Column: Vanderbilt Can Talk All it Wants if it Keeps Backing it Up
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Nashville—-What was the last time a Vanderbilt team was this gutsy?
This core group that Clark Lea has built and retained has made their fair share of declarations, but what happened on Saturday night appeared to be a different animal.
Vanderbilt offensive lineman Bryce Henderson essentially called his team’s shot on Tuesday afternoon and declared that Vanderbilt was going to show South Carolina “what’s what.” Diego Pavia strapped up his helmet, stepped in front of the team in the tunnel, appeared to declare that this was going to be “easy” for this Vanderbilt team. Vanderbilt’s next group of players took the field and Vanderbilt linebacker Bryce Cowan made a ‘spurs down’ gesture towards the South Carolina student section.
This Vanderbilt team talked all types of crap and it backed all of it up.
“Don't sleep on us,” Capers said. “We’re coming for everybody right now. So, just get ready.”
If there was any reason to leave Vanderbilt out of the AP Top 25, it ended on Saturday. Perhaps there’s some reason to discredit this Vanderbilt team, but those reasons appear to be nitpicky after what it did Saturday night.
Vanderbilt’s 31-7 win over No. 11 South Carolina was the complete package. It came over a good opponent. It was on the road. It had stretches of dominance. It made history.
It appeared as if this Vanderbilt team made a statement, as well. It’s not thinking of it that way, though. Perhaps in its mind the statement had already been made.
In reality, Saturday night likely marked the second best win of Lea’s Vanderbilt tenure behind its 2024 win over No. 1 Alabama. This one was different than that one, though.
That game indicated that this Vanderbilt program wasn’t to be overlooked, but it didn’t necessarily solidify it as a contender for anything significant. That Vanderbilt team was still fighting for respect in its postgame press conferences and had to put out all of its big guns in order to spread its message. It appears to be business as usual for this Vanderbilt team, though.
The idea that this Vanderbilt team pulled off an upset on Saturday night appears to be a tad lazy and uninformed. This group was only a 2.5-point underdog at one point and handled its business as if it expected to leave Columbia with a win all along.
By the end of the night, it was Swag Surfin’ in the visitors locker room. It didn’t appear to be surprised, though.
This group appears to believe that it is who it’s always thought it is. Ask any member of it in the preseason and they would’ve told you that they’d be a national championship contender. This isn’t a surprise for this group, they’re merely on track to do what they’ve always believed they can.
Perhaps their stock has blown up, but this group of maniacal, chip on the shoulder guys doesn’t appear to feel much of a difference. They never thought this outcome was unpredictable despite what three of the four College Gameday pickers said. Their head coach didn’t, either.
“We’re good enough to win all our games,” Lea said on Saturday night. “This one is about our team. It's about the belief we have. We’re going to celebrate it here and go home, hopefully get some rest and need to turn the page tomorrow. This is the beautiful thing about football, is that you can't hold it too tight, you know? I mean, we did enough this week to separate on the field tonight, we're going to need to turn the page.”
As Vanderbilt turns the page, it does so with more external belief than it’s ever had under Lea. It’s ranked 20th in the AP Top 25. It’s a contender to get College Gameday. It appears to be regarded as a good team rather than just a gimmicky group of fighters that came out of nowhere.
This team is good enough to be circled on some calendars. Perhaps drawing attention to itself will hurt it in the long run. It’s got no reason to believe it will, though.
Lea’s group has said anything it’s wanted to through three weeks and it’s backed everything up. That says something about it.
_(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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