Vanderbilt Football Notebook: What’s to Like on Defense, Seth Payne’s Return, Culture of the Team – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE – A season ago, Vanderbilt boasted one of the more underrated defenses in college football. The Commodores were top 20 in the country in rush defense and in the upper half of teams in total defense. It was a defense marked by a “bend, don’t break” mentality. One of the best qualities of the defense last season was the depth.
Despite losing some pieces, that has not changed. Vanderbilt feels that the depth to this team is still a strength on the roster.
“I love the depth. I think we have guys where there’s really no first or second team right now. Everybody’s still out trying to earn their role,” Vanderbilt defensive coordinator Steve Gregory said. “But as you go down the line of players at each position, there’s a lot of guys that can play football. And when you have more than one guy at a position that can really go into the game and you feel comfortable that he can go in and play at a high level, that gives you that needed depth. And I think we do have that.”
While there is no Khordae Sydnor or Zaylin Wood nor Randon Fontenette to this year’s roster, Vanderbilt still went out and added defenders like safety Ricardo Jones from Clemson and defensive lineman Brian Allen Jr. from Iowa.
Of course, Vanderbilt still has experienced guys in CJ Heard, Bryan Longwell and Miles Capers, which helps the frontline of the defense in a big way. But Gregory also feel that the transfers add more experience and playmaking abilities in addition to the aforementioned depth.
“Some experience and playmaking ability. Ricardo is a really instinctual player on the back end. He’s got great ball skills, great communication and a really good feel for seeing formations, anticipation and speaking amongst the defense. Brian’s just a physical guy in the front. He’s very smart, he’s a very deep thinker on the structure of the defense. And he’s a leader, he’s holding guys accountable,” Gregory said.
Overall, Gregory and the rest of the coaching staff seem to be impressed with the way in which the defense has improved. A year ago, Vanderbilt created 15 turnovers as a team, which was in the bottom half of the country. While that is not an indicator in terms of how strong a defense is, teams are always looking for ways to improve in that department.
So far, Gregory feels that he is seeing that improvement.
“I think our opportunities to create turnovers right now has shown up. We’re playing the ball in the air a lot better in the secondary. So, I love to see the improvement there. But we got to continue to get better and tighten the margins and just keep working on it every single day,” Gregory said.
While it was a headline that was not talked about too much during the winter, Vanderbilt defensive line coach Seth Payne is back at Vanderbilt this season following a season at Western Michigan. Payne was on head coach Clark Lea’s staff during the 2024 season as the assistant defensive line coach and pass rush specialist.
“It’s awesome, man. It’s a great program. I love coach Lea, I love the staff here. My family’s excited to be back, so I’m just really excited to be back here, it’s a blessing,” Payne said.
At Western Michigan, Payne helped coach the Broncos’ defensive line and was also the run game coordinator. Payne helped coach Western Michigan’s defense to being 17th in the country in total defense in 2025.
One of the marks of Clark Lea’s vision and coaching style is the culture that he has implemented at Vanderbilt. The Commodores have a tough, football-like mentality about them that has visibly changed the culture of the team from the inside out.
As Payne returned to Vanderbilt from his stint in Kalamazoo, he feels the culture and the juice the team has is palpable.
“The energy you can feel in the building, you can feel it with the coaching staff, you can feel it with the players. We know who we are and we know what our expectations are. We know we are process-oriented. We stay within our framework of our mindset of what we want. Our mission is to win,” Payne 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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