Bryce Cowan Didn't Have the Fall Camp He Wanted. He's Not Letting That Define Him, though.

Nashville—-In the midst of the buzz surrounding him, Bryce Cowan would be the first to tell you that he hasn’t lived up to his own expectations.

Cowan is regarded as one of the biggest leap candidates on Vanderbilt’s roster and still believes that’s possible, but he’s still not there yet.

“I didn’t really have the camp I wanted to,” Cowan said as Vanderbilt concluded the fall on Thursday. “But, I’m not gonna let that camp define my season.”

Cowan says that he felt “kind of slow” at the beginning of camp after adding 15 pounds to his frame in the offseason and that he’s open to dropping around five pounds prior to the season in order to create more speed.

In some ways the added weight has helped Cowan become more powerful and harder to move at the point of attack, but he knows that he needs to be able to rely on his fundamentals in order to be a real factor for Vanderbilt’s defense in 2025.

“It’s always gonna be pad level,” Cowan said of his focus throughout fall camp. “I’m a 6-foot-4 backer so it’s gonna be hard to stay low, run through the gaps, beat blocks low. Pad level was the main focus.”

Perhaps pad level could be the difference between Cowan’s role in 2024–which included him making just eight tackles–and a role that includes him being more involved in Vanderbilt’s deep linebacker room.

Even with Cowan’s skepticism towards the level of camp he had, there’s still a feeling that it could be his time to finally take a step forward into consistent playing time after a career of flashes and a utility role.

“It’s time to unleash him,” Vanderbilt linebackers coach Nick Lezynski said. “His traits are excellent. He's big, he's athletic, he's physical. And just over the course of time, he's worked his butt off to become a dude, and we're so excited for that,”

The Vanderbilt linebacker says he agrees that he’s consistently making more plays these days than he was this time a year ago in Lezynski’s linebacker room that appears to be an area of surplus. He knows that playing time won’t come easily because everyone in the room “got talent,” but that it gives him a level of confidence that he won’t have to overexert himself.

The difference for Cowan is that he could become a focal point of the room rather than just a lauded depth piece. In some ways, his development as a linebacker after arriving on Vanderbilt’s campus as a safety is appearing to come full circle. At this stage he’s playing some snaps at edge–and says he could get some snaps there in certain packages–too.

He believes that he’s still got a bright future in Lezynski’s room as a result of the progress he’s made, though.

“I realized that I can play as long as I’ve got good pad level, good hands,” Cowan said, “And good fundamentals as far as the playbook. I can be a good player.”