Anchor Of Gold
The Unofficial Vanderbilt Commodores Blog * Now With Fewer Law Degrees!
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Game 1: Austin Peay Governors at Vanderbilt Commodores — Open Game Thread
Vanderbilt kicks off its 2026 season tonight, hosting the Austin Peay Governors. The Governors are 1-0 after beating Gardner-Webb last week (FCS had Week 0 available on the schedule) and have a legitimate quarterback in Chris Parson. We’ll probably see Jared Curtis tonight, though not as the starting quarterback. Blaze Berlowitz will get the first […]
Lessons in Vanderbilt Football: Preseason
The Vanderbilt Commodores are coming off a double digit win season for the first time ever. They have been playing 10+ game seasons since roughly 1949 with around 10 seasons between the start of Vanderbilt football and then that were 10+ games. Vanderbilt has had 5 legitimate undefeated seasons. They were 1897 (6-0-1), 1904 (9-0), […]
Week 1: College Football Saturday Schedule and Open Thread
And here we are, college football season again, and only some of the teams will be playing NFL training camp washouts this season! (Or not. LSU apparently did not add them to the roster.) Here’s your schedule for today. All times listed are Central. 11:00 AM 11:30 AM 11:45 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 […]
Football.
Football football football FootballFootballFootball… Football. Fooooootball football. Football. Footballfootball football football. FootballFootballfootballFootballFootballfootballfootballFootballfootballFootballFootballfootballFootballFootballFootballFootbalfootballFootball. Football? Anchor! FootballFootballFootballFootballFootballFootballFootball, football. Football footballfootballfootball; footballFootballfootball. Foot. Ball. Football. Footballfootballfootballfootball. Football.
Saturday Predictions: Austin Peay
Vanderbilt opens its 2026 football season at 6 PM on Saturday, playing Austin Peay for the first time since 2015. What do the Commodores have for an encore after last season’s 10-3 record? Diego Pavia is gone, Jared Curtis is in, but Clark Lea threw everyone a curveball by naming veteran Blaze Berlowitz the starter […]
2026 Staff Pick’em Week 1
Week 0 was a decent start. Overall, the staff was 25-23. Tom, off a horrific 2025 started strong at 6-2. He was matched by Import to represent the staff alumni. Andrew and I both split it all at 4-4 while Cole was just behind at 3-5. Christian rounded off Import’s success by doing the inverse […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Specialists
The last group to be previewed before the Commodores kickoff the 2026 season is the group that will be on the field for that first play. The specialists may not play as many snaps as other players, but we all know how important the kickers, punters, long snappers, and returners are. Missed field goals, shanked […]
Soccer Preview and Gamethread: Tennessee Tech
Vanderbilt soccer experienced their first turbulence since the opening match against SMU when they finished their Houston trip at the University of Houston. Former Texas A&M Aggie Bailey Cate would get the Cougars on the board in the 9th minute. That score held until halftime. Just after the break, where Houston’s Head Coach Ben Williams […]
2026 Vanderbilt Football Mailbag #1: Answers to Your Questions
Letters… we get letters… we get stacks and stacks of letters… Question(s) from Ofermod: Answers from AoG: PatrickSawyer: I wish we had this schedule last year. 11-1 would have been easy. 10-2 at worst. The ceiling is probably 9-3. Maaaaybe 10-2 if Ole Miss struggles under Golding. My gut instinct was 4-8 as the floor, but […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Cornerbacks
One of the most belabored groups on Vanderbilt’s defense last season, and for the last few seasons, was the cornerbacks. Mark Davis (Achilles) and Marlon Jones (cancer) both transferred to Vanderbilt before 2024 but missed the entire season. Neither found their way back to expected form in 2025. Kolbey Taylor went from a Vanderbilt villain […]
Better Know A UAC Opponent: The Peay
The School: Austin Peay State University. Named for former Tennessee Governor Austin Peay. Per Wikipedia, Austin Peay’s most notable accomplishment was signing into law the Butler Act, which barred the teaching of the theory of evolution in the state’s public schools and led directly to that longtime national embarrassment, the Scopes Monkey Trial. It says […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Safeties
Vanderbilt’s safety room took a big hit when Randon Fontenette decided to transfer. Reportedly, the main reason was a planned schematic/philosophical shift that would require Fontenette to play more like a true safety instead of the hybrid LB/S “Star” position he had played the previous two seasons. Based on there not being any of the […]
2026 Vanderbilt Football Mailbag #1: Call For Submissions
Post VANDERBILT Football and/or SEC Football questions in the comments here. At long last, the college feetball season is nigh (well, the Week Zero stuff happened, but that didn’t affect us, so shut up. While Diego and the Pavia Brothers are gone, the 2026 Gridiron Dores begins the saga of 5 star Freshman QB Jared […]
Get the best of Anchor Of Gold on the new SB Nation app
It’s a big day for Anchor Of Gold. Today, the SB Nation app is live, and it’s the best way to follow the Commodores. You can download it by searching SB Nation for iOS or Android. A year ago we made some big changes to our community, including offering fewer ads and the addition of […]
Vanderbilt Football 2026 Position Preview: Linebacker
Vanderbilt’s linebacking corps was a strength of the team in 2025 and looks to be just as strong in 2026. They will need to replace the most versatile member of the group as Langston Patterson has theoretically moved on to the NFL, but who knows with all of the eligibility nonsense if he finds his […]
Soccer Preview and Gamethread: Houston
Vanderbilt broke their streak of scoring 4 goals in a match in their first road contest of the season. They still smoothly handled the opposition as they cruised to a 3-1 victory that only had a couple bumps in the road. Notably, there was a flurry from the 78th to 83rd-ish minute where Rice had […]
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. […]
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