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    • Langston Patterson’s Alabama connection for Vanderbilt football
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    Langston Patterson’s Alabama connection for Vanderbilt football

    Eira Gwyneth Posted on

    Langston Patterson, the epitome of his younger sibling, always wanted to do things differently than his older brother Kane.

    Kane idolized Peyton Manning, so Langston looked up to Eli. And with a family full of Alabama fans — including a father who played for the Crimson Tide — Langston chose Auburn.

    “I love arguing. I just love butting heads,” Langston told The Tennessean. “…When we were growing up, I was like, I’m an Auburn fan. I liked Cam Newton. Maybe it was because the rest of my family were Bama fans. Maybe it was because I liked her.”

    Langston, a junior linebacker at Vanderbilt, is the son of Wes, a former Crimson Tide quarterback who came to the school in 1988. However, ahead of Saturday’s matchup between the Commodores (2-2, 0-1 SEC) and Alabama (4-0, 1-0) (3:15 p.m. CT, SEC Network), Wes said he had no problems for the day with giving up his loyalty to the Crimson Tide.

    “I will always pick Alabama if they don’t play those guys, no matter what team they’re on,” Wes told The Tennessean. “But… I’m a family man.”

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    Langston, of course, owned Alabama gear when his family attended games – although this became less common as Langston and Kane grew older and played their own games on Fridays and Saturdays.

    During Kick Six in 2013, when Auburn returned a missed Alabama field goal for a touchdown as time expired, Langston waved an Auburn flag around. Despite his contrarian tendencies, he values ​​tradition in Tuscaloosa.

    “It’s like, ‘Oh, my dad played for Bama,'” Langston said. “…Nobody knows if he was first, seventh or whatever. It’s just cool that he was part of a team, it was cool that he was part of Alabama football.”

    When Kane Patterson, also a linebacker, was being recruited by colleges, he attended Alabama. It was the first time Wes had returned since the boys were much younger, and following the program’s success under Nick Saban, the facilities were remodeled. Wes originally liked the idea of ​​Kane and Langston ending up with the Crimson Tide, but even though Alabama treated Kane well during his visit, he felt like it wasn’t the right thing to do.

    Kane eventually played at Clemson under former Alabama player and assistant Dabo Swinney. After three seasons at Clemson, Kane transferred to Vanderbilt to play at Langston. The brothers were on the team together in 2022 and 2023, including at the 2022 Commodores game in Tuscaloosa.

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    Wes Patterson’s teammates at Alabama included Dabo Swinney and Lemanski Hall

    Wes is honest about his playing career.

    “I’ll give it to you straight,” he said. “…I wasn’t talented enough to be an SEC quarterback.”

    If there are photos of him from his time at Alabama, Wes said, they are likely pictures of him in a different jersey as part of the scout team. At one point, he helped prepare his team to face Vanderbilt and dual-threat quarterback Eric Jones. Jones is fifth all-time in rushing/passing yards for the Commodores and one of only two Vanderbilt quarterbacks known to have rushed for 600 yards in a season.

    Wes and Swinney were close as players on the Crimson Tide and the two knew about each other but were not close at the time. Even after Kane left Clemson, the family continued to stay in touch with Swinney, according to Wes.

    In addition to Swinney, Wes played with Lemanski Hall, Vanderbilt’s current director of player development, who played nine years in the NFL, including with the then-Tennessee Oilers. Hall spent time working at a few Nashville area high schools and was an assistant at Clemson during Kane’s time in the program.

    How the Patterson family will watch the Vanderbilt-Alabama game

    The Pattersons try to have at least one parent at every one of their children’s games, but things become more difficult as their two younger children, Rawls and Preston, begin their own recruiting process. This weekend Rawls is visiting Georgia Tech, so Kane and his wife Ashley are driving Rawls to Atlanta so their parents can attend the Alabama-Vanderbilt game.

    Wes will put aside his former loyalties to cheer on the Commodores. When Vanderbilt played at Alabama in 2022, Kane recorded four tackles and Langston played on special teams.

    “He was a Vandy fan through and through,” Langston said. “He doesn’t care who we play against. He will cheer on his sons at all costs.”

    Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter, @aria_gerson.

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