NASHVILLE — Six days ahead of Vanderbilt football’s season opener, the team had amongst its first in-season practices. For tight end Cole Spence and the rest of the offense, it started out as a normal practice running through the routine drills.
Then, in one of the reps during a one-on-one drill, something went wrong. Spence ran for a ball that was a little low. As he tried to slow down to catch the ball, Spence ended up sustaining a hyperextended knee injury.
Immediately, Spence experienced some frustration at the outset of his diagnosis. Spence missed the entire 2023 season early in his career due to an injury he suffered before the season, he did not want to go through that again. But this time, it was nowhere close to as serious. And despite the frustrated feelings at the time of the injury, he had no doubt that he would play for Vanderbilt at some point this season.
“I was pretty upset because obviously I wanted to play every game for this team,” Spence told Vandy On SI of his initial feelings when he first got injured less than a week leading up to the Austin Peay game. “But I was there and I was just praying like ‘God, whatever your will is, let your will be done.’ Obviously I didn’t like the news that we had, but I had faith I knew I’d be back at some point.”
Knee injuries can be difficult to recover from, even in athletes. As Vanderbilt football head coach Clark Lea alluded to in his Tuesday press conference the week of Vanderbilt’s game against Auburn, bad things can happen when a knee hyperextends that can cause players to miss more than just a few weeks.
In Lea’s words, nine times out of 10 a player with Spence’s injury would likely be out for the season. But Spence was in the one out of 10. The attention to detail in taking care of his body down to his sleeping and eating habits during the month he took to recover from his injury helped him get back to football in time for the beginning of the SEC gauntlet.
Spence acknowledges he was fortunate in that sense. But of course, he knew if he just followed what doctors told him then he would suit up for the Commodores.
“I’d say we definitely got lucky. In terms of what point I thought I’d be able to go, I mean I always had faith I’d be able to go. It wasn’t until the doctors said ‘Hey, you can actually go.’ Like okay bet,” Spence said as he recalled the moment where he knew he was returning from the injury.
Spence was itching to get back onto the field before Vanderbilt’s trip to Auburn on Sept. 26. He had originally set a goal to return in time for Vanderbilt’s game against NC State the week prior.
During the week of prep leading up to Commodores date with the Wolfpack, Spence did all he could to convince team doctors to let him play, attempting to tell them he was good to go for the nonconference finale. His effort to argue his case to play that week came to no avail. And watching a miraculous Vanderbilt win from the sidelines only fired up the competitor inside Spence even more, making him more hungry to contribute to the Vanderbilt offense.
That was the final week the tight end room had to collectively substitute for Spence. The next week came Spence’s debut, where the Commodores traveled to Jordan-Hare Stadium to face Auburn. It was the first time Spence had played in a Vanderbilt game since the ReliaQuest Bowl to finish off the 2025 season.
Entering the stadium off the team bus, walking from one end zone to the other and into the locker room pregame, the feeling of finally returning on the field started to be a reality. When Spence took his first snaps of his 2026 season in the first half, the feeling of officially being back was indescribable.
“Great feeling, great feeling. I really, really missed it. I can’t say just what it meant just to be back out there with the guys. I mean, this is a big part of what I feel my calling in this life is to use the gifts that God has given me to play this game and hopefully spread His word and spread His kingdom,” Spence said.
There is no talking about Spence without mentioning the person of faith that he is. He is the most outspoken player of his Christian faith on Vanderbilt’s roster. Naturally, he looked at the time he took to recover as an opportunity to learn and understand what God was trying to teach him.
Over the past few weeks, Spence received a podcast recommendation called “The Daily Blade” from Brother B, Vanderbilt football’s team pastor. In one of the episodes Spence listened to, it talked about people from the Bible that went through difficult trials but eventually learned to rely more on God to get out of those trials.
Looking back on that moment, that is precisely the message that Spence felt like he needed to hear as he focused on getting back on the field.
“At the time I didn’t really know about this, but that is what God was teaching me. I always try to have such faith in God. It is so easy when everything’s going right to just step away and say ‘Man, I got this. I’m going to do this on my own,’” Spence told Vandy On SI. “In reality, I can’t do anything for God. And it’s just always trying to do things with Him and as His child and as His servant. So teaching me to just lean back on Him and say ‘Hey, this is who you are.’ I’m a child of God.”
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