Clark Lea Expresses Extreme Confidence in College Football Playoff Hopes Despite Negative Buzz
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NASHVILLE—In the midst of Saturday’s noise, results and the general sense of pessimism that arose from them, Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea stepped up to the podium on Tuesday afternoon with the sense of nearly delusional optimism that has catapulted this Vanderbilt team into the College Football Playoff race.
Vanderbilt enters its 11th game ranked outside the College Football Playoff field at No. 14–after it was passed in the rankings by Miami on Tuesday—with an 8-2 record after it failed to receive help from a multitude of teams that would’ve helped its case to be in the field had it won, but Lea doesn’t appear to be all that worried about where his team will end up should it finish the season 10-2 with wins over Kentucky and Tennessee.
“Everything we want postseason wise is out in front of us,” Lea declared from the podium on Tuesday afternoon. “We earn it by winning two games. We have to win two games. You can only win one this week. So we're going to focus on Kentucky.”
The benefits of Lea expressing uncertainty in regard to his team’s chances to find its way into the field with two more wins appear to be non-existent, but his overwhelming sense of confidence in regard to the idea that the College Football Playoff committee would take care of their end of things was jarring to those in Vanderbilt’s team room.
As of Sunday, Vegas odds indicated that Vanderbilt had less than a 24% chance to find itself in the field when this is all said and done. The idea that a two-loss SEC team would be left out of the 12-team field is unprecedented at this point–and doesn’t appear to sit well with Lea–but Vanderbilt’s wins have appeared to age poorly as LSU, Missouri and South Carolina have each fallen out of the College Football Playoff Committee’s Top 25 rankings.
The Commodores do have a chance to strengthen their body of work with a win over a surging Kentucky team as well as a rivalry week against Tennessee–which is ranked in the Playoff committee’s rankings at Neyland Stadium. Even then, the idea that Vanderbilt controls its own destiny appears to be far fetched considering its current status in the Playoff rankings.
Lea still speaks as if his team has enough going for it to host a playoff game at FirsttBank Stadium, though. As a result, he refuted the idea that Saturday’s matchup with Kentucky is assuredly Diego Pavia’s final home game as Vanderbilt’s quarterback.
“I think there's still a possibility that we host a playoff game,” Lea said. “But at the end of the day, we got to assume that this is the final time, he’ll be in FirstBank Stadium and I just would encourage the Nashville community to show up and watch.”
Lea says “there’s not a fathomable part” of his head right now as a result of his intentionality on tuning out external noise—as he’s done with AP Top 25 rankings and media narratives over the years—as his team looks to finish the season with a positive November record for the first time in his tenure, but the idea that he hasn’t thought about the future appears to be shortsighted.
He and his team—which Lea has asked to focus on what they can control internally rather than fleeting external factors—are still saying the right things, though.
“We don't watch the scoreboard,” Vanderbilt receiver Tre Richardson said. “We just pay attention to what we can do. We only control our games.”
In reality, Vanderbilt likely can’t help but take a glance at rankings—particularly after it didn’t move up on Tuesday night—but it has to drown them out as it looks to move up a few spots in the field.
Lea’s handling their business may not get it into the field once it’s all said and done, but it doesn’t appear to believe that.
“All I know is that we strengthen our position by winning,” Lea said. “Do I think that we've earned the right? Yes, if we finish the right way, I think we've earned the right.”
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
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