Vanderbilt is playing chess while the rest of the college football world is playing checkers.
ESPN’s flagship college football pregame show is headed to the campus of the Vanderbilt University for the highly anticipated matchup between the Commodores and the Missouri Tigers. College GameDay will be down south for the weekend, just as they were last week when they traveled to Athens, Georgia (and had a lot of country music featured).
The likes of Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, and Nick Saban will be set up to break down all things college football and predict the biggest games of the weekend, with the marquee matchup being No. 10 Vanderbilt’s home game against the talented No. 15 ranked Missouri Tigers. It wasn’t too long ago that Vandy was the laughing stock of the SEC… now they’re a powerhouse.
Just as the Commodores are taking their preparation for the game very seriously, the students of Vanderbilt are also properly prepping. How, you might ask? Well, since College GameDay is coming to Nashville, and Pat McAfee’s hosts a high-dollar kicking contest during the show every week, Vanderbilt is helping their students be ready for the big moment if they get called upon:
“Calling all Vanderbilt University students. Get ready for Pat McAfee’s College Gameday kicking contest. Practice with our guys on Alumni Lawn, 2 to 3 p.m. today!”
Yeah, that’s right. Vandy hosted a kicking clinic for their students earlier today. They evidently want nothing more than for Pat McAfee (and whoever else he swindles into the deal) to hand over thousands of dollars on Saturday.
The kicking clinic was directed by Vanderbilt’s kickers themselves – Brock Taylor and Mason Rohmiller – and Vandy’s announcement about the clinic read as follows:
“The clinic is designed to prepare students for Pat McAfee’s popular field goal kicking contest on ESPN’s ‘College GameDay,’ which will be hosted on Wyatt Lawn on Saturday morning.
One student is chosen each week at College GameDay to kick a 33-yard field goal for the chance at cash prizes — last week’s prize was $400,000. Footballs will be provided, so all you have to do is show up and get a free lesson from the experts!”
There should be a lot of Vanderbilt students ready to kick it through the uprights when Saturday rolls around.
From what I can tell, this level of preparation for College GameDay has never happened. Vandy might be trendsetters doing this, and they certainly have the attention of Pat McAfee. The college football analyst and host of The Pat McAfee Show responded to the news of the kicking clinic with this:
Pat McAfee might want to get his checkbook ready.
He wasn’t the only one that responded to Vanderbilt’s kicking clinic online. College football fans loved the move by Vandy, and flooded the reply section with some wise cracks:
We do this thing called STUDYING FOR THE TEST at Vandy.
Pat bout to get ROBBED pic.twitter.com/WNFkjr6T03
— LootCrate (@LootCrate_) October 22, 2025
Louvre isn’t the only thing getting robbed this week, it seems 😂
— Sassington, M.C. (@MissSassbox) October 22, 2025
— Michael Figueroa (@Mikefiggs) October 22, 2025
Pat might want to make it a 40 yarder
— Cody Myers (@Codymy19) October 22, 2025
Talk about a chess move in the kicking competition 😂😂
— Ⓜ️✝️🅿️ (@therealmtp1994) October 22, 2025
Vanderbilt University is famously known for its academics… so we shouldn’t be surprised by this big-brained move. And from the looks of it, the kicking clinic went very well and had a great turnout.
The College GameDay crew is probably shaking in their boots watching this:
