From Bowl Win to Big Dreams: Vanderbilt Football Pushes for More in 2025
Vanderbilt hopes it is building something special, and not just on the southern end of FirstBank Stadium.
The Commodores’ 2024 season was its best season in a while and not just winning eight games, including a 35-27 win in the Birmingham Bowl (it certainly doesn’t hurt, though). It’s the excitement around the team, a swagger that’s best exhibited in the Commodores’ quarterback, Diego Pavia, that began to show during the season.
Oh yeah, Vanderbilt also beat then-No. 1 Alabama. Just in case anyone had forgotten.
All of that has led to a strong sense of optimism in the Commodores spring practices this month, but they also know having hope isn’t enough.
“Obviously, you want to continue to chase progress, and we measure progress daily,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said after the Commodores’ Tuesday practice. “We're looking for more in the way of results.”
One sign of progress came during the college football transfer portal and high school recruiting. The Commodores saw 13 players enter the portal, which was the third fewest amongst SEC teams behind Texas and Georgia. One of those players was captain Marlen Sewell, but he withdrew his name from the portal a week after entering it.
“This is home,” Sewell said after Tuesday’s practice. “I feel comfortable staying. You know, just the people here. We built something special this past year, and I just wanted to continue to build on that and finish where I started. I came in here, I want to finish out here.”
Sewell played in all 13 games for Vanderbilt last season, registering 20 tackles and one pass breakup. In past year, Sewell would’ve been the type of player to Nashville for another place. But Vanderbilt feels like a winner, which has made retaining players easier.
“Certainly, there is an internal sense of progress,” Lea said. “I think we've always had some internal sense of connection to the mission and what we're building here. For us, obviously, there were plenty of people that were interested in coming back and taking the progress we made and moving it forward and taking it further.”
Two of the biggest names to return to Vanderbilt for the 2025 season are Pavia and tight end Eli Stowers, who could’ve been an early round NFL Draft pick.
“You can't deny the impact he has on our team,” Lea said of Pavia. “When you bring your quarterback back, when there's such a belief in him and he builds so much into the DNA of who you are, everyone pays attention to that. Beyond the guys that are here and coming back, I think it also appeals to people that are outside the program looking to come in.”
We’ll get a chance to see the progress Vanderbilt has made this spring with a scrimmage this Saturday.
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Taylor Hodges is a staff writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI covering all-things Vanderbilt. Taylor brings more than a decade’s worth of award-winning sports writing, photography and video experience covering every level of sports — from Little League baseball to professional sports and other sports like hunting and fishing. Taylor is fueled by his lifelong passion for sports that began the same day Kirk Gibson hit his legendary World Series walk-off home run, Arkansas beat Texas in Austin and No. 4 Notre Dame beat No. 1 Miami in the Catholics vs. Convicts game.