October 29, 2025 • 23 mins
Vanderbilt play-by-play broadcaster Andrew Allegretta joins the show for an inside look at the Commodores ahead of Saturday morning's matchup.
They discuss Diego Pavia's personality, Eli Stowers and Sedrick Alexander's journeys from Texas high school football to SEC success, and Vanderbilt's improvement along the defensive front.
They discuss Diego Pavia's personality, Eli Stowers and Sedrick Alexander's journeys from Texas high school football to SEC success, and Vanderbilt's improvement along the defensive front.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sun Ah. Yes, the immortal Gordon Lightfoot on a yacht
rock Wednesday here with one of his all time classics.
A sundown, of course, not sundown for the Long War
(00:21):
and football game this Saturday. No, No, it's closer to
sunrise eleven am kickoff for Texas and Vanderbilt. And toward
that end, very pleased to welcome Andrew allighretta play by
play voice of the Commodores from Vanderbilt Radio Network, to
the program this afternoon. In the hotline, Andrew, I really
appreciate the time. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm doing well enough radio programs welcome me in with
some Gordon Lightfoot.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So that was nice, all right. So every play by
play guide that I have on at everyone in the SEC,
either for football or basketball baseball over the past a
year and a half, I always have if they come
on on a Wednesday, because Wednesday's yacht rock Wednesday. You're
on the program if they're yacht rockers. And it makes
me feel a little bit of comfort as I am
(01:10):
an unabashed yacht rock fan that virtually all of them
say oh yeah, yeah, I'm I'm definitely on board with that.
I can I could definitely do that In fact, Neil Price,
Mississippi State, was talking about how hearing Liedo shuffle from
bos Skaggs made him think about going up to the
Liedo deck on the cruise ship with his wife and
(01:31):
hitting the buffet off of that. So you're quite a
bit younger than me, But are you a yacht rock fan?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, I was gonna say, I don't know that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'm quite a bit younger than you. I certainly feel
very geriatric at heart. What I would tell you is
this my age would give you this answer. I'm a
fairly sizable John Mayer fan. His most recent album was
very yacht rock ish. I think he called it sop rock.
So there's a lot of like references to those yacht
(02:02):
rock days. So I suppose by like, you know, like
the transitive property of a generation.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yes, okay, I'm right.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
There with you.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah. The producer Jake was nodding his head in agreement.
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
All right, great, I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
This football team would not be yacht rock orient it
because it would have to be quite the throwback for
people to see what Vanderbilt football has done, because you know,
in the seventies and the eighties, there were only spots
of success and then some lean times efforts. But right
now at number nine in the country in seven and one,
what for the first time in seventy five years, I
(02:40):
would imagine the community must be extremely excited about what
Coach Lee has going on with this team.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Oh, it's a ton of fun.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Basically every historical stat that we have at this point,
Craig like references a time when like Putting on the
Ritz would have been the number one song, not like
yacht rock stuff. So we really got to go back.
It's been a ton of fun. The community has rallied
around this. You've seen it with the turnouts of our crowds.
It's it's been awesome, man, it's been absolutely fantastic. You know.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
One of the things that impressed me last year when
the Longhorns went to Nashville to play the Commodoors was
here was the stadium that was really kind of under construction,
and yet for all of that, everybody showed up and
they sat in every available seat and kind of occupied
every other nook and cranny of the place, and it
was quite the environment.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, we've bought in now.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Certainly if you build it, they will comment all of
that sort of stuff and the success. And you know,
that game last year between Bandy and Texas was the
first Top twenty five matchup in Vanderbilt since two thousand
and eight, and since then we've had a couple. We
had one versus South Carolina last year. This most frequent
one versus in Missouri. So there there's been a groundswell.
There's been buy in of you know, Austin and Nashville
(03:58):
currently shared some similarity of the people that lived there
in the community and all of that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So you know, the theo Bonds of the world have
bought in.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Nate BARGESSI is from here. He's always been a Vanderbilt fan.
You're starting to see like Noah Khan was on the
sideline if you want to reference musicians, and I think
Sheil Crowe is a Zoo supporter, was there last weekend.
So that sort of thing has kind of developed as well,
which is a ton of fun that's not totally unheard
of at Vanderbilt. If you go back to like the
(04:27):
seventies and the eighties, a bunch of those type of
folks were turning out to Vanderbilt basketball and they were very,
very good, but it's a community that that kind of
lives a little bit off center in Nashville because of
the power of the NFL and Titans, and it's it's
still a very big Tannessy community here, like the Balls,
(04:48):
despite the fact that they're two and a half hours
down the road. But it's a passionate one. It's a
it's one that has been part of Nashville through and
through for decades and decades. So this team, this university,
the athletic department has kind have given all of those
people a reason to get back out to West End and.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Support the program.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Interesting visiting with Andrew allighretta play by play voice of
the Vanderbilt COMMODORECE. Okay, you mentioned about the common aalities
certainly within the state of Texas in terms of Texas
high school football town. I'm going to get the centric
Alexander in a moment, because they called several of his
high school games and just a great young man. But
I want to start with Eli Stowers because here I
(05:26):
am think about this for a moment here, Andrew, back
four years ago, I guess it was maybe five, I'm
calling the state championship game between West Lake High of
Austin and Denton Geyer, and the starting quarterbacks for that
game for Westlake was Kate Klubnick. Now, of course it
Clemson and Eli Stowers was the starting quarterback for Geyer.
(05:49):
Now he blew out a knee early in the game
and we all felt really bad for him, and he
had to be replaced by freshman Jackson Arnold, now the
quarterback at Auburn. And but Stours, and I've mentioned this
over the past couple of years, really and truly reinvented
himself as a tight end to the point where he's
now looked at as being a real NFL prospect as
(06:09):
a tight end. And we'll get to Diego Pavi in
a moment, but just the mere fact about what Stours
has done with his body, with his I guess his
mindset in his career has been pretty impressive to watch.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's been incredibly impressive. And I think you probably could
speak to this better than I could. I suspect, and
I don't know if it's always like a perfect comp
where if you look at all of these guys that
end up playing college baseball and pro base play, you
go back and they're all short stops. They're all pitchers
in high school. I don't know that every best athlete
is playing quarterback. You probably could speak to that better
than I, right, but you know, there's some of that
(06:45):
going on with Eli Stowers. He still has a good arm.
We saw him throw a touchdown pass a season ago.
But certainly his unique trait with the athleticism, the size,
the strength, the speed, like he's six foot whatever he
is and it's one of our fastest runners. So you know,
it obviously wasn't going the way that he had hoped
(07:07):
that Texas A and M. He transfers to New Mexico State,
he's in a quarterback competition with Diego Pazia, and then
eventually there's this realization that perhaps he could reinvent himself.
And he is such a grounded human being, he is
such a thoughtful and considerate human being that he took
(07:28):
probably what was less than desirable news that you're not
going to be a quarterback, But what if you did
this thing and pour himself into that in a really
first class way. And you know, to reference Diego Pavia,
kind of that balance, the ying and the gang of
Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers is is absolutely perfect. Like
(07:48):
there's the bravado, the confidence of Diego Pavia, and here's
this kind of humble giant in Eli stowers that that
mesh is really really well together. There has been other
guys that have done this. It's a really specific reference
for my past because I spent some time at Virginia Tech,
But Logan Thomas was a quarterback at Virginia Tech and
got to.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
The NFL and became a tight end. So this is
not like an unheard of transition. But Eli has taken
it really well.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Well. You mentioned the Yin and the yang and they
were both in New Mexico's take together. Everybody came away
impressed and a bit surprised with what Diego Pavia did
last year. Nobody's surprised this year. Everybody is seeing what
he does is obviously his athletic skill and his leadership
(08:36):
are unquestioned. The other thing I think that you can
speak to this better than just about anybody else that
fuels his fire is his attitude and being counted out
and being counted out in the past, and even having
to win battles against the NCAA on eligibility. That kind
of stuff just seems to have ignited this very flammable
(08:56):
chip on his shoulder to where he carries it onto
the football field and through football games with him.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I think a lot of that is true. I don't
want to overspeak, because it's not like I grew up
with Diego Pavia and know his you know, personal story
quite like that.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
But ESPN.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Ryan McGee did a wonderful write up on him about
a month ago and talked about just kind of the
conditions that Diego grew up in. Not that they were
like the worst thing in the world or all of this,
but there was plenty of personal adversity about what it
took for his mother to help raise four boys basically independently,
and all of the work that they had to do
together to elevate the.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Family and all of that sort of stuff. And you know, he.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Goes he goes to college and they're going to put
him out a running back.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
He didn't want to be a running back. You want
to be a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It's it's it's it's a wonderful sense of genuine self belief.
And I say this every time I talk about Diego,
because you know, people see the bravado, the confidence, the
fact that someone asked him he believes he deserves the highestman.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
He says, yes, and you know, I get that that
sort of rubs people the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
But the number one thing I would tell you about
Diego is that it's all real.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
It's not put on, it's not an act.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
His teammates wouldn't believe him if.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
It was right, Like the locker room has a natural way.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Of sifting that sort of stuff out. If you aren't real,
the locker room will.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Spit you out. And Diego's real.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Perhaps the best thing that he said in that Netflix
documentary that came out at least I think so last August,
was when he first got to Vanderbilt. You know, he heard
the same old line like it's Vanderbilt. You can win
this game, you can't win that game. You can win
this game, you can't win that game. And he said,
that's that's a joke. He can win every game. And
I told him that I really appreciated that line. He goes,
(10:49):
it's real. I really believe that. I'm like I know
you do. And everything about what he presents is authentically Diego.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Well, another guy who I discovered to be autent in
visiting with him when he was a high school athlete
was Cedric Alexander. And one thing that that Cedric always
impressed me was that his willingness to share the production
of the position. LBJ had a great run, you know,
and his his coach Jamal Fenner of courses on the
(11:18):
Steve Sarkesian staff, as a as a director of high
school relations, but getting others involved in the offense. And
I look at that in the same way in looking
at mckaylon young mk Young, because they're only separated by
six rushing yards total, but they look like a great
one two team together.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
So I actually will ask you a question. I have
a note on my.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Chart that says you said the Boston, Texas Independent High.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
School career rushing record. Is that still true? Does that
still hold?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I will tell you.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
This, it's under threats. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
As of as we speak today, he is still the
all time leading rusher in ai SD football history, Austin
Independent School District history. There is a running back for
Anderson High and for a freshman on the name Jake Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Caleb Crenshaw.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Caleb Crenshaw, And I'm gonna have a wrinkle for you
here who is pushing to break Cedric's record. He's at Anderson.
I here's the wrinkle. He transferred from LBJ to Anderson,
so his family moved. He was a former LBJ running back.
And Caleb Crenshaw is at Anderson, and he and he
(12:31):
is challenging the record. He's got a good chance to
break the record.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
I think he needs about three hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, and there's yeah, so I think he's probably gonna
do it. Uh. Anderson is an inner city program as
well and not likely to go deep in the playoffs,
but they're they're nine to OHO or eight no and
and they're in a good good position to they'll certainly
be in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
So he might break the record this week against Lockhart.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, I feel like I might need to double check
with you, Craig in the boot that it's still stands
on Saturday based on those numbers.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I'll have the update for you on Saturday morning. But yes,
back to your point about Cedric and everything that he
has done. And we remember he was an early commitment,
so we were talking about him in his senior year
as being committed to Vanderbilt, and people kept asking him,
and they kept asking him during the season as he
kept you know, climbing the ladder in more and more yards.
(13:23):
Are you still committed to Vanderbil? Are you still committed?
And every time he said absolutely, That's where I'm going.
And it looks like he's making the most of his opportunity.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
He's been awesome.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Clark vehemently believes he's one of the best complete running
backs in the Southeastern Conference. It's it's hard to disagree
when you include what he does as a receiver, when
you include what he does as a pass blocker, and
then I do think people sometimes overlook his overall rushing ability.
He does not have a one hundred yard rushing game
to his name yet. Some of that is the system,
(13:55):
but I've not seen a running back, certainly at Vanderbilt
during my time that was more effective.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
At finding the end zone.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I think he's got twenty one career total touchdowns between
rushing and receiving, sixteen and five. And here's a note
for you, his next rushing touchdown. He's already in the
top ten all time career rushing touchdowns at Vanderbilt. Wow,
his next one, I'm pretty sure. I'll have to double check,
and I'll tell you on Saturday. We'll tie j Cutler
(14:24):
for career rushing touchdowns with seventeen, which is a pretty
unique little statistic there in the top ten all time
at Vandergilt. He is a complete running back. They have
a ton of affection form. They call him Seti here.
I don't know what they called him at LBJ, but
they called him Seti here, and he's just you can
put him in. He's a three down or four down
(14:46):
running back because he can pass, block and even run
block if he's asked with the best of them.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I mentioned MK Young and he's a native checks as well,
out of Midland legacy out in the Permian Basin region,
but also like Avians Dower's transferred into New Mexico State.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah, and didn't play last year.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't quite I should know off the top of
my head all of the details, although they never spoke
exactly why MK was not playing last year. I just
think there was some eligibility stuff that they had to
get through, and they had to work through it. But
he's obviously stayed committed to Jerry Kill and him back
in this offense, someone that was at New Mexico State,
(15:27):
as you said, and the comp and I don't know
if it's perfect because Seti's not quite as big, but
like it does make you think of the old thunder
and lightning Ron dayne peaky barber sort of stuff, like,
Setti's not as big as ron Day, but Sedi Setti
can punch you in the face if he wants to.
And then there's themk who can rip off sixty seventy
(15:50):
yard touchdown runs.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Vanderbilt has four.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Rushes this season of sixty plus yards by a running back.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Four of those.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
You had to go all the way to twenty nineteen
to find another one of those. So it's been six
years in between those type of runs, and they've done
it four times. MP's got three of them. He's just
such a home run hitter.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
On the defensive side, for folks who don't know, in
total defense, the Commodore's ranked thirty first nation pretty dog
on respectable, twenty fourth in scoring defense, and eighteenth in
the country against the run. And of course Texas has
been trying to find its running game in between injuries
and youthful offensive line and all that. They've had some
(16:33):
things not go the way they wanted to do. But
I look at guys like random Font and I remember
him being TCU and he was from Brass'sport down along
the Gulf Coast as well. Who are the leaders of
this of this Vanderbilt defense that are going to lead
the Commodore's defense on.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Saturday, Fontine, That's a good one to start with. He
wears the green dock. Coach the player communication so much
so that like they don't even bother giving anybody else
a green dots because he comes off the field so little.
It's like if he comes off the field for a play,
they know he's going to be back in on the
next play. He doesn't have huge statistics. Part of that
(17:11):
is how they're using him this season. He kind of
setting the edge and keeping people from getting outside. But
having said that, he stills a handful of PFLs and
he's a huge impact player that hybrid linebacker safety type position.
And then I put a lot of emphasis on the
defensive line. I don't know if there's like a true
(17:33):
stud NFL prospect in there. I think Miles kper is
in court a Signore. I've gained a lot of traction
based on the way that they've played this season, the
two edge crushers for Vanderbilt, but holistically they can kind
of run you whether it's seven, eight, nine deep. Yami
Prute was the guy that got the pressure from Matt Bowlers,
(17:57):
the quarterback for Missouri that forced the intentional grounding of
the second to last play last week, which caused a.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Ten second runoff.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I mean, like he's I'm not saying he's an insignificant
piece of the team. That's not true at all. He's
very significant. He's just down the depth chart and there
he is making a pretty significant play on the second
to last play of the game. So I think that's
sort of my point. They've got interior defensive.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Linemen say Would and Josh Singh who are very, very disruptive.
So you know, have they been the best team at.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Getting backs or what not. Necessarily they create a lot
of havoc. They can break down the pocket, they can
kind of condense it and collapse it, and they can
do it from the inside and the outside. And Steve Gregory,
the defensive coordinator, which I always like to toss this
in for the football folks that kind of remember all
of the fun plays from fifteen twenty years ago, he
(18:52):
recovered the infinitous butt fumble and I turned it for
a touchdown. That's his He is not shy about talking
about it too. He's happy to tell the story. He's
been a great defensive coordinator, has a really good feel
for when to let his four down linemen get after
the quarterback and when to send some pressure. So he
deserves a lot of credit too.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
The final thing I wanted to ask you here. It
would be certainly understandable, especially for Cedric Alexander returning to
his hometown, for Eli Stowers returning to his home state.
Same thing with MK Young and some others as well,
to be a little more fired up for this game.
But given the fact that this will be the first
(19:36):
time what since nineteen oh three, I guess since a
five to five tie, that Vanderbilt has played a football
game in Austin, you sends a little more vibe out
of your guys. Hey coming to Austin, beat Texas and
we continue on our path to try to get to
the SEC Championship.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So Clark addressed the fact that Setti and a few
others are going back to a place. You've got Aaron
Bryant that transfer or from Texas. He's mindful of that
sort of stuff. We had a couple of guys transfer
from Virginia Tech to Vanderbilt. Before we went there, he
kind of talked about it and what it meant as
a team to represent for those players. I suspect there's
definitely extra emotions for those guys. But it's also a
(20:19):
very very mature team. It's you know, whatever the average
age is of this team or whatever it happens to be,
it's certainly not made up of exclusively freshmen, right, And
it's a It's a group.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
That has been deeply consistent throughout.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
The course of this speak season, and this is where
I started to go into coach speak. But it's been
pretty real. They embraced the moment, but they don't tend
to get overwhelmed by the moment. They tend to have
the same type of work week they sent They tend
to have the same type of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, regardless
of what's.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Going on Clark. Clark has said some some.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Things throughout the course of the past few weeks that
have stood out to me, which is, you know, he said,
we had this vision, this was our vision. We're not
entitled to anything, but we're also not going to lose
our minds just because we're living out our vision. So
I think that's kind of the attitude that they have taken.
(21:19):
Is it coach speak? Yeah, but you've got a graduate
student quarterback and a really grounded, tight end, really strong
leadership in there that kind.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Of allows that stuff to take hold. So well, maybe
fired up, of course they will.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I mean I think they avelt fits here and thinks, well,
if they beat Texas, you're eight to one, and then
you've got two teams for the bottom of the SEC
standings coming up next, which you know, it's the SEC.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You could lose to anybody, you could beat anybody, but what.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
An opportunity to try to take down Texas and set
yourself up to the college football playoff in November. But
I don't I don't see them getting carried away by that.
How they the Alabama game, or how they approached the
Missouri games, the LSU game, it all seems to.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Be very steady for them.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Well, Andrew, I appreciate you taking the time. I want
you to do one thing for me when you run
into Tim Beck next time, sending my greetings. I always
enjoyed working with him. He was in a difficult situation
here on Tom Herman's staff, but he was one of
my favorite people to get to visit with every week,
and so please send in my greetings and I look
forward to seeing you in the press box on the
Saturday morning. And you're in your well, I know you'll
(22:33):
be used to this. You're kind of in a construction
zone a little bit, but your boot you will have
a pretty decent sight line. You just kind of step
up on this little platform thing in the booth, but
you have a counter and you'll be able to see
out there pretty well. So I look forward to seeing
you this Saturday.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
If we're on the air and I can see the field,
we tend to be in a decent spot, so I appreciate.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I look forward to it.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
There you go, all right, Thanks Andrews. Thanks to take care.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
See you guys. All right.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
That is Andrew Allegret. He is the play by play
voice of the Vanderbilt Commodorees. We have more coming up here.
We're gonna hear from Ethan Burke long Worns defensive end
on thirteen under the Zone
Sun Ah. Yes, the immortal Gordon Lightfoot on a yacht
rock Wednesday here with one of his all time classics.
A sundown, of course, not sundown for the Long War
(00:21):
and football game this Saturday. No, No, it's closer to
sunrise eleven am kickoff for Texas and Vanderbilt. And toward
that end, very pleased to welcome Andrew allighretta play by
play voice of the Commodores from Vanderbilt Radio Network, to
the program this afternoon. In the hotline, Andrew, I really
appreciate the time. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm doing well enough radio programs welcome me in with
some Gordon Lightfoot.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So that was nice, all right. So every play by
play guide that I have on at everyone in the SEC,
either for football or basketball baseball over the past a
year and a half, I always have if they come
on on a Wednesday, because Wednesday's yacht rock Wednesday. You're
on the program if they're yacht rockers. And it makes
me feel a little bit of comfort as I am
(01:10):
an unabashed yacht rock fan that virtually all of them
say oh yeah, yeah, I'm I'm definitely on board with that.
I can I could definitely do that In fact, Neil Price,
Mississippi State, was talking about how hearing Liedo shuffle from
bos Skaggs made him think about going up to the
Liedo deck on the cruise ship with his wife and
(01:31):
hitting the buffet off of that. So you're quite a
bit younger than me, But are you a yacht rock fan?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, I was gonna say, I don't know that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'm quite a bit younger than you. I certainly feel
very geriatric at heart. What I would tell you is
this my age would give you this answer. I'm a
fairly sizable John Mayer fan. His most recent album was
very yacht rock ish. I think he called it sop rock.
So there's a lot of like references to those yacht
(02:02):
rock days. So I suppose by like, you know, like
the transitive property of a generation.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yes, okay, I'm right.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
There with you.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah. The producer Jake was nodding his head in agreement.
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
All right, great, I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
This football team would not be yacht rock orient it
because it would have to be quite the throwback for
people to see what Vanderbilt football has done, because you know,
in the seventies and the eighties, there were only spots
of success and then some lean times efforts. But right
now at number nine in the country in seven and one,
what for the first time in seventy five years, I
(02:40):
would imagine the community must be extremely excited about what
Coach Lee has going on with this team.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Oh, it's a ton of fun.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Basically every historical stat that we have at this point,
Craig like references a time when like Putting on the
Ritz would have been the number one song, not like
yacht rock stuff. So we really got to go back.
It's been a ton of fun. The community has rallied
around this. You've seen it with the turnouts of our crowds.
It's it's been awesome, man, it's been absolutely fantastic. You know.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
One of the things that impressed me last year when
the Longhorns went to Nashville to play the Commodoors was
here was the stadium that was really kind of under construction,
and yet for all of that, everybody showed up and
they sat in every available seat and kind of occupied
every other nook and cranny of the place, and it
was quite the environment.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, we've bought in now.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Certainly if you build it, they will comment all of
that sort of stuff and the success. And you know,
that game last year between Bandy and Texas was the
first Top twenty five matchup in Vanderbilt since two thousand
and eight, and since then we've had a couple. We
had one versus South Carolina last year. This most frequent
one versus in Missouri. So there there's been a groundswell.
There's been buy in of you know, Austin and Nashville
(03:58):
currently shared some similarity of the people that lived there
in the community and all of that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So you know, the theo Bonds of the world have
bought in.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Nate BARGESSI is from here. He's always been a Vanderbilt fan.
You're starting to see like Noah Khan was on the
sideline if you want to reference musicians, and I think
Sheil Crowe is a Zoo supporter, was there last weekend.
So that sort of thing has kind of developed as well,
which is a ton of fun that's not totally unheard
of at Vanderbilt. If you go back to like the
(04:27):
seventies and the eighties, a bunch of those type of
folks were turning out to Vanderbilt basketball and they were very,
very good, but it's a community that that kind of
lives a little bit off center in Nashville because of
the power of the NFL and Titans, and it's it's
still a very big Tannessy community here, like the Balls,
(04:48):
despite the fact that they're two and a half hours
down the road. But it's a passionate one. It's a
it's one that has been part of Nashville through and
through for decades and decades. So this team, this university,
the athletic department has kind have given all of those
people a reason to get back out to West End and.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Support the program.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Interesting visiting with Andrew allighretta play by play voice of
the Vanderbilt COMMODORECE. Okay, you mentioned about the common aalities
certainly within the state of Texas in terms of Texas
high school football town. I'm going to get the centric
Alexander in a moment, because they called several of his
high school games and just a great young man. But
I want to start with Eli Stowers because here I
(05:26):
am think about this for a moment here, Andrew, back
four years ago, I guess it was maybe five, I'm
calling the state championship game between West Lake High of
Austin and Denton Geyer, and the starting quarterbacks for that
game for Westlake was Kate Klubnick. Now, of course it
Clemson and Eli Stowers was the starting quarterback for Geyer.
(05:49):
Now he blew out a knee early in the game
and we all felt really bad for him, and he
had to be replaced by freshman Jackson Arnold, now the
quarterback at Auburn. And but Stours, and I've mentioned this
over the past couple of years, really and truly reinvented
himself as a tight end to the point where he's
now looked at as being a real NFL prospect as
(06:09):
a tight end. And we'll get to Diego Pavi in
a moment, but just the mere fact about what Stours
has done with his body, with his I guess his
mindset in his career has been pretty impressive to watch.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's been incredibly impressive. And I think you probably could
speak to this better than I could. I suspect, and
I don't know if it's always like a perfect comp
where if you look at all of these guys that
end up playing college baseball and pro base play, you
go back and they're all short stops. They're all pitchers
in high school. I don't know that every best athlete
is playing quarterback. You probably could speak to that better
than I, right, but you know, there's some of that
(06:45):
going on with Eli Stowers. He still has a good arm.
We saw him throw a touchdown pass a season ago.
But certainly his unique trait with the athleticism, the size,
the strength, the speed, like he's six foot whatever he
is and it's one of our fastest runners. So you know,
it obviously wasn't going the way that he had hoped
(07:07):
that Texas A and M. He transfers to New Mexico State,
he's in a quarterback competition with Diego Pazia, and then
eventually there's this realization that perhaps he could reinvent himself.
And he is such a grounded human being, he is
such a thoughtful and considerate human being that he took
(07:28):
probably what was less than desirable news that you're not
going to be a quarterback, But what if you did
this thing and pour himself into that in a really
first class way. And you know, to reference Diego Pavia,
kind of that balance, the ying and the gang of
Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers is is absolutely perfect. Like
(07:48):
there's the bravado, the confidence of Diego Pavia, and here's
this kind of humble giant in Eli stowers that that
mesh is really really well together. There has been other
guys that have done this. It's a really specific reference
for my past because I spent some time at Virginia Tech,
But Logan Thomas was a quarterback at Virginia Tech and
got to.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
The NFL and became a tight end. So this is
not like an unheard of transition. But Eli has taken
it really well.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Well. You mentioned the Yin and the yang and they
were both in New Mexico's take together. Everybody came away
impressed and a bit surprised with what Diego Pavia did
last year. Nobody's surprised this year. Everybody is seeing what
he does is obviously his athletic skill and his leadership
(08:36):
are unquestioned. The other thing I think that you can
speak to this better than just about anybody else that
fuels his fire is his attitude and being counted out
and being counted out in the past, and even having
to win battles against the NCAA on eligibility. That kind
of stuff just seems to have ignited this very flammable
(08:56):
chip on his shoulder to where he carries it onto
the football field and through football games with him.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I think a lot of that is true. I don't
want to overspeak, because it's not like I grew up
with Diego Pavia and know his you know, personal story
quite like that.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
But ESPN.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Ryan McGee did a wonderful write up on him about
a month ago and talked about just kind of the
conditions that Diego grew up in. Not that they were
like the worst thing in the world or all of this,
but there was plenty of personal adversity about what it
took for his mother to help raise four boys basically independently,
and all of the work that they had to do
together to elevate the.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Family and all of that sort of stuff. And you know, he.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Goes he goes to college and they're going to put
him out a running back.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
He didn't want to be a running back. You want
to be a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It's it's it's it's a wonderful sense of genuine self belief.
And I say this every time I talk about Diego,
because you know, people see the bravado, the confidence, the
fact that someone asked him he believes he deserves the highestman.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
He says, yes, and you know, I get that that
sort of rubs people the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
But the number one thing I would tell you about
Diego is that it's all real.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
It's not put on, it's not an act.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
His teammates wouldn't believe him if.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
It was right, Like the locker room has a natural way.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Of sifting that sort of stuff out. If you aren't real,
the locker room will.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Spit you out. And Diego's real.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Perhaps the best thing that he said in that Netflix
documentary that came out at least I think so last August,
was when he first got to Vanderbilt. You know, he heard
the same old line like it's Vanderbilt. You can win
this game, you can't win that game. You can win
this game, you can't win that game. And he said,
that's that's a joke. He can win every game. And
I told him that I really appreciated that line. He goes,
(10:49):
it's real. I really believe that. I'm like I know
you do. And everything about what he presents is authentically Diego.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Well, another guy who I discovered to be autent in
visiting with him when he was a high school athlete
was Cedric Alexander. And one thing that that Cedric always
impressed me was that his willingness to share the production
of the position. LBJ had a great run, you know,
and his his coach Jamal Fenner of courses on the
(11:18):
Steve Sarkesian staff, as a as a director of high
school relations, but getting others involved in the offense. And
I look at that in the same way in looking
at mckaylon young mk Young, because they're only separated by
six rushing yards total, but they look like a great
one two team together.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
So I actually will ask you a question. I have
a note on my.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Chart that says you said the Boston, Texas Independent High.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
School career rushing record. Is that still true? Does that
still hold?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I will tell you.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
This, it's under threats. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
As of as we speak today, he is still the
all time leading rusher in ai SD football history, Austin
Independent School District history. There is a running back for
Anderson High and for a freshman on the name Jake Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Caleb Crenshaw.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Caleb Crenshaw, And I'm gonna have a wrinkle for you
here who is pushing to break Cedric's record. He's at Anderson.
I here's the wrinkle. He transferred from LBJ to Anderson,
so his family moved. He was a former LBJ running back.
And Caleb Crenshaw is at Anderson, and he and he
(12:31):
is challenging the record. He's got a good chance to
break the record.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
I think he needs about three hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, and there's yeah, so I think he's probably gonna
do it. Uh. Anderson is an inner city program as
well and not likely to go deep in the playoffs,
but they're they're nine to OHO or eight no and
and they're in a good good position to they'll certainly
be in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
So he might break the record this week against Lockhart.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, I feel like I might need to double check
with you, Craig in the boot that it's still stands
on Saturday based on those numbers.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I'll have the update for you on Saturday morning. But yes,
back to your point about Cedric and everything that he
has done. And we remember he was an early commitment,
so we were talking about him in his senior year
as being committed to Vanderbilt, and people kept asking him,
and they kept asking him during the season as he
kept you know, climbing the ladder in more and more yards.
(13:23):
Are you still committed to Vanderbil? Are you still committed?
And every time he said absolutely, That's where I'm going.
And it looks like he's making the most of his opportunity.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
He's been awesome.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Clark vehemently believes he's one of the best complete running
backs in the Southeastern Conference. It's it's hard to disagree
when you include what he does as a receiver, when
you include what he does as a pass blocker, and
then I do think people sometimes overlook his overall rushing ability.
He does not have a one hundred yard rushing game
to his name yet. Some of that is the system,
(13:55):
but I've not seen a running back, certainly at Vanderbilt
during my time that was more effective.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
At finding the end zone.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I think he's got twenty one career total touchdowns between
rushing and receiving, sixteen and five. And here's a note
for you, his next rushing touchdown. He's already in the
top ten all time career rushing touchdowns at Vanderbilt. Wow,
his next one, I'm pretty sure. I'll have to double check,
and I'll tell you on Saturday. We'll tie j Cutler
(14:24):
for career rushing touchdowns with seventeen, which is a pretty
unique little statistic there in the top ten all time
at Vandergilt. He is a complete running back. They have
a ton of affection form. They call him Seti here.
I don't know what they called him at LBJ, but
they called him Seti here, and he's just you can
put him in. He's a three down or four down
(14:46):
running back because he can pass, block and even run
block if he's asked with the best of them.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I mentioned MK Young and he's a native checks as well,
out of Midland legacy out in the Permian Basin region,
but also like Avians Dower's transferred into New Mexico State.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah, and didn't play last year.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't quite I should know off the top of
my head all of the details, although they never spoke
exactly why MK was not playing last year. I just
think there was some eligibility stuff that they had to
get through, and they had to work through it. But
he's obviously stayed committed to Jerry Kill and him back
in this offense, someone that was at New Mexico State,
(15:27):
as you said, and the comp and I don't know
if it's perfect because Seti's not quite as big, but
like it does make you think of the old thunder
and lightning Ron dayne peaky barber sort of stuff, like,
Setti's not as big as ron Day, but Sedi Setti
can punch you in the face if he wants to.
And then there's themk who can rip off sixty seventy
(15:50):
yard touchdown runs.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Vanderbilt has four.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Rushes this season of sixty plus yards by a running back.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Four of those.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
You had to go all the way to twenty nineteen
to find another one of those. So it's been six
years in between those type of runs, and they've done
it four times. MP's got three of them. He's just
such a home run hitter.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
On the defensive side, for folks who don't know, in
total defense, the Commodore's ranked thirty first nation pretty dog
on respectable, twenty fourth in scoring defense, and eighteenth in
the country against the run. And of course Texas has
been trying to find its running game in between injuries
and youthful offensive line and all that. They've had some
(16:33):
things not go the way they wanted to do. But
I look at guys like random Font and I remember
him being TCU and he was from Brass'sport down along
the Gulf Coast as well. Who are the leaders of
this of this Vanderbilt defense that are going to lead
the Commodore's defense on.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Saturday, Fontine, That's a good one to start with. He
wears the green dock. Coach the player communication so much
so that like they don't even bother giving anybody else
a green dots because he comes off the field so little.
It's like if he comes off the field for a play,
they know he's going to be back in on the
next play. He doesn't have huge statistics. Part of that
(17:11):
is how they're using him this season. He kind of
setting the edge and keeping people from getting outside. But
having said that, he stills a handful of PFLs and
he's a huge impact player that hybrid linebacker safety type position.
And then I put a lot of emphasis on the
defensive line. I don't know if there's like a true
(17:33):
stud NFL prospect in there. I think Miles kper is
in court a Signore. I've gained a lot of traction
based on the way that they've played this season, the
two edge crushers for Vanderbilt, but holistically they can kind
of run you whether it's seven, eight, nine deep. Yami
Prute was the guy that got the pressure from Matt Bowlers,
(17:57):
the quarterback for Missouri that forced the intentional grounding of
the second to last play last week, which caused a.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Ten second runoff.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I mean, like he's I'm not saying he's an insignificant
piece of the team. That's not true at all. He's
very significant. He's just down the depth chart and there
he is making a pretty significant play on the second
to last play of the game. So I think that's
sort of my point. They've got interior defensive.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Linemen say Would and Josh Singh who are very, very disruptive.
So you know, have they been the best team at.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Getting backs or what not. Necessarily they create a lot
of havoc. They can break down the pocket, they can
kind of condense it and collapse it, and they can
do it from the inside and the outside. And Steve Gregory,
the defensive coordinator, which I always like to toss this
in for the football folks that kind of remember all
of the fun plays from fifteen twenty years ago, he
(18:52):
recovered the infinitous butt fumble and I turned it for
a touchdown. That's his He is not shy about talking
about it too. He's happy to tell the story. He's
been a great defensive coordinator, has a really good feel
for when to let his four down linemen get after
the quarterback and when to send some pressure. So he
deserves a lot of credit too.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
The final thing I wanted to ask you here. It
would be certainly understandable, especially for Cedric Alexander returning to
his hometown, for Eli Stowers returning to his home state.
Same thing with MK Young and some others as well,
to be a little more fired up for this game.
But given the fact that this will be the first
(19:36):
time what since nineteen oh three, I guess since a
five to five tie, that Vanderbilt has played a football
game in Austin, you sends a little more vibe out
of your guys. Hey coming to Austin, beat Texas and
we continue on our path to try to get to
the SEC Championship.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So Clark addressed the fact that Setti and a few
others are going back to a place. You've got Aaron
Bryant that transfer or from Texas. He's mindful of that
sort of stuff. We had a couple of guys transfer
from Virginia Tech to Vanderbilt. Before we went there, he
kind of talked about it and what it meant as
a team to represent for those players. I suspect there's
definitely extra emotions for those guys. But it's also a
(20:19):
very very mature team. It's you know, whatever the average
age is of this team or whatever it happens to be,
it's certainly not made up of exclusively freshmen, right, And
it's a It's a group.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
That has been deeply consistent throughout.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
The course of this speak season, and this is where
I started to go into coach speak. But it's been
pretty real. They embraced the moment, but they don't tend
to get overwhelmed by the moment. They tend to have
the same type of work week they sent They tend
to have the same type of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, regardless
of what's.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Going on Clark. Clark has said some some.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Things throughout the course of the past few weeks that
have stood out to me, which is, you know, he said,
we had this vision, this was our vision. We're not
entitled to anything, but we're also not going to lose
our minds just because we're living out our vision. So
I think that's kind of the attitude that they have taken.
(21:19):
Is it coach speak? Yeah, but you've got a graduate
student quarterback and a really grounded, tight end, really strong
leadership in there that kind.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Of allows that stuff to take hold. So well, maybe
fired up, of course they will.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I mean I think they avelt fits here and thinks, well,
if they beat Texas, you're eight to one, and then
you've got two teams for the bottom of the SEC
standings coming up next, which you know, it's the SEC.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You could lose to anybody, you could beat anybody, but what.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
An opportunity to try to take down Texas and set
yourself up to the college football playoff in November. But
I don't I don't see them getting carried away by that.
How they the Alabama game, or how they approached the
Missouri games, the LSU game, it all seems to.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Be very steady for them.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Well, Andrew, I appreciate you taking the time. I want
you to do one thing for me when you run
into Tim Beck next time, sending my greetings. I always
enjoyed working with him. He was in a difficult situation
here on Tom Herman's staff, but he was one of
my favorite people to get to visit with every week,
and so please send in my greetings and I look
forward to seeing you in the press box on the
Saturday morning. And you're in your well, I know you'll
(22:33):
be used to this. You're kind of in a construction
zone a little bit, but your boot you will have
a pretty decent sight line. You just kind of step
up on this little platform thing in the booth, but
you have a counter and you'll be able to see
out there pretty well. So I look forward to seeing
you this Saturday.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
If we're on the air and I can see the field,
we tend to be in a decent spot, so I appreciate.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I look forward to it.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
There you go, all right, Thanks Andrews. Thanks to take care.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
See you guys. All right.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
That is Andrew Allegret. He is the play by play
voice of the Vanderbilt Commodorees. We have more coming up here.
We're gonna hear from Ethan Burke long Worns defensive end
on thirteen under the Zone
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