Vanderbilt Commodores Football: Phil Steele 2025 Forecast

Vanderbilt had their best season in a decade last fall in going 7-6 overall. Now, returning as much experience as any team in the country per his projections, Phil Steele is expecting another year that could surprise from the Commodores.

Steele released his annual preview magazine earlier this offseason coming into this season in college football. In that edition, Vanderbilt came in at No. 14 in the Southeastern Conference, ahead of only Kentucky and Mississippi State, despite some of his optimism about their year.

Here’s how Steele projects this upcoming season to go for Vanderbilt in Music City:

Offense

The story with Vanderbilt starts and ends with QB Diego Pavia, who became a national-level name with his swagger on top of his play in which he posted 238 total yards per game while accounting for 28 total touchdowns and just six turnovers. Still, surrounding him is a veteran offensive line, their top-two backs from a season ago, and one of the nation’s better tight ends in TE Eli Stowers, which led Steele to project them to have one of their better offenses of the past eight years or so.

“Eli Stowers was the first Vandy player to earn 1st tm SEC s/2013 and is back along with Pavia and the best Oline in Lea’s 5 years,” wrote Steele. “I will call for the best offensive ypg since at least 2018.”

Defense

The defense is then just as experienced for the Commodores with their three-leading tacklers, seven of their top-eight in sacks, and several of those who accounted for their nineteen turnovers forced back for the unit. Now, after having one of their better defenses in eight years, Steele thinks Vanderbilt could now be even better on that side of the ball this season.

“This year they have eight starters back and look even stronger,” Steele wrote.

Forecast

Vanderbilt reached their first bowl since 2018 and had their first winning record since the end of James Franklin’s tenure in 2013, as they went 7-6 in year four for Clark Lea with big-time wins over Virginia Tech, at Kentucky, at Auburn, and of course over No. 1 Alabama while also having competitive outings at No. 7 Missouri, against No. 5 Texas, at LSU, and versus No. 8 Tennessee. With many names back from that team now, Vandy is actually thinking about being bigger and better this fall than they were a year ago, per Steele.

“This is Clark’s best team yet and they are #1 on my Experience Chart!” wrote Steele. “He has them believing they can beat anyone and Pavia got an extra year!”