Tag: Vanderbilt Commodores

Oklahoma Sooners in the top 5 of Josh Pate’s SEC Power Ratings

The Oklahoma Sooners are considered a top five program in the SEC according to Josh Pate.

The Oklahoma Sooners are heading into a new era of college football. Now, there are two mega conferences in college football with the additions the [autotag]SEC[/autotag] and Big 10 are making in 2024.

The Sooners elected to join the SEC, which sort of started this new wave of conference realignment. Much has been made about whether Oklahoma is “SEC ready”? Even after a 10-3 season, that question still looms over the program.

The program is heading in the right direction. They may not be ready to compete for an SEC championship in 2024, but you can tell with how they are recruiting, especially on the defensive side of the ball, they have a vision of what it’ll take to make this team ready for the week in, week out grind of the SEC.

While Oklahoma will be competitive in their inaugural season in 2024, 2025 is the year they’ll be serious title contenders. They’re still a young team and by 2025 a lot of this young talent will be seasoned.

But what about next season? How well can the Sooners do in Year 1? CBSSports’ and the Late Kick Show’s Josh Pate shared his SEC Power Ratings heading into the 2024 season Sunday night. In it, he values a rolling three-year snapshot of on-field performance, talent acquisition, and stability resource pool. Given all of that, he feels the Sooners are the fifth-best SEC program heading into 2024.

That means Oklahoma is probably around an 8-4 or 9-3 team in 2024, which is what I would have them at. And with the 12-team playoff incoming, there’s a possibility that puts them in the College Football Playoff in 2024.

I do think the LSU Tigers are a little overvalued because last year they were so bad defensively and were carried by their offense. Well, gone is Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and their star receiver Malik Nabors. Both are first round picks in 2024.

Here’s a look at how the SEC stacks up, according to Josh Pate.

Texas A&M Head Coach Mike Elko to boost staff with former Vanderbilt OC

More help is one the way as the Aggies look to bolster the offensive staff with former Broyles Award nominee Joey Lynch

Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko continues to add new faces to the Aggie program and is bringing another coach with SEC experience into the fold. While it’s not 100% locked in yet it’s been reported by John Brice at Football Scoop that former Vanderbilt Offensive Coordinator Joey Lynch will be joining the staff as a senior analyst.

Coach Lynch comes to Aggieland after being let go after two down years for the Commodores, however, prior to that brief stint he had a 10-year career at Ball State where he moved from the wide receivers coach to OC/Assistant Head Coach position. Where Lynch excelled throughout his career has been the ability to develop players no matter the position.

In his one season as OC with Ashland University his work with quarterback Billy Condiff earned him All-American Honors, conference player of the year, and a Harlon Hill Trophy nomination. While at Ball State the coached tight end Zane Fakes to back-to-back All-MAC first team honors, and once as OC he had six players make the All-MAC team as results of producing the top scoring offense in the league. The rounded out that season with a Broyles Award nomination that’s handed out to the nation’s top assistant.

Coach Lynch will serve as a great resource to current Aggie OC Collin Klein as the Aggies look to make major strides on the offensive side of the ball this season.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1

Top-10 national recruit and 5-star guard Mikayla Blakes, makes an SEC commitment

Mikayla Blakes is heading to the SEC.

Mikayla Blakes made her college decision on Monday as the five-star guard committed to Vanderbilt.

She picked the Commodores from a final seven that also included Indiana, Rutgers, Stanford, Tennessee, UCLA and Wisconsin.

One of the top guards in the nation, Blakes is a 2024 recruit who is having a tremendous final season at Rutgers Prep (Somerset, New Jersey). She entered the weekend with a scoring average of 20.8 points per game.

A five-star according to ESPN, Blakes checks in as the tenth-best recruit in the nation in the 2024 class.

She made her commitment on Monday afternoon following school.

 

On the season, Vanderbilt is currently 17-3. They lost this weekend at Tennessee.

Blakes is a versatile and athletic guard. Besides being a strong scorer who can drive to the basket or shoot from distance, she is a tough defender who is aggressive off the ball.

She is the only Vanderbilt commit to make the ESPNW 100.

Way too early 2024 SEC Football Power Rankings

The Sooners and Longhorns are making the jump to the SEC in 2024, so where do they land in our way-too-early power rankings?

In 2024, college football will look like nothing we’ve ever seen. Conference realignment did plastic surgery to the game we’ve grown up with.

The Pac-12 is essentially gone as Oregon, USC, Washington, and UCLA move to the Big Ten. The Big 12 added Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah. Stanford and Cal are off to the ACC, along with SMU getting a promotion from the AAC. The SEC is adding Texas and Oklahoma.

The College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams, coming off its most competitive four-team version.

All of this is happening in 2024.

It’s a new era of college football. For the SEC, the Sooners and Longhorns are coming off of double-digit win seasons and Texas made the playoff. But how do they stack up against their future SEC counterparts?

Here’s a look at our way-too-early SEC power rankings.

Instant Analysis: LSU men’s basketball takes down Vanderbilt to begin SEC play 2-0

The Tigers are 2-0 in SEC play for the first time since 2019-20.

With a 77-69 win over Vanderbilt on Tuesday night, LSU has already matched its SEC win total from last season. It also began league play 2-0 for the first time since the 2019-20 season

LSU relied heavily on its defense in the early goings. It was a sloppy game for Vanderbilt, which turned the ball over nine times in the first half, but the Tigers struggled to take advantage and only got 10 points going the other way.

Still, the LSU lead was stretched out to as big as nine points in the first half, but that wouldn’t last. The Tigers ended the half on a cold streak, hitting just one of their final 10 shots from the floor in a field-goal drought that lasted more than four minutes.

Vanderbilt cut the lead down, and LSU was up just 30-28 heading into the break.

The Tigers got hot again to start the second half, though. They expanded their lead to 15 points, but the Commodores wouldn’t go away so easily. A 7-0 run cut LSU’s lead to just seven heading into the under-four timeout.

But the Tigers’ offense, which shot nearly 50% in the second half, was too much to overcome. It was another huge outing for [autotag]Jalen Cook[/autotag], who scored a game-high 28 points. [autotag]Jordan Wright[/autotag], meanwhile, put up 15 against his former team.

LSU has been playing much better basketball recently, and that will be put to the test on Saturday when the team hits the road to take on a ranked Auburn team.

Contact/Follow us @LSUTigersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Louisiana State news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno

Ohio State punter, Jesse Mirco finds new home down south

Jesse Mirco is heading to the SEC.

Last week we told you Jesse Mirco somewhat unexpectedly entered the transfer portal. Today we found out exactly where the former Ohio State punter will take his talents. Mirco announced on X (formerly Twitter) that he’ll be heading to Nashville to play at Vanderbilt.

Mirco will have one year of eligibility left after spending his first three years in Columbus. The Aussie punter averaged just shy of 44 yards per punt and landed 55 punts inside of the 20 during his time in Scarlet and Gray.

In what was an offensive clunker of a Cotton Bowl for the Buckeyes, Mirco shined having one of his best games ever where he averaged just over 48 yards per punt. It was one of the few highlights in what was a forgettable effort against Missouri.

Mirco is the 11th member of the football team to find a new home via the transfer portal.

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. 

Georgia lands top transfer wideout from another SEC program

Former Vanderbilt wideout London Humphreys caught 22 passes for 439 yards and four touchdowns as a freshman, including a 49-yard touchdown against Georgia.

Former Vanderbilt wide receiver London Humphreys, the highest-ranked wide receiver in the transfer portal according to 247Sports, committed to the Georgia Bulldogs on Tuesday. On3’s Hayes Fawcett reported the signing.

Humphreys, a 6-foot-3 and 190-pound receiver, spent just one season with the Commodores. A three-star recruit out of high school, the Nashville native caught 22 passes for 439 yards and four touchdowns last season.

The highlight of Humphreys’ freshman campaign came early in the season when he put together back-to-back 100-yard games against Wake Forest and UNLV. He caught four passes for a season-high 109 yards against the Demon Deacons, and he caught a 56-yard touchdown pass against the Rebels on his way to a 102-yard day.

Humphreys caught multiple passes in five different conference games for Vanderbilt, making the biggest impact against his new team. He caught two passes for 51 yards against the Bulldogs, including a 49-yard touchdown on the opening drive.

Get more Georgia coverage at UGA Wire.

Breaking down LSU transfer QB addition AJ Swann

Here’s what LSU’s getting with Vanderbilt QB transfer AJ Swann.

LSU added to its quarterback room on Monday, picking up a commitment from Vanderbilt transfer [autotag]AJ Swann[/autotag].

The addition wasn’t a surprise. It had been known LSU was in the market for a QB with some experience and several years of eligibility remaining.

Swann fits that bill. The rising junior appeared in 15 games in two seasons at Vanderbilt but has two years of eligibility left and potentially more if he redshirts in 2024.

[autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag] is expected to be LSU’s starter in 2024. But Swann is a guy who can push him and adds insurance should Nussmeier get hurt.

Before adding Swann, LSU lacked a backup QB with any meaningful experience. That makes this a critical pickup.

Let’s take a look at what LSU’s getting in its newest QB.

BREAKING: LSU lands a quarterback in the transfer portal

Garrett Nussmeier will have some new competition in the quarterback room in 2024.

[autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag] will have some new competition in the quarterback room in 2024.

With [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] leaving Baton Rouge for the NFL, there is an opening at the quarterback spot for LSU. Nusmeier is presumed to be the next man in line for the spot but things may have just changed.

LSU landed former Vanderbilt quarterback [autotag]AJ Swann[/autotag] from the transfer portal on Monday. Swann is a sophomore from White, Georgia, where he played for Cherokee High School. Swann has appeared in 15 games over the past two seasons. He made 12 starts for the Commodores and threw for 2,731 yards, 22 touchdowns, and nine interceptions.

His career completion percentage is 56% but take those numbers with a grain of salt given his team and the caliber of competition.

Going from the worst team in the SEC year-after-year to one of the best teams in the SEC could elevate his game, but he will have to beat out Nussmeier, [autotag]Rickie Collins[/autotag] and incoming four-star 2024 recruit [autotag]Colin Hurley[/autotag] for the starting job.

Contact/Follow us @LSUTigersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Louisiana State news, notes, and opinions.

What is James Franklin’s all-time record in bowl games?

James Franklin is taking a winning record in bowl games into this season’s Peach Bowl.

Penn State is looking to win a New Years Six bowl game in back-to-back seasons when they take on Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl. A season after winning the Rose Bowl, Penn State is looking to become the first school in college football history to record at least one win in each of the New Years Six bowl games. Doing so would give head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] a fourth different New Years Six bowl game, a feat few coaches have pulled off in the history of college football.

Franklin is 6-5 all-time in bowl games as a head coach, including a 4-4 mark in postseason bowl games at Penn State and a 2-1 record as head coach of Vanderbilt prior to his arrival in State College. Penn State has yet to have back-to-back bowl wins under Franklin, so the pressure will be on to buck that trend in the Peach Bowl against the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday, Dec. 30.

Here is a look at James Franklin’s all-time bowl results heading into this season’s Peach Bowl.