Anchor Of Gold
The Unofficial Vanderbilt Commodores Blog * Now With Fewer Law Degrees!
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2025 Staff Pick’em Week 0
After the 2024 Pick’em where only Cole was above .500 for the season, we managed to be evenly split across the middle mark and were actually right more often than not overall with a staff record of 456-432 (51.4%). Andrew won at 81-67 (54.7%) with Cole and Import tied at 80-68 (54.1%). You lot of […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: EDGE
With 2 established starters and a clear 3rd option, the interior of the defensive line is a bit better of a known quantity than the EDGE players. Teams have some what given up on trying to define OLB versus DE. The fronts used in college football right now are extremely situation specific and often have […]
Soccer Preview and Gamethread: Rice
Vanderbilt’s soccer team cruised to their 3rd straight win to start the season and kept up their 3-match streak of scoring 4 goals. The Commodores were not as dominant statistically as against ETSU, but Memphis was ranked at 20 or 21 depending on outlet. The hosts completely strangled their in-state opposition until the Commodores had […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Defensive Line
Vanderbilt’s defenses under Clark Lea have done some creative things with their defensive line players. They mix and match a lot for different packages to try to leverage player strengths against situations. They have often listed the depth chart as 1 DE, 2 DTs (sometimes 1 DT and 1 NT), and 1 Razor/Star, which is […]
Blaze Berlowitz named Vanderbilt’s starting QB and why it’s not a big deal
Per Pete Thamel, Blaze Berlowitz will start Vanderbilt football’s season opener against Austin Peay next Saturday, and the internet has reacted to this news predictably: freakout from some Vanderbilt fans (who I won’t name, because I like a lot of people making this take) and trolling from fans of other SEC schools (Vanderbilt’s vaunted five-star […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Offensive Tackles
The Commodores have to replace both tackles on offense. They have less than 200 returning snaps from a year ago. The player most safely written in as a starter is an FCS transfer. Somehow, the outlook is still not bleak. It is not a position that feels safe to assume will be as good as […]
Soccer Preview and Gamethread: #21/#24 Memphis
After a nervy season opener that required a last-minute PK conversion to secure a 4-3 win over SMU, the Commodores cruised to a 4-0 victory over ETSU on Sunday. The Commodores did again score a lone goal in the first half before adding a trio of goals in the second 45. The difference was never […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Interior Offensive Line
Today, we get to the point of the position reviews where I am completely out of my depth. A lot of these previews are conjecture based on projecting improvement from returning players (sometimes without them playing serious, competitive snaps for Vanderbilt), impact from incoming transfers, and public reports from spring ball and fall camp. They […]
Vanderbilt Football Opponent Preview: Austin Peay
The Opponent: The Austin Peay State University Governors When: 6:00 PM CT, September 5, 2026, at FirstBank Stadium 2025 Record: 7-5 (4-4 UAC) Head Coach: Jeff Faris (3rd season, 11-13) The last time we saw these guys: Vanderbilt won, 47-7, in 2015. The other time Vanderbilt saw Austin Peay was 2013, a 38-3 Vanderbilt win. […]
Soccer Preview and Gamethread: ETSU
The Vanderbilt Commodores started the 2026 season with a win that left a “bitter” taste in Coach Darren Ambrose’s mouth according to his post-game interview. He used the words sluggish, lethargic, and choreographed to describe the performance. Coach Ambrose harped on being proud and happy with the victory, but he kept focusing on different flaws […]
Let’s Get Weird Again—All World All Time Best Song Competition: 60s One Hit Wonders
Soccer season is underway, and I try to wrap this up before Vanderbilt athletics actually resume. But we said we were doing a season finale, and this is what the people voted for it to be. Look, it’s 60s one hit wonders. Most of you probably know these anyway, so I’ll just stick to a […]
Soccer Preview and Gamethread: SMU
We have survived the national nightmare that exists between May/June and August every year as we all pine for college sports to return. Vanderbilt’s soccer team gets the action started tonight at home against SMU. Having already broken down the different positions groups (goalkeepers and defenders, midfielders, and forwards), how does it all come together […]
Vanderbilt Soccer 2026 Position Preview: Forwards
Vanderbilt’s front line is terrifying for opponents. In the 3-5-2, the 2 forwards/strikers have a lot of freedom of movement. They can stay central or drift into wide spaces to let the CAM replace them centrally or have onrushing wide midfielders overlap or underlap. That freedom being given to very intelligent players is a recipe […]
Vanderbilt Soccer 2026 Position Previews: Midfield
Moving up the field one “line,” the midfield will likely be composed of 2 wide midfielders (one on the left and one on the right), 2 holding midfielders, and 1 attacking midfielder. The holding midfielders and attacking midfielder will roughly form a triangle. That shaft may twist and elongate during play, but that general shape […]
Vanderbilt Soccer 2026 Position Previews: Goalkeepers and Defenders
The Vanderbilt Commodores kick off the 2026-27 sports calendar on August 12th when they welcome the Southern Methodist University Mustangs to West End. The majority of the roster will be very familiar to any fans who watched last season’s team. Head Coach Darren Ambrose will have 67% of his minutes played back from last season’s […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Tight Ends
The second most difficult to fill hole on this roster from 2025 is at Tight End. Eli Stowers went in the second round of the NFL draft as the 54th overall pick. He won the John Mackey Award as the country’s top TE and was named First Team All-American by nearly every major outlet, including […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Wide Receivers
Vanderbilt’s aerial attack will have a new starting QB, which is getting most of the attention, but the players on the receiving end will be largely different, too. TE Eli Stowers was the leader in receptions at 62, and WR Tre Richardson was the yardage leader at 806. Both of them are gone. For today’s […]
Vanderbilt Soccer: Black-Gold Scrimmage
Vanderbilt soccer has decided to open the public access portion of the pre-season early in 2026. The annual Black vs Gold contest comprises of a number of on- and off-field contests ranging from silly party games to competitions at practice that culminates in an intrasquad match. Until this season, this has been a closed doors […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Running Backs
Moving along in these position previews, we stay in the backfield. The player closest to Vanderbilt’s new starting Quarterback will be a familiar face. Of the 185 carries and 1,195 yards gained by Commodore Running Backs in 2025, the squad returns 165 attempts and 1,132 yards. Diego Pavia was the leading rusher with 167 rushes […]
Let’s Get Weird Again—All World All Time Best Song Competition: Ottoman Empire
Previous Result See our list of all previous winners. The New states gave us another widely divided field! Eventually the Singing Sisters of Syracuse, with their ragtime piano and kazoo-laden version of “Shine On Harvest Moon,” managed to outpace a strong group of contenders** for the win. You know what wasn’t a widely divided field? […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Quarterbacks
The Vanderbilt Commodores are 40 days from kicking off the 2026 football season to defend the first 10-win season in program history. They have a number of impactful players to replace, and the backfill for Diego Pavia is receiving the most attention. The 2-year starter and 2025 Heisman runner-up quarterbacked Vanderbilt in a way that […]
Let’s Make Spirit of Gold Play Jozin z Bazin
So I was scrolling after dinner and saw this: …to which I replied: …and just like that, I give you all your marching orders. Now you give those band nerds those orders. Fill up that tweet with likes and replies also suggesting the classic Ivan Mladek song about a Prague monster until we bend them […]
Clark Lea isn’t naming a starter because he doesn’t have to
As Vanderbilt’s 2026 football season approaches, the biggest question facing the Commodores is who will replace Diego Pavia, who led Vanderbilt to its first 10-win season in school history in 2025. And Vanderbilt has, by some accounts, the top-ranked freshman quarterback coming in to fall camp. This should be an obvious answer, right? And yet […]
Let’s Get Weird Again—All World All Time Best Song Competition: The New States
Previous Result See our list of all previous winners. “Ha-He” by Kenya’s Just a Band won the mixtape competition (MAKMENDE AMERUDI!), but with a paltry 5 votes. Granted, there was a 5-way race going on, but only 16 votes total. Not sure if I erred by posting mid-week, or if we just didn’t have any […]
The Spice Returns
After the most disappointing season in the Tim Corbin era, resulting in the first time the Diamond Dores missed the postseason since most of the team has been alive, Corbs famously said something to the effect of, “Fuck that noise. Hail Pinman” (possibly misquoted) and then refilled Jobu’s rum. Since then, The Diamond Dores got […]
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