Tre Herndon is a Vandy standout and now a leader as a senior
Herndon a Vandy standout and now leader as a senior
When former East Hamilton High School cornerback Tre Herndon arrived at Vanderbilt in 2014, the Commodores had receivers Trey Ellis and Trey Wilkins and defensive backs Tre Bell and Tre Tarpley on their roster.
So Willie Herndon III quickly became “Willie” in the eyes of coach Derek Mason, who had just arrived as well.
“We had like four or five people on the team with the same name,” a laughing Herndon said recently over the phone. “That’s why he calls me ‘Willie.’ It really doesn’t matter. I’ll answer to both.”
Herndon has answered his share of challenges for Mason since becoming the only football player in East Hamilton’s brief history to sign a Southeastern Conference scholarship. The 6-foot-1, 188-pounder has played in all 37 games for the Commodores the past three years and enters his senior season having started 25 in a row.
As a junior last year, Herndon racked up 61 tackles, broke up eight passes and snagged a pair of interceptions. The sociology major is also a two-time member of the SEC’s academic honor roll.
“I love Willie. Willie has grown up,” Mason said. “You look at where he’s come from — how he came in here after a successful high school career in Chattanooga and played as a freshman — and now you’re talking about a guy who has played three years of SEC football. He’s been on the field. He’s managed the games. He’s played through some tough times.
“He has really taken it upon himself to be the guy who’s the catalyst in the secondary. We’ve got five seniors in the secondary, and it’s a group that is ready to take off, but I truly believe that Willie is the cornerstone to that. He’s played on that island against great competition week in and week out. His football IQ is through the roof.”
Vanderbilt is coming off a 6-6 regular season and a trip to the Independence Bowl that was cemented with closing wins over Ole Miss and Tennessee. Yet the Commodores never would have been in that position had Herndon not made an interception and a fumble recovery during the 31-30 overtime win at Western Kentucky earlier in the year.
As a member of Mason’s first signing class and as someone who has played in every game, Herndon was part of Mason’s disastrous debut. After the Commodores enjoyed two straight 9-4 seasons under predecessor James Franklin, including a sweep of Florida, Georgia and Tennessee in 2013, they opened 2014 with a demoralizing 37-7 home loss to Temple.
Vanderbilt was suddenly at the bottom of the SEC again, but Mason and his 2014 signees stuck together and have worked their way out of the sinkhole.
“Coming in as a freshman, I knew how the last couple of teams had done, and I wanted to try to keep that winning going,” Herndon said. “Having that as a first game certainly wasn’t what I wanted, but we kept working. It took us a little while to get it going again, but I think we’ve done something and are back in a good position right now.”
Said Mason: “We went through rough waters and some adversity, but they believed in one another. They believed in a coaching staff that didn’t necessarily get it right in the beginning but has worked hard towards getting it right now. With that, there is a lot of trust.”
Mason is trusting Herndon and senior linebacker Oren Burks with defensive leadership duties that were the responsibility last year of linebacker Zach Cunningham, the first consensus All-American in program history. Leading almost always requires the ability to be effective vocally, which hasn’t been easy for the soft-spoken Herndon.
“It was something I had to learn how to do,” he said. “That’s not the kind of guy that I am, but I knew it was something that could help the team.”
The Commodores begin their 2017 season Saturday with a tricky test at Middle Tennessee State, a team they thumped 47-24 a year ago. They will be looking to snap a five-year losing streak in season openers.
Vanderbilt stunned Georgia and Tennessee last year and had every game against an Eastern Division opponent decided by single digits, with the exception of its 45-34 defeat of the Volunteers. Herndon said winning the East is atop his goal list for his final season and that another triumph over the Vols is on there, too.
“Chattanooga has a lot of orange, so it was a lot of fun to come back and see my friends,” he said. “I don’t boast about it at all, but it was a lot of fun.”