For those who love a good underdog story, how can you not have a fondness for the Vanderbilt football program? Not enough fondness, of course, to like that Vandy fans paraded down Broadway last season to dump a goalpost into the Cumberland River. But beating an Alabama football team was epic for the Commodores.
Long ago, Vanderbilt had a strong football program - very long ago. The Commodores have never won an SEC Championship in football. Of the teams having played at least 100 games as members of the SEC, Vandy has the worst winning percentage at 38.2%.
Only in three seasons of the Poll Era have the Commodores finished a season ranked in the AP Poll. Going back decades, on average, the Dores hire a new coach every five seasons. Clark Lea will beat that average next season.
Vanderbilt football has experienced many low points, but none lower than the 2020 season. When Lea replaced Derek Mason in the 2021 season, he inherited a winless 2020 team. In his first three seasons coaching Vanderbilt, Lea's teams won a total of nine games. Born in Nashville and a Vanderbilt alum and former Commodore fullback, Clark Lea had the necessary resolve to follow his plan for building the program.
Lea hit paydirt in 2024 by adding quarterback Diego Pavia. Perhaps as important as Pavia's transfer was that Lea hired two New Mexico State coaches who had developed Pavia. One was NMSU offensive coordinator Tim Beck, and the other was head coach Jerry Kill. Kill has dealt with multiple serious health issues in his successful coaching career. He is listed as a consultant for Vanderbilt.
The trio of Kill, Beck, and Pavia quickly reversed Vanderbilt's fortunes. Credit Clark Lea with a genius move of roster building and coaching staff upgrades.
Any goodwill toward Vanderbilt gets stained by the mouth of Diego Pavia. Choosing Johnny Manziel as a life coach indicates some weird disconnect in Pavia's judgment. He is, though, an outstanding quarterback who so far has backed up his bold talk. If it were possible, it is time for the Alabama football team to shut Pavia up. The reality is that no team has had any success in even slowing down Pavia, much less shutting him down.
Alabama football players paying attention to Pavia
Pavia pumping up his team could backfire on Saturday. The Alabama football defense will have paid attention to Pavia saying, "... if we play our game, it won’t be close."
Clark Lea had a more nuanced take on whether Vandy's "renaissance is real, 'It’s human nature to be skeptical; that’s why I have a deep respect for what we’re doing here. It’s been misunderstood from outside. I think this season has been about the confidence to dominate, to have a dominant mindset when we take the field. That’s a tangible shift."