CPA Alum Langston Patterson Helping Fuel Vanderbilt's Historic Season

When Langston Patterson signed with Vanderbilt in 2022 out of Christ Presbyterian Academy, there were plenty of doubters.

“Yeah, everyone was telling me I shouldn’t go there,” Patterson says. “ ‘What was I doing? I’m gonna ruin my career.’ ”

The Commodores middle linebacker was ranked as a four-star prospect by 247Sports, but his stock dropped as soon as he committed to the Commodores.

“They dropped me down to a three just because it’s Vandy,” Patterson says. “If I would have committed anywhere else, I probably would have stayed [at four]. ...No one believed in this program.”

Established programs like Notre Dame, Tennessee and Stanford offered Patterson scholarships, but he picked long-suffering Vanderbilt.

Turns out, it was a good decision.

Ranked 12th in the latest Associated Press Top 25, Vanderbilt is 8-2 for the first time in 84 seasons under fifth-year coach Clark Lea. The Commodores are 14th in the College Football Playoff rankings with two games left.

If Vandy beats Kentucky and Tennessee and gets help from some other teams, the Commodores might earn their first appearance in the playoffs, which expanded to 12 teams this season.

“I believed in Coach Lea and I believed in this program and I believed in the city of Nashville, and that’s something special to be done here,” Patterson says. “So when coach Lea took the job down here, he just put together a great staff, and I believed in the vision he had for this program.”

Patterson felt Lea was a transformative coach, not transactional.

Vandy is tied for fifth place with No. 8 Oklahoma and No. 17 Texas in the SEC standings, but the Commodores are still fighting to discard the cellar dweller stigma.

“Still, no one believes in us, but now everyone is aware of us,” Patterson says. “We’re the only ones who know what we’re capable of and the only ones that knew we were going to shock the world no matter what.”

Third on the team with 51 tackles, Patterson was happy to take a different path in college.

“A turnaround like this isn’t easy,” says Patterson, a 6-foot-1, 235-pound senior. “I could have gone to Notre Dame, Tennessee, Alabama and just been a part of the logo and been part of the tradition and been 11-2 the whole time I’m there. That’s what those programs do, but this was going to be something different, and I knew that going in.”

Earning a playoff spot is the main goal for the Commodores for the next two weeks.

“We’ve just got to win,” Patterson says. “We can’t control any of the outside factors. Just because of our logo, people are going to be hesitant to believe in us.”

Quarterback Diego Pavia, a Heisman Trophy candidate, has been leading the way for the Commodores.

“Great dude, great player,” Patterson says. “I’d say the thing that makes him stand out over everybody else is he’s just an ultimate competitor. He’s the guy you want to have the ball when there’s five seconds left [in a close game] because you just know he’s going to hit it.”

Pavia’s competitiveness is on display in games, practices and weightroom workouts.

“He’s one of those guys who won’t lose at anything,” Patterson says. “Like, ‘Oh, you did 12 reps, I’m gonna do 13.’ He makes sure he goes second always so he can count your reps and do one more.”

Lea said Patterson “is part of the heartbeat” of Vanderbilt’s program.

“He was the first committed player that we took when I became head coach here,” Lea says. “He was with us during that ’21 season. He would come over every Sunday to watch the game film with us.”

Patterson was a senior at CPA then, but he listened as the Vandy coaches talked about what the team needed to do for a better performance during that 2-10 season.

“He was here as a freshman in ’22, where we went from two wins to five wins, and he was here in ’23, where we went from five wins back to two wins, so he’s weathered all that and never wavered from his commitment, his belief,” Lea says. “He’s been a two-time captain, a strength in our locker room, a strength on the field and performance, a courageous leader. I could go on and on, he’s meant a lot.”

Patterson comes from a football family. His older brother, Kane, played linebacker at Clemson from 2019-21 before transferring to Vandy for his last two seasons.

His younger twins, Preston and Rawls, are seniors at CPA who have gotten mid-major offers. His dad, Wes, played quarterback at Alabama. Patterson’s uncle, Mike, played at Kentucky, and his great-uncle played at Arkansas.

“I grew up probably playing at like, age 4,” Patterson says. “My dad would have us running Oklahoma drills in the backyard. We just push each other to be the best possible (player) we can.”

Patterson said he had “an unspoken chemistry” playing alongside Kane at CPA and Vandy. Kane is married now, has a kid and works for a private equity firm in Dallas.

Vandy stunned top-ranked Alabama 40-35 last season as Patterson helped the Commodores end a 23-game losing streak against his dad’s alma mater. Vanderbilt entered the game as a 23.5-point underdog.

“He’s 100% a Vandy fan,” Patterson said of his dad. “He loves all my buddies on the team, and he was on the field going crazy and so happy.”

Patterson played second base in baseball at CPA, where he set a school single-season record with 12 home runs and hit .421 as the Lions won a Division II-A state title during his junior year in 2021.

“It’s all football now, but I do miss it sometimes when I see them out there hitting BP [batting practice] or shagging some balls,” Patterson says. “I just love the mentality and work ethic of football.”

Patterson led CPA to two Division II-AA football state championships and two runner-up showings.

“He’s instinctive and not afraid to fail, which means he plays on an edge that you want a kid to play on the defensive side of the ball,” CPA coach Ingle Martin says. “He’s got a really unique ability to forget anything negative and only take with him the learning opportunity to the next play or the next week or the next step.”

Two moments stand out as Martin’s favorite memories of coaching Patterson.

“There was a play to win the game against Brentwood Academy [in 2021 during his senior year], and we gave him the ball [as a running back] at about the 25-yard line, and I think he carried about 10 people into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown at the end of the game,” Martin says. “It was one of those 'no one is going to stop me' type of plays.”

The other memory came when Patterson, quarterback Cade Law and running back Tyler Reid set a state final record for most rushing attempts (70) in a championship during a 35-28 win over Lipscomb Academy in 2020.

Martin, Lea and Vanderbilt general manager Barton Simmons were teammates at Montgomery Bell Academy. Lea was a fullback and a defensive lineman, and Simmons was a wide receiver and a free safety, both one year older than Martin, who played quarterback. Martin led MBA to three straight Division II-AA state titles from 1998-2000.

Martin believes the timing of Lea’s arrival at Vanderbilt was perfect for a resurgence.

“The NIL period began, and he’s done a great job of, as he said in his words, unlocking support for the program, and they’ve done a great job with their evaluations,” Martin says. “Everyone’s got an opportunity to get guys out of the portal. Vanderbilt is doing a really good job of identifying the ones that fit what they need.”

Patterson led Vandy in tackles with 74 when he was a sophomore. He was second on the team last year with 78.

The other linebacker in Vanderbilt’s 4-2-5 scheme is Bryan Longwell, a former Lipscomb Academy star who is the Commodores’ leading tackler for the second consecutive year.

“I think it’s awesome watching a local kid be the center of that defense with another local kid, Bryan Longwell,” Martin says. “I think it’s a great story of guys who believed in the program and believed what it could be and Coach Lea’s vision.”

Martin thinks Patterson will end up as one of the all-time great Commodores by the end of his career.

Lea is a great fit for Patterson because he coached linebackers for 11 seasons as an assistant at seven schools before becoming Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator in 2018, prior to his arrival at Vanderbilt in 2020.

Another former Lipscomb star, Junior Sherrill, is the Commodores’ second leading receiver (35) with a team-best six touchdowns.

Patterson made a season-high 11 tackles in a 45-38 overtime win over Auburn two weeks ago.

He is also a lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA that challenges the redshirt rule.

“I have some lawyers that are kind of handling that,” Patterson said. “I’ve kind of been hands off during the season.”

Patterson has been one of the team captains for the past two seasons.

“Every day we’re waking up at 5:30 for a lift, and no one likes to wake up at 5:30, and you have to check in by 5:40 and lift at 5:45, and every morning is brutal,” Patterson says. “You can’t really have a bad day. You’ve got to be focused on the team and everybody else. Everyone is looking at you, and if you don’t want to be there, everyone is going to lag through the lift or practice."

So he tries to lead by example. He said he’s never missed a class, lift or team meeting, which ultimately pays off. Doing all the little things is one of the big reasons Vandy is still in the playoff picture.

The ’Dores will try to make their final case in the next two weeks.

“Just leave everything you have out there,” Patterson says. “You can’t get a play back; you can’t get a second back. Make all the sacrifices you need to do to dominate these next two weeks.

“Ultimately, leave nothing to choice. Don’t leave it up to the [playoff selection] committee. Let everybody see the powerhouse that Vanderbilt can be.”