"Waffle House," Jayvontay Conner is Confident in Return to SEC With Vanderbilt Football

NASHVILLE—Jayvontay Conner chopped his feet, hit Vanderbilt cornerback Cayden Daniels and bolted towards the pylon, where a ball from Vanderbilt freshman quarterback Jared Curtis was awaiting him where only he could get it.

By the time Conner went up and met Daniels at the point of attack, he had impressed Vanderbilt offensive coordinator Tim Beck by winning a jump ball in the front corner of the end zone. When his work was finished, he jogged through the back of the end zone and let out two words that he felt summed up what he’d just done.

Waffle House.

What? Why?

“Waffle House is open 24 hours a day,” Conner said, “JC is open 24/7, man, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Vanderbilt football — Vanderbilt University freshman quarterback Jared Curtis (2) works with tight end Jayvontay Conner (18) takes part in practice at Vanderbilt University’s McGugin Center practice fields Tuesday, March 31, 2026. | DENNY SIMMONS / THE TENNESSEAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Just about every time Conner made a play in the end zone on the fields of Vanderbilt’s McGugin Center on Thursday morning, he let out that sentence. Conner has only been on Vanderbilt’s campus a few months and is set to go for significant playing time for the first time at an SEC program, but by no means is he timid.

As Conner walks up to his first interview since arriving at Vanderbilt while laughing and joking, the word reserved doesn’t register all that much. Perhaps it did a few seasons ago while Conner was an underclassman at Ole Miss that didn’t have much of a chance of seeing the field, but not anymore.

Conner can help this Vanderbilt football team, and he knows it. He’s acting accordingly.

“I’d say I’m very confident in myself,” Conner said. “The first route I knew how to run was a fade ball. So, like, I got really confident running fade routes. I’ve always felt like, when the ball in the air, like, even through different routes, if that ball in the air and it’s between me and a defender, I always feel like it's no 50/50 with it. I always feel like I'm the favorite to come out with it.”

As Vanderbilt manufactured a number of one-on-one situations in the red zone, Conner was generally right about his odds to come up with the ball–perhaps more than anyone else going through the drill.

Beck says that the drill was designed to see which of Vanderbilt’s longer, bigger receivers on the perimeter had good body control around the sideline and who could go up and get it. Mission accomplished for Conner.

“JC did a good job during that time, and those are the kind of things where, a lot of our new players, we haven't seen them really do that yet,” Beck said. “We only get so many practices in spring, we try to take advantage of them, we try to put them in as many situations so they can show us what they have and what they're capable of doing.”

More than all of Beck’s tight ends not named Cole Spence, he should know what he has in Conner. The level of play in which Conner experienced last year will require him to make an adjustment against SEC defenses, but his numbers at East Carolina in 2025 indicated that he’ll likely be able to do so.

Conner caught 23 balls, three touchdowns and went for 333 receiving yards a season ago while coming in as East Carolina’s second-most productive tight end. His numbers aren’t likely to take a major step forward as he moves up a level, but Conner appears to be in a place where he can contribute in the SEC–more than he did as a young player at Ole Miss.

He believes it, at least. He appears to believe he’ll be able to yell Waffle House a few times in the end zone, too.

“I'm ready to give it a go,” Conner said. “I'm coming back this time around and I'm ready to give it a shot.”

Follow us onTwitter/X,Facebook,YouTube,Instagram,ThreadsandBlue Skyfor the latest news.