sure if Coach Drew is through yet. I believe he'll be looking for another power forward or a center before this recruiting period is over. The early signing period for basketball starts November 9th, that's a Wednesday. So, we'll get these three studs in the fold and maybe add another before then as well. Will keep you posted.

NFL guys

JMatt doin serious work for the Eagles

Jordan Matthews caught another touchdown on Sunday in a 34-3 Philadelphia Eagles victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. JMatt caught a 12 yard TD pass from super rookie quarterback Carson Wentz out of North Dakota State. Wentz has energized this football team, and they're playing superbly on both sides of the ball. JMatt already has 15 receptions for 204 yards and a pair of 7's. He's been terrific. The Eagles moved to 3-0 on the season and head into their bye week with major momentum. Love to see the man doing well once again. He's so consistent. Hoping JMatt will be at the game Saturday to help our emerging receiving corps like he did this past summer when he spent a major amount of time with them and told Coach Mason they were ready for SEC football. They look like it now. JMatt is a total stud and his presence on the sideline would mean a lot to our receivers and our entire football team. Love what the man is doing in Philly. The Eagles do, too.

 Casey Hayward doing a tremendous job at corner for the San Diego Chargers. Casey signed with the Chargers in the offseason and already has three interceptions this season. The Chargers are 1-2, but look pretty competitive and Casey is playing tremendous football.

Andre Hal is a staple in the Houston Texans secondary at safety. Andre has one interception this season, it was actually off Jay, and 10 tackles. They love Andre in Houston. He's a real pro just like JMatt and Casey.

Wesley Johnson has played center in all three games for the Jets. Wesley was one of the best linemen to ever come through VU, and I'm hopeful he'll be the Jets or somebody's starting center down the road. I know he can get the job done and done well.

Zac Stacy hasn't been picked up yet. He suffered a tough broken ankle last year and was waived by the Jets before the season started. But I believe Zac will land somewhere this season. Zac is a really good player, and with the injuries at running back in the National Football League, several teams will need a running back probably sooner rather than later. Will keep an eye on Zac's status.

Jay Cutler is having a tough year so far. His team is 0-3 and he struggled mightily last week against the Eagles at home before spraining his thumb. Hopeful Jay can come back and rally his team and get them back in the NFC North race. Jay is tough and comes back from injuries as quickly as possible, so he could be back this Sunday as the Bears host the Detroit Lions. The Bears are still playing hard, but they have five or six defensive starters who are out with injuries right now, and Jay is hurt, so it's been a struggle. They lost to the Cowboys Monday Night, 31-17. Brian Hoyer is doing a good job in relief of Jay. Hopefully Cut can come back on Sunday.

David, Pedro Dans, Tony, Sonny

DP, BoSox, stellar; Sonny (below) giving it one more go tomorrow night

David Price is 8-0 in his last 9 starts with a 2.91 ERA. David has been superb and so have the Red Sox. The Sox have won 11 in a row, and now, at 92-64, have the best record in the American League as Texas lost last night. With six games to go, if the Sox can hold off the Rangers, they would have the home field advantage throughout the AL playoffs and would get the home field in the World Series as the American League defeated the National League in the All-Star game and earned the home field due to that, if they can win the AL pennant. With Big Papi, Mookie Betts, Dustin Pedroia, Hanley Ramirez, Xander Bogaerts, Sandy Leon, and super rookie Andrew Benintendi, the Red Sox have some amazing lumber in their lineup. The Sox  are playing stellar defense and getting outstanding starting pitching. The bullpen has become very reliable. David earned the victory last Thursday over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, 5-3, going 7, giving up six hits, three runs, with 2 walks and 5 K's. David threw 99 pitches, 72 of them for strikes against 27 balls, an excellent strike-ball ratio. His fastball was hitting 92-93, but he did hit 95 in the bottom of the 5th. His change up and cutter were stellar, particularly his change up. It's a circle change, meaning there is movement as it moves into a right handed hitter and away from a left handed batter. It's a really awesome pitch. It's effectively a curve ball with more velocity, coming in at 85-86. Dave's cut fastball has good movement on it too. David moved to 17-8 with the victory and now has a 3.91 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP, getting closer to the walks and hits per innings pitched that he wants. His ERA keeps going down, too. The Sox are sizzling right now. Like where they're headed as we matriculate into the postseason which starts next Tuesday, Oct. 4th with the AL Wild Card game Tuesday Night and the NL wild card game next Wednesday Night, Oct.5th. TBS will televise the AL Wild Card game and ESPN will have the NL wild card game. I will have my predictions for the playoffs on Monday, Oct. 3rd on my all sports blog. I'll send out an email to you guys as well to alert you when it's up.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today has already coronated the Cubs the World Series champions, but I'm not buying the Cubs yet. They have to get through the Nationals and/or the Dodgers in the National League postseason, and face hopefully the Sox in the World Series if they get there. So there is plenty to be decided and nothing is given. I really like that Nationals squad too, and the Dodgers, and I'm still not discounting the Mets if they can make it in as a wild card. In the AL, the BoSox, the Rangers, the Indians and the Blue Jays look like the best teams, and the wild card is still wide open with the O's hanging on.

Pedro Alvarez is  playing some. Still want to see him get more of a shot, he's had a really good year with the bat and deserves more of a shot, but don't get me started. Pedro needs to be somewhere where he is valued as the stellar player that he is. Maybe the O's will give him more of a shot the rest of this season and in the postseason if they make it. Chris Davis is still striking out at a tremendous rate and he's a terrible first baseman. Seems like Showalter would give Pedro a look at first to see what he could do. Still unclear why Showalter continues to play Davis and not give Pedro an opportunity.  I'm still really ticked off about it. 

Dansby Swanson is doing a super job for the Braves at shortstop and hitting over .300. Like where Dans is. He's the shortstop of the future for a team that looks like they could break through as a playoff team, if not next year, in 2018.

Tony Kemp is playing left field for the Astros and doing well. Tony was 2 for 3 on Sunday, and the Astros are hanging on by a thread in the AL wild card race. They are 3.5 back of the second place O's with 5 games left. Tony looks like he'll have a good future in the majors, whether it's with the Astros or somebody else. Like Pedro, somebody needs to put Tony in the lineup and stick with him. They'll be happy they did.  

Sonny Gray is going to make one last start for the A's tomorrow night @ the Los Angeles Angels. Sonny has been out for a month and a half with a forearm injury, but wanted to pitch one more time this season for the A's. He'll probably go for a short period of time according to the San Francisco Examiner, anywhere from 2-3 innings, but it'll be good to see him out there competing, and hopefully have a good outing and get some momentum for next year. Sonny should be back with the A's next season. Not positive with the way they move players in Oakland, but just ready to see Sonny back out there full time in 2017.

David pitches tonight against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The next six games mean a lot to the BoSox for the division title and the home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Just need to start the week off right by taking  care of business tonight in the Bronx. David will face Luis Cessa, a right hander who is 4-3 with a 4.30 ERA. The Yankees have to win out and hope for help to make the playoffs, so they'll be locked in. Dave will have to pitch well. I expect him to. Will have a report tomorrow.

David lost a close friend to cancer a week and a half ago and he learned about it a couple of hours before his start against the Yankees. David's former roommate and close friend, Terry Wanthalangsy, lost his battle with cancer. David didn't have his best start against the Yankees which was understandable. He competed hard, but it's really tough when you lose somebody you care a lot about and try to do your job to the best of your ability. He's still been stellar. 

David's lost a couple of close friends in the past five years. That's tough, but David is  strong and resilient. I know he misses his great friend though. Rest in peace, Terry. 

Coach Mason

 Just a word on Coach Mason.

He's my coach for life. Just like Corbs is the best thing that could have happened to Vanderbilt baseball, Coach Mason is the greatest thing that has ever happened to Vanderbilt football. He has his team pumped up for 2016, he has the fan base ecstatic about this football team both this year and in the future, and he believes Vanderbilt football can be as good as anybody in the country. I love it.

He's done so much to make this program excel both on and off the field. For example, last night before the first practice, the players had a solidarity walk with the Nashville police. That's awesome. The players had some super internships this summer. Coach Mason is not only trying to win football games, he's also helping our guys win at life. He wants complete winners.

We've got a great team with really outstanding young coaches and some super veteran coaches. Our players are outstanding, under the radar, and Coach Mason is a superb spokesman and leader for Vanderbilt football. He's an amazingly good football coach.

I believe the same thing about Bryce Drew in basketball. Super excited about Coach Drew and what he can do for our basketball program both next year and after that. Feel the same way about Geoff and the awesome job he's done with our women's tennis team, and Scott Limbaugh and the exceptional job he's done with men's golf. We have other superb coaches.

But football season is upon us, and I love our leader. He is the man to lead this football program to greatness. I'm a one hundred percent believer in that and Derek Mason.

Will have a piece tomorrow on our pro baseball players, as many as I've thought of today. Some incredible stuff going on with those guys. Pedro is totally on fire. His bat is ballistically hot. Will have comments on the man, Dave, another one of the main men, Sonny, Mike Minor, and quite a few other guys. Mike making a rehab stint for Omaha, the triple A club for the KC Royals. Could be back up to the bigs pretty soon. Pitched well so far at Omaha.

Also, will list some more of our football players who will help us excel this season. Not only will I list them, but I will talk about them, too, what they can do to help this football team have a super successful season. South Carolina not far away, September 1st, 7 PM CT/8 PM ET, ESPN. We need to  have Vanderbilt Stadium rockin. Can't wait myself.

Coach Mason unplugged on 2016

I was reading in USA Today that they picked us 118th in the country, they were showing no respect for us on West End. Do I have a chip on my shoulder? Yes. Does my defense have a chip on their shoulders? Absolutely. 

Coach Derek Mason believes his more veteran football team can play some really good football in 2016, and even better football in 2017. There are pieces in place this season to win several games this season and go to a bowl game. It's not guaranteed, but Mason points to the fact that we now have 42 juniors and seniors on the roster after having massive youth on the team the last couple of years. He's very excited about 2017 too, when we'll have 57 to 59 juniors and seniors on this football team.

But first things first. South Carolina comes to town September 1st for a Thursday night game at 8 ET/7 CT on ESPN and it is a major motivator for this developing football team. Mason points to the fact that we don't have a tremendous amount of marquee players, but we have a lot of under the radar good football players.

"Zach Cunningham and Ralph Webb are two of the most underrated players in the conference," Mason says. "You can't sleep on those guys. They can really help you win a lot of football games."

Ralph is coming off an excellent year in 2015 in which he ran for 1,152 yards and five touchdowns. The 5'10, 210 pound redshirt junior is primed for an even bigger season in 2016. And he has good help alongside him in the backfield, which I'll get to in a minute.

Zach, a 6'4", 230 pound redshirt junior middle linebacker, posted 103 tackles last season with 16.5 for loss and four forced fumbles. Zach is a force in the middle of a deep, physical, talented linebacking corps for Coach Mason, and linebackers coaches Chris Marve and first year outside linebackers coach Osia Lewis.

Mason started off with the offensive line, which he says is a deep, big, physical group with leadership and SEC caliber players. He says his O line is 10-11 deep right now. Left tackle Andrew Jelks is back from a knee injury and that is huge for this offensive line. Jelks, a senior, is 6'6", 305, tough as Fort Knox, and one of the key leaders on the line. It's huge to have Andrew back. We have other leaders in center Barrett Gouger (6'4", 305), who's recored over 50 starts, and senior right tackle Will Holden (6'7", 312). There is great leadership amongst those three. Mason also listed junior guard Delando Crooks (6'5", 305), sophomore Cole Hardin (6'4", 305), redshirt freshman Ean Pfeifer (6'4", 290), sophomore Justin Skule (6'6", 305), freshman Jared Southers (6'4", 309), sophomore Bailey Granier (6'6", 320) and sophomore Bruno Reagan (6'3", 310) as SEC-ready football players. Our line should be a strength of this team. We can compete with any defensive line in the conference and out of the conference. 

Tight end looks stacked and is led by junior Nathan Marcus (6'5", 244), who Mason says can really lead the position and make game changing plays, and the awesome DeAndre Woods (6'3", 238), who is back from a knee injury he suffered early in the 2016 season, after DeAndre got off to a spectacular start last season. We have five or six more guys at tight end who can play big time college football. Coach Mason pointed to the game changing ability of tight ends, with guys like O.J. Howard of Alabama, who caught 5 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns against Clemson in Alabama's national championship victory over the Tigers, 45-40, and Arkansas Coach Brett Bielema's highly effective use of Hunter Henry last year at tight end along with Jeremy Sprinkle. Henry has graduated and is playing for the San Diego Chargers now. Sprinkle is back though and he will be a major factor in the SEC. Stanford, where Mason coordinated stellar defenses, features its tight ends extensively in its offenses and has been superb at tight end for years. Mason wants that in Nashville. We have the tools to get that type of production this season and in the future looks spectacular with all of our tight ends being underclassmen. Coach Mason also mentioned Sam Dobbs, who is 6'4", 220, and whom I watched last year in practice. Sam is a stud. Coach Mason really likes incoming freshman Turner Cockrell as well. Turner is 6'5", 220 and Mason says he is ready for SEC ball. Coach Mason loves Cockrell. 

Running back looks super with Ralph, sophomore Khari Blansingame (6'1",235), who comes over from defense, and adds power to the backfield. Mason is really fired up about Khari. Dallas Rivers is back and also brings that power and has trimmed down from last year and has gotten his speed back. He has all the potential to be an excellent running back for us. Josh Crawford is another more speedy, shifty back, but Josh also has power. And Mason is ecstatic about incoming freshman Jamauri Wakefield (6'1", 215), who can be another game changer for us at in the backfield. Look for Wakefield to be in competition to get in the running back rotation. Coach Mason does not worry about playing freshmen if they are ready and he's high on Jamauri.

Kyle Shurmur is back at quarterback after playing five games as a true freshman last year, and Coach Mason is highly optimistic about what Kyle, who was a four star recruit two years ago, can do in his second season as a full time starter. I love the fact that Kyle's father, Pat, is a big time coach in the NFL. He was the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles last year, and is the tight ends coach for the Minnesota Vikings now. We're in good hands with Kyle as our starter, and Wade Freebeck has made huge strides and is a highly capable backup who can step in and start and be effective if needed. Wade is ready to start in the SEC as well. But we're in really good hands with Kyle at QB1. Kyle is 6'4", 225 and Wade is 6'5", 225. Shawn "Stank" Stankage, and heralded freshman Deuce Wallace are behind Kyle and Wade. 

Wide receiver is led by the outstanding duo of Trent Sherfield and C.J. Duncan. Trent had a pretty solid year last year and is a big play and possession guy. C.J. has come back from an Achilles injury that kept him out of all of 2016, but had a huge spring game and looks like he's back and ready to make explosive plays and critical catches in the clutch. Coach Mason is just as high on sophomore Caleb Scott, who brings big play and clutch pass catching ability. Darrius Sims is back as a full time wide out and always brings take it to the house ability. Darrius can return kickoffs and punts as well and make huge plays in special teams. Latevius Rayford is a talented player, so we're ready to see him take the next step and be a highly productive player for us, which he's capable of. Coach Mason calls freshman Donaven Tennyson one of the fastest players he's ever seen. He sees Donaven as ready to make a huge impact in the return game this season and catching passes. Mason also likes freshman Kalija Lipscomb, who he says is ready to step up in the passing game as well this season. Kalija is 6'1", 215, can make tough catches and take it the distance. The third freshman receiver, Jackson Winrow, has all the tools to be a super player for us, but needs to add some strength at this point. So we're not super deep at receiver, but we're talented. Offensive Coordinator Andy Ludwig will have a lot more weapons to work with on his offense this season and he's as creative an offensive mind as they come, so it's exciting to see what Coach Ludwig can do with this talent. And the future looks extremely bright with a lot of young explosive players and guys who will be back next year, who are veterans this season including Trent and C.J.

Jordan Matthews did extensive work with the wide receivers this summer and told Coach Mason they are ready. Hugely great thing to have JMatt working with the guys. Many thanks to the man who should have another huge year for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Coach Mason will coordinate the defense once again this season. He just says he hasn't found anybody who can run his system like he wants to, so he wants to call the shots again this year. He'll still make all the game time decisions, but just be in charge overall of the defense with help from his defensive assistants since he has to oversee the entire team. The defensive line looks solid led by Adam Butler (6'5", 300) and Nifae Lealao (6'5", 312) among others. We have SEC ready up front. Linebacker is loaded, led by Zach and Nigel Bowden, who is returning from a severe concussion he suffered two years ago. Coach Mason is really ecstatic Nigel being back and about his linebacking corps overall. Should be a stellar group. They're talented, physical, deep, and are playmakers. Look for veteran Landon Stokes and sophomore Josh Smith to be high impact players. Landon had a good year last year and is back and will be even better.

Coach Mason specializes in the secondary and he was disappointed in his group last year. He said his group gave up too many big plays last year, but he says there is good returning talent back led by awesome cornerback Torren McGaster, safety Ryan White, safety Emmanuel Smith, corner Willie Herndon, and Coach Mason sees freshman Joejuan Williams as ready to play college football this season. It's a pretty deep group with a lot of other talent back there. Coach Mason wants his secondary to get more ints, we had only six last year, so he really wants to see his unit take a step up in that department. We recovered 11 fumbles for 17 turnovers gained total and Coach Mason wants to see that make a major improvement this year. Mason's defenses are known for getting turnovers and that is something he wants to change this season in his defense. Our defense has a chance to be special. 

Coach Mason loves his staff as well. He has the young, energetic guys in linebackers coach Chris Marve, secondary coach Marc Mattioli, first year defensive line coach C.J. Ah You, first year O line coach Cameron Norcross, and wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton, who are hungry young coaches and are all electric on the recruiting trail. First year outside linebackers coach and senior defensive assistant Osia Lewis, brings a superb resume from coaching defense at San Diego State, where his defenses were some of the best in the country, and running backs and special teams coordinator Jeff Genyk brings terrific experience as both coaching RB's and the special teams as Northwestern and other stops. Mason is really stoked about what Coach Genyk can do with our special teams. Veteran Gerry Gdowski is back to coach the quarterbacks. Our strength coach, James Dobson, who is in his second year after serving as the head strength coach at Nebraska, is as good of a strength coach as you'll find in the country. We'll be ready physically for 2016.

So we've got super talent, both with our players and our coaches. I don't want to put a number on how many wins we can get this season because I don't want to put any limits on this football team. We can win several games and go to a bowl game for sure, and carry that momentum over to recruiting for 2017 and 2018. I love where Coach Mason has this program headed. South Carolina, September 1st, is a tremendous test for our football team. We also play Middle Tennessee at home, Georgia Tech on the road, and @ Western Kentucky, so those first four are highly challenging. Then we host Florida in a critical SEC East matchup, we're @ Kentucky, @ Georgia, vs. Tennessee State, @ Auburn, @ Missouri, vs. Ole Miss and vs. that school from the eastern part of the state. 

But it's time to get serious about our work and be ready for a Thursday night, Sept. 1st SEC war versus Will Muschamp and the Gamecocks at 8 PM ET/7 PM CT at Vanderbilt Stadium on ESPN. Can't wait for what Coach Mason has in store for us this season and in the future.  

Santa Mason delivers three more to Vanderbilt football, Ryan, Tyler with super games last night and today, Not Pedro's best but hitting really well; Geoff delivers a huge signee to women's tennis

Bryce Bailey already massive and will grow. No problem with toughness.

McLane Mannix ran for 1,600 yards last year. Dude can motor. 

I call Coach Mason Santa in a very respectful way because commits to me are like Christmas morning. Just totally happy stuff. And Coach Mason and the staff delivered three more super players to this now five man class for 2017. Super young men and outstanding football players. Coach Mason's approach is so similar to the Stanford blueprint that Jim Harbaugh started and David Shaw has built on and expounded upon. Sign really good players, who may not be as highly ranked as some of the four or five stars, but guys who you can win a lot of games with and start landing those highly rated guys in the future. That's Coach Mason's blueprint and I love it. He's landed some highly touted players already like high four star defensive tackle Nifae Lealao, four star quarterback Kyle Shurmur,  and serious four star cornerback Joejuan Williams. And there are many other exceptional players in Coach Mason's last three classes who are going to make this Vanderbilt football program one to be seriously reckoned with in the SEC and nationally this year and for many year's to come.

This year's 2016 team has a lot of those players, some of whom Coach Mason inherited from Coach Franklin, but many he recruited. But he's the one who's been coaching up guys like Oren Burks, Zach Cunningham, Adam Butler, Ralph Webb, C.J. Duncan and Andrew Jelks and he's the one who's going to put this potentially stellar 2016 team on the field when we open up against Will Muschamp and the South Carolina Gamecocks on ESPN, Thursday, Sept. 1st at 7 PM CT/8 PM ET at Vanderbilt Stadium, and it's going to be a football team we're going to like a lot with Kyle and a ton of offensive weapons around him leading the offense under Coach Mason and Coach Ludwig, and Oren and Zach and the defense under Coach Mason and his defensive staff. Can't wait for that. And he has been and is adding stud after stud with the addition of the three latest stellar players to this now 5 man, 2017 class. I know I get excited, but Coach Mason and all of our coaches, Corbs, Bryce, Geoff, Scott Limbaugh,  make Vanderbilt Sports something to be ecstatic about.  Here's a look at the newest additions:  

Commit #3-

Grant Miller

6'5", 270, St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Grant is rated a 78, a high two star, but he's a lot better player than that, and his rating will go up as the fall progresses. His father, Fred Miller, played in the NFL for 13 years with the St.Louis Rams, the Tennessee Titans and the Bears, and Grant spent some of his formative years in Nashville. Watched Grant's film and loved it. He's still growing and could be a 6'7", 320 player for us by his redshirt freshman year. His potential has no ceiling. His run blocking is strong, bull dozing, physical. He pass blocks well. Grant needs to keep working on his foot work and his strength, but that will definitely develop under his coaching at Aquinas, a powerhouse nationally in high school football. 2016 VU cornerback signee Frank Coppet had an outstanding career at Aquinas and won at least one state title and close to a national title. Aquinas wins state championships and are always heavy national powers. Grant will definitely develop under Coach Dobson's conditioning and coach Cameron Norcoss's coaching on the o line when he gets to VU. He looks like he has a frame to be a powerhouse. He played right tackle this season at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, on the Gulf Coast between Tampa and Sarasota, kind of the southern Gulf coastal area, and transferred to Aquinas this spring. Love the potential of Grant at tackle for us. And we got a left tackle too....

Bryce Bailey

Bryce is a 6'5", 290, 85 three star offensive tackle from Castle High School in Newburgh, Indiana who committed today. Bryce has room to grow and his film looks electric. He's as tough as an F-150, and loves to inflict physicality on any defensive player he can find. Bryce is a left tackle. We'll love him. Bryce could be a guy who can make the two deep his freshman year, though we're getting pretty loaded up front, so Bryce may be getting bigger and tougher under Coach Dobson his first year, though he's plenty tough right now. Love this toughness of these guys. Bryce can be a dominating left tackle for us in the years to come. Our third commit of the last two days followed Grant's and Bryce's lead and he is:

McLane Mannix

McLane is an 86 three star athlete who stands 5'10, 175 and hails from football powerhouse Midland High School in Midland, Texas. They play some really good football in Midland, and Mannix's film is through the roof good. McLane runs like an F-15, he looks 4.3-4.4ish, and he is a superb punt returner, running back, cornerback, and slot receiver. He can motor when he gets his hands on the football. I saw him make so many amazing plays on film my head was spinning. There are wow moments after wow moments on McLane's film. He really looks like Christian McCaffrey 2.0 and I'm not exaggerating, I promise. McLane is a phenomenal football player from a national powerhouse. Love that combination. We are going to LOVE McLane Mannix.

So that makes 5 along with 86 three star quarterback Jacob Free from Brantley, Alabama, and 84, three star linebacker Colin Anderson from Brooks High School in Killen, AL. 

By the way, Grant had offers from Minnesota, Colorado State and Florida Atlantic, but he's under the radar good, and he will develop. Bryce had a number of offers from schools like Louisville, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa State, Syracuse, and a host of Ivy's. McLane didn't have offers from Baylor, Oregon, Stanford, Texas, and Texas Tech, but all were very interested. Air Force, Army and Brown all offered McLane. 

We're getting super kids who also happen to be super football players. Coach Mason and his staff are finding guys who fit the Vanderbilt mode both academically and athletically. He likes those relentless, tough, intelligent players and all three of these guys along with the first two commits fit that mold to a T. 

MLB guys

Tyler Beede looked super today for Richmond. There is no ceiling for our young stud

Ryan Flaherty had an excellent game for the Orioles in a 7-2 O's win over the Padres at Camden Yards last night. Ryan cranked a 398 yard blast into the right central field stands in the bottom of the fifth to give the O's a 4-2 lead. He played super third base, and just had an outstanding overall game for the O's. Pedro was 0 for 4 with a couple of K's, but his first hit was a shot that the second baseman for the Pads fielded in short right field and threw Pedro out barely at first. Teams put a shift on Pedro with the second baseman in short right field, the shortstop on the second base side of second and the third baseman at second because El Toro is such a good pull hitter. It's tough for him to get a hit through the right side, so I love it when he goes to left like he did Tuesday Night when he launched one of his two bombs, that one  into the left field seats. That was Ryan's third homer of the season last night and 12th RBI. He's hitting .233. The average is coming up. Pedro is hitting .234 with 9 long ones and 24 Ribeyes. Both are trending well at the plate. They're two guys who can help carry this heavy arsenal of hitters for the O's. They did it at VU on that superb 2007 team that won the SEC Tournament in Hoover and was the No.1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where we lost a heartbreaker in the regional to Michigan. David Price was the top pick in the draft that year and was a horse for us as he is today for the BoSox.

The O's host the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend and the BoSox are @ Texas. David on the hill tomorrow night for the Sox.

Tampa Bay is starting stud lefty Matt Moore, so not sure if Buck Showalter will start Pedro and Ryan, but hopefully he will. Will let you know. David is now 8-4 with a 4.24 ERA, 24 walks and 109 K's, which is stellar, and a 1.12 WHIP, which is getting closer to David Price-like WHIP numbers. Again, WHIP is walks plus hits per innings and 1.00 is superb and below that is Hall of Fame stuff. David has a very good number right now. The ERA is high for David, but it's steadily dropping. His last five starts have been outstanding. The Sox came back and beat the ChiSox today at Fenway, which was huge as they had lost the first three games of the four game set with the White Sox at Fenway. The Bosox were down 4-1 going into the bottom of the sixth but scored four times to take a 5-4 lead. The White Sox came back and scored 3 times in the top of the seventh to take a 7-5 lead, but the Red Sox scored runs in the bottom of the 7th and 8th frames to tie it and won it in the bottom of the 10th on a Xander Bogaerts RBI single that scored right fielder Mookie Betts. Betts had two hits, Dustin Pedroia was two for four and Bogaerts was 2 for 5 including the game winner. Mookie is hitting .290, Dustin is hitting .309, and Xander is hitting .351, which leads the Major Leagues. What's even more amazing is David Ortiz, Big Papi. Papi is hitting .340, with 18 homers and 60 Ribeyes at 40 years young. Are you kiddin me? That's remarkable. He's remarkable. 

Tyler Beede had a stellar outing today for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the San Francisco Giants' AA team. Tyler pitched six solid innings against the Hartford Yard Goats in a 4-2 Richmond loss. Tyler had a 2-1 lead, but the bullpen couldn't hold down the Goats' bats. Really? Yard Goats? Colorado Rockies AA team, classic.

Tyler gave up only five hits, one earned, with three walks and seven K's. His fastball was hitting 95-96, I was watching, and his curve and change up were clicking. Tyler left with the lead, but the bullpen couldn't hold it. Tyler threw 104 pitches, 63 for strikes and 41 balls. Tyler is similar to Carson, who is a year behind him, and Sonny too, who's a couple of years ahead of him. They are just battlers, and while they throw quite a few balls because their stuff moves so much with intense velocity, they always get the job done and done extremely well. Tyler was the 21st pick by the Toronto Blue Jays coming out of his school in Massachusetts. That was 21st in the overall draft. He was offered at least $1.5 million to sign with the Jays, but turned down the money to come to Vanderbilt and play for Corbs. I know he's happy he did. He won a national championship in 2014 as our Friday Night starter, played in a remarkable program, and made super close friends for life, and now Tyler's reaping the benefits of his amazingly mature, integrity-filled decision to come to VU. Tyler is a superb guy. He's so intelligent and he's hysterically funny. He shot a video before his junior year in 2014 and asked some of the Vanderbilt undergrads if they knew who Tyler Beede was. The undergrads he asked were clueless and the way Tyler played it up and their responses were priceless comedy. Super guy. Really pleased Tyler is doing so well. He's now 4-4 with a 2.97 ERA for Richmond and is matriculating very well towards the Giants. He's not long for San Francisco. he can very well be on their 40 man roster in September when major league teams call up players from the minors, and has a legitimate shot to be in the Giants starting rotation in the next year or two. I see him being a Giant next season. Would love it for this tremendous and talented young man.

Geoff strikes again

Super player Emma Kurtz will be joining our 2016-17 team

Vanderbilt women's tennis coach Geoff McDonald just keeps getting it done. Today he signed five star Emma Kurtz out of Atlanta, who is ranked No.14 in the nation, No.5 in the Southeast and No.1 in the state of Georgia, a machine for tennis players. Tennisrecruiting.net. has Emma rated as a five star. Emma had a 63-13 juniors record, and is an exceptional student and athlete, who graduated early from high school to play at VU. Geoff likes getting players who are exceptional athletes,  and who have room to grow as players and people  under Geoff's tutelage. We've got Astra Sharma, Sydney Campbell, Fernanda Contreras and Georgina Sellyn coming back from our starting six this season and we've got some exciting young players who will compete with our returners for starting spots, and Emma will certainly be in that competition. Geoff just keeps producing winning players and people. Another stellar addition by Geoff. 

Should be some more commits coming down the turnpike this weekend with Friday Night Lights coming up tomorrow night. Will hit ya back with any pops. 

Final note and just in:

Wade Baldwin IV was picked by the Memphis Grizzlies as the 17th overall pick in first round of the NBA draft. Congratulations WB4! We'll miss you young man, but will be pulling for you hard with the Grizzlies. Damian should come off the board in the first round. Will let you know on that. 

Just in

Damian selected 30th by the Warriors. Wow! Not sure what that means for Fes but we'll see. 

VU Confidential

Baseball team has stellar weekend, head to SEC Tourney with major momentum

We swept Auburn with a 4-3 clutch victory on Saturday at the Hawk before 3,626 fans on a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon. It was a terrific close out game to the regular season.

We got some more super contributions from our freshmen. Frosh second baseman Alonzo Jones and fellow classmate Liam Sabino, who was our designated hitter, both had key singles in the bottom of the fourth to key a three run scoring frame. Junior center fielder Bryan Reynolds also had two hits and started the fourth inning rally with a two out single. Kyle Wright got the W to move to 8-3 on the season. Kyle went six, gave up five hits, with two earned, three walks and nine K’s. Kyle’s been extraordinarily good this season. With Kyle and Jordan at the top of our rotation, we have two super arms carrying us, and we look like we might be solidifying that third starter with John Kilichowski having a good outing last Thursday Night in the second game of our doubleheader sweep of the War Eagles. And we now look like we have some depth in the starting rotation with freshmen Patrick Raby, Matt McGary and Donny Everett showing signs that they can give us good outings when we need them to. Collin Snider came in for the seventh and for one out in the eighth, and battled like Collin always does, but ran into some trouble in the eighth. Ben Bowden came in and gave up a run to Auburn on a base hit, as the Tigers cut the lead to 4-3, but Ben got out of it thanks to a clutch defensive play by sophomore third baseman Will Toffey. The Auburn hitter hit a high chopper to deep third. Will leapt, secured the ball, and dove for the bag and tagged it before the runner made it to the base. It was a huge play by Will. Will has not had his best year at the plate, but his defense has been superb, and he’s starting to hit like he was hitting last year. Will is a terrific player. I just have a feeling he’s going to get that bat going in the postseason which would be a huge boost to our lineup because Will does have a great bat. Ben got all three hitters out in the ninth to record his 10th save. Ben is definitely one of our leaders. Such a heart guy and Ben has an electric arm. Like Ben as our clutch closer like Adam Ravanelle was two years ago. Middle relief is coming along and I think we’ll be fine there as Corbs can mix and match with some arms. Relief pitching will be critical down the stretch. All our pitching will be.

We finished the season 41-16 overall and 18-12 in the SEC. It was a very solid finish for a team that just keeps growing. Shortstop Connor Kaiser, who has been outstanding in the field for us and has given us a huge lift at short, also had a key single in the bottom of the fourth to back up Alonzo and Liam. Connor has had a tremendous season in his freshman campaign. We have a stellar freshmen class. Alonzo played second and had a few struggles, but made some nice plays too. Starting second baseman, senior Tyler Campbell, has been banged up a little, so Zo started in his place. Tyler came in for the ninth. Would like to have Tyler available for the postseason, and have Alonzo definitely contributing with the bat and playing some second as well when needed. Love the Jones-Sabino bats in the lineup. Jeren didn’t have his best day at the plate Saturday, but he’s still playing very well and had a really good Thursday Night at the plate. Jeren plays superior right field. Just need to get left field settled. Jason Delay did a tremendous job behind the plate. Jason is stellar and can hit some. Karl Ellison backs him up well.

So we finished as the sixth seed in the conference heading into the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Met in B’ham, AL., and will play Missouri in the first game at 9:30 AM CT/10:30 AM ET tomorrow, Tuesday, on the SEC Network. I’m pretty sure Sheff will start for us, and the Tigers will start their ace, Tanner Houck, who is 5-5 with a 2.99 ERA. He throws it mid to high 90’s and has 100 K’s on the season against 26 walks. He throws it hard and is accurate. He’s another stellar Friday Night guy in the SEC, so it will be a massive challenge for our guys. We’ll have to get good work from Sheff and the defense, and we’ll have to get three or four runs across the plate. Looking forward to it.

I’m not even thinking past tomorrow. Tomorrow will be tough and we HAVE to win. I’ll go from there on the blog if we are victorious tomorrow. Not even going to talk about anything other than the game tomorrow. That’s the focus for this baseball team. I’ll have a complete wrap up tomorrow afternoon or early Wednesday morning. Missouri was 26-29 overall this season and 9-21 in the conference, but with this being a single elimination game and Houck throwing, we’ll have to be at our best.

Women's Tennis advances to the Final Four

The girls did it again, this time beating Virginia, 4-2 in the Elite Eight, to advance to the Final Four today at noon CT/1 PM ET. Wow, it was awesome. Frances Altick closed out the match with a6-4, 6-2 victoryover Julie Elbaba of UVA. It was a hard fought match and Frances’s toughness and consistency with her ground strokes and her serve were the differences because Elbaba was pretty darn good and an athletic, powerful player. Sydney Campbell lost her match at No.1, but won the doubles at No.1 with Courtney Colton. They didn’t finish the match, but Sydney and Courtney were ahead. Frances and Astra Sharma won at No.2 doubles, and Fernanda Contreras and Georgina Sellyn won at No.3 to get the doubles point for us, then Fernanda and Astra won their matches, we lost a couple of singles matches, but the clutch play of Frances closed it out.

We now play Stanford, which won a hard fought match over Michigan Saturday. We did beat Stanford earlier this season, 4-1, but it’s a different time of year, and Stanford has four ranked players from No.25-100, so a major challenge for this girls. But I certainly believe in our group.

The match can be seen online at www.vucommodores . com and I will have a full report tonight. These are exciting times once again for Geoff and the tennis team. They are a spectacular group.

Will have more coming up later today and in the upcoming days. 

Carson

Finally, I went to Regions Field here in Birmingham this past Saturday Night to watch Carson pitch for the Birmingham Barons, the Chicago White Sox double A team. I was going to interview Carson afterwards, but he had a tough outing, but a lot of it was not his fault. He gave up nine runs, but three of them were unearned and he really could have gotten out of the first inning if his shortstop wasn’t so bad. The shortstop made a critical error and the third base umpire called a line drive ball to left field fair when it looked like it was six inches foul. The shortstop really committed three errors behind Carson, but he was only charged with one. It was a tough night for the man, and I know how Carson is and knew he wouldn’t want to talk after that outing. He’s doing pretty well with the Barons, he just had a rough outing Saturday Night and got no help from his shortstop and a bad call by the third base ump, so it was an anomaly. Carson pitches again June 2nd at Regions Field and I’ll be there and will definitely talk to him hopefully after a stellar result. It was an awesome night at the ballpark. Sunny, 75 degrees, 8,500+ fans, a complete sellout.  It’s an awesome minor league baseball stadium. Probably about three years old now. Great move by Birmingham to move their team there. Looking forward to June 2nd for Carson. Dansby comes to Birmingham in mid June with the Mississippi Braves and will be there for a game and talk to Dans afterward and give you Dans’s thoughts on being in Mississippi then. Will have Carson on June 3rd if the rotation holds like it’s supposed to. Regardless, will have Carson story in early June when he pitches again at Regions Field. 

Baseball takes a twinbill from Auburn, Price, Tony, Women's tennis moves to Elite Eight, Men's golf plays superbly, Derek-football, Bryce-bball

Vanderbilt baseball took a twinbill from Auburn on Thursday, 5-2 and 9-3. VU moved to 17-12 in the SEC and 40-15 overall. We play the third game of the three game set today at 2 PM CT/ 3 PM ET at the Hawk on SEC Network+. Jordan Sheffield got the victory to move to 8-4 overall and really fought  hard in pitching six solid innings, giving up two runs on four hits, with four walks and four K's. Sheff didn't have his best stuff, but powered through it. He gave us an outstanding effort. Freshman Patrick Raby came in for the seventh and gave us three solid innings of relief allowing no runs on two hits with one walk and three K's. John Kilichowski pitched the nightcap and did well going five, giving up three runs on a three run homer, two walks and six K's. Good effort from Patrick and John. That was John's first start of the season as he had been battling some injuries earlier in the year, and Patrick got roughed up some at Florida. It was good to see them both pitch well because we'll need them down the road in the SEC tourney and beyond. Matt Ruppenthal and Ben Bowden finished the game off for John. Kyle Wright, who has pitched superbly lately, gets the start today.  

We got some excellent hitting from our leaders, Bryan Reynolds and Jeren Kendall, who both belted out homers in the second game, as Reynolds hit his 12th, and Jeren hit his ninth. Reynolds' homer was a three run shot, and Jeren hit a clutch two run shot off a lefthander when the game was only 4-3 going into the bottom of the sixth. Both are super clutch players. Our freshmen are awesome. Ethan Paul had a couple of hits in the first game and stole home on a triple steal. It was beautiful. Our freshmen position players are so talented and can fly. The freshmen pitchers look like they'll be stellar as well. Alonzo Jones had a couple of hits in the twinbill and played some nice second base in both games in place of Tyler Campbell. Alonzo played well, so we'll see what Corbs does today at second. Tyler has been good though. Corbs may have been giving Tyler a break and giving Alonzo some playing time and experience because we'll need him in the postseason. Alonzo is outstanding. And the amazing Liam Sabino had two hits and an RBI as DH. Liam's going to be a spectacular hitter for us. He had three hits in his first start at DH against Morehead State on Tuesday in a victory. Connor Kaiser is giving us outstanding play at shortstop. He's been phenomenal. Will Toffey's bat looks like it's coming alive. Would love to get that bat going, because when it is, Will can help carry this team offensively. Big RBI guy. He plays stellar third, too. Ro is solid in left and starting to play good left field. He needs to get his bat going some, but he's certainly capable. We are currently tied with Ole Miss for sixth in the conference, meaning we are going to play on Tuesday at the Hoover Met in Birmingham. We would play Missouri if things ended today, but if we can beat Auburn we could move up to solo sixth. Looks like Missouri right now in the opener on Tuesday. But first things first. Need to beat Auburn today and go from there. Like the way the team has come together this week, the hitting is excellent, and the pitching is almost where Corbs and pitching coach Scott Brown want it to be. A good game today would really help. Would love to see Kyle go deep in the game and finish us off at 18-12 and 41-15 overall in the regular season.

David Price has been stellar lately for the BoSox. Dave moved to 7-1 on the season, with an 11-1 win over Houston at home a week and a half ago as David struck out 12 Astros, and then, this past Wednesday night, DP got the W for the Sox at Kansas City in a 5-2 Sox victory. David went 7.1 innings, giving up five hits, two runs with one walk and 5 K's. He's been throwing it 93, 94, 95 MPH with his fastball in his past two starts, as Dustin Pedroia, the Red Sox second baseman, who is an awesome player and awesome teammate, showed David a video of his pitching from last year and this year before the Astros game. David's leg lift was too low and his glove in the wind up was too low. He started lifting the glove up to his shoulders and lifting his leg up to his waist and is now getting much more power on his fastball. His change up has been superb and his cutter's always been awesome and he has really developed his curve ball. The fastball is still his go-to, but he really likes the change up now, too, and the other two pitches are excellent. He looks like the David Price we've been used to seeing, and the Red Sox were expecting when they signed him. It's great to see David on a roll. Hopefully it'll continue. He pitches Tuesday night at home against the Rockies next.

Tony Kemp was called up to the Astros Tuesday, and started Wednesday's game in left field against the White Sox, and was two for four with a double and a single. The last place Astros need all the help they can get, and maybe Tony can provide a spark. He also had an assist throwing out Chicago White Sox right fielder Adam Eaton, who was trying to stretch a single to a double on Wednesday. It was a perfect one hop throw from left. Tony went hitless last night, but it's terrific to see Tony get a shot and be doing so well. Maybe this will continue and the Astros will start playing better baseball. They lost their opening game of a three game set to the first place Rangers last night, 2-1, so they need to get these next two to get to 6 back in the AL West. They've got their work cut out for them, but there is a lot of talent on a young team that almost knocked off the world champion KC Royals in the playoffs last year. A lot of people were expecting the Astros to be in the World Series and some picked them to win it. I was one of them. I have the Astros over the Dbacks. Something about the Cubs and their 1908 jinx and Joe Maddon and some of his goofiness kept me from picking the Cubs, though they are really lighting it up right now.

Pedro is playing some third base for the Orioles and doing a good job. He had an RBI double Thursday Night, but didn't play last night. Ryan Flaherty relieves Pedro late in games at third, and he's done well. Shortstop J.J. Hardy broke a bone in his foot, so he's out a while and third baseman Manny Machado has moved over to short giving Pedro and Ryan a lot of opportunities now. Both guys are key players on the first place Orioles, who lead the Bosox by one game in the AL East. The O's are 25-15 and the Sox are 25-17. Will be a good race. Curt Casali still playing well for the Rays. He platoons at catcher with another player, and he's having a good season. Curt needs to pick it up a little with the bat, but he's had good hitting games and plays extremely good defense behind the plate. 

Sonny having a tough time of it right now. The Yankees hit him hard last night and he's been getting hit hard lately. I feel bad for him. But knowing how hard Sonny works, he will get this figured out. The A's have 11 players on the DL, which is more than anybody in baseball, so they're really going deep into their bench and calling up players from the minors, but they're still competitive. Sonny will get it together soon.

Women's tennis advances to Elite Eight

Geoff McDonald and his awesome defending national champion women's tennis team defeated Auburn on Thursday, 4-0, in the Sweet 16 at Tulsa, OK, to move to the Elite Eight and face Virginia today. The Wahoos beat No.3 North Carolina on Thursday. Sydney Campbell and Courtney Colton got a win in doubles as did Frances Altick and Astra Sharma, and Fernanda Contreras and Georgina Sellyn. In singles Georgina, Fernanda, and Courtney got W's and the super clutch Astra clinched the victory with her win at No.3. Sydney and Frances were in tough matches with very good Auburn players, but did not finish their third sets as our three through six players really helped get the job done. Virginia is very good. We beat them earlier this season, but they were missing some key players and we had some players out, so it was not a good representation of how today's match will go. We'll have to really be the best we can be to win today. Trust Geoff and the girls completely though. They are prime time performers. Major challenge today. The match starts at noon CT/ 1 PM ET today in Tulsa and will be shown on the vucommodores website. www.vucommodores,com. Huge if we can get this one today and make it to our second consecutive Final Four.

Men's golf with a superb performance at Regional at Legend's Club in Franklin, TN.

The men's golf team moves on to the NCAA Championships now as part of a 30 team field in Eugene, Oregon starting next Friday, 5-27, after finishing second at the Nashville regional shooting 34 under par. We finished second to Texas, which shot -45. Texas is No.2 in the country and we're No.9. Sophomore Theo Humphrey finished fourth overall shooting 70, 66, 69. Freshman Patrick Martin tied for 9th shooting 70, 71,67, freshman Will Gordon shot 72, 70, 66 to finish tied 9th with Patrick, junior Matthias Schwab shot 73, 70, 66 to finish tied 14th, and senior Carson Jacobs shot 73, 71, 72 to finish tied for 39th. We shot -20 on the final day of the tourney and charged up the leaderboard. It was a fantastic effort by Coach Scott Limbaugh and his team. Now onto Eugene where we'll face 29 other super teams. It will be very exciting. The job Coach Limbaugh has done with the golf team, like Geoff has done with our girls, has been nothing short of spectacular. Really pumped for the NCAA Championships. Golf Channel will televise. Will keep you posted on times. The Championships start next Friday, May 27th, at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Oregon. Texas will be tough along with many other teams, so we'll really have to play our very best, but we obviously have it in us after the performance at the Legends Club in Franklin last week. 

Football

Derek and his 2016 Commodores football team will kick it off against Will Muschamp and the South Carolina Gamecocks on Thursday, Sept. 1st at 7 PM CT/8 PM ET at Vanderbilt Stadium on ESPN. Should be a heckuva game and one we really need to win. Would be a huge boost to the team to get this game. Really feel good about our team coming into 2016. There was a good interview with Coach Mason on ESPN.com where he told reporter Chris Low that we are finally ready to compete in the conference. The players are in place and our young and veteran coaching staff looks pumped and ready. I can't wait. Will talk to Coach Mason this summer and get his thoughts on the upcoming season. Looking forward to Kyle Shurmur in his second year under center. He could be an all time great at Vanderbilt before his career is over. Really like what Kyle can do  this season at quarterback and with Ralph, Dallas, Josh and the backs, and C.J. back at wide receiver, to go along with Trent Sherfield and Latevius Rayford and DeAndre Woods back at tight end, and Andrew Jelks back at left tackle, I'm excited to see what Coach Ludwig can do with the offense. We should be electric. The defense under Coach Mason will be terrific. Love the leadership and stellar play of safety Oren Burks and linebacker Zach Cunningham as our leaders and Nigel Bowden being back at inside linebacker is huge. Zach and Nigel, if Nigel returns to form of three years ago, could be the best inside linebacking tandem in the SEC if not the country. We'll have a solid front led by Adam Butler and Nifae Lealao, and have an excellent back eight. Really excited to see the product Coach Mason puts on the field this season. I see 7-5 and a bowl game at a minimum and could be much better if we can stay healthy and play like we're capable of playing. We have a lot of stud players and very good coaching. Pumped for Sept. 1st at Vanderbilt Stadium. Just gotta focus on that right now.

Drew adds point guard transfer; Sehic transferring

Basketball coach Bryce Drew added Xavier point guard Larry Austin to the team this week. Larry is 6'2", 175. He will not be eligible this season per transfer rules, but will be eligible in 2017-18 for two years. Bryce and the staff are working hard to see if we can get a point guard late in this class. With Wade leaving, it looks like Riley and incoming freshman Payton Willis will handle the duties if we don't land another guy. Would love to see Riley at the two, that's where he's best, but he can certainly play point effectively and Payton had super numbers in high school. Samir Sehic is transferring out of the program. No reason given except that he was close to Kevin Stallings and assistant Adam Cohen. Rumors are that he might be going to Tulane, but that hasn't been confirmed. With Damian and Wade leaving for the NBA and Sehic transferring, it would be good if we could add a couple of guys late. We still have some outstanding players, and Luke and Djery Baptiste will be our guys in the middle with the super reliable Jeff Roberson adding some muscle underneath. Also, freshman Clevon Brown had excellent numbers in high school. With Matt Fischer Davis, Nolan Cressler, Riley, Joe Toye, Camron Justice, and Payton, we'll have some excellent talent. We may be more of a shooting, perimeter oriented team next season, but I have full confidence Coach Drew and his staff will have this team playing outstanding basketball next year. I definitely see us going to the tournament. 

Will have more coming up in the next couple of days. Love to see our girls get it done today and baseball get a sweep and have some real momentum heading into the postseason. 

Wow, what a night from Kyle Wright, Carson gets the W, David on the hill today against the Yanks

Our No.8 team, led by the awesome Kyle Wright on the mound, defeated the No.2 Texas A&M Aggies, 6-1 at Blue Bell Park before 6,054 fans.

Kyle pitched a gem, going 7, allowing just three hits, 0 runs, with one walk and six K's. It was a masterpiece by our stud right handed sophomore. Kyle threw 98 pitches with 65 for strikes and 33 balls. He was on fire. His fastball was clocking 95-96, his change up was superb and his curve was biting and just totally fooling the A&M hitters that came in hitting .324 as a team. Jeren Kendall led off last night and was three for four, and he stole three bases raising his total to 23 on the season in 30 attempts. Jeren is a phenomenal player for us and is now hitting .356. DH Alonzo Jones had an RBI sac fly for us and shortstop Connor Kaiser had a clutch two out Ribeye single in the top of the eighth.  Collin Snider came in and pitched a perfect 8th, and Ben Bowden, though he ran in a little trouble, finished it off in the 9th. Played stellar defense also with 0 errors. Kyle moved to 6-3 on the season and has a 1.88 ERA now. We moved to 36-11 on the season and 14-9 in the SEC. A&M dropped to 36-10 and 15-8 in conference.

We face the Aggies in the rubber game of the series with freshman right hander Patrick Raby going for us. Patrick is 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA with 14 walks and 52 strikeouts. Pitching Coach Scott Brown likes him because, "he throws strikes. We'll face right hander Kyle Simonds, who is 7-1 with a 2.83 ERA will get the start for the Aggies. He was good in his last start against Arkansas on the road last Sunday going a complete game and getting the win. This would be huge to take this series.

Carson went six last night for the Birmingham Barons at the Montgomery Biscuits, and got the win, as the Barons defeated the Biscuits, 5-2. Carson went six, gave up five hits, two earned with two walks and seven K's. Carson moved to 3-3 on the season and now has a 4.99 ERA. He has won his last three outings. C is figuring it out. Carson threw 93 pitches with 61 for strikes and 32 for balls, solid number, almost 2:1 strike ratio. Carson is so much like Sonny. They rely on their hard fastball and their sliders and incredible curves and sometimes the batters don't swing at them, but they're such competitors. Carson's fastball looked 96, his curve was awesome and he mixed in his slider and change up well. He's awesome. Carson scheduled to be on the hill Wednesday in B'ham at 11 AM central. I will be there for the matinee and will talk to the man.

Dansby playing tonight for the Ms. Braves. He got a hit last night. Will have a report on Dans as well tomorrow.

David Price on the hill right now for the Sox against the Yanks. Will have that report tomorrow as well. 

Looking at our team, dudes from College Station, pro guys, MLB and NFL, draftee and FA's, Goeff, girls, men's tennis, Scott, golf, girls golf

The No.'s. 6/8 Vanderbilt Commodores baseball team, as ranked by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and D1Baseball.com, are in College Station tonight through Saturday to face the No.2 Texas A&M Aggies. We are 35-10 overall and 13-8 in the SEC, while A&M is 35-9 and 14-7. Tonight's game at Blue Bell Stadium, capacity 7,500 standing room, is @ 6 PM CT/7 PM ET on the Deuce, ESPN2. Friday's game is @ 6 PM CT/7 PM ET on the SEC Network, and Saturday's game is @ 2:30 PM CT/3:30 PM ET also on the S-E-C Network. It's a gigantic series for the guys. Our outstanding vets and stellar young guys will be tested in Blue Bell Stadium, and I personally have full faith in our guys.

Corbs may have done one of his best coaching jobs so far this season, and that's a tremendously high bar. Mixing in our stud freshmen, the top rated class in 2015 by Perfect Game, with our super older guys Bryan Reynolds, Jeren Kendall, Will Toffey, Jordan Sheffield, Kyle Wright, John Kilichoski, Ben Bowden, Jason Delay, Ro, Karl Ellison, and one of the underrated gems of our team, Tyler Campbell,  has been an incredible achievement by the author of Vanderbilt baseball. Corbs has done such an awesome job with our pitching staff, trying to find the right guys on the weekend, using our middle relief and closers so well, and getting this team to play superb defense by getting the right guys in the right spots. It's been masterful. I don't like to compare seasons for Corbs because he's had such an awesome career at VU, with many more seasons to come I hope, but the job he's done this season has been nothing short of miraculous. The freshmen, first baseman Julian Infante, shortstop Connor Kaiser, DH Alonzo Jones, utility infielder and DH Ethan Paul, and pitchers Donny Everett and Patrick Raby, have been terrific players for us so far. The vets have done an excellent job bringing them along. They don't play like freshmen any more. Corbs said they've been with us seven months, they're experienced guys now. 

School is over, exams are behind us, and it's time to concentrate on baseball, both in the SEC and in the future in May and June. We've got quite a test this weekend.

Sheff, who is 7-2 with a 2.29 ERA with 26 walks and 87 strikeouts and was named SEC pitcher of the week for the third time this season, will take the hill for us tonight against right hander Turner Larkins of the other team. Larkins is 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA. Sheff brings a 24 inning scoreless streak into the game. Sheff just needs to throw his 96-98 MPH fastball, locate it well, mix it up with his change and his occasional curve and he'll be good.

Tomorrow night, Kyle Wright, who's been super as well with a 5-3 record and a 2.11 ERA with 20 walks and 67 K's, will face right handed pitcher Brigham Hill of the other team. Hill is 5-0 with a 2.03 ERA. Saturday, our starter has not been named but I'm prognosticating that it will be most likely righty Patrick Raby, who is 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA with 14 walks and 52 K's. Patrick will square off against the other team's right hander Kyle Simonds, who is 7-1 with a 2.83 ERA, and had a pretty solid outing @ Arkansas last Sunday, in a 6-2 A&M victory. They took two of three in Fayetteville last weekend.

Our leading hitters are right fielder Jeren Kendall and center fielder Bryan Reynolds, the two guys who are the heart and soul of this baseball team along with Sheff and Ben Bowden. Jeren and Bryan are both hitting .344. Jeren has been awesome, hitting eight homers and adding 49 Ribeyes. He also has 20 stolen bases in 28 attempts. And he has 13 doubles and four triples. Jeren is a superb player, a stellar outfielder. As is Bryan, who plays center like Mike Trout, has 10 home runs, tied for the conference lead, 42 Ribeyes, 14 doubles and 2 triples. What these two bring to this team are leadership, toughness and clutchness. These two guys are super clutch. Ethan Paul is hitting .315, Alonzo Jones is hitting .297, Julian Infante is hitting .294, the super valuable Tyler Campbell is hitting .281, and awesome freshman shortstop Connor Kaiser is hitting .270. And the importance of our defense cannot be overstated. Toffey is so solid at third, and while he hasn't had his best year at the plate so far this season, he had three hits last Saturday, and he's starting to look like the real Will Toffey at the plate more and more. If we can get Will's bat going again, and it's looking promising, that would be a huge boost to the lineup. Julian is playing excellent first base and his bat is phenomenal. Against Western Kentucky this past Tuesday Night, Julian was two for three with a double and a triple and three Ribeyes. In the 6-1 victory over Western Ky,  Corbs started freshman Matt McGary, who gave us a solid start, and used a bullpen by committee to finish it off. Julian also had a huge two run shot against Georgia last Sunday in a 10-3 victory, as we swept Georgia over last weekend. We hit four homers on Sunday. Jeren, Julian, Ethan and Karl all went yard. We crushed the ball last weekend. I know we can keep that up. Will is doing a tremendous job at the Hot Corner and Julian has first base covered, and our middle infield of Tyler at second and Connor at short has been spectacular. Ellison and the awesome Jason Delay have been terrific behind the plate and the Kendall-Reynolds combination in the outfield is second to none in the country. Ro is doing a solid job in left and Nolan Rogers gives Ro some help later in the game. I love our defense.

This other team has some hitting. They lead the conference in homers with 44. Third baseman Boomer White, who hits third, leads the other team in hitting at .437. He hasn't faced Sheff, Kyle or our staff yet though. Shortstop Austin Homan is hitting .370, and first baseman Hunter Melton is hitting .368 with 10 homers, tied with Reynolds for the SEC lead, and 56 ribbies. Catcher Michael Barash is hitting .313. Center fielder Nick Choruby is hitting .317. They hit .326 as a team, which leads the conference. We're hitting .284, but we're on a tear. We can definitely hit with these guys. Their team ERA is 3.21 and their fielding percentage is .980. Our team ERA is 2.97 and we're fielding at a .977 percentage. Over the last eight games, we've only committed two errors and are fielding at a .993 percentage. That's super. 

Prediction:

Like our coach always does, I'm just going to predict tonight's game and give a daily report with predictions every day this weekend. Of course, I'm hoping for a sweep, but I believe in the Tim Corbin, be the best you can be today approach. Tonight, Sheff, the defense, and timely hitting get the job done for us. 

VU 4, them 3

I'll have a lot more on our team and this series coming up this weekend.

MLB guys, new NFL guys, and guys who've already made their  mark in the National Football League

David Price had an interesting outing versus the Bronx Bombers last Sunday night at Fenway. DP struggled a little, but settled down late in the game and his tremendous hitters and defenders behind him and some timely pitching by the man, led the Sox to 8-7 victory over the Yankees. David had some trouble with A-Rod, giving up a homer and a double and four ribbies to Alex, but David retired all three batters in order in the top of the sixth, and got dangerous hitters Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner and A-Rod in order in the seventh to keep the game tied at 6. The Sox scored two in the bottom of the seventh and held on for the victory. David moved to 4-0. His ERA is 6.14, not up to his standards by any means, and his WHIP is 1.28, not his usual standard either. But he's only walked nine and struck out 49 in six appearances. David has faced some tough hitting teams, like he always does in the AL East. He'll get that ERA and WHIP down. His strikeout to walk ratio is superb. Have full faith in the man. His fastball is clocking at 92-93 right now, but he'll get that velocity up as the season progresses and his change up has really become a go-to pitch like his fastball and his cutter, which comes up at 88-89, and is a very good pitch for him. His curve is still coming along. 

David goes Saturday @ Yankee Stadium vs. the Bombers. He'll face Nathan Eovaldi, who is 1-2 with a 5.49 ERA. That's who he faced Sunday. The Sox got 10 hits off Eovaldi and scored six runs. Game time is 1:05 PM ET/12:05 PM CT in New Yawk.

Sonny got roughed up pretty hard by the Mariners, going only two innings, giving up two hits four runs with four walks and two K's. He just couldn't find the strike zone and it cost him. Sonny is now 3-2 with a 3.81 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP, not as Sonny-like as usual. He has walked 15 and struck out 26. Still believe Sonny will turn it around. He'll face the BoSox Monday Night and will pitch against Clay Bucholtz.

Pedro was three-for-five last Saturday Night for the Orioles in a 10-7 loss to the outstanding Chicago White Sox. Chicago is loaded this season on both the North and South sides. The Cubs are unreal at 20-6, and the ChiSox are 19-9. Pedro had an RBI double and a solo home run, his first of the season, last Saturday. He's hitting mostly against right handers, but if he can get that bat really going, Buck Showalter may use him against lefties down the road. 

Ryan Flaherty has played third base the last two nights for the O's and has been his usual stellar self on defense. He got a hit last night. Still believe Pedro and Ryan can be highly productive players for the O's. 

Mike Minor could be back with the KC Royals at the end of this month. Would love to see Mike get back out there ASAP. Know he's ready.

I went to the Birmingham Barons game last Friday Night as a media member to watch one Carson Fulmer pitch for the Barons against Pensacola. Carson, picked eighth by the White Sox in the 2015 draft, was scheduled, but I got to the game and was walking to Regions Field and all of the sudden a massive thunderstorm hit. The game was postponed till the following night at 5 PM, so I watched it on the computer as I couldn't make it to the game. Carson pitched well going six in a seven inning game, as it was a makeup doubleheader after Friday night's rainout, he gave up five hits, three earned, with one walk and three K's in an 8-3 Barons' victory. He's 2-3 with a 5.47 ERA. It's an adjustment for him pitching in double A, but he's had two solid starts his last two times out and he's getting it. He's pitching next week either Tuesday or Wednesday and I'm definitely going to be at the game and interview Carson. Will have a full report on Carson next week the day after he pitches. 

Dansby will be coming over to play the Barons in mid June with the Mississippi Braves, the double A team for Atlanta. Have it already scheduled with the Braves to interview Dans after the game and will have a full report on Dans as well.

NFL, Derek

Now former VU defensive end Stephen Weatherly was drafted in the seventh round by the Minnesota Vikings. Proud for Stephen. Hopefully, he'll have a super camp and take off in Minnesota. Also d end Caleb Azubike signed with Dallas as a free agent, Offensive guard Jake Bernstein went to KC as an FA, and the rest of our guys were free agent signees; linebacker Darreon Herring to the LA Rams, center Spencer Pulley to San Diego, tight end Steven Scheu signed with New England and safety Andrew Williamson signed with Indianapolis. Hope all seven can really develop and become great professionals joining our established guys, Jay, JMatt, Casey and Andre Hal. Andre had a huge year for the Houston Texans with four ints. Andre's awesome. Casey had a good year for the Packers, Jay did a lot of good things for the Bears and I'm pretty pumped about him and his team next year, and JMatt was super for the Eagles and the future looks bright there, too.

Derek and his staff starting to prepare more and more for our opener Thursday Night, Sept. 1, at home versus South Carolina.  This game is so big for us. Winning that game would be a tremendous boost to our team. I know Coach Mason and all the coaches have already been scouring over SC stuff for quite a while now. Coach James Dobson has the players in the weight room now, and he'll get'em ready for Coach Mason and the staff to take over in August. Like I said in another post earlier, I love the mix of our new young coaches with our stellar veterans. Really excited to see what Coach Mason and the team can do next year and in the future. 

Basketball

Don't have a lot to report. Coach Drew is out recruiting hard along with his staff. Could be a player or two we add soon, maybe another freshman and a transfer. We're looking at some point guards as the loss of Wade hurts some, and we might add a big man with the loss of Damian. Both Wade and Damian are going to the NBA. I like the potential of this team next year though. We have a lot of good talent returning and I'm a believer in Bryce. He's going to have us playing deep in the postseason sooner rather than later.

Geoff, women's tennis

Geoff and his sixth ranked girls will be hosting Ohio Valley Conference champion Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, the No. 31 Clemson Tigers and C-USA champions Rice at the Vanderbilt Currey Tennis Center May 13th-14th in the NCAA Tournament. This is our 22nd consecutive NCAA appearance. That's terrific. Clemson will play Rice in the first match on Friday, May 13th, at 1 PM CT and we'll play SIUE after that. We finished the regular season with a record of 19-5 and are the sixth overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Geoff likes where the team is at right now. He feels like we're peaking well for the NCAA's.  We'll need to get great play from our leaders, Sydney Campbell, Frances Altick and Astra Sharma, and also stellar play from Courtney Colton, Georgina Sellyn and Fernanda Contreras. The other four teams in our pod are 11th seeded Auburn, Alcorn State, Arizona State and NC State. The top team from each of the 16 regional sites goes to the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma May 19th-24th. 

Scott, Men's golf

Scott Limbaugh and our 9th ranked men's golf team will be hosting an NCAA regional site with 12 other teams at the Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee, May 16th-18th. We will host a 54 hole tournament and the top five teams from our site will qualify for the NCAA Championships to be played in Eugene, Oregon at Eugene Country Club, May 27th-June 1st. We will need great play from Matthias Schwab, Patrick Martin, Will Gordon and the rest of our guys to advance to Eugene. We have some quality teams at our regional with No.2 Texas, No. 14 LSU and No. 23 Washington among the 13 teams competing. Looking forward to keeping up with our guys as they try to go the distance this year.

The Men's tennis team and the women's golf team also made the NCAA's. Great stuff from Men's tennis coach Ian Duvenhage and women's golf coach Greg Allen. The 34th ranked men's team is making its 15th NCAA tournament appearance and will be a part of the LA regional hosted by third overall seed UCLA out on the left coast. We will open Friday, May 13th against San Diego University. We have four upset victories this season over top 25 opponents. and we reached the SEC semis. No.2 UCLA plays Weber State in the other match in Los Angeles.

The women's golf team is at Shoal Creek, Alabama today playing in their NCAA tournament. We need to get in the top 5 also to reach the NCAA Championships.  

Good stuff for the Vanderbilt baseball team with some young guys making their mark; young, energetic assistants on football staff; men's golf

Our No.5 baseball team won over Middle Tennessee State Tuesday night at home, 7-4, and it was a really good game for us in a lot of ways. Jeren Kendall and Bryan Reynolds were both two-for-four, Jeren with a ribbie and Bryan with two. Reynolds hit his 10th double of the season. Freshman Ethan Paul played first and was three-for-five with a triple. Great stuff from Ethan. Freshman Connor Kaiser played short and was two for three with three runs scored. We turned two double plays. Senior Tyler Campbell played second, and this combo of Kaiser and Campbell at short and second really seems to be working out well. Corbs has been working different combinations to see if he can find the right one. Looks like he has his up the middle crew intact now. Some other good news in the hitting and pitching departments were that two of our freshman who had been hurt, both played last night and played well. Freshman Julian Infante, who can play either corner of the infield, came in as a pinch hitter and got a base hit, a sharp hit to the outfield. Heard an interview with Julian afterwards. Awesome kid. He'll help us this year. Also, freshman Donnie Everett came in and pitched an inning, and threw 14 pitches, 12 for strikes, he didn't allow a run and was outstanding. Lefty Ryan Johnson started and pitched four innings for us and did a nice job. Collin Snider kind of got knocked around a little bit in an inning of work, giving up three hits and two runs, but I still believe in Collin. He'll keep getting better. Matt Ruppenthal gave us two superb innings with no runs, no hits, no walks and three K's. Matt kind of had a rough outing against LSU last Saturday, but he is super talented. Then, some other great news, John Kilichowski, who is just getting back from injury, he pitched last Saturday at LSU, pitched an inning and struck out all three batters he faced. Great to see John back out there and pitching well. John can really help us, maybe even as a weekend guy. We'll see what Corbs wants to do with John. Always have loved John's arm and he gives us another stellar lefty along with Ben Bowden. 

Overall, a good performance from the team as we head into a huge weekend series at home against the Kentucky Wildcats, which are ranked No.18 in the country. We are 26-7 overall and 7-5 in the conference. Kentucky is 8-4 in the SEC and 22-10 overall. They lost to No.9 Louisville at home last night, 9-6. But they have taken two of three from No. 3 Florida at home and took two of three from Alabama last weekend at home. We'll more than likely go with Jordan Sheffield Friday Night, Kyle Wright on Saturday, and I imagine Sunday is to be determined. Maybe Hayden Stone, maybe Kilichowski. Both solid arms. Friday night's game is at 6:30 PM CT/7:30 PM ET, Saturday's game is at 2 PM CT/3 PM ET, and Sunday's game is at 1 PM CT/2 PM ET. Friday and Saturday's games are on SEC Network+ online, but Sunday's game is not scheduled to be broadcast on video. If you want to keep up with the game, you may need to get on gametracker on the vucommodores.com website. Big deal for the team this weekend. Will have Kentucky's starters and ours as soon as it is announced on the vucommodores.com website.

MLB guys

Pedro went one for two for the Orioles last night against the BoSox at Fenway. He hit a solid single to right and had two walks and a ground out to second. The Sox won 4-2 but really needed it. The Orioles came into the game at 7-0 and David and the Sox needed to catch up in the standings. The BoSox moved to 4-4 on the season and the O's dropped to 7-1. It's tough when it's Pedro's and Ryan Flaherty's team versus David's team, but had to pull for the Sox last night, even though I was really pulling for Pedro to do well. Wanted David and the Sox to get the victory to get closer to the red hot O's. The Yankees are in second in the AL East at 4-3 and the BoSox are third at 4-4, while the Jays, another stellar team, are 4-5. DP pitches against the Jays on Sunday at Fenway. Game time is 12:35 PM CT/1:35 PM ET. DP is facing Aaron Sanchez of Toronto who is 0-0 in two starts, but has a 1.38 ERA and an 0.85 WHIP, walks plus hits per innings pitched, which is an excellent number. David is 1-0 with a 5.73 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP. He'll get those numbers down. Just had a rough inning against the O's on Monday, but pitching well overall. He was hitting 93-94 consistently against the O's and hit 95 one time. His change up was pretty good, too, and he threw some pretty good cutters. Didn't really throw the curve though it's really become a pretty good pitch for him. It's a tough assignment pitching against these hitting juggernauts in the AL East. Toronto has huge bats with Josh Donaldson, Joey Bats, Edwin Encarnacion and a host of others. So it's a tough challenge for Dave. The Yankees are a hitting machine as well, and Dave will see them a lot. Will look forward to watching Dave on Sunday.

Sonny goes Sunday against another tough team to beat, the defending world champion KC Royals. Kris Medlin will face Sonny, and he's very good. Sonny is 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA and a 1.20 WHiP. Both David's and Sonny's WHIP numbers will go down. Medlin is 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA and a 2.00 WHIP, which is pretty high. But he's solid and the Royals' lineup is tough. Sonny will be severely tested.

Great to see Pedro start hitting it. Would love to see him get hot. Ryan hasn't seen a ton of action, but he'll get his opportunities, and Curt Casali is platooning at catcher in Tampa. The A's are 4-6 and the Rays are 3-5.

Football

There was a great story yesterday or the day before about four of our young football assistants on vucommodores.com.

Cortez Hankton, our wide receivers coach, is 35, and did a great job coaching wide outs at Dartmouth. Cortez enters his second season under Coach Mason and Coach Ludwig, and I'm ready to see what he can do with Trent Sherfield, C.J. Duncan and Caleb Scott among others.

C.J. Ah You, 33, is our defensive line coach, and in his first year. The kids love him and he's played in the NFL and for Oklahoma where he was a very good player. I think he'll do well with Adam Butler, Nifae Lealao, Jay Woods and the rest of our d line. Like what C. J. can bring to the staff and to the players on the d line.

Chris Marve, 26, a former stud Commodore linebacker, will be coaching our inside linebackers. Chris is such a hard worker, I watched him last year in practice and in games and he's got an amazing motor and passion for coaching. Chris is super smart. He worked as a defensive graduate assistant for Coach Mason last year, and is in his first year as inside linebackers coach. Love what he can do with Zach Cunningham, Nigel Bowden and company. They really will play hard for him, and they will be coached up well.

Marc Mattioli, 26, will take over the secondary this season for Coach Mason. Mattioli is in his second year on the staff and will run the whole secondary for the first time, as former cornerbacks coach Brett Maxie took a secondary job for the Tampa Bay Bucs. Coach Mason will work closely with Marc, as Coach Mason is heavily involved in the secondary, so safety Oren Burks and cornerback Torren McGaster, our leaders and terrific players, will be really coached up well by Coach Mattioli and Coach Mason. Coach Mason will again run the defense. He will have a major influence on the secondary.

Three things I love about this: 1. Our young coaches will have super energy on the field and in their coaching, 2. they will recruit through the roof, and 3. working for Coach Mason, and with our veteran coaches, new outside linebackers coach Osia Lewis, who came over after a highly esteemed 25 year career including his last stop at San Diego State, which was an excellent team with an outstanding defense, veteran coach Jeff Genyk, who will be in his first year and coach running backs and special teams. Coach Ludwig, Coach Genyk, Coach Hankton, and first year coach, but veteran, offensive line coach Cameron Norcross, who came over from Fresno State where he had major success should be an outstanding combination. Really excited about the addition of Coach Norcross. He's 38 and brings a ton of energy and toughness to our o line and will be an excellent recruiter. And Coach Gerry Gdowski will coach our quarterbacks and be our recruiting coordinator. So I love this staff. Our young coaches are going to be outstanding working with our veteran coaches and our veteran and young players. Pretty excited for South Carolina, Thursday, Sept. 1st, time to be determined, at Vanderbilt Stadium. 

Men's Golf

The No.7 men's golf team will be competing in the SEC championship in Sea Island, Georgia this weekend. The guys will tee it up on the par-70, 7,055 yard course with number one seed Georgia and number two seed Auburn tomorrow at 7:30 AM ET/6:30 AM CT. We are the number three seed. You can keep up with the tournament on golfstat.com, which will show the leaderboard and stats. Junior Matthias Schwab and freshmen Patrick Martin and Will Gordon are our horses, but we've gotten good play from Theo Humphrey and Carson Jacobs as well. We'll need all five to play well.

Women's tennis

The girls are in action against Auburn and Alabama, Friday and Sunday, respectively. We play Auburn tomorrow at 4 PM CT at home, and play Alabama Sunday at 1 PM CT at home as well. We are 16-4 overall and 9-2 in the SEC and ranked No.6 in the country by the ITA rankings. The SEC tournament starts next Wednesday, 4-20, in Baton Rouge, so we really need a good day tomorrow and Sunday to get ready for the conference tourney.  

Final Note

Fes Ezeli had four points, six boards and a block at the Golden State Warriors behind the almost other worldly Steph Curry and his 46 points defeated the Memphis Grizzlies, 125-104. The Warriors finished the season 73-9, and set the record for regular season victories in an NBA season eclipsing the Chicago Bulls' 72 victories in 1996. Now, it's onto the playoffs. Fes looks back after being injured for a while. It was his sixth game and he was active and outstanding. I see Fes playing a big role on the team in the postseason. 

A lot of people are comparing the Warriors and those Bulls and, in an ESPN poll, gave the Bulls the edge if they had the home court advantage, the Warriors the edge if they had the home court advantage, and the Bulls the edge on a neutral court. They were and are both tremendous teams with outrageously good superstars in Michael and Steph. Would be interesting to have seen these two hook up in a championship series. Kind of fun to think about. I kind of agree with the poll. The Bulls with the  home court advantage and on a neutral court might have won, but the Warriors are as tough an out as you can get.   

 

Not a great day-night for Dave and Sonny, but the women's tennis team keeps truckin

Not a very good day for David Price at Fenway Park in the BoSox home opener at Fenway against the Orioles. David was spotted a three run lead, but couldn't hold it. With a 3-0 lead in the top of the third, he gave up a two run single to Chris "Crash Davis" and then a three run shot to Mark Trumbo to go down, 5-3. The Red Sox came back and tied it in the sixth, but Craig Kimbrel, a big offseason pickup by the Sox along with David, gave up a three run homer to Davis in the top of the ninth as the BoSox took a 9-7 loss to the O's. The Sox dropped to 3-3 on the season and the Orioles moved to 6-0. Pedro wasn't the designated hitter and Ryan Flaherty came in late and had one at bat with a strikeout, but the Orioles, with their massive power, kind of like the Orioles under the legendary Earl Weaver in the late 60's and 70's, used their long ball to stay unblemished in the AL East. The Orioles are at Boston today and tomorrow as part of a three game set.

David went five, gave up five hits, five runs, all earned, with two walks and eight K's. He threw 103 pitches with 65 for strikes and 38 balls, not his typical command. He was hitting 93 consistently and hit 94 and even 95 one time, but the Orioles were just a Bash Brothers group that were extremely hard to pitch against. Kimbrel, to me, has been a disaster the last couple of years, ever since leaving the Braves. I'm not sure John Farrell and his team wouldn't be better served by using the awesome Koji Uehara as their closer. Uehara is 40 years old, but is as good as ever. His ERA is still 0.00. He's lockdown. If Kimbrel dogs it again, Farrell should turn to Uehara to close. He almost single-handedly won the World Series for the BoSox in 2013. 

David needs to get it back together. He wasn't terrible yesterday, and this O's lineup has some serious sluggers, but he'll need a bounce back performance Saturday at Fenway against another hitting machine in the Toronto Blue Jays. David now 1-1 with a 5.73 ERA. Needs improvement. 

Sonny was not his best last night either against the Angels in a 4-1 A's loss. Sonny went 6.1 innings, giving up three runs, including a two run shot to the awesome Mike Trout, six hits, three walks and six K's. He threw 92 pitches, 53 for strikes with 39 balls. Not his best night. His fastball looked good for a while as he was bringing it 93-94 in the O.co. Coliseum at Oakland, and his curve was pretty solid for the most part. Not as electric as usual, but pretty good. He was relying on his fastball a lot, and Trout got a hold of one and launched it into the left field seats. The A's dropped to 4-4 on the season and the Angels moved to 3-4. The A's are tied with the Texas Rangers for the lead in the AL West at 4-4. Sonny goes again Sunday at home against a very good Kansas City Royals team and a solid pitcher in Kris Medlen. Sonny is now 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA. He had such a good opening game against the  White Sox, that his ERA was 1.29 coming into last night' game. So Sonny also needs a better outing on Sunday, the day after Dave goes. 

The women's tennis team had a hard fought match that they prevailed in over No.27 Arkansas, 4-3. Senior Courtney Colton clinched it with a clutch victory for the girls. We lost the doubles point, and No. 19 Sydney Campbell lost at No.1, but No.13 Frances Altick won at No.2, No. 21 Astra Sharma won at No.3 and Fernanda Contreras won at No.6. Georgina Sellyn lost at No.5. But all tied at 3-3, Courtney came through in the clutch with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 victory. 

The girls moved to 16-4 on the season and 9-2 in the SEC. We have home matches left this Friday and Sunday against Auburn and Alabama, respectively, before heading to the SEC Tournament, which commences on Wednesday, April 20th, in Baton Rouge, LA. The Auburn match starts at 4 PM CT on Friday, and the Alabama match is Sunday at 1 PM CT. We are now ranked sixth in the country by the ITA, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, trailing No.'s 1-5, Cal, UNC, Georgia, Florida and Ohio State. Frances is ranked No.13 in the country, Sydney is 19th and Astra is 21st. 

Baseball hosts Middle Tennessee State at home at 6:30 PM CT. The game will be carried on SEC Network+ on the computer. Gotta take care of business tonight and then Kentucky comes into town for a huge weekend series. Kentucky is 8-4 in the conference and 22-9 overall and we are 7-5 and 25-7 overall. We are ranked fourth in the USA Today Coaches' Poll and fifth in the D-1 Baseball,com poll. Miami, Florida and A&M are 1, 2,3 in the Coaches' poll, and Miami, Mississippi State, Florida and FSU are 1,2,3,4 in the D1 poll. Kentucky is No.18 in the D1 poll, and 23rd in the Coaches' poll.

But we've gotta be serious tonight. MTSU is 14-17, but this is huge for them. It's like their CWS game, so they'll be pumped up. Not sure who's starting for us, but I'll guess it's left hander Ryan Johnson. I'll have a write up tomorrow morning.

Bryan Reynolds was on fire last week. He was seven for 12 in four games, that's a .583 average. One of the games was a 4-3 victory over Lipscomb, and the other three were against LSU on the road, where we dropped two of three, but won the third game in dramatic fashion. Reynolds had two doubles, two homers and six Ribeyes. Bryan is now hitting .329 with eight homers, 34 ribbies and nine doubles. Jeren Kendall leads the team at .346 with six homers and 36 RBIs and had a monster game Sunday against LSU in which he was four-for-five and hit the game clinching three run homer in the top of the eighth. Jeren came up hugely clutch. Just gotta get third baseman Will Toffey's bat going. They are our big three guys and leaders on the team. We've got a lot of good young players, and senior Tyler Campbell is giving us some great work at short and second, but if Toffey can get his bat going and all the younger guys and older guys keep getting better, and we get steallar pitching and defense, this team can be a special group. They already are as people, but I'm just talking about going deep in the postseason. South Carolina is leading the East at 10-2, and they are 28-5 overall. Florida is second at 8-4, tied with Kentucky, and 29-5 overall. Florida has quite a team and the other two are very good, too. So plenty of work remaining beginning tonight at home.  

New Vanderbilt basketball Coach Bryce Drew, Vandy baseball, VU women's tennis and VU men's golf

First of all, let me talk about the 41 year old Bryce Drew as a player. In the 1998 NCAA basketball tournament, No.13 seeded Valparaiso was facing No.4 seed Ole Miss and was a heavy underdog. Valpo was down 69-67 with 4.1 seconds left in the game and the Rebels' Ansu Sesay was at the free throw line. Sesay missed both free throws, Valpo rebounded the ball and took a timeout with 2.5 seconds remaining. On the inbound, the Crusaders made two passes and Bryce caught the ball 23 feet from the basket. He put it up. String Music and the Crusaders upset the Rebels, 70-69. Then Drew proceeded to lead his team to victory over 12th seeded Florida State 83-77, in OT. Drew finished with 22 points in that game. The Crusaders fell to Rhode Island in the Sweet 16, 74-68, but Drew finished with 18 points. He completed his career as Valpo's all time leading scorer, 3 point field goal shooter and assist leader. He was also an outstanding free throw shooter, 90% like. He was a first round draft pick by the Houston Rockets, as Bryce was selected 16th overall in the draft. He played six seasons in the NBA then played overseas for a year before beginning his coaching career.

He was elevated to associate head coach by his dad, Homer, in 2006. Homer won over 700 games in his career. Bryce became head coach at Valpo in 2011 and achieved a 124-49 five year record, which is a 72% winning percentage. He took his teams to two NCAA tournaments in 2013 and 2015, where his teams made it to the second round both years. In 2013, his Crusaders team lost to powerful Michigan State in the second round of the tournament, 65-54, and in 2015, they barely lost to fourth seeded Maryland, 65-62. 

In 2011-2012, his team went 22-12 and won the Horizon League regular season going to the NIT where they lost in the first round. In '12-'13, his team finished 26-8 and won the Horizon and went to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In '13-'14, Valpo went 18-16, but came back in 2014-15 to finish 28-6 and make the second round of the NCAA's. This past season, his team went 30-7 and was the runner up in the NIT.

He was a point guard as a player and I love point guards as coaches. They're exactly like quarterbacks in football. He's considered highly intelligent and has numerous offensive plays.

Bryce will inherit a talented Vanderbilt squad though point guard Wade Baldwin and center Damian Jones are heavily considering going out for the NBA draft as they are projected to be first rounders. But Bryce could talk Wade and Dame into staying. Very hopeful that will happen. Bryce has a player from Valpo, Alec Peters, who has a chance to graduate early and be a graduate transfer. The 6'9" forward averaged 18.4 points and 8.5 rebounds this past season for the Crusaders.

Bryce's teams are known to defend well, shoot it extremely well, and rebound well. Sounds pretty good to me. He  loves coming to a place like Vanderbilt, a private school where he can work with the best of the best in the academic department. He has coached quite a few All-Academic players. He's a players coach, but also a disciplinarian, if necessary. He'll have some great kids to coach who will not cause problems. This is a win-win for Drew, our players, our fans and our university. Excellent hire by Athletic Director David Williams. I see great things happening with our basketball program in the future. Bryce actually had an offer from Georgia Tech to be their head coach, but wanted to come to Vanderbilt instead. I like that Bryce wants to be at Vanderbilt, he's young, energetic, and will recruit through the roof then really coach his players up positively. His older brother, Scott, is the head coach at Baylor and has taken Baylor to two Elite Eights and they're always in the tournament. Exciting hire for Vanderbilt University.

No.3 Baseball takes two of three from No.6 South Carolina: It's just how we roll

Jordan Sheffield pitched a heckuva game Thursday Night in VU's 6-3 victory over South Carolina at the Hawk. Jordan went seven, gave up five hits, three runs, only two of them earned, walked three and K'd 9. He was awesome.Jordan was hitting the high 90's with his fastball and his change up and curve were electric. Ben Bowden finished it off. We lost 4-0 Friday night. Kyle Wright gave it all he had on the mound, but we just couldn't generate any offense. On Saturday, we came back from a 4-1 deficit to win 10-6. Penn Murfee was the player of game. Penn doubled home two runs and singled home another and played stellar first base. Know his dad and mom are proud of him. Ben came in and shut the door again. Ben is shut down as a closer. He brings the heat as well. Hayden Stone started on Saturday, competed hard like Hayden always does and did a decent job. I think Corbs is still trying to figure out that third guy on the weekend rotation and Hayden is doing reasonably well. Hayden is a super talent so he could end up being that guy. We'll see how that develops.

We're now 23-5 overall and 6-3 in the SEC. We trail SC and Florida by a game in the East. We have Lipscomb tomorrow @ 6:30 PM CT/7:30 PM ET on SEC Network+, then we travel to LSU Thursday through Saturday. Lipscomb is 16-12 overall. The game will be at home. LSU is 18-9 overall and 4-5 in the SEC, not a typical LSU start, but down in Alex Box Stadium, it'll be rockin, so we'll need our A games all weekend. That stadium seats about 8,000 and they are as rowdy as they are in Death Valley, so our guys will need to be locked in. Thursday's game is at 6 PM CT/7 PM ET on the SEC Network, Friday's game is at 7:30 PM CT/8:30 PM ET on "duh U," ESPNU. Saturday's game is at 2 PM CT/3 PM ET on SEC Network+ on the computer. 

Freshman Alonzo Jones is terrific as a DH. Really like Alonzo. Freshman Ethan Paul at second base is still getting his defense down, but he's got a stellar bat. Will Toffey hasn't heated up just yet at the plate, but he will, and his defense is superb. Tyler Campbell is doing an excellent job at short and with the bat. Jeren Kendall and Bryan Reynolds are studs and Ro is playing awesome ball for us. Our outfield is tremendous. Our arms are stellar. We've got the makings of a special group, but we've got to just keep it in neutral and improve every practice and every game, and take it from there. Love what we can do this season though. 

We have eight players on Major League 25 man rosters this season. David Price was getting the start today for the BoSox at Cleveland, but the temperature was 17 degrees and bad outside, so Dave will go tomorrow at 12:10 PM CT/1:10 PM ET. Sonny gets the start tonight vs. the White Sox and stud left hander Chris Sale. So Sonny has his work cut out for him. Should be a heckuva pitching duel. Pedro and Ryan Flaherty are on the Orioles and Pedro is DH'ing today for the Birds. He's 0 for 3 right now with a walk. The O's are tied with the Twins 2-2 in the top of the ninth. Ryan has not entered the game, but according to Corbs, O's manager Buck Showalter really likes Ryan, so Ryan will see plenty of playing time.Mike Minor is on the disabled list for the KC Royals, so it looks like late May, early June before Mike can get back from his torn labrum suffered last season with the Braves. He's had elbow problems as well. Curt Casali is the starting catcher for the Rays. Love that for Curt. Caleb Cotham is pitching for the Reds and Drew VerHagen will be pitching out the bullpen for the Detroit Tigers. 

 

Women's tennis keeps on rolling

Geoff McDonald's fifth ranked women's tennis team won two matches in Mississippi last weekend, beating Mississippi State, 4-1, and Ole Miss, 5-1.  Frances Altick, who is ranked No. 17 in the country, won her 100th match over the weekend. No.21 Astra Sharma won and No. 25 Sydney Campbell won. Courtney Colton and Georgina Sellyn won at No.'s 4 and 5 respectively for the Dores against Ole Miss. Next up for the girls is a match at Missouri on Friday. We are now 14-4 overall and 7-2 in the SEC. We're starting to hit our stride.

Men's golf wins Mason Rudolph

Scott Limbaugh's ninth ranked Commodores golf team got outstanding Sunday performances from junior Matthias Schwab and freshman Patrick Martin, who shot 69 and 68 respectively, as the Dores captured the Mason Rudolph championship at home with a one shot victory over No. 10 Florida. Two thousand thirteen and 2014 national champion Alabama, which still fields a strong team, was in the field and finished 14 shots back of us. Luke List finished tied for 25th at the Shell Houston Open. Luke getting closer and closer to doing very well on tour. Jon Curran didn't have his best stuff, but JC and Luke have many more opportunities along with Brandt, who is gearing up for Augusta National this week, where he has a shot.

Will have more later in the week with baseball in a big week, the guys in the pros, Brandt in the Masters, women's tennis, men's golf competing and any football news I can find. 

DP postponed today, will pitch tomorrow for BoSox at Indians at 12:10 PM CT/1:10 PM ET