Vanderbilt OL Cole Hardin Transferring

The University of North Alabama’s Twitter account announced this afternoon that Vanderbilt OL Cole Hardin will be joining the football program there this season. While Vanderbilt hasn’t made any announcement, it’s worth noting that Hardin has been removed from the official roster on Vanderbilt’s website.

Hardin didn’t play much in three years at Vanderbilt. After a redshirt year in 2014, Hardin saw a few snaps in the Austin Peay game in 2015 and ... that might have been the extent of his playing time at Vanderbilt. Hardin would have been in the mix for the starting center job vacated by Barrett Gouger, though Ean Pfeifer and Sean Auwae-McMoore were more likely candidates to start. So this is a blow to offensive line depth and (probably) not much else.

The real importance, though, was that prior to Hardin leaving Vanderbilt was at the 85-man scholarship limit. With Hardin gone, Vanderbilt suddenly has a scholarship open in case a former Oregon DL wants to come home.