Highest Graded Vanderbilt Commodores From Scrappy Game Against Texas
The Vanderbilt Commodores weren't able to come up with their second top-five win of both this season and school history against the Texas Longhorns, but the players should have their heads held high for the fight shown in the loss.
Pro Football Focus released their weekly grades for the game, and a handful of players stood out with noticeable performances.
The highest grade of the day went to linebacker Khordae Sydnor, who received a solid 77.0 assessment.
Sydnor, like many of the team's top performers, was a transfer. He joined the team from the Purdue Boilermakers, where he spent three seasons with up-and-down play. There were flashes of talent, but not a ton of consistency.
He had his best day as a Commodore this weekend with three tackles with a sack and 1.5 tackles for a loss. As a pass rusher, he was in the face of Quinn Ewers all day, totaling five pressures.
The senior also shined against the run, logging two stops.
This was the type of performance that Vanderbilt was counting on when they brought him over via the transfer portal.
Defensive back Randon Fontenette was the second-highest graded payer of the day, coming in at a nice 75.5.
Fontenette came over from TCU Horned Frogs after he failed to make an impact last season, despite looking good when he got the chance to be on the field.
The sophomore did it all in this one, also leaving the day with the best performance of his career.
He had eight tackles with 2.5 going for a loss and 1.5 sacks. The safety/linebacker hybrid also excelled in coverage with three passes broken up.
The third-highest grade also went to a defender, back on the defensive line with De'Mation Thomas.
Unlike the other two, Thomas signed with the Commodores out of high school.
The true sophomore had two tackles in this one, both being logged as stops, adding a pressure on the quarterback as a pass rusher.
It was his second straight game with a pressure, which is nice to see as it's not usually a strength of his.
It's no surprise that all of the highest graded players all came from the defensive side of the ball. The offense had some clutch plays, per usual, but it was the defense that kept them in the game long enough to make it interesting.
It wasn't a perfect day, but they held their own for going against an offense with as elite of athletes as the Longhorns.
Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders