Ranking Every Vanderbilt Position Group for 2026

Fall camp opened at McGugin Center with Clark Lea calling this his deepest roster in six seasons on West End, and it’s the first camp in program history where “bowl game” isn’t the ceiling of the conversation. That alone tells you how far this thing has come.

Last year Vanderbilt did something it had never done: 10 wins, a final AP ranking of 15th, a GameDay appearance against Alabama, and a ReliaQuest Bowl trip that ended in a 34-27 loss to Iowa. Diego Pavia, Eli Stowers, Tre Richardson and four offensive line starters are gone. Five-Star freshman Jared Curtis and veteran Blaze Berlowitz are still fighting for the keys, and Lea says he might not name a starter until days before the home opener against Austin Peay. Vegas is predicting a steep drop-off... the win total opened at 5.5, about half of last year’s actual output.

So consider this the first entry in our group-by-group series. Today we rank all ten position rooms from “keeping us calm” to “keeping us up at night” heading into Week 1. We’ll go deep on each one individually as camp rolls on - starting with whichever room gives you the most heartburn after reading this.

Vandy doesn’t have a hole here, it has a luxury problem. Sedrick Alexander enters his senior year off 567 yards and 11 touchdowns on 105 carries (5.4 yards per carry) plus 19 catches, and he’s already over 1,500 career rushing yards. Makhilyn Young (410 yards in 2025) will keep taking a real share of the load, and Jamezell Lassiter is the change-of-pace option Tim Beck turns to for a spark. This is the most proven room on the roster, full stop.

Four starters are gone, but Lea isn’t panicking, and neither are we. He called this staff the best in the country and says the pieces are already snapping together. Lyndon Cooper (Pitt transfer center, former team captain) and Cade McConnell, entering his second season as a full-time starter, look like the two settled spots. The rest of the line is a real fight: Micah Debose is pushing for a starting guard job, and Clinton Azubuike is in a genuine battle for the tackle spot against Beau Johnson, and a handful of others in camp. Nothing beyond the middle of the line is settled, which is exactly what you want to see from a staff that trusts its process. Vegas has Vandy’s win total at just 5.5, which feels light if this group gels the way the staff expects... our partner Underdog (https://play.underdogsports.com/vgwg/p-ttvandy) is the place to put your football opinions to work if you think that number is disrespectful. Link at the bottom of this article.

This room might be the biggest surprise on the whole roster. Jordan Matthews and Martel Hight have been two of the more talked-about names through the first week of camp and look like a legitimate starting duo, with Hight coming off a 2025 that included three interceptions. Beat reporters keep circling back to this group as one that could quietly carry the secondary. If camp buzz translates to the field, this is a strength nobody outside Nashville is talking about yet.

CJ Heard is the engine here — he tied for the team lead with 71 tackles last year and returns as the starter at nickel, still very much a vocal leader as a junior. Behind him, Ricardo Jones and Donate Carter seem set to take over the starting safety spots, with Jones(Third Team All-ACC) bringing real Power 4 production over from Clemson. This room lost a starter to the transfer portal but didn’t lose its identity, and having Heard anchor the back end while two new starters settle in is a good problem to have.

Bryan Longwell has started every game in back-to-back seasons and led the team with 67 tackles in 2025 — he’s the unquestioned anchor. Nick Rinaldi appears to be stepping into the second starting job after Langston Patterson’s departure, and position coach Nick Lezynski singled out Longwell, Rinaldi and Cowan for taking on leadership they hadn’t had before. Losing Patterson stings, but the room doesn’t feel thin.

Don’t sleep on this group just because the quarterback race is eating all the headlines. Miles Capers is back for a sixth season off a team-high 4.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss, and the staff added Iowa transfer Brian Allen Jr. - who, in a fun twist, sacked Pavia in last year’s bowl game and is now on the other side. Edwin Kolenge (Boston College) adds more portal juice. Capers is the leader, and it’s not close.

Glenn Seabrooks is a load at 6-foot-3, 340 pounds and gives Vanderbilt a legitimate interior anchor to build around. The name to watch alongside him is Yilanan "Issa" Outtara, who’s drawn breakout buzz through camp. If he stays healthy, this room’s ceiling looks a lot higher than it did in the spring. That “if” is doing some work, though, and depth behind those two will get tested across a nine-game SEC slate.

Junior Sherrill is the engine of this room and the clear No. 1, but Vanderbilt lost Tre Richardson to the transfer portal, leaving a real question at No. 2. Old Dominion transfer Ja’Cory Thomas is the answer on paper; A highly-compensated portal addition who’s dealt with a hamstring issue but looked sharper in the third day of camp. Brycen Coleman, a converted tight end, adds size but not the same vertical juice Vandy is replacing. Cole Adams, who appears to be a true slot type, could be a good replacement for Richie Hoskins. This group has a floor. The ceiling depends on Thomas staying healthy.

Eli Stowers led the team in receiving yards a year ago, and there’s no replacing that kind of production overnight. Cole Spence and Jayvontay Conner are the two names that I assume are set to soak up the bulk of the reps as Vandy tries to patch the gap, giving the room a two-man plan instead of leaning on one guy to do it all. Brycen Coleman, a converted receiver, adds size in a complementary role. There’s real production to replace here, but at least there’s a clear plan for who’s replacing it.

This is the one that decides everything, and Vanderbilt officially still doesn’t have an answer. Jared Curtis, the highest-rated recruit in program history, is fighting Blaze Berlowitz, who’s thrown 36 total passes in two seasons behind Pavia. Coach Lea says the competition could run all the way to the opener. Berlowitz knows the offense cold, but every camp report so far reads the same way: Curtis ripping seam balls, pushing the ball downfield, and looking every bit like the five-star arm Vandy flipped from Georgia. Nobody in the building will say it out loud yet, but the smart money already knows where this is trending. Whoever wins this job inherits a Heisman runner-up’s cleats. That’s a lot to ask of either guy on Day 1.

Up first in our deep-dive series: the quarterback room, because nothing else on this roster matters more than how that competition shakes out. Follow us here for the full breakdown as fall camp rolls on, and if you’ve got a strong opinion on where Curtis or Berlowitz lands, Underdog is where you can back it up: https://play.underdogsports.com/vgwg/p-ttvandy

As always, Commodore Nation... Anchor Down.