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Vanderbilt, Clark Lea are DETERMINED to Prove Doubters WRONG, Vandy is NO Fluke

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Vanderbilt Commodores refuse to settle for mediocrity as Clark Lea’s program aims to silence doubters and prove last season’s breakout wasn’t a fluke. Can Vanderbilt sustain their rise after a 10-win campaign, a Heisman finalist, and major roster changes? Corey Burton spotlights spring practice improvements, leadership from Cade McConnell and Junior Sherrill, and the infrastructure driving long-term success—raising expectations and shaking up SEC perceptions. Basketball heats up as Vanderbilt battles McNeese State in March Madness, favored by 11.5 points. Keys to victory include Tyler Tanner’s explosiveness, Duke Miles’ hot streak, and defensive discipline against perimeter attacks. Corey Burton also previews potential matchups with Nebraska and Florida, examines the revamped football defense led by Ricardo Jones and CJ Heard, and discusses ongoing recruiting wins. Is Vanderbilt truly on the path to lasting SEC prominence, or will skeptics be proven right? #anchordown Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: lockedonvandy.supercast.com Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at https://5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon. Mazda Like our players, we’re driven by the details. Because highlights make the reel. What it takes to get there makes it count. There’s more to a Mazda. Because there’s more to you. TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Wayfair Get last-minute hosting essentials, gifts for all your loved ones, and decor to celebrate the holidays for WAY less. Head to https://Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style. Every home. SupplyHouse Visit https://SupplyHouse.com/tm to learn more about becoming a Trade Master. Use promo code S-H Five College for 5% off your first order at https://supplyhouse.com. SupplyHouse. Real people. Real service. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)


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Vanderbilt, Clark Lea are DETERMINED to Prove Doubters WRONG, Vandy is NO Fluke

Locked On Vandy – Daily Podcast on Vanderbilt University Commodores Football and Basketball

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Locked On Vandy – Daily Podcast on Vanderbilt University Commodores Football and BasketballVanderbilt, Clark Lea are DETERMINED to Prove Doubters WRONG, Vandy is NO Fluke. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This is Nick Gangsta with the Lockdown Mavericks Podcast. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. I love that I can run up to 3% daily cash back on every purchase of my Apple Card, which can be automatically sent to my high yield savings account through Apple Card right in the wallet app. With my iPhone, I can use Apple Card with Apple Pay basically everywhere I go. You can apply for Apple Card, too, right in the wallet app on your iPhone. Subject your credit approval. Savings is available to Apple Card owners, subject to eligibility. Savings in Apple Card by Goldman Sachsman, USA Salt Lake City Branch member FDIC, terms and more at AppleCard.com. Soccer fans, get ready. TNT sports features the US men's national team squaring off against top global competition with ice nakes and high drama. Watch a moment. Watch a strike. See who makes their case to join the roster to represent the stars and stripes. USA is taking on Belgium on Saturday, March 28th at 2.30 p.m. Eastern.

USA versus Portugal Tuesday, March 31st at 6 p.m. Eastern. Live on TNT and HBO Max. Vanderbilt and Clark Lee are determined to prove doubtors wrong. Vanderbilt is no fluke. You are a Lockdown Vandy, your daily podcast on the Vanderbilt Commodores, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team, every day. What's up, everybody? Welcome in to another edition of the Lockdown Vandy podcast, part of the Lockdown podcast network, the number one sports podcast network in the world. I'm your host, Cory Burton. And on today's episode, we're going to preview March Madness, Vandy's 11.5 favorites. We're going to look at that game, that game tips off later on today. Also we're going to talk about the defense for Vanderbilt.

The spring practice is raging on is the defense going to be nasty this year, I think so. But we're going to start with just the overall prospect of Vanderbilt really having to prove or proving that they're no fluke. Because anytime you look at this, we're going to start. Anytime you look at a team like Vanderbilt, who has a 10 win season, best in school history, your first thought is that's an outlier. And Vegas, especially Fandall, I don't know about the other sites, but Vegas has them set at six and a half. And to go from 10 wins, he's been finalists on the Cusp of the College Football Playoff. You're going to have a first round tight end drafted, likely to go from that to now setting your floor, I guess, or your bar at six and a half wins. It feels like that a lot of people doubt, okay, you lose Pavia, you lose stowers, you

lose Logan, you lose Langston Patterson, you lose Brandon Foughton Ed in the portal, you lose Trey Richardson in the portal, you just can't sustain. You lose your all-prose center, who's going to get drafted, I think, higher than a lot of people are expecting. You lose some pieces on the offensive line, you're replacing a lot of guys, conventional wisdom, a program like Vanderbilt, I get it, there's going to be doubt there. And the doubt is, well, they can't do it, six and a half is too much, their floor, their Vanderbilt, there's no way they can sustain this level of performance. And I think this spring practice is, and day one went a long way into laying the ground work of proving, hey, what team five started, what the 2025 version of the Vanderbilt Commodores started, the foundation that they laid is just that. This is the start of a team that's going to inch their way to the upper echelons of the

conference. Are they going to do it year in and year out, probably not, or at least not yet, if I have a growth mindset? But the things that they're doing, the comments that are being made, leads you to believe that it wasn't Diego Pavia driving all of this now is his talent, his performance and the things that he, the things that he gave to this program, yes, they were very, very helpful. But within the infrastructure that was set by Clark Lee in this administration, and the fact that they're now starting to compete in NIL, they're now starting to recruit at a level that you need to recruit to be competitive in the SEC. Now it's a matter of signing all these guys, and these recruiting things are battles, and they're in battles now with guys that are, you know, they're in battles with Tennessee, they're in battles with Texas, they're in battles with Ohio State, Ole Miss, Missouri, like they're in battles with legitimate contenders. That hasn't always been the case, right? So I'm under the thought process of you've got to start somewhere.

Is it going to happen overnight? No. Are they going to sign all of these guys? No. Are they going to have a better recruiting class? I think so. Jeremiah Douglas is his talented as they come. There's no indication that he's going to flip. I think he saw a lot of great things at practice and saw that it wasn't just a fluke, and I think my gut tells me he's, something tells me he's going to stay. I don't know what it is. There's no concrete evidence that I'm basing this off of. It's a gut feeling that I have based on what I'm reading, based on what I'm gathering from comments, based on some of the video stuff that I'm seeing, all of that. That being said, what's going on in practice is outstanding. What's happening within this team is outstanding. You know, the Jared Curtis show, I think, got off to a great start. You know, obviously he's going to be the talk of the town, and his performances are going to be under a microscope, whether he wants them to be or not. That's just going to be the case, right?

And they talk to the two of the team leaders, Cade McConnell and Junior Cheryl after practice on Tuesday, and they had a lot of great things to say. They had a lot of things that seem very genuine, not scripted, because you know, some of these players, they're just, they're just media puppets for the coach, but like, you know, I think what's being said is very, very intentional and almost kind of organic, right? No, I didn't, I didn't type out the quotes for everything, but Clark Lee said the perception shifts on the back of, back end of results, and what drove those results is day in and day out investment, independent of whatever external opinion is or isn't, right? So it says they're putting in the work, they're putting in the investment. That's what they did in 25. Well, that's what they did when he had the overhaul back in 2024. That's where it all kind of started. I think that's where I'll kind of started to catch, I should say. Clark Lee's been trying to do this since he got there, but I think it finally started to catch on when he got rid of some, some key pieces and when he brought in some key

pieces, you know, the key pieces that drove the miserable season in 23 and the key pieces that helped push Vanderbilt beyond that and push Vanderbilt to where they are today. He was, he was an integral part in investing in those pieces. Jerry Kiel being one of them, Diego Pavia, Eli Stowers, a whole bunch of transfers, a whole, you know, a shift in the coaching staff, a reorganization of how things were done internally and the, the ever growing presence of NIL support and financial support. All of that has superseded the external opinion because the external opinion is that Vanderbilt is supposed to be bottom dwellers. You're supposed to be putting their place right Vanderbilt is supposed to recognize where their place is in this conference in the sport of football. You lay down and you let the, you let the blue bloods have their way. You just, you just fold.

You're supposed to, you know, you're supposed to lose these games. You're not supposed to be competing in recruiting. You're not supposed to be competing in the transfer portal. You're not supposed to be landing guys like Jared Curtis on your roster. You're not supposed to be getting transfer portal guys like one of the top offensive linemen in the transfer portal class in both Johnson. You're not supposed to get those type guys. You're not supposed to have this kind of success. You're not supposed to be in the college football playoff picture conversation and have people actually legitimately arguing that you got screwed. That's external opinions. I argued that they got screwed, but that's less of an external opinion than some of the other national media guys that were arguing the same thing. So regardless of all of that, they treat that like noise. And that's part of that's part of the success. That's part of I think what's driving them to show that they're going to have this long term sustained success. Now what that looks like in the SEC, that remains to be seen because that could look a million

different ways success could present itself and a lot of different ways for Vanderbilt because there is no precedent for sustained success within this program. Stained success means you won nine games. The previous model is two seasons of nine wins and then the coach bolts. That's what's considered success. Or like the Bobby Johnson error, he won a fair share of games. They were competitive, but like really doing a whole lot, I mean, you know, no offense to those errors. It's just, that's just kind of the way it was for whatever reason. And I think some of that was due to the university not caring about football or athletics in general and just kind of putting it on the back burner and the resources were far behind their competitors. That's a different story for a different day, but they finally kind of realized the error in that thinking and they have kind of now put all that stuff aside and realize, hey, we can be good at academics and athletics and you're starting to see the fruits of that

of that thought, right? Basketball teams in March madness and they're looking staring at a sweet 16 run. I think they can legitimately make a make a nice run to play Florida and have a legitimate shot in getting to the elite eight with a win over the Gators for a second time in about a week's time or a two week to expand. I should say by the time they play the Gators, but this is, you know, exciting time. So the proven ground is this, there's a couple of quotes that stand out to me. This one right here kind of kind of sums up what I'm saying as far as the proven ground and the new flute thing. He said, and this is junior Cheryl speaking. I would say even though Diego and Eli were very great players and they did contribute a lot to this program, I feel like just coach Lee being such a great coach that this train is not going to stop and it's only going to be up from here. And what that means is is when you look at practice, when you look at the structure of the program, this train is rolling quite, you know, this train is rolling on down the

track. It's going with that analogy, but it is, it's, it's, it's not going to stop, right? The competitiveness of practice, the attitude, the leadership, the kind of realization that hey, we're a team to be reckoned with now. We got to start acting like it, right? And here's what Cade McConnell had to say, team five left the crazy legacy in a really high bar. And I think everybody on the roster right now knows that that bar is to be broken and the standard is to be met and exceeded. So let that sink in for a little bit. The standard is meant to be met and exceeded and the standard is 10 wins. The standard is playoff contention, exceeding that would be getting into the playoff. They're not thinking and Spencer McLaughlin asked me this, they're not thinking it's a rebuild year. They're competing and you know, they're competing, you know, and sometimes

you can tell that they're admitting it's a rebuild year. But just because Jared Curtis is the court back does not mean this is a rebuild year. This is very much not a rebuild year. I don't know if you saw the rep. I don't know if you've had a chance to look at the rep judging by the view count on my, on the ex post that I reposted from Elena Morris and the likes and a couple of comments that I got from that post. I think a lot of you saw that, but like you have guys like that on your roster now who are just making plays like crazy to Corey Thomas, not publicize, but he's going to be a big time playmaker for this for this squad. I mean, this receiving core is going to be electric. I think they're starting to get, you know, I think they're starting to go the less quantity route and more the quality route and they're going to start building from there. So there's a lot of great things with this program as far as leadership goes and guys understanding that they have to be leaders, right? You know, it's going to go, you know, it's going to go through.

Kate McConaughey's going to go through junior show and it's going to go through probably Ryan Longwell and the rest of the roster, they're going to, you know, they're going to go. And Kate McConaughey also said, we have a saying is we don't listen to the external. We focus on the internal. We tend the internal, but I follow in Diego's footsteps and say, just watch the tape. I think we got guys that had a lot of roll over this year. And I think there's going to be really fun to watch that perception change. And it's changing. And I don't, and I'll leave it at this, the perception of Vanderbilt football is changing. And there's a lot of people that don't know what to do with that. And there's a lot of people, there's people, there's odds makers in Vegas that don't know what to do with that. And the perception is changing. There's a lot of fans that just can't handle, okay, Vanderbilt is, you know, their floor is now six and a half, like their floor used to be at best four and a half every single year because, you know, it's Vanderbilt. But the floor is raising. And Vanderbilt is starting to climb the ladder, so to speak.

And there's a lot of people that can handle that, I don't know if they're ready for that. But I'll say this, I think with the infrastructure set in place, Vanderbilt is no fluke. They're not a fluke. And that's going to be proven, I think, in this coming year. And I'm very excited to see what this team has. And I'm very excited to see what they do in year one of the Jared Curtis era, who I think will win this quarterback competition, even though I don't know that's really competition. But it's a competition, he's going to win it. So we're going to, I'm going to talk about this defense because there's some rave reviews about the defense being more athletic flying around, shifting their, their thought process. But I'm going to talk about that. And then we're also going to get into a little March Madness later on, where we're going to do all that next stay tuned is locked on Vandy. The ticket, Lady Jennifer of Coons. Well, many thanks. Good, sir. Here is my discover card.

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Now the fun part begins. Every day is club. If you were thinking about joining it, well, if you want to join in before the NCAA tournament tips off, you've got, if you're listening to this before 11 a.m., you've got to then this to sign up for the men's and women's bracket pool on discord. You can compete against me in our bracket pools on discord. That would be, that would be a lot of fun if you, if you can get, if you can get in on time. So join the everyday club now with code March to get your first month free. Again, use code March to get your first month free. The winner of these bracket pools, if you get into them, we'll get $100 and locked on merch. The rest of us can commiserate in the members only chats as our brackets just blow up to smithereens. As a member of the club, you get ad free version of the show. Again, it's all free for a month with code March at locked on vandee.supercast.com or just click the link down below in the show notes.

All right, thanks for making locked on vandee your first listen. If you need a second listen on the network locked on SEC with Chris Gordy, he does a phenomenal job. Before we switch over to March Madness, this defense, I think they've made some significant improvements. And the improvement, I've talked about this all, I guess you could say off season. I don't know what you'd call the period between off season, spring, and then like the season between spring and fall camp, like I don't know what you call that. I guess it's all off season. I don't know. But all off season, I've been talking about Ricardo Jones. Ever since he signed. This is one of the ones that I'm very, very excited about to watch on defense at the safety position. You know, I feel like he's a guy that's coming in, he was all, he made, he was all ECC selection. He had six interceptions, nine passes defended, six pass breakups, 39 tackles, just an

absolute missile in that Clemson backfield. He's now joining the black and gold on West End and he's going to be an absolute dominant force at the safety position, joining him surprisingly, or I guess surprisingly in my eyes, is CJ heard because like I always kind of thought my, my conventional wisdom for what it's worth had CJ heard kind of playing down towards the line of scrimmage, like in that ran and fought in that role. Like I thought like as soon as ran and fought and then hit the portal, I thought that's kind of where he was going. And I, you know, I'm not, here's the thing about CJ heard. And this was, I don't know what factored into it. I just felt like he was, anytime he was blitzing off the edge, anytime he was making a tackle near the line of scrimmage, anytime he was playing the flat or playing, you know, the hook to curl zone or just playing forward, I felt like he was a way better player than when

he was, when he was in deep past coverage and a two shell look. And maybe they'll, they'll personnel it when they go to shell looks, maybe that maybe some of them were at, you know, maybe the Dante Carter's or Carson Lawrence's will get in or maybe sometimes they'll go three safety looks or there's got to be some different looks here with the, with the safety, safety shells to, to include Lawrence and Carter and heard to join Ricardo Jones. So that's going to be interesting to kind of see how they do that. I'm heard CJ heard is, is that, well, he had a good first practice. I should say he's coming in as the leading, he's tied for leading returning tackler, which is another reason I thought he was going to be close to the line of scrimmage. So, but nonetheless, I think when you look at it talent wise from a talent perspective and you look at it from, you know, the perspective of returning experience like that goes a long way, but like having him out there, having him a member as a member of this defense, I think it's still valuable. And I would have said, you know, and I thought with Clark Lee doing away with the star position,

that kind of took the wind out of the sales of me saying that Jay, or that CJ heard was going to play the, the star position, but, you know, I think with that, it's, I'm curious to kind of see what some of the defensive alignments are, personnel groupings, matchups, things like that. This CJ heard fits the best within this defense, because I think you have a variety of players and playing styles that allow you to have some creativity in the defensive backfield, right? And that's going to, that's going to be good. That's going to be big. So, also apologies to Jaylen Lackie. He's not number three, I don't know who number three is, but he did, he did not get his ankles broken by Col Adams. I, like I said, Jaylen Lackie, I, you know, if I called you out, Jaylen, sorry about that, that was not you. I don't know who that was, I'll double check the roster, some of the numbers have changed.

I got to get used to that, but that was not Jaylen Lackie. So, anyway, but this, you know, this defense is going to be interesting nonetheless, and I'm very excited about what they have, what they bring to the table. So, that being said, speaking of bringing things to the table, Vanderbilt is 11 and a half point favorites against the Big Me State Cowboys, and round one of March Madness, game tips off later on the day. So, I'm going to give you the keys, but I'm going to do that next. Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments in sports, and nothing brings us together quite like Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games, from NBC Universal's iconic storytelling to the innovative technology across Xfinity and Peacock. Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America, sharing every moment with millions. When Team USA steps onto the world stage, we're not just watching. We're cheering together. This winter, we're all on the same team, Comcast, proud partner of Team USA. Hey, it's tax season, and it's winding down actually.

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Download the GameTime app today. All right, wrapping up here locked on Vandy. We got a few minutes left in this program going to talk about a little march madness. Give you the keys to victory as you're watching, hopefully Vanderbilt dismantling me state and disassembling the boom box that a mere con is bringing to the court. So we look at the keys to the game for Vanderbilt. Honestly, this is, I think if they achieve number one, I don't necessarily know that you have to worry about number two, number three. Just do what you do. It was a successful formula most of the year. What does that mean? Well, that means A, get the ball to Tyler Tanner, let him do his thing. Duke Miles, who's been red hot, especially the SEC tournament run.

The offense goes through the two guards, Tyler and Duke, right? Tyler Nichol, he's got to get going. He's got to get hot. I think he had a really good SEC, SEC championship game. Obviously, it wasn't enough, unfortunately, but I do think he's trending in an upward direction or trending back in an upward direction. He'd been kind of in a deep hole for whatever reason, cold, ice cold. He's been inside of a glacier, really, for most of the, most of the back half of the season. But if he can get going and he can start hitting some big threes again and hitting him more frequently, this game should not be a problem, should not be an issue for Vanderbilt. So part of that, part of doing what they do is setting and dictating the pace, but also control the tempo. And while doing that, of course, taking care of the ball, turnovers are key for McNeese. If McNeese can turn you over, if they can control the tempo, which means they turn you

over, they slow it down and they score, they give you less opportunities to get a rhythm. And now you're in trouble. Now you got a mere con over there, you know, bumping NBA young boy on his oversized stereo that's on his shoulder. And they're going crazy and McNeese State, Mania, like, like happened two years ago, is happening again, right? So to prevent that, control the pace, like you, like you do when you win, like you did against Florida in the tournament semi-final, like you did against Tennessee in the quarter final, like you did against Tennessee in the regular season finale. All of that Vanderbilt can win and win by their allotted 11 and a half points that they're favored by. And lastly, forced McNeese State to beat you on the perimeter and defend the paint, do not let them get inside. They can attack the rim, they can work, they like to work the ball down inside. They're not great perimeter shooting team and they're not great on the offensive boards.

And also, just remember, McNeese is not a state. They're definitely not a state, McNeese is not a state. So, but all those things, I think for Vanderbilt in this tournament game against McNeese State, he was not a state, they can, they can really set the tone for what this team is going to do against the winner of Nebraska and Troy, which I think is Nebraska, not to give away my picks, but I pick Nebraska to beat Troy in the first round in my bracket. So I think Vanderbilt's going to get a shot at the Corn Oscars and they're going to play for a shot at the Florida Gators. I think the Gators, they'll have to get through the winner of Clemson Iowa, which, I mean, in March, no game is easy. But I think Florida's good enough to get through those first two games. I think Florida's good enough to get to the sweet 16. And then, you know, all bets are off at that point. But Vanderbilt, just play your game and, you know, your game is good enough and don't

overthink it and don't get into a situation to where you're trying to rush bad shots or you're taking bad shots because for whatever reason you get behind at, you know, at the start of the game, like you've done at times and you've lost to inferior teams because you're trying to make up 14 points on every shot and it's just not going to happen. So be patient, chip away at it, play your game, control the tempo and don't turn it over, take care of the ball. And I think things will be just fine, at least in the first two rounds. Now I, I, I will study some more Nebraska basketball as needed, given that Troy doesn't upset them, but it's going to be something where I, you know, obviously I got to read up on Nebraska. I know, admittedly, I know nothing about Nebraska, because I don't follow Big Ten basketball.

I do good just to follow SEC basketball at this point, but I will look into them as, as needed. But this, I feel like this was a good draw for Vanderbilt despite getting a five seed. I thought, you know, getting the three seed would lead you to North Carolina, which is a tough game. But, you know, I think Nebraska is also, I mean, Nebraska is a four seed, so they're likely going to be a tough game too. You know, you're not a four seed for, for no reason. But I think compared to some of the other brackets and draws, I think this was a fairly, fairly good one. So I think you and the four, I think Vanderbilt has a really nice road to the sweet 16. If you're following my, my thought process here, so that being said, Vanderbilt proving that there no fluke in any sport, that's the goal here, presenting the fact that you, that you deserve a better, you deserve the five seed or even better, you make that run.

In football, you prove that Diego Pavia was not your team Vanderbilt and the infrastructure that built Diego Pavia is the reason you won. So I'm going to talk about all of that plus more, you know, more spring practice coverage as well, March Madness coverage as it, as it unfolds, as the action unfolds there. And of course, baseball, as they drive into a series against Mississippi State in the Starkville. So that'll be interesting as well this weekend. So a lot of action happening in Vanderbilt athletics at this moment, and I'm here to talk about it all. But until then, until next time, follow, like, subscribe, add, like, fun, Vandy, all of that. And we'll see you back here next time. Thank you. Bye.

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