Column: Vanderbilt Football is a Rare Breed That Deserves Appreciation

In a world of opt outs, Vanderbilt players care too much to have that issue.

Nov 29, 2025; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Clark Lea celebrates with his team after a game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-Imagn Images | Randy Sartin-Imagn Images

For close to a decade, the college football bowl season has increasingly become less and less meaningful to teams and players. Whether it is the expansion of the college football playoff or the NIL and transfer portal era seeping into the locker rooms of seemingly every team around the country, it is clear that college football bowl games have lost their luster year over year.

One reason for this is the amount of players amongst bowl eligible teams that choose to opt out of the bowl game their teams have been invited to. It started with players like former LSU running back Leonard Fournette opting out of the 2017 Citrus Bowl to prepare for the NFL Draft. 

It is understandable for a player or two that is a bonafide NFL prospect to opt out of a bowl game, but the volume of players opting out of bowl games for the transfer portal or other reasons now exceeds the players opting out who have high round NFL projections. In fact, USC has had reportedly 10 starters opt out of the Alamo Bowl against TCU.

Bowl games just do not seem to mean as much as it used to for plenty of schools around the country. But that is not the case for No. 14 Vanderbilt. The Commodores still very much care and appreciate the opportunity ahead. As of now, there are no key players for Vanderbilt that have announced a decision to opt out of the ReliaQuest Bowl against No. 23 Iowa on Dec. 31. However, it is possible that tight end Eli Stowers could opt out to avoid any injuries before the NFL draft.

Even so, Vanderbilt is still a dying breed in college football. A year ago in the 2024 Birmingham Bowl, all of its starters played and this season is not much different with at most one key player that could opt out. Nowadays, that is uncommon.

“These guys love each other. I think they love what they are a part of. One of my favorite parts of bowl prep is how much fun we have. They are competing and playing hard and enjoying the time in celebration of the game that they love together,” Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea said.

One thing that has separated Vanderbilt from other teams this season is the passion and intensity that Vanderbilt plays. It has been something that has been palpable when watching the Commodores this season. The effort and care the players and coaching staff pour into the team is easy to see.

Perhaps that is a reason why Vanderbilt is such a rare breed in today’s college football world. That is not to say that other teams do not play with passion and do not care, but it is certainly a statement when one team has all its stars laying it out on the line one last time when plenty of stars on other teams decide to decline one last opportunity to play. Or, even an entire team to opt out of a bowl game all together, such as Notre Dame.

But ultimately, Vanderbilt players making the decision to play one last game with their brothers is a reflection of the culture that Lea has implemented into the program. Over the past two seasons, the vision of Lea building a team of toughness, passionate play and a team of guys that love to win has all come to fruition. 

Vanderbilt has a record of 17-8 over the past two seasons heading into its bowl game at the end of the month. In the six seasons before the 2024 season, Vanderbilt had 18 wins combined. In other words, Lea got his guys he wanted and the winning culture has taken over in the locker room.

“Everything. I think it just speaks a lot to this program’s passion for the game of football. Every single person on this team is here for a reason and we’re all here to win at the end of the day,” Vanderbilt senior wide receiver Richie Hoskins said on what it says about Vanderbilt not having any key opt outs yet.

Vanderbilt has always shown that it deeply cares about winning and getting to its ultimate goal of going on a playoff run. While it did not make the playoffs, Vanderbilt still tried to schedule a 13th game outside the continental United States against another playoff contender to prove its case to the College Football Playoff committee because it cares so much about the game of football.

Vanderbilt is still very appreciative of the position it is in. Competing in the ReliaQuest Bowl may not mean much for some teams, but it sure means a lot to Vanderbilt. And Vanderbilt should be appreciated by college football fans for that.

“We want to go compete. We get to play a really good opponent in Iowa, a physical team at that. To have everybody playing is incredible. It shows a lot about this team,” Hoskins said.