Nashville area recruits

[Indian]

I'm not trying to steer players toward Vandy, just wondering why, year after year, players who seemingly would be good fits sign elsewhere? Is there dislike of the school, or is it just wanting to get away? They always seem to lack just enough to lose the big games that would put them in bowls. This year the talent around Nashville includes RB-LB Chris Jordan (Brentwood Academy, Rivals #3 in state), lineman Preston Bailey (MBA, Rivals #4 in state). Others are also from private schools and/or have good GPAs, from Nashville and around the state. The only state player with a verbal so far is a two-star lineman with a listed bench of 270. A few have Vanderbilt on their list of choices, but there's just been that one commit.

[Big Country]

The academic standards are just too high for many of your "normal" student athletes /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

[bud]

Just apply to the Peabody college and they are in as an athlete. If you are a non athlete and can't get in, appy to the Peabody college and have daddy give enough money and you are in. That is how it works there.

[hvillefootball]

Vandy's academics are too challenging for many athletes, I've seen them recruit and sign players only to see them not be able to keep up their GPA so they can't play. Many athletes don't want to be put in a situation where all their effort will have to go into studying and not football. Plus they don't want to go somewhere that can't win consistently.

[nickknx865]

Acedemics are too high, and the last time Vandy won a confrence title has to be before the SEC was even formed

[KWoodroof]

I'm not trying to steer players toward Vandy, just wondering why, year after year, players who seemingly would be good fits sign elsewhere? Is there dislike of the school, or is it just wanting to get away? They always seem to lack just enough to lose the big games that would put them in bowls. This year the talent around Nashville includes RB-LB Chris Jordan (Brentwood Academy, Rivals #3 in state), lineman Preston Bailey (MBA, Rivals #4 in state). Others are also from private schools and/or have good GPAs, from Nashville and around the state. The only state player with a verbal so far is a two-star lineman with a listed bench of 270. A few have Vanderbilt on their list of choices, but there's just been that one commit.

 

It's a lot of things, some of which other posters have addressed in some detail. Certainly Vanderbilt's record doesn't help much: Vanderbilt's last winning record came when the parents of current recruits were in high school. Add Vanderbilt's academic demands to the fact that it's a fairly snobby place (I'm an alumnus), and a lot of potential student athletes from working class families don't see anything very welcoming there. I think they've made great strides in how African-Americans are treated and perceived, but I would suspect a black student feels more welcome at Tennessee or Kentucky than at Vanderbilt.

 

There was a time when Vanderbilt had right of first refusal for any MBA athlete, at a time when MBA produced a fair number of D1 football players. I suspect that R.A. Dickey's not getting into Vandy had a bad effect on Vandy's recruiting at MBA, especially since Dickey was related to Ricky Bowers, the coach there.

[SACKEDBYME]

There is no separate admissions process for Peabody. In fact, with their new HOD major, it is very competitive as well.

Here are a few numbers you may find interesting, or maybe not.

Freshman Applications 12,162

Freshman Admits 4,099

Percentage Admitted 33.7%

Middle 50% Range Test Scores for the Class of 2010

ACT 29–32

SAT CR 640–730

SAT M 660–740

SAT W 630–720

The Class of 2010 also has 24% minority students.

[nrgrizzlies]

It's a lot of things, some of which other posters have addressed in some detail. Certainly Vanderbilt's record doesn't help much: Vanderbilt's last winning record came when the parents of current recruits were in high school. Add Vanderbilt's academic demands to the fact that it's a fairly snobby place (I'm an alumnus), and a lot of potential student athletes from working class families don't see anything very welcoming there. I think they've made great strides in how African-Americans are treated and perceived, but I would suspect a black student feels more welcome at Tennessee or Kentucky than at Vanderbilt.

 

 

Vanderbilt was one of the first SEC athletic programs to desegregate. They broke the color barrier in hoops LONG before Kentucky would have even considered it. Revisionist history ignores how ut "fans" told horrible racist jokes about their first African-American qb. Don't even ask about the racial history of "Ole Miss."

 

Working class kids in places such as Rutherford County would love a chance to attend and play ball at VU. They probably would value a shot at a VU diploma MUCH more than some rich kid from a prep school. Bobby Johnson has to try to recruit nationally to even have a fighting chance to compete with the state schools in the SEC. I am a bit mystified why an athlete such as this forum's valued contributor under the name of "hsfootball" isn't getting more of a look from Coach Johnson than he is...but the last few years VU has gotten from Rutherford County alone in the mid-state: Gaston Miller, Adam Smotherman, James Williams, and now Mike Bryant. There are still a DE and a tackle or two they are interested in from Rutherford class of 2008.

 

btw...VU has roads wins the last few years at ut, Georgia, Arkansas and South Carolina.

[HTV]

Revisionist history ignores how ut "fans" told horrible racist jokes about their first African-American qb. Don't even ask about the racial history of "Ole Miss."

 

 

 

Revisionist history? Don't even go there. Vandy isn't immune to having fans who use racial taunts. Bernard King was called every name in the book when he came to Memorial Gym and it still happens today.

 

Vandy makes academic exceptions for football players now. Student athletes are admitted with less than the same requirements as non-athletes.

[nrgrizzlies]

Since the 1960's/70's when Roy Skinner was coach, I've probably been to a total of 200 or 250 (maybe more) games at Memorial and am yet to hear the first racial slur. Perry Wallace at VU broke the color barrier in the SEC - look it up.

 

That's right - VU had an intergrated basketball team LONG before ut. And Babe McCarthy snuck his Mississippi State team out of Starkville in the middle of the night to go up north and play integrated teams; while over in Oxford, violence in the name of segregation was the order of the day. And what kind of letters did C.M. Newton get in the mail from uk fans when he integrated Alabama's basketball team?

 

Vanderbilt (Roy Skinner) and Mississippi State (McCarthy) were the ground breakers in desegregating SEC sports.

 

Glad to set the record straight in the face of inaccurate b. s.

[hvillefootball]

I don't really think desegregation history is the reason athletes choose not to go to Vandy, honestly I don't think they care all that much.

[5A football fan]

Look it is this simple they don't go to Vandy because it is Vandy the stigma of the football team losing games was starting to lighten until last week... the loss at UT set them back two to three years in recruiting in Tennessee