Inside The Mind of Brock Taylor As He Approaches Vanderbilt Football Greatness--And A Position Battle?
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NASHVILLE—-For 13 minutes and 25 seconds, he stands there on the yellow dot facing the cameras and holding court with the media contingent out to cover Vanderbilt fall camp. It’s the longest interview of the day and the longest interview that anyone has given in the first seven days of camp.
The extended timeslot is generally reserved for star skill-position players, but not Thursday. Not when Brock Taylor walks out of Vanderbilt’s team huddle and clips a Rode mic on. When Taylor did that, the generally bland special teams day of fall camp became its most interesting yet. Taylor has all the characteristics of a great interviewee, but the external interest in him didn’t have as much to do with that as what he’s done.
Taylor is Vanderbilt’s only returning All-SEC player, was a Lou Groza award–the most prestigious individual kicking award in the sport–semifinalist in 2025 and became the school’s second-leading scorer in a season. Vandy on SI ranked Taylor as the second-best player on Vanderbilt’s 2026 roster prior to fall camp.
“Obviously he’s accomplished a bunch,” Vanderbilt assistant special teams coordinator Shane Gallant said.
Taylor’s resounding message on Thursday morning was that he’s not satisfied with what he’s accomplished through his three seasons at Vanderbilt. Like seemingly everyone else in Clark Lea’s program, Taylor wants more.
And, if Taylor gets it, he could end his career as the best kicker in Vanderbilt’s program history. He may already be, but don’t tell him that. Taylor has already won more than any kicker that’s taken the home sideline at FirstBank Stadium and has contributed to winning in a more drastic way than most others at his position, but he still appreciates when Lea and Vanderbilt offensive consultant Jerry Kill rip him after a rough practice period.
Taylor believes that he can be an NFL kicker at some point down the line, and believes Vanderbilt’s coaching staff can help him get there. Before he gets there, he feels as if he’s got some business to handle before he leaves the program.
“I make jokes to my friends that I want my jersey retired,” Taylor said Thursday. “I want to win the Groza.”
Taylor is open about the idea that he’s far from physically imposing at 6-foot-1, 165 pounds. But, he doesn’t believe his size has to define him. If his career has indicated anything, it’s that he’s correct.
His career-long of 57 is the longest in program history and it doesn’t properly contextualize Taylor’s range. Taylor is 6-for-7 on 50+ yarders in his career and Gallant speculates that he can kick up to 63 yarders without changing his swing or pressing exorbitantly. Vanderbilt special teams coordinator Jeff LePak doesn’t appear to be convinced that 63 yards is all Taylor has in the tank.
“Brock can kick it just about as far as you want him to kick it,” LePak said. “Brock is a lighter guy, so his whip, his leg, his leg speed and his ball striking is elite.”
Taylor doesn’t have a conventional kicker build, but believes that there’s more of a place for kickers of his build than ever in the modern game. He attributes his power largely to hip rotation, leg speed and embracing his particular swing.
Knoxville-based kicking coach Gerald Robinson–who Taylor calls “the wizard” for his kicking expertise, which was refined when he traveled around the country coaching with NFL Hall of Fame punter Ray Guy–always tells Taylor that everyone’s swing is different before and after it hits the ball, but that it has to strike it in the right place. The reminder often resonates with Taylor when he evaluates his process.
Taylor has refined his stroke though sessions with Robinson over the years, but has sought input everywhere as he chases his NFL goals. He says he travels around the country in the offseason to work out with other kickers and coaches. Taylor has used the process to become friendly with a number of SEC kickers.
In a way, Taylor has been a voice of the kicking fraternity since he spoke with ESPN as a sophomore in high school for a story on how far kicking in college football had come along. Taylor is as knowledgeable of a kicking guru as there is in the college game and is generally in front of finding tools to improve.
Taylor is careful to avoid diving too deeply into kicking trends, though, and says his stance on embracing analytics and AI resources to improve performance is relatively moderate. He does say that he’s an “AI-forward guy.”
Perhaps Taylor won’t say it directly, but his 13 minutes with the media–in which he said he admitted that he loved talking about kicking mechanics–will. His kicking sessions at FirstBank Stadium at the beginning of each Vanderbilt practice do, too. Taylor is a kicking nerd, and his mindset is a catalyst in his success.
“That’s what I want in my kicker,” Vanderbilt punter Tyler Ebel said in regard to the idea that Taylor is a kicking nerd. “Every day he comes out here with the mindset to get better and do better than the previous season. This is my first few months with Brock, but it’s been amazing to see his attitude towards getting better every day.”
Vanderbilt’s stellar third-down offense didn’t give Taylor the room to spread his wings in 2025 that he had in 2024, but his numbers indicate that he was ready to. Taylor made 13 of his 14 attempts in 2025 and his only miss came from 40+ yards against Texas.
Outside of a late-game miss against Missouri in 2024–which likely still occupies some space in his mind–Taylor has always delivered when Vanderbilt has needed him. He’s its most talented kicker in recent memory, but is also its most consistent.
How does he do it?
“When it's time to perform, I'm very mentally aware of that, and I kind of shut down internally and kind of go into what I like to call the flow state,” Taylor said. “If you ask my coaches or players on Saturday mornings, whether it's a night game or a morning game, I'm going for a walk every morning and just kind of quiet time. I listen to a lot of music when I walk on the field before kickoff. I'm pretty internally focused, not talking as much as I normally do.”
Taylor says he generally aims to stay loose throughout the weekends of games, but he flips a switch when Saturday morning hits. After three years, Taylor has noticed that Vanderbilt’s staff and players have respected his wishes to be left alone on gamedays. At this point, why wouldn’t they?
In Taylor’s 26 career games, he’s missed a kick in only three and has missed just two of his 101 attempted extra points. Taylor’s kicking portfolio represents the type of results that Kohl’s Kicking evaluators envisioned when they labeled him as one of the best field goal kickers in the high school class of 2023–although his local school Tennessee didn’t open a scholarship for him.
Taylor says Vanderbilt’s 2025 win over Tennessee was personal as a result, but doesn’t appear to let any animosity towards Vanderbilt’s in-state rival consume him. Taylor was 1-for-1 on field goals that day and 5-for-5 on extra points.
When he looks back on performances like he put together in that Vanderbilt win at Neyland Stadium, Taylor thinks of a message that he’s internalized from Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin–who spoke to Vanderbilt’s football team before it went to Knoxville.
“He always talks about staying in the middle,” Taylor said, “Don’t get too high. Don’t get too low. I take a lot of pride in that.”
As indicated by the way Taylor steps on the yellow dot and is immediately recognizable to Vanderbilt’s media core, he will be Vanderbilt’s starting kicker and one of the faces of its program in 2026.
Taylor didn’t want to hear that on Thursday morning, though. When he’s here in this white practice jersey, he doesn’t want to think about titles or what he’s already done. Taylor wants to think about what’s left for him to do, what he hasn’t already.
He believes he still has to prove himself around here.
“This is like my first camp,” Taylor said. “I feel like I still need to win a job. When you get to the next level, that’s how it is. It doesn’t matter how good you are, someone’s trying to beat you out. So, I try to approach it every day like [Clark] Lea says ‘never arrive.’”
The odds that Taylor gets beat out by anyone on Vanderbilt’s roster are slim to none, but he believes taking fall camp seriously is particularly important for kickers because of how much room for improvement there is at all times.
When Taylor talks, it’s as if Lea has programmed him to internalize everything he preaches. Taylor could be an NFL guy, but he’s not yet. He’s convinced that he’s just fighting to start for the third-consecutive season. Perhaps that’s why Taylor’s on track to do things that no Vanderbilt kicker ever has, because he’s not satisfied with the historical markers he’s already hit.
“No one cares if you set a long kick the year prior, the week prior,” Taylor said. “It's just whenever you're called on that Saturday, you’ve got to remind yourself that this is expected to go in, and you need to make that kick.”
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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