Vanderbilt Football Notebook: A Day for the Specialists – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE – It was the final practice before Saturday’s Black and Gold spring game for Vanderbilt football. The Commodores are looking to show their fans a glimpse of the depth of this upcoming season’s roster. But first, it was the special teams unit’s turn to speak to the media following the final pre-spring game practice.
The Commodores have weapons around the field on both the offense and defensive sides of the ball, but what goes under the radar is the weapons that Vanderbilt has on its special teams unit.
Vanderbilt boasts of a kicker with long range in Brock Taylor, but also gives itself plenty of speed in their gunners on kick coverage. And it is that depth on the special teams unit that gives special teams coordinator Jeff LePak and the coaching staff plenty of optimism going into the 2026 season.
“Yeah, I think this is the deepest gunner room we’ve ever had. We’re returning both CJ Heard and Joseph McVay, but Davin Chandler, Cayden Daniels, all those guys have looked really, really good. I’m really excited about the gunner position. And then our linebacker room has a lot of good special teams. So, I'm really excited to see those guys compete,” LePak said.
In terms of the players LePak looks for in his gunners, he wants guys that can fly down the field and have tremendous speed, guys that additionally know how to tackle and thereby prevent long returns as well.
One of the main things LePak coaches his kick coverage guys to do is teaching them how to tackle. The defensive backs like Heard and McVay that have tackling experience may take part in the drills, but it is the offensive players that are gunners that are thoroughly coached on tackling.
Another area of special teams that Vanderbilt feels good about is the guys available in the punt return game. Martel Hight was a guy throughout last season that was commonly seen returning kicks, but this season the Commodores feel as though guys like Alabama wide receiver transfer Cole Adams and wide receiver Tristen Brown can both meaningfully contribute to the return game.
“The punt return game is fluid right now. You got Martel, you got Cole and another guy we trust a lot is Tristen Brown. Tristen Brown does a great job. Sometimes he gets lost in the shuffle a little bit, but he’s a reliable football player and a reliable punt returner,” assistant special teams coordinator Shane Gallant said. “Our primary focus this offseason has been just evolving our techniques in the blocking game. Me and coach LePak spend a lot of time on different drills, different guys to evaluate in the holdup process there. But we definitely see Martel and Cole both getting action and both being trusted back there.”
One of the newest faces on this season’s roster is long snapper Kaden Schickel, a graduate transfer from Michigan State. Schickel was drawn to Vanderbilt from a connection that his special teams coordinator in East Lansing had with Vanderbilt’s LePak. Once he visited Vanderbilt, the academic prestige of the university combined with the Commodores’ program made it an easy decision.
Now, Schickel is getting to work with Brock Taylor and the two have developed a good sense of chemistry together this spring.
“I think when we first got here, I was like ‘okay new snapper, new kicker, new holder,’ all that stuff. But now that we’ve had spring ball, it’s really defined, we’ve done really well. Missed a couple of kicks the other day, but it’s been amazing,” Schickel said on his chemistry development with Taylor.
One of the things someone may notice when looking at the roster is that there is no punter on the roster. And that is because there is currently no punter on Vanderbilt’s roster, for the moment at least. Help is on the way with former South Dakota punter Tyler Ebel joining the team after the month of May.
Last season at South Dakota, Ebel had a punt average of 46 yards with his longest punt being 66 yards.
“We’re really excited for what he brings to the table. He’s going to be here in full swing when we get back after this break in May. Tyler’s a big dude that can kind of do it all. He’s a lefty, which is rare for teams to prepare against, so we’re super excited to have that. He can roll out a bit, he punts in the pocket. Experienced punter but also has a lot of experience holding, so that’s going to be good holding for Brock and that operation there,” Gallant said.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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