What is wrong with Vanderbilt?

What is going wrong at Vanderbilt?

On Tuesday six more Vanderbilt players became unavailable for the Texas A&M game.

There was one more opt-out. This time is was starting LB Feleti Afemui who became the sixth person to walk away from the 2020 season. Afemui joins kicker Oren Milstein and offensive linesmen Cole Clemens, Bryce Bailey, Jonathan Stewart and Stephen Spanellis in deciding to sit 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns.

Then there was an injury to LB Elijah MacAllister and S Brandon Harris, and  LB Michael Owusu, who will miss Game No.1 because of COVID-19 quarantine.

Harris was one of Vanderbilt’s leading tacklers last year.

 

The news has infuriated some of the Vandy faithful.

On Twitter, @NotVandyOC said: “Look around the SEC and find another school with 10 players that have opted out or transferred since the Spring. You’ll be looking for a long while. Several of these were starters or key reserves. This doesn’t happen to coaches that have built a winning culture.”

So what in the hell’s gone wrong?

Recruiting is tough.

Vanderbilt ranks last in the SEC in recruiting in 2021 (66th nationally), and managed that feat in the 2020 class too (53rd nationally).

It’s tougher also to recruit to a head coach who spends every year on the hotseat because he’s 27-47 lifetime as a head coach and has never won more than 3 games in the SEC in any one season. The reason why kids want to go to LSU, Alabama, Georgia or Clemson because they are ‘winners’ and being part of ‘something’ is a boost to their egos. Vanderbilt doesn’t have the same ‘boost’.

And the boost that recruits aren’t feeling towards the program is felt also by the administration, who haven’t exactly shown their love by putting money into any of the facilities. Vanderbilt simply won’t get the better players if they have worse facilities. Sure, they’ve renovated the locker rooms, but players will be going out every week to a stadium that’s 50-60% full of opposition fans….and the stadium itself is no better than some of these kids’ high school arenas. If you compare the facilities to some of Vanderbilt’s SEC rivals, then it’s way behind the curve.

And lastly, there are the educational requirements.  Mason said this in 2018: ““It’s a different deal at Vanderbilt. Our student-athletes have to go across campus and compete against students who don’t really care about their athletic prowess, and then they have to come back and compete against athletes in the SEC who don’t really care about their ACT or SAT scores.” In other words, the God on campus at Vanderbilt gets a 4.0 and gets to go work for Goldman Sachs, while the God at Georgia runs a 4.3 and gets to go work for the Dallas Cowboys. With the requirements for a tougher school, Vanderbilt is not going to be the easy ride a lot of college kids want.

Vanderbilt’s competition for the ‘clever kids’ comes from bigger private schools like Stanford or Notre Dame, and that’s a tough battle. They have to learn to scrape by with battles for kids that aren’t on the big-time players’ radar as much. And that riles Vanderbilt fans who think they could be better.

But it’s a false narrative to say that more players are leaving Vanderbilt than any other

It’s been pointed out that as of May 31st there were 1,105 people Division 1 players in the transfer portal. That’s over 12 teams worth of players. But Vanderbilt isn’t the only one with vats of players out. In fact, Texas A&M has 13 players who are in the portal. Arkansas has 15. Tennessee has 12, Alabama, Kentucky and Ole Miss have 11 – same as Vandy. Missouri and Auburn have 10, South Carolina with 9, Florida and LSU have 8, Georgia has 6.

The problem for Vanderbilt is that three of their quarterbacks have transferred or entered the portal (Allan Waters, Mo Hasan and Deuce Wallace), but Vanderbilt have also had players come along from Ohio State (D-Lineman Alex Williams), Michigan (Stephen Spannelis) and Oklahoma State (Tyrell Alexander).

So what do you change?

Players love Derek Mason, and Derek Mason is upfront and honest. The problem for me is trying to work out whether Derek Mason is a good head coach. While 27 wins in 74 attempts might indicate otherwise, the problem for Vanderbilt is: Who would replace him? Mason is the worst-paid head coach in the SEC, and 40th in the country in 2019, and they aren’t about to expand that to get a Whale.

The only thing Vanderbilt can do is battle it out in the transfer market, and try and work there. Unless they fire Mason, blow the whole thing up, and be prepared for years and years of 0-for-SEC.