Column: The New Vanderbilt is in Uncharted Territory, But Looks Like It's Been There

NASHVILLE—The tests keep coming for this Vanderbilt football team and it just keeps passing, despite what its program’s past would indicate.

If Saturday night–and Vanderbilt’s body of work as a whole–was any indication, it shouldn’t be evaluated in the same lens that a normal Vanderbilt team is evaluated within. A normal Vanderbilt team would’ve showed some signs of letting up by now, this one is 4-0 with two road wins that it was an underdog in. A normal one wouldn’t have walked on to the field after Enter Sandman and Sandstorm played on the loudspeaker in jest towards Virginia Tech and South Carolina.

This Vanderbilt program, which Vanderbilt athletic director Candice Storey Lee has urged to “stop apologizing” was seldom worried about doing the right thing on Saturday night. It was fierce, it was vengeful and it had no regard for anyone’s feelings. It was businesslike and took care of business swiftly.

No games. No same old Vanderbilt. Just 70 points—for the first time since 1918–the program’s first 4-0 start since 2008, its highest AP Top 25 ranking since the same season and revenge.

“This is a new team,” Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia said. “This is a new Vanderbilt. You feel the energy, you feel the fans coming out.”

Those who have disowned this program over the years are now bought back into what Pavia and Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea had to sell. Among the sellout crowd at FirstBank Stadium was former Vanderbilt quarterback Jay Cutler backing the program that he once was intentional about distancing himself from.

Perhaps Cutler’s presence in itself was enough to take away some of the scorn of this program’s past. A generally outspoken skeptic walked in and delivered effusive praise of what Lea–his former teammate–has built.

As Cutler was introduced in front of the sold-out FirstBank Stadium crowd–that is creeping into a sense of normalcy rather than skepticism that this thing will implode in due time–he did so alongside NBA all-star Darius Garland and former Vanderbilt standout Anfernee Orji. What those three did on Saturday used to be an act of bravery. Now, it’s the trendy thing to do.

“We know we compete with a lot here in Nashville, but it's always been the vision that Saturday nights can start here on the West End,” Lea said. “I'm grateful for our students, I'm grateful for our fans. I'm grateful for the community that's out there that's still deciding whether or not they're going to become fans. I'm grateful for them to show up, and I look forward to more of those and seeing what kind of environment we can create. And I know that there's more for us out there, and I also know that this team can do things that become really fun and exciting.”

Perhaps to a different Vanderbilt football team, the idea that MK Young’s 60-yard rushing touchdown, Vanderbilt opening the game with six-consecutive touchdown drives and moving to 4-0 would’ve been enough to consider what it’s done has been fun and exciting to this point. It’s not as if Lea–who says he’s “proud” of Saturday night’s effort as well as what Vanderbilt has done to this point–isn’t on board with that statement. He wants more, though.

For once, it feels as if this program is taking on the identity of its head coach in that regard, as well. Hearing mention of Vanderbilt’s week-five opponent in its week four postgame press conference was nearly jarring considering how this program has had to celebrate each little thing that it’s earned. By the time Vanderbilt left the field on Saturday night, it appeared to be counting down its internal clock until it was time to Utah State.

If that means anything for this program, it’s that what happened in 2024 as it fell on its luck after a poor week of preparation leading up to its eventual loss to Georgia State won’t happen again. A season after it had 24 team infractions throughout the preparation for that game, it prepared well enough to make the critical Lea praise the week his team put together. If that says anything about this group, it’s that it’s not going to look ahead to its matchup with No. 17 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

It will be dialed in on winning by more than 22.5 points against Utah State. It will look to take advantage of the opportunity that it has ahead of it each day. That’s not always been a given, but it is now. So is this team making enough of itself to get used to celebrating, resetting and preparing all over again.

“This becomes when you when you win games, you just give way to another big game,” Lea said, “And we'll have a big one this coming week, and one that we'll be excited to play, but we'll have a team coming in here that'll be ready for us, and we can talk about that on Tuesday.”