Why Vanderbilt Football May Finally be Built to Last in 2025

When South Carolina running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders ran for 126 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Gamecocks’ win over Vanderbilt last season, it was the start of a three-game losing streak to end what had been a magical 2024 regular season for the Commodores.

LSU rushed for 148 yards the next week before Tennessee’s Dylan Sampson exploited holes in Vanderbilt’s front for 178 yards on the ground.

This wasn’t a sudden skill collapse by the Vanderbilt defense. It wasn’t that its opponents had such dominant run games. It wasn’t even injury-related. The Commodores had simply run out of gas.

With the way Vanderbilt football has historically been limited financially and academically compared to other SEC schools, it has been hard enough for general manager Barton Simmons and head coach Clark Lea to fill starting spots. But the backups? It’s been nearly impossible to find enough quality players to fill the entire roster.

In the gauntlet of an SEC schedule, playing every snap of every game throughout the course of a season takes a toll on a player’s body, no matter how young or athletic he may be. And while Vanderbilt’s hard-work mentality has certainly paid its dividends, it’s also created some issues.

“Last year started off strong and then we hit a wall,” Vanderbilt captain Langston Patterson said. “My ankle was gone, Diego [Pavia]’s playing on a torn hamstring, Eli [Stowers] had a concussion. We have a team that, no matter what, we’re giving everything we got. Which is awesome, but it also took a lot from us last year.”

Any casual fan could have seen Patterson’s words in action last season. The Vanderbilt team from Week 3 was a far cry from the one viewers saw in Week 10. But now, with a rejuvenated program that has already become a more popular destination than ever before, the script is beginning to flip for the Commodores.

With plenty of returning starters, Vanderbilt had the luxury of using the transfer portal this offseason to find something they’ve long lacked – depth. Take defensive end Keanu Koht, for example. In the past, a former four-star recruit coming to Nashville from Alabama would make headlines. But on Clark Lea’s 2025 team? Koht doesn’t even need to start.

The same logic applies to countless others. Texas DT transfer Aaron Bryant. Texas Tech OG Sterling Porcher. Even four-star freshman Carson Lawrence would have seemingly been penciled into a starting role on Commodore teams of the past.

But now? Now these players serve a new role – perhaps an even more important one. They can give starters a chance to rest their bodies throughout the season, without a noticeable drop in quality on the field. This will not only help keep players like Stowers and Patterson healthy throughout the course of a season but will also lessen the wear and tear on players’ bodies.

“It gives me confidence,” linebacker Bryce Cowan said about having a safety net he trusts behind him on the depth chart. “One guy gets tired; we got another guy ready to roll right in because they can do the same thing.”

This has already been evident throughout training camp, as Stowers, Martel Hight and several others spent significant time throughout the Fall off to the side in an effort to keep their bodies fresh for the season.

“We’re right around four hours in accumulated time less on the field than we were a year ago,” Lea said last week. “I think that will help us as we get into the middle of the season. Having a little more time off our feet and having a little more time to recover in fall camp should allow us to sustain through that.”

Will this surely keep Vanderbilt’s roster healthy for the entire season? Of course not. But the best SEC football programs find ways to keep their starters fresh, and the way to do so is to show confidence in your depth pieces. Nearly every position group, especially on the defensive side of the ball, is deeper than it was last year. In some cases, it’s significantly deeper.

While keeping the defensive starters fresh is integral to the team’s success this season, there’s one player whose health trumps everyone else. Pavia was criticized for taking too many hits last season and putting his own health – and the team’s success – at risk. The Vanderbilt quarterback has insisted he’s completely healthy but still, has exerted himself much less in fall camp this time around.

“Being able to manage how many shots Diego takes early this season, I think is super important,” offensive coordinator Tim Beck said.

This doesn’t mean that Pavia and the rest of Lea's starters aren’t going to be on the field in key moments. It doesn’t mean that Vanderbilt is going away from the grit-and-grind approach that found them success and made national storylines. But it does mean that we may see backups in the game a little earlier against Charleston Southern if the score isn’t close. It does mean there may be more players in the regular rotation than fans are used to. And it does mean that players should look fresher later into the season than they have in the past.

Make no mistake: this mentality shift represents a massive step in the right direction. If the Commodores truly want to find sustained success against the top of the SEC, they can’t go into every game banged up and fatigued. For Vanderbilt football, depth – and using it properly – may finally be the key to achieving the program’s goals.