Aggressive Play Calling Leads to Historic Vanderbilt Football Win

Vanderbilt was not shy about its offensive approach in the critical moments and it paid off.

Oct 18, 2025; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia (2) throws a pass against the Louisiana State Tigers during the second half at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images | Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

NASHVILLE – It was a day that not many people in the Nashville area thought they would see, even if you asked them less than two months ago. Vanderbilt football beating LSU? In what world would that happen?

Guess what? It happened.

For the first time since 1990, Vanderbilt took down LSU in football Saturday by a score of 31-24. It was not by some crazy upset, nor was it even because of long touchdowns that occurred on broken plays. In fact, Vanderbilt winning this weekend was more so of an expectation. The Commodores were 2.5-point favorites over a LSU team that had allowed more than 10 points just once this season entering into the weekend.

So, how was Vanderbilt able to follow up on its own expectation to win and seemingly the public’s expectation to win? Three words: aggressive play calling.

While LSU’s offense has not been an explosive offense this season, it still has plenty of talented players on the roster that are certainly capable of putting up an amazing offensive performance. Taking down a top 10 squad like the Tigers would have to take more touchdowns than settling for field goals or settling for punts that attempt to pin the opponent in bad starting field position.

And that is exactly what Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea and offensive coordinator Tim Beck decided to do to win the game.

"Tim Beck and his staff, the offense, the players to score touchdowns against a really good defense and to be able to move the ball the way they did...really proud of them," Lea said.

It all began in the second quarter. The Commodores trailed 10-7 with 14:50 still remaining in the quarter. Nearly nine minutes later, Lea and his coaching staff were faced with its first biggest decision of the game: go for it on fourth down and goal from the 1-yard in an attempt to take back the lead, but risk coming away with no points. Or simply kick a field goal to tie the game.

Lea and his offense decided to gamble and it paid off. Sedrick Alexander got a touch on fourth down and found his way into the end zone to take a 14-10 lead.

With under a minute left in the second quarter, LSU kicked a field goal to make it 14-13. With 50 seconds to go before half, most teams would just run it up the middle and see what they can get. Not the Vanderbilt offense. The first play of the final possession of the first half was a 25-yard strike to wide receiver Junior Sherrill that quickly put Vanderbilt in business of scoring.

And Vanderbilt did score. After finding its way to the LSU 28-yard line, Vanderbilt was able to kick a 46-yard field goal off the leg of Brock Taylor and essentially steal three points going into the locker room.

Then, in a 24-21 game with 3:54 remaining in the third quarter, came the decision of the game. The Commodores had it 4th and 1 on its own 46-yard line. A failed conversion would set a LSU offense up nicely and only add to its momentum. But again, Lea trusted in his playmakers. He rolled the dice and succeeded off a Houdini-esque play from quarterback Diego Pavia as he evaded a disastrous sack and dumped it off to MK Young for a first down.

What made that decision more important was the fact that Vanderbilt ended up scoring a touchdown five plays later.

“We knew every time we got the ball, we were like ‘okay we got to go score,’” Vanderbilt tight end Cole Spence said.

Two 4th down conversions that ultimately led to touchdowns and one aggressive drive to end the first half and get three points. That’s 17 points combined between those three drives. Vanderbilt’s coaching staff knew the importance of this game and how critical every point was and called plays accordingly.

The decisions to go for critical fourth down scenarios can be made in the heat of the moment by some coaches. Maybe if a coach likes the look of the formation teams are in, they may make a choice to go for it in the moment rather than just trying to draw the opponent offsides. 

In Vanderbilt’s case, however, it is all talked about and planned throughout the week, Spence detailed.

“One thing I’ll say about our coaching staff and coach Lea and Ben Cauthen is they are prepared and they prepare us. Every week we go with Ben Cauthen and we do a thing called ‘Teach the Game’ and we talk about special situations that you [viewers of the game] saw,” Spence said.

Vanderbilt’s preparation all-around ended up working out. The victory now sets the stage for yet another huge game a week from now as the Commodores host Missouri.