Vanderbilt Football Defensive Takeaways After Day 11 of Fall Camp

NASHVILLE – It has been 11 days of Vanderbilt football fall camp and the themes of the month going into the 2026 season are starting to take shape.

The Commodores are in the back end of their fall camp schedule as they took the field Tuesday morning for another practice. The practice fell along similar lines of Monday’s practice where there was not a lot that took place.

But at the same time, there were still a few things to note, including on the defensive end of the ball. Here are Tuesday’s defensive fall camp takeaways.

Jalen Gilbert Had a Good Day

Vanderbilt safety Jalen Gilbert was easily one of the practice standouts from Day 11 of Vanderbilt fall camp. It felt like Gilbert was all over the field because he looked to be around the ball quite a bit throughout the practice.

Gilbert was able to make a few plays in coverage and was able to get his hand on a ball during the practice. Gilbert made things happen on both the perimeter of the field and over the middle of the field.

On the day, Gilbert had a good read of the eyes of the quarterbacks and was able to move to where the ball was going because of that.

Overall, it has been a solid camp for Gilbert and certainly a very nice camp for the Vanderbilt safety room in general. The Commodores know they have not just experience, but depth in the position and have been one of, if not, the most impressive-looking position room in camp so far.

In addition to Gilbert, Vanderbilt knows what it has between CJ Heard and Clemson transfer Ricardo Jones. The Commodores have seen both Dontae Carter and Davin Chandler making plays with Carter turning a corner in a positive direction nicely of late. All total, Vanderbilt has five guys in its safety room where it would feel comfortable playing in a game.

The Defense Won the Day Despite Not Being Elite

Vanderbilt’s defense was decidedly the winner of the day compared to the offense, though the defense was not the best it had looked in camp. The defense was pretty solid, but the defense was not elite.

A lot of the plays the defense made was because the offense made mistakes throughout the practice. Do not get it twisted, however, the defense did make some plays. The defensive coverage both on the outside and the inside was solid and there were plays the defense made without the offense making a bad decision.

Some plays, the defense just beat the offense. But on the whole, the defense was better than the offense because the offense did not have a good day.

The Defense Seems Deeper Than Seasons Past

Maybe the anchor of this Vanderbilt team will end up being the defense. Partly because the offense lost some major pieces from last season, but also because the Commodores are better overall defensively.

In every position room on defense. Vanderbilt got better. In the EDGE room, the Commodores added Brian Allen Jr. from Iowa and Edwin Kolenge from Boston College, who have both had a nice fall camp. On the defensive line, Jaylon Stone has developed while Glenn Seabrooks is back with another year of experience under his belt and Issa Ouattara is back from last season's injury.

The linebacker room has three veterans with Bryan Longwell, Nick Rinaldi and Bryce Cowan that all are the heart of the soul of the defense and are the most experienced. In the secondary, Jordan Matthews and Cayden Daniels have been August standouts that strengthen the cornerback room while Dontae Carter and Davin Chandler have had good camps for the safeties as well. Not to mention the addition of Jones to that room as well.

In every defensive position room, Vanderbilt found a way to get better in some facet. Of course, nobody truly knows how deep or good the defense is until the regular season, but the Vanderbilt defense has guys the coaches trust to help build a winning program against SEC competition.

Follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Threads and Blue Sky for the latest news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google