Vanderbilt Injury Updates Ahead of Week 1

Vanderbilt will be kicking off its 2025 season in just under 48 hours. Ahead of its season-opener against Charleston Southern, Vanderbilt has dealt with a few injury questions. In Thursday’s press conference, head coach Clark Lea gave answers as to statuses in question.

Tight end Eli Stowers and linebacker Bryan Longwell both are listed as probable but will be playing Saturday.

“It’s probable, he’s [Stowers] been going. I think he is going to be able to play for us, assuming there are no setbacks. So, we’ll be excited to have him out there,” Lea said. “Longwell has been fine. He practiced the last two days. We have him listed as probable right now, but I think he’s looked good.”

Both Stowers and Longwell are crucial pieces to Vanderbilt’s roster. Stowers led the team in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns with 49 catches for 638 yards and five touchdowns a year ago. A big part of the Commodores offense runs through Stowers, so having him available Saturday is good news for fans.

Longwell was Vanderbilt's leading tackler last season with 89 tackles, which was also good for eighth-best in the SEC. He also made nine tackles in the ‘Dores Birmingham Bowl win over Georgia Tech.

Unfortunately, there is some not-so-good news for Vanderbilt injury-wise. Defensive lineman Yilanan Ouattara is doubtful to play Saturday with an injury. While it is not long-term, Ouattara’s injury seems to be a bit worse than originally thought and is causing him to likely not play Saturday. But there is good news.

‘He’s dealing with something that’s not long-term, but it needs a little time to recover. It’s just about how he can get his range of motion back and kind of feel with the pain of it. We’ll see how he responds the next couple of days,” Lea said. “The good thing is he said he banked enough reps where if he’s feeling good and we feel like he has a range of motion and there’s no further damage done, he’ll be out there playing.”

Vanderbilt will be without BYU defensive line transfer Joshua Singh due to an injury.

“Josh [Singh] is out. I expect to kind of return to football action over the next few days, so we’ll probably do some stuff with him on Saturday and Sunday and get him prepared to have a great week next week,” Lea said. 

Singh played in all 13 games for BYU last season and made 10 tackles en route to a 11-2 season. 

Kickoff time for Vanderbilt’s first game of the season is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+ or SECN+.

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