NASHVILLE – Vanderbilt football closed out fall camp with the second and final scrimmage of the preseason at FirstBank Stadium Saturday night.

The Commodores scrimmaged against each other for a couple hours worth of live periods ahead of the start of the regular season. Vanderbilt’s defense looked better in some areas compared to the first scrimmage and had other things to note as well.

Here are takeaways from each position room on defense following the second scrimmage of fall camp.

Defensive Line

The defensive line had an interesting night in run defense. It felt like a mixed bag of results, or a boom or bust potential against the Commodores rushing attack. 

On some plays, Vanderbilt’s run defense was able to stop running plays at or behind the line of scrimmage. However, there were other plays where the defensive line was overpowered by the offensive line and was not able to close up necessary gaps up front. That is a credit to the offensive line in some plays, but there were maybe some missed assignments in the gaps up front.

One of the guys that helped the Vanderbilt run defense in the scrimmage was defensive lineman Aaron Bryant. On a few plays, Bryant did a nice job of splitting between a couple offensive linemen to find his way in the backfield. Jaylon Stone also was able to make a push against the offenisve line at times during the scrimmage.

Another note about the run defense was that it did allow what felt like less splash plays out on the perimeter. A week ago, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea mentioned that he thought his defense could have been more disciplined in preventing runs to the outside. It looked like the defensive line and the run defense as a whole listened to Lea’s words on that.

In pass defense, the Commodores defensive line had a solid day. The defensive line brought pressure from both the inside and the outside through the scrimmage. There were times in the scrimmage where the pressure that was brought from the middle was well executed and there were also periods where quarterbacks were able to have time to sit back and throw.

Linebackers

There were a couple depth pieces in the Vanderbilt linebacker room that were able to make their presence known throughout the scrimmage. Jamison Curtis was able to get downhill in pass defense earlier in the scrimmage. Josiah Broxton was able to make a couple plays in run defense by breaking through the middle of the offensive line.

In general, Vanderbilt’s main core of linebackers of Bryan Longwell, Nick Rinaldi and Bryce Cowan got some reps in the scrimmage early on, but it looked like the scrimmage was mostly for depth guys getting live reps.

There was not much to learn or much that was different compared to last week’s scrimmage. Vanderbilt knows what it has in its linebacker group going into the regular season. The coaching staff knows it is going to get veteran, experienced play each week from this room.

Safeties

It was a similar story with the Vanderbilt safety room as it was a week ago in the first scrimmage. Dontae Carter and Davin Chandler made up the majority of the plays that the safety room made in the second scrimmage. The duo has been two or the more impressive defenders on Vanderbilt throughout fall camp.

Ricardo Jones got a little bit of playing time and was his normal self for the reps he got in the second scrimmage. Freshman Mason Lewis was another Commodore that made things happen in the back end of the defense Saturday night as well.

Overall, though, there was nothing new that was learned from the room that was not observed previously in camp.  

Cornerbacks

The cornerbacks were another position that gave depth guys a lot of reps Saturday night. Guys that Vanderbilt will rely on such as Martel Hight, Jordan Matthews and Cayden Daniels got very limited reps in Saturday’s scrimmage.

Instead, Bishop Starling and Oklahoma State transfer Jaylin Davies got a lot of opportunities to show what they could do. Starling — the freshman from Ensworth High School in Nashville — was the standout corner Saturday. Starling had great reps in coverage and made a couple big plays down the field.

Starling had a great finish overall to his fall camp. In each of the last few days of practice, Starling showed what he could do in coverage down the field and made memorable plays in each showing as well.

Davies got opportunities to play against pass catchers in coverage on the perimeter. Overall, he had some nice reps but did not make a big play during the scrimmage. 

Vanderbilt’s cornerback room showed that it was deeper than it may have seemed before fall camp. Daniels was a revelation in the room throughout camp while Matthews showed he took his game up a notch ahead of the 2026 season. The Commodores may not have learned much from their corners Saturday, but it sure did learn about them over the past couple of weeks.

Follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Threads and Blue Sky for the latest news.