Vanderbilt is bringing an extremely veteran team to Austin

Vanderbilt’s roster consists of 28 players listed as juniors, 19 as seniors, and 26 as a “graduate.” A whopping 73 Commodores have been in college for at least three years, giving Vandy head coach Clark Lea one of the most veteran and experienced rosters, if not the most veteran and experienced roster, in the sport.

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These numbers do not discern between scholarship players and walk-on additions, but even chalking up 15% of each class to walk-ons would give Vandy over 60 players with multiple years of college football experience.

Those veterans are lead by quarterback Diego Pavia, who is currently in his sixth season of college football after two junior college seasons at New Mexico Military Institute, two seasons at New Mexico State, and the 2024 campaign at Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt’s athletic website, like those for other academic-minded schools, do not detail anyone’s redshirt year on the football roster. Whether a second-year player started every game during his freshman season or never dressed out, that second-year player is as sophomore. A third-year player is a junior. A fourth-year players is a senior. Anything past that is a graduate.

Texas does account for redshirt seasons and also does not list any player as a “graduate.” The Longhorns simply list by current NCAA classification. The Longhorns currently have 22 seniors (14 scholarship) and 18 juniors (11 scholarship). Even when generously adding third-year sophomores on scholarship, 12 players total, that gets Texas up to 37.

Vanderbilt has around double the veterans Texas has.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked Monday about the type of advantage that can give Vanderbilt not only due to having older players but also players with experience in the system and culture implemented by Lea.

“I think it’s probably somewhat of an advantage regardless of the system,” Sarkisian said. “Guys that have seen more things in game, able to make quicker adjustments in game are some advantages to that. Older, stronger, things like that.

“It’s such a fine line. We want to recruit high school really, really well. As long as I can remember being at Alabama or being on some of the best teams, when you recruit really well and players perform well, a lot of them leave early to go to the draft. When you recruit well and maybe players aren’t playing quite as much as they would like, they leave too. Guys transfer. Then you try to recruit really good high school kids.”

Over the past two seasons, 23 Longhorns have been taken in the draft. To compare, only one Commodore — long snapper Julian Ashby — has been picked. He went in the seventh round of the 2025 draft to the New England Patriots.

After last season, Texas lost 16 total players to the transfer portal while bringing in 11 according to On3. Vanderbilt had a net loss of zero to the portal.

On top of all that, some of Texas’ main contributors are from the 2024 and 2025 classes such as current starters or co-starters Ryan Wingo, Emmett Mosley V, Brandon Baker, Colin Simmons, Alex January, Maraad Watson, Parker Livingstone, Jordan Washington, Zina Umeozulu, Nick Brooks, Lance Jackson, Kade Phillips, and Graceson Littleton.

Meanwhile, Pavia is a sixth-year player for Vanderbilt trying to put together a Heisman campaign. His top target in tight end Eli Stowers is a fifth-year player. Leading non-Pavia rushers Sedrick Alexander and Makhilyn Young are juniors. Two of the Commodores’ three leading tacklers in Bryan Longwell and Langston Patterson? Longwell is a junior and Patterson is a senior. Every Vanderbilt starting O-lineman save for guard Cade McConnell has over 2000 career snaps, and McConnell has a solid 500.

Texas skews younger for a variety of reasons.

“One of the drawbacks of that is we’re one of the younger teams in the country,” Sarkisian said.

Sarkisian added he’s not sure if Texas will ever be one of the older teams in the country. “Young and hungry” was an often-used description for the team in the preseason. That youth showed at Florida. It also showed at Kentucky and Mississippi State, but the Longhorns were able to overcome those teams and grow up in the process.

Finally back home, Texas is a team that has become a decent bit more battle-tested over the course of the 2025 season. The Longhorns will welcome one of the most veteran and experienced, and therefore battle-tested, teams in the country on Saturday when the No. 9 Commodores come to town.