Why Brian Allen Jr. transferred to Vanderbilt after playing in ReliaQuest Bowl – The Tennessean

One day after a workout, Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea brought out the team’s football transfers to introduce themselves.
Brian Allen Jr. introduced himself and told his new teammates that he came from Iowa.
They all booed.
“Man, we gave y’all belt,” said Allen, referring to the ReliaQuest Bowl in which Iowa won, 34-27.
Allen, a defensive end, had no ill will toward Iowa’s football team, but he wanted something new after graduating. Even without the bowl experience, something about Lea and the Commodores appealed to Allen.
After recording 16 tackles in 2025, Allen now joins Vanderbilt’s defensive end room after it lost key contributors Khordae Sydnor and Zaylin Wood.
When Allen faced Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl, he was told that the Commodores “don’t think that we can hang.” But he was impressed with the Commodores’ physicality and their offensive line − and of course, Diego Pavia.
“You watch film, but it’s like … we’re going to keep him in the pocket,” Allen said. “We did not keep him in the pocket at all. And I actually missed a sack that game, and it still kind of eats at me to this day.”
In the bowl game, Allen recorded two tackles, half a tackle for loss and half a sack.
“He’s a good football player,” Vanderbilt defensive coordinator Steve Gregory said. “He plays sound. He plays with great technique. He brings some physicality to the game and intensity about him that creates some leadership and some accountability. And just, he has pass rush ability. He has some different things that he can do at that position. And he’s coming along, growing within our system, learning the things that that we do defensively and our terminologies.”
Part of what drew Allen to Vanderbilt was a relationship with former defensive ends coach Larry Black, who helped to recruit Allen out of high school when he was coaching at Toledo. He ran into Black after the bowl game and Black asked him what’s up.
Black later left for Michigan, but Allen stuck with the Commodores. Lea’s culture appealed to him, and when he and his mom went on a visit, Allen enjoyed the conversation and Lea’s outlook on things.
“He’s a poet, in a way,” Allen said. “He’s a real savant. If you really sit down and talk to him, he’ll hit you with something, you’ll be like, ‘What does that even mean?’ But it really makes sense.”
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X @aria_gerson.

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