Clark Lea provides injury update on Vanderbilt's CJ Taylor, Kane Patterson for Ole Miss week

Vanderbilt is on a bye week in Week 8, getting to rest and heal up before the final stretch of play. And head coach Clark Lea is hoping to get a pair of defenders back for the Commodores first contest out of the bye, against Ole Miss.

Both CJ Taylor, who plays the “anchor” position on the defense, and linebacker Kane Patterson are banged up right now. And Lea seemed more confident that Patterson might be back when it comes time to play the Rebels — right now, the senior linebacker is on course to be ready to go, barring setbacks.

“He is, and he’s doing well. I don’t, right now, want to say that it’s a guarantee to be back. I’d say he’s questionable for Ole Miss,” Lea said on the SEC coaches teleconference. “Trending the right way and we’ll get him back out in to work on Monday and see how it responds. But he’s made a lot of progress and we’re excited to hopefully get him back next week.”

As for Taylor, things are a little murkier.

Lea said he and his staff are taking it “week-to-week” with the injured defender.

“He’s gonna be back but obviously the timing of that is right now week-to-week. So he’s dealing with a sprain that may take a little time here to heal up. He’s not participating this week in any practice. He’s doing all rehab and recovery-based work,” Lea said. “We’ll be evaluating him for the next week, but as of right now I’d ay he’s doubtful for Ole Miss, hoping that we can get him back obviously as soon as possible but not looking like that’ll be next week.”

Kirby Smart brushed off the construction at Vanderbilt as being a factor over the weekend

Vanderbilt‘s FirstBank Stadium is under construction this year, which has made for an interesting backdrop to the team’s football games. The Vanderbilt construction can be a distraction for opposing teams if they’re not careful.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart was careful to preach to his guys ahead of the weekend’s matchup that they needed to be locked in.

“It’s definitely unique, but they’re all unique in the SEC,” Smart said after the fact. “It has no bearing on how you play. I mean we talked about it all week, bring your own juice. I thought, man, the guys got great juice before the game, warmups, I mean everything was awesome. Didn’t start quite the way we wanted to, took a punch and then we threw some punches.”