To round out the 2026 regular season, Tennessee football will be looking for revenge. After losing at home to Vanderbilt last year, the Vols hit the road this upcoming season.
With fall camp around the corner, I spoke with Joey Dwyer of VandyOnSI to get the inside scoop on where the Longhorns are at this summer.
Here’s what he said.
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What are the expectations for Vandy this year after last season?
I would say the expectations are still high, considering the improved infrastructure of the program, but I think naturally you have to expect that they’ll take a step back since they set the program wins record last year and lost the two most impactful players on that team. With that being said, though, I actually think they have a better defense than they had last year and I think, looking at the program as a whole, there’s a potential for them to have results prove that it’s not only a Diego Pavia thing. I think they’re deeper than they’ve ever been. Clark Lea actually told us that this summer, and I also think that they’re schedule plays in their favor and that it might make them look a little bit better than they actually are.
What’s the early buzz around Jared Curtis at quarterback?
Vanderbilt tried to insulate Curtis from a lot of the buzz, but obviously the buzz is there, and there were a few throws in the spring that allow for the buzz to be more substantial. That being said, Curtis is still competing for the job, at least on paper. I think he’s going to win the starting job, as do essentially all of my program sources, but he still has to earn it, and I think the buzz is that he’s going to have a year that excites people. But also, there’s going to be a lot of room for him to grow and a fair number of mistakes throughout the year. So, I don’t think anyone is going to produce like Diego did a year ago, but I think there’s a realistic possibility where Vanderbilt‘s fan base comes out of the year thinking that they have one of the best quarterbacks in college football in 2027.
What does the offense look like around Curtis? Strengths? Weaknesses?
I actually think they are fairly good infrastructure around Curtis. They have two good running backs, a few good receivers, including Junior Sherrill, who I actually think is the best player on the team. They have a competent tight end in Cole Spence who’s going to take on a bigger receiving role as well as an offensive line that has a lot of proven production. Although a lot of it comes from other places for Curtis, I think he’s going to have to lean on the run game at times and that’s got to be the thing that allows Vanderbilt to get out of some positions and to win certain games. You can’t put too much pressure on Curtis at this point. I’ve heard that there are still some growing pains and those have to subside by the start of the season, but everyone knows he’s talent and everyone knows there are throws that he can make. He just has to do it more consistently than he did in the spring.
How do you think the defense will stack up this year?
I think the consensus around the program is that this is Clark Lea’s best defense to date. They might actually have a few real difference makers on the defensive line for the first time in at least 10 years. At the second level, he said this is strong as he felt about a group that he coached on the second level. Cornerbacks should be better and maybe you could even hover around league average with Marcel Hight and Jordan Matthews returning. And then at the safety position, I think they have some depth, and they have some real high-ceiling guys there. It’s not going to be the best defense in the SEC, it probably won’t be top five in the league, but I think it’s going to be significantly better than what they had last year and I think it’s definitely the best of Clark‘s tenure just because they’re more experienced and they were able to retain a lot of their key guys from a year ago there.
Do you have an early prediction for the game, or is it still too early to tell?
I think too early for a prediction. I’m going to give you the coach-speak answer there, and the reason being is that we don’t know what either team really has a quarterback at this point. Obviously, both are still up in the air. Vanderbilt specifically, I think it really lives and dies based off of what Curtis does. He’s the real factor for it, clearly, and it’s hard to know exactly how he’ll act in a game like that and in a situation like we’ll see there. I think it helps with Vanderbilt at home. I will say, I think for Vanderbilt, this is the closest it’s been to having the program infrastructure that Tennessee has, which helps it complete a roster correctly. With that being said, I still think they lack a little bit of star power that Tennessee probably will have and I think Jared Curtis is going to have to have a big day that day if it’s going to be a game that Vanderbilt can win.
