Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Vanderbilt leads the all time series with Texas eight wins,
the three losses, one tie. Now, they haven't played since
nineteen twenty eight, when Vanderbilt beat Texas in Dallas thirteen
to twelve, but they do have the overall series lead.
They also have what I think is the biggest eye
opening win of the season. They're forty thirty five home
(00:20):
win over the Alabama Crimson Tide and the back coming
up on three weeks ago. Were very pleased to be
joined by the play by play voice of the Vanderbilt
Commodores Andrew Alligretto, who joins us on the hot line. Andrew,
I appreciate the time. How are you this afternoon. I'm
doing great.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
You're talking about the golden era of Vanderbilt football there
nineteen twenty eight, where the coaches and the players have
now become the names of our streets and buildings.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
That for sure is the golden.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Era, no doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yet.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I would imagine these days are pretty exciting times there
in Nashville, aren't they? After not only the win over Alabama,
but I went over Virginia Tech certainly had a shot
to knock off Missouri, a top ten ranked team lost
in overtime. You had to win the road win at
Kentucky Gamming. Folks are really seeing the difference that Clark
(01:10):
Lee is making now in his fourth season there.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, it's a really significant season, Craig for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
First off, it's great to do an interview with you
guys and talk with you guys as conference members. It's
really really fun. I genuinely enjoy this. It's been a
special season so far. The Alabama game, no doubt eye opening.
It's both Clark Lee, but it's all of the changes
that clark made in the offseason, bringing Jerry Kill and
(01:37):
Tim back from New Mexico State, and obviously Diego Pavia,
who you know, I've kind of joked a bunch that
he's kind of a self made SEC starting quarterback. Like
he didn't he didn't go to any of the Elite
eleven quarterback camps.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
If he showed up, they would have kicked him out.
They wouldn't have let him participate, right.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Like, he has made himself into a Southeastern starting quarterback.
And you know, he doesn't have the same physical gifts
as perhaps viewers are manning, but his football IQ I'd
put up there with anybody in the country. So all
of those things have been kind of the perfect combo,
at least so far for seven games.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, one of the things that really it kind of
warms the hearts of a lot of folks around here
is the play of Cedric Alexander. And I had a
chance to call, as did our producer Cameron, several of
his high school games when he played at LBJ and
just a great kid and was just an unbelievably special
football player in the Austin Independent School District, all time
rushing leader there, and then as the guy who calls
(02:38):
the state championships for television, I got pretty familiar with
Eli Stowers only long enough to see him go down
with a knee injury in the first quarter of the
championship game against Westlake and replaced by the now sometimes starting,
sometimes back up quarterback at Oklahoma. To have him knocked
out of the game in that, but then to see
(02:58):
him reinvent himself as a receiver has been really interesting
to watch.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I imagine this happens to you guys a time to time,
where you go play somebody and you see a bunch
of all of these really talented Texas high school football products,
but we've been overwhelmed with what Cedric has been able
to do for us. He's still growing and maturing us
running back at this level, but he was All SEC
freshman team. He led all SEC freshman running backs in
(03:26):
yards a season ago, and he's certainly our primary back
for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
And Eli Stowers is the best tight end.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
That Vanderbilt has had, which I imagine that's kind of
a unique sentence for you knowing him as a quarterback,
but the best tight end Vanderbilt has had since Jordan Matthews,
who ended up playing in the NFL with a handful
of teams like that combo, and again the calculus of
Tim Back as the offensive coordinator, and the calculus and
the improv of Diego Papa, Like you're talking about four
(03:55):
guys that are making this offense go for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, And you bring up Tim Back and that brings
us out of my face because when he was on
Tom Herman's staff here, he was always fun to visit
with and would take time to sit down with Roger
Rawlis and myself and visit with him. So it's good
to see his path working out really well. As we
visit right now with Andrew Allagreta, played by play voice
of the Vanderbilt Commodore. How about that the doors defense
(04:19):
and what has stood out to you about Vanderbilt's defense?
And they've been able, I know in some games they've
given up some points, but in other games they've kind
of held their water, like the Kentucky game and a
couple of the other games where they were able to,
you know, hold everything down and give the offense a
chance to put enough points up on the board to
win the game.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, what's one percent for sure, Craig about Vanderbilt's defense
is the fact that in his fourth year, Clarkley has
his best defensive coordinator and it's himself. Like he went
through three years into this process, he tried to delegate
the defensive coordinator role to a couple of different guys
and it wasn't clicking the way that he wanted. So
one off the changes he made in the off season
(04:59):
was too to install himself as the defensive coordinator. And
he's an outrageously good defensive coordinator from a Texas perspective.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Fans would be interested to know.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Of course, clark went up against coach Sark in the
twenty twenty Rose Bowl between Notre Dame and Alabama, Clark
was Notre Dame's defensive coordinator. Of course, Sark was Alabama's
offensive coordinator. Now, Alabama still won that game, but Clark's
defense that Notre Dame held Alabama twenty points below their
season average, from fifty down to thirty. So the thing
(05:33):
about Clark is he's an outrageously good schemer. We don't
have Notre Dame's talents, we don't have perhaps some of
the other big pieces that he's had throughout the course
of his career. But he's so good at structuring a
defense that helps reduce the weaknesses of the players and
amplify their strengths.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And we do have talent.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's not to say that we're out there with a
bunch of dollar store pieces. It's just it's not the
same depth, it's not the same overwhelming force as athleticism.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
And he's put them.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
In great positions to make everybody, as he says, go
the long hard way. Like if you're going to score touchdowns,
at least the goal nine times out of ten is
to make you do it in nine, ten, eleven plays.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
And that's going to plan the Vanderbilt's hands I want
to go.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Back to Diego Pave again because I watched him play
when he was playing for New Mexico State, and I
saw what he did for Jerry Kill there and he
and Eli and then getting him to that Bowl game
was just a landmark accomplishment there in Los Cruises and
win that game was something. And to hear interviews with him,
it's almost like his entire life in football, once he's
(06:39):
gotten beyond high school, has been playing with house money,
and that he's taking that he's taking the biggest advantage
of his attitude seems to be like, look, I'm not
even supposed to be here anyway, so I'm going to
have a lot of fun. And I guess what it was.
Texas Tech offered him a walk on position, but he
always kind of believed in himself. Let me go to
Juco and then on to New Mexico State and to
(07:00):
have a real refreshing attitude about being the quarterback in
the Southeastern Conference.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I think that's I think that's accurate.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I would add I'm not sure if he views it
necessarily as house house money and more as I deserve,
like I'm talented enough for this. It's it is how
large can you how large can you think of someone's
chip on their shoulder and then amplify it by about
one hundred for somebody like Diego Pavia, right like, he's
(07:29):
five foot ten eleven, six foot whatever.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Again, he doesn't have a massive arm.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Nobody was scouting out Volcano Vista High School for him
to play quarterback in Albuquerque. But all that did was
motivate this young man because he genuinely believes in the
most positive way that he's the best player on the
field every time he steps on. And at least from
a Vanderbilt perspective, I do think you need somebody like
(07:57):
that to shock the system because all of the obvious
narrative is Vanderbilt is playing from the underdog position, so
one and so forth. And you get somebody like Diego
Pavia who steps on the field and completely occupies the
oxygen of confidence and demands that everybody come with him
that in that quest. Now, he's not perfect, he has
(08:20):
made some missteps, he was not great versus Ball State,
he was not great versus Georgia State. But I don't
think that has waivered his confidence, and all it has
done is just allowed him to get out there with
a bigger fire burning in his stomach. I just think
he plays with this outrageous sense of like, I'm here
to prove the fact that everybody thinks I shouldn't be here.
(08:41):
If that's house money, that's house money, if it's a
chip on the shoulder, whatever it is. But he's out
there with this maniacal tunnel vision to prove that he
belongs in the field with everybody.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Andrew alligreta play by play voice for the Vandervelt Commodore,
is joining us here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
zent right. Tell folks a little bit about what the
environment's been there some long horn fans making the trip.
I know that the stadium is sold out on Saturday
as well, but folks, a little bit about what the
environment will be like for a stadium. Unless I'm completely missing,
(09:14):
it is still kind of undergoing some renovation right now,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, you can drop the kind of it's definitely still
an active construction zone. First off, it's been fun to
see longhorned fans throughout the course of the season.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
This is not new for us.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Sometimes we get Georgia fans or Bama fans throughout the
course of the season because they purchased their season tickets
from Vanderbilt, and they'll show up occasionally when Vanderbilt plays
Missouri or whatever it happens to be all for the
one game that they actually wanted.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
So it's been good to see them throughout the course
of the season. Yes, we are absolutely under construction.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
What effectively it is is we've blown out the north
and south end zones. The north end zone it's effectively complete.
The south end zone is still an active construction site.
I think you're going to see one of the best
atmosphere for Vanderbilt football. You know, quite frankly, in twenty years.
The last time there was a Top twenty five matchup
(10:08):
at home for Vanderbilt was two thousand and eight, and
Vanderbilt was nineteen, Auburn was thirteen. That is the last
time you've seen ranked on rank at Vanderbilt Stadium two
thousand and eight. So it's gonna be. It's gonna be.
Texas fans will not be surprised. And you know, Nick
Sabman had his quote about the fact that there's more
(10:29):
of your fans than their fans at the building, and
we played that and that became a thing after our
Alabama victory, but it's gonna be sixty forty seventy thirty
Texas fans in that building.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
But I think what Texas fans will end up.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Seeing is a way more engaged Vanderbilt fan base. We
have overshot our student ticket allotment by nearly double throughout
the course of this season. Like it's been a kind
of a cattle fraud to get students to engage age
with the football program for obvious reasons.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Some of it the success on the field.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Some of it is just like the intellectual makeup of
the student body, Like you know, some of them are
just not going to be engaged with what happens on
a football field on a Saturday.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
But they have showed up in a big way.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And I just think Texas fans are going to see
a very passionate, passionate Black and Gold section to go
right up against what will be a very very upsure,
loud and passionate bur doorm steps.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Hey, Andrews, is are the broadcast boots under construction as well?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You joke, but I will say fingers crossed.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I had a small panic attack the week leading up
to the Alabama game because I showed up on the
Sunday beforehand, and there was a bunch of buckets out
collecting rainwater because there had been a leak in the
press pot.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
So no, technically.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
They're not under construction. I will say your view is
really good. I don't know what it is obviously at
Texas because I've never been there. But in terms of
like vantage points, you're going to have a lovely perch
to call the game. You're not going to be ten
miles away, you're.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Not in the end zone. But you know there might
be a little water damage from a league about two
weeks ago. So as long as you're cool with that, yeah,
we can live with that. We can definitely live with that.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Hey, Andrew, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to
join us today. I look forward to seeing you on
Saturday at the stadium and it ought to be a
lot of fun. Thanks again for taking some time.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Today, of course, it's a pleasure. All right.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's Andrew Alligh rather play by play voice of the
Vanderbilt Commodore's all right, coming up, we're going to have
some more coming up from our colleague Will Matthews visiting
with another Longhorn. It'll be Jaye Bluemom. We continue on
Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone