Defensive Takeaways From Vanderbilt Football’s First Scrimmage of Fall Camp – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE — Vanderbilt football to the field at FirstBank Stadium Saturday morning for the team’s first scrimmage of fall camp.
The team ran live reps against each other throughout the scrimmage. From a defensive side of things, there were things that stood out from multiple areas of the Commodores’ defense.
Here are some post-scrimmage takeaways from each position group on defense.
The defensive line of Vanderbilt had some good and some bad. What was most notable was the run defense compared to the pass rush of the line.
In run defense, the defensive linemen looked really good. Oftentimes, Vanderbilt’s defense stopped running plays shortly after the line of scrimmage more times than it allowed good or long gains.
A lot of the penetration in the run defense came from Jaylon Stone and EDGEs Brian Allen Jr. and Jake Stanish. Stanish looked good going up against the offensive line and found his way to the offensive backfield a few times throughout the scrimmage. He did show what he could do in pass rush in a couple reps. He had some good one-on-one reps against offensive linemen and got in the backfield. Stanish has quietly had a solid fall camp nine days in.
From a pass defense perspective, there were some good and some bad. The pass defense from the defensive line was not as good compared to the run defense. There was not as much pressure put on Vanderbilt’s offensive line and the quarterbacks in the pass compared to the run, but there was good pressure at some points throughout the morning.
Overall, though, the pass rush could have been more prevalent than what it was. It did not look like a liability, but it could improve over the next couple weeks.
The linebacker room was maybe the most quiet room on defense during the scrimmage. Vanderbilt linebacker Bryan Longwell made a couple plays early in the scrimmage, but it was more of the depth guys in the room that got opportunities.
But the biggest standout from the linebacker was Jamison Curtis. Curtis looked really good in run defense. Curtis got downhill a good amount of times and got his way through the offensive line in the run game. In the pass game, Curtis proved to be effective a few times over the middle of the field. He got himself involved in the mix in plays that were happening in that area.
Overall, there was not a ton to make about the linebacker room because Vanderbilt knows what it has in that room. There are three veterans between Bryan Longwell, Nick Rinaldi and Bryce Cowan that are leading the room and Curtis seems to have developed so far in this camp. Josiah Broxton even found some involvement later in the scrimmage as well.
The linebacker room is the closest to a sure thing that Vanderbilt has on defense.
The safety room was what was maybe the most impressive group of defenders for Vanderbilt in the scrimmage. It felt like there were multiple different safeties making plays in the scrimmage.
Clemson transfer Ricardo Jones did good in coverage and was around the ball a good amount of the time. Dontae Carter had another day of camp with a splash play early on in the scrimmage. In Friday’s practice, Carter had a big play, too. It feels as though Carter has really started to get going in camp with the way he has practiced and played over the past few days of practice.
Another standout once again was Davin Chandler. Overall, he entered the day as one of the better players thus far in camp. That continued Saturday. Chandler got off to a hot start in scrimmage, finding himself around the ball and making plays quite often.
Elsewhere in the safety room was the battle for the top position in the STAR room between Carson Lawrence and Jailen Ruth. Both Lawrence and Ruth had moments of playing well in the scrimmage, but it looked like Lawrence was around the ball more and made more things happen in both pass and run defense.
Between those two, Lawrence looks like he has the nod over Ruth for the No. 1 guy in that spot as of now.
The overall takeaway from the safety room is that it feels like the depth of the room is real.
There was some good and some bad with the cornerback room in the scrimmage. Of course, Martel Hight made some plays and Jordan Matthews looked solid overall. Cayden Daniels even got himself involved, too.
But the part where the cornerback room needs to improve throughout the rest of camp is downfield coverage in some situations. The cornerbacks let pass catchers get past them down the field more often than the coaching staff would have probably liked. That turned into the plays down the field that were positive for the offense.
Those plays happened more so on the perimeter specifically as well. Over the middle of the field, the cornerback room did a fine job overall, but there was some vulnerability on the perimeter that has to be cleaned up going forward.
Vanderbilt has two more weeks of fall camp and will scrimmage again next Saturday, so there should be improvement in each position room over the next week.
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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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