The Tennessee Vols are trying to get a big offseason win over the Vanderbilt Commodores

The Tennessee Vols are still battling the in-state rival Vanderbilt Commodores, even though it’s the “offseason”.

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
Add as preferred source on Google
Tennessee Vols
Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Tennessee Vols ended the 2025 regular season with a blowout loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores in Neyland Stadium.

Tennessee will have to wait until November 28 in Nashville to get revenge on the field.

In the meantime, the Vols are looking for a big off-the-field win over their in-state rivals this offseason.

Tennessee is trying to steal an in-state recruit from Vanderbilt

2027 four-star linebacker Omarii Sanders has been committed to Vanderbilt since late November, but that hasn’t stopped Tennessee from continuing to recruit him.

“Tennessee will continue recruiting Vanderbilt linebacker commit Omarii Sanders,” noted On3’s Steve Wiltfong this week. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see them gain some traction again with the nation’s No. 3 linebacker recruit.”

Sanders, 6-foot-3/210 pounds from Nashville, TN, is rated in 247Sports’ composite rankings as the No. 3 linebacker in the nation and the No. 3 player in the state of Tennessee. He’s also rated as the No. 48 overall player in the 2027 recruiting class.

The four-star recruit impressed in January at the Polynesian Bowl.

“Sanders was the star of the 7-on-7 portion of the practice for Mauka, Sanders undercut a corner fade to intercept a pass intended for Taimane Purcell,” noted 247Sports’ Brandon Huffman earlier this year. “Later in practice, Sanders did some dirty work near the line of scrimmage, hauling in another interception in a check-down to the running back, where he read it from the quarterback and would have returned it the other way.”

Flipping Sanders from Vanderbilt won’t be easy — he has a good relationship with Commodores head coach Clark Lea and the rest of the coaching staff — but it’s certainly doable for Tennessee.

The most important thing for the Vols in this recruiting battle will be Tennessee’s new defensive coaching staff building a relationship with Sanders.

Related Articles