What a night for Ke’Shawn Vaughn, the city of Nashville, and Commodore Nation. Ke’Shawn Vaughn, arguably one of the greatest Vanderbilt Football players ever, will play with Tom Brady and the Buccaneers next season. Tampa Bay chose Vaughn with the 76th overall pick in the 3rd round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Immediately following the pick, ESPN analyst Louis Riddick raved about the future of Ke’Shawn in Tampa.
The Nashville native may not have posted gaudy numbers at the combine (4.5) but, his film did most of the talking and deservedly so. He lit up the SEC like no other Vandy player ever had and even garnered the attention of Vol homer Clay Travis.
The comments were filled with Tennessee fans trashing Clay’s take on Vaughn’s potential alongside the greatest QB of all time. The fact that Clay made an unbiased judgement on a Vandy player’s potential in the draft proves how talented Ke’Shawn really is.
Let’s take a look at the quarterbacks Vaughn was forced to play with while in Nashville: Kyle Shurmur, Riley Neal, Mo Hasan, Deuce Wallace, and even Allan Walters for a few snaps. Take a second to think about that group of quarterbacks. One of them is Patrick Mahomes‘ backup, another is expected to go undrafted, while the other three transferred. With essentially no help last season, Vaughn rushed for 1,028 yards and 9 touchdowns while posting 270 receiving yards as well. To reach the 1,000 yard mark with an atrocious supporting cast proves why Ke’Shawn is ready to flourish in the NFL.
I can’t think of a better spot for Vaughn to have landed. He’ll be running behind a solid offensive line, catching passes from the greatest QB ever, coached by one of the best offensive minds in the game, and play opposite an elite defense. This an absolute dream scenario for Vaughn.
I can already see Ke’Shawn exposing making a splash in the NFL next season just like Alvin Kamara did with Sean Payton and the Saints. Vaughn is in a similar situation in Tampa. Both Kamara and Vaughn had the opportunity to play alongside Hall of Fame quarterbacks and be coached by elite offensive minds in Payton and Arians. The NFL is a copy-cat league and we were witnessing that first hand with Vaughn going to the Bucs.
There are now three former Commodores who will have played with Tom Brady with Joejuan Williams and Adam Butler being the other two. The Vanderbilt Men are beginning to make their presence felt within the NFL and teams are beginning to take notice of Derek Mason‘s mantra: Relentless, Tough, and Intelligent.
With Vaughn off the board, that means one down and two to go. Both Jared Pinkney and Kalija Lipscomb will be drafted on Saturday while a few other Commodores hope to hear their name called as well. Tune in all day tomorrow to see where Pinkney and Lipscomb land.
The Dore Report 
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