Vanderbilt Commodores Defensive Lineman Has Uncommon Versatility
The Vanderbilt Commodores have a long and storied history of success at the college ranks and at the professional level.
That is, their baseball program, at least.
The football program has shown flashes of brilliance over the years, but it has been a struggle to consistently be successful, though that could be changing this year.
Commodores defensive lineman Glenn Seabrooks has played a key role in the success of their defense this year, even as a freshman, appearing in all eight games so far, recording 11 tackles, one tackle for loss, and even an interception.
Listed at 6'3" and 340 pounds, it is easy to see the quintessential defensive lineman when you look at Seabrooks.
But looks, as always, can be deceiving, as football was not the freshman's first love.
In fact, as a kid, Seabrooks dreamed of one day playing in MLB, a season that came to an end with the Los Angeles Dodgers toppling the New York Yankees for the World Series crown.
Seabrooks starred on his high school baseball team, pitching and playing first base, while also starring on the football team, and decided before his junior year of high school to focus more on football, though he remained on the baseball team through his senior year.
"We really felt like that my true gift was in football, and I had and I had to accept that," Seabrooks told Aria Gerson of The Tennessean.
It is something that has paid off thus far for the lineman, though his versatility as a multi-sport athlete played a big part in Clark Lea recruiting Seabrooks.
"If you have 10 (football) games a season over the course of four years, you played 40 games, and that's not a lot of exposure in high school," Lea said in a recent press conference. "And in basketball, you're going to play hundreds of games, baseball you're going to play hundreds of games."
Seabrooks even spent six games of his junior year as his team's starting punter, filling in for Davidson Academy's regular starter who got injured playing soccer.
It is that competitive nature, willingness to help his team in any way possible, and multi-sport versatility that drew Lea to Seabrooks, and what has led to the freshman playing a part in a storybook season for Vanderbilt.
With no less than two years of collegiate eligibility left, there is sure to be much more to come from the freshman, it will just come in the form of tackles and not home runs.
