Exclusive: Inside Miles Capers’ Loyalty to Vanderbilt Football

Before Vanderbilt football head coach Clark Lea was hired to coach Vanderbilt and before Vanderbilt EDGE Miles Capers even thought about committing to Vanderbilt, the two had already started to form a bond.

When Capers was being recruited by schools as a defensive lineman in high school, Lea – who was the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame at the time – traveled to Sumter, South Carolina and visited Capers at his high school where the two had a conversation for over two hours. From then on, Capers bought into what Lea was selling him and a special, unbreakable bond between the two formed.

“He was asking me about how my family situation was, how I felt, because my dad was going through stuff. And he actually sat there and talked to me for a few hours. We just were connecting about my personal life, and that really stoked me. He didn't ask me about football at all,” Capers told Vandy On SI as he recalled his conversation with Lea during his recruitment.

Capers’ recruitment occurred at an extremely challenging time in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic was the biggest news story in the world, which happened to be a time where college rosters were filling up quickly. Capers turned to calling up countless schools asking them to give him a chance. Eventually, he called Vanderbilt and the Commodores gave him an opportunity.

Capers committed and signed with Vanderbilt on Dec. 16, 2020, two days after the program hired Lea as its head coach.

Going into his college career at Vanderbilt, Capers knew it was going to be a tall task helping to bring the program to a special place. The Commodores were coming off a 2020 campaign where they went 0-9 and they had not had a winning season since 2013.

In fact the first game Vanderbilt had with Capers on the roster and with Lea as its coach was perhaps the lowest point of the Lea era in Nashville. The day was Sept. 4, 2021. The Commodores took on East Tennessee State to begin the 2021 season. What was supposed to be a celebratory day to kick off Lea’s tenure turned into a day everyone involved with the program would want to forget, but will never.

Vanderbilt lost to ETSU 23-3 that day. It was the first time since 1987 that ETSU had beaten a power conference opponent. Though Capers did not play in the game, he absolutely has not forgotten about that game and the lessons he learned from that experience.

“You can't just go out there every Saturday thinking that you got everything in control because it can be that day where the underdog actually beats you. I think people look at me as an underdog, so I use that to fuel me,” Capers said. “That moment really helped me understand you have to work to win. Winning is hard. You have to do everything in your power to win.”

Capers’ underdog mentality stemmed from his recruitment experience. Being denied by plenty of college football programs bore him embracing the underdog mentality that he still carries with him to this day. Not only does Capers and Lea share a bond, but the two share the same identity they envision for the program.

Vanderbilt football prides itself on being a group of misfits. Players that have been overlooked, kicked to the curb because other programs do not believe in them, and denied because they could be undersized for power conference football.

The misfit mentality has produced a turnaround that few programs in college football have experienced in recent memory. In Capers’ first three seasons at Vanderbilt, the Commodores combined for nine wins. Two of those seasons, Vanderbilt went 2-10. Vanderbilt’s combined record in those three seasons was 9-27. Capers has experienced more valleys in his college career than any other player on the roster.

Given the talent Capers possesses, he could have found himself a spot on a program that is more of a shoe-in to be in the playoffs. After not getting a taste of winning through his first three seasons at Vanderbilt, nobody would have blamed him if he left for another spot not just for more money, but for a better winning opportunity.

But Capers could never do that in good conscience. To him, that would just feel like he would be taking the easy way out after setting his mind on being someone that turns a program around. And leaving from Lea to a different program? He could not bear to do that.

“I didn't have any reason to leave him [Lea]. I feel like nowadays people leave for money and stuff, I feel like our bond is too strong for me just to leave this off for money. I got to connect with Coach Lea and the team, so I don't think it'd be a good look at all. That's not how I was raised either,” Capers said.

It was almost as if Capers could see the future of the success Vanderbilt was going to have in 2024 and 2025 before it ever happened. His motivation of being an underdog and wanting to build something from the ground up has yielded fruit over the past two seasons. Capers has experienced nearly double the wins in just the past two seasons combined than he did his first three seasons. Vanderbilt has a 17-9 record since the start of the 2024 season.

Capers is one of the biggest reasons for that turnaround. He has experienced multiple 10-loss seasons, but he also experienced Vanderbilt’s first ever 10-win season in 2025. His career is not over yet, but it is something he always takes time to think about as a cornerstone to reconstructing Vanderbilt’s program.

“Always, always do. I don't want to go back, so I think the only way is up for the program. You have to have the right guys to build a great program, and Coach Lea did with bringing in Khordae, Diego, Eli, and many other people. You have to have a lot of people on the team that just want to win,” Capers said.

From a coach's standpoint, the fact that Capers decided to stay at Vanderbilt his whole career rather than leave for money and better opportunities is not even the best thing about what it says about Capers as a person. It is the way he goes about the mission he originally set on when he got to Nashville.

Vanderbilt defensive ends coach Adam Morris has only been in the program for a few months after spending the 2025-26 football season on the Cleveland Browns coaching staff, but he has already spent enough time with the EDGE rushers to know the type of player and person Capers is.

Capers has become one of the top leaders on the roster and certainly the top leader amongst the defensive ends. The play style Capers plays with and the way he carries himself off the field are polar opposites. Morris and Vanderbilt notice the violent tenacity and pursuit Capers plays with on the field, but also notice his calm, quiet composure off the field.

All things considered, the way Capers has gone about his career has been the ideal poster child for the person teams want in their program, according to the coaching staff.

“I mean, I think it's hard to find a better model of what we want in a player than Cape [Capers] in the program. So really it's not just the fact that he hasn't left, it really is the way he goes about his business while he's here,” Morris told Vandy On SI.

Capers still has one more season left in his Vanderbilt career, though. He has seen firsthand the program go from the bottom of the SEC to a team that was just left out of the College Football Playoff a season ago. While he takes time to appreciate how far the program has come and has experienced a rewarding feeling from it, he is not satisfied.

Capers did not come to Vanderbilt to build the Commodores into a program that almost made the playoffs. He wanted to help bring the program to even bigger heights.

“It's rewarding,” Capers told Vandy On SI as he reflected on what he has helped grow. “I still want us to get to where we want to go, like the National Championship just to put the icing on top for the world to see.”

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