Column: Vanderbilt Football Preserved Its Season Trajectory, But it Has a Lot to Fix

The Commodores pulled a rabbit out of a hat Saturday, but it has tons of improvement to make going forward.

Sep 19, 2026; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Clark Lea watches his team against the NC State Wolfpack during the second half at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

NASHVILLE — Vanderbilt football head coach Clark Lea knew it was only a matter of time before the conversation in his postgame press conference shifted off the highlight of Vanderbilt’s miraculous 35-31 win over NC State to the lowlights of the game.

The honest, objective truth is that Vanderbilt continued to look like a dysfunctional team that has a long way to go if it wants to be the team it believes itself to be and to reach the heights it set for itself in the offseason.

By the final minute of the game, Vanderbilt had a laundry list of miscues that just about any team in the same situation would lose 99.99% of the time. Of course, Vanderbilt’s win was the exception to those conditions.

In the game, Vanderbilt committed 13 penalties for 116 yards compared to NC State’s seven penalties for 64 yards. On top of that, Vanderbilt committed three turnovers in the game. As Lea looked at the stats postgame, even he was surprised at the final penalty numbers.

“Oh jeez, 13 for 116 yards,” Lea said as he reacted to reporters relaying the final penalty statistics to him. “I mean that’s a slop fest. And we can’t – we cannot win games that way. We found a way today. We’ll clean it up.”

There is no denying Lea’s comments. The term “slop fest” was very much appropriate in accordance with the performance Vanderbilt had against NC State. And to tell the truth further, Vanderbilt stole the game against the Wolfpack.

Yes, it made plays to put itself in position for a miracle and that should be acknowledged. But the Commodores are lucky to wake up Sunday morning 3-0.

In the scope of the rest of the season, Vanderbilt has a much more positive look than it would have if Capers did not punch the ball out of CJ Bailey’s arm with a second left. A loss Saturday and all of the sudden the program would have been stuck staring at its schedule wondering how it could make a bowl game this season.

Fortunately for Vanderbilt, it does not have to do that. The win helped the Commodores stay on track to finish the regular season good enough to qualify for a bowl game. Wins-wise, Vanderbilt is halfway to clinching a bowl game.

But that does not mean you can come out of Saturday picking three easy wins on the schedule to finish that job. If Vanderbilt is to get to six or more wins, it has a lot of things to fix.

First and foremost is indeed the penalties. It may be a long time before Vanderbilt wins another game in which it has around 13 or more penalties. Vanderbilt shot itself in the foot what felt like countless times due to penalties. 

Penalties are drive-killers and Vanderbilt averaged more than one of those each quarter. Vanderbilt had five 10-yard holding penalties on offense. That does not even include the four other offensive penalties that contributed to Vanderbilt going in a deep hole early.

Defensively, Vanderbilt had two 15-yard penalties, one 10-yard penalty and one more six-yard penalty. One of those 15-yarders was a pass interference call against cornerback Jordan Matthews at the start of the fourth quarter. What could have been an incomplete pass that set up a third-and-10 turned into a NC State first down on a possession that ended in a Wolfpack touchdown.

The lack of discipline that Vanderbilt showed against its first power conference opponents is worrisome going forward. And it certainly presents an issue that could develop into a trend if Lea and his staff do not address.

Does that mean Vanderbilt will commit 13 penalties every week? No. But what the pile of holding calls can indicate, though, is a trend of getting beat in the trenches. That simply cannot happen in the SEC. Losing in the trenches during conference play will not translate to wins.

Vanderbilt knows what it needs to do. It just has to fix it, but it needs to fix it before it goes on the road to begin SEC play next week. Between discipline, consistency and rounding into its identity, Vanderbilt has a nice list of chores to get through if it wants to live up to its expectations.

“What we need to do is learn how to play a consistent game, learn how to play a clean game and learn how to play a three-phase game where we can lean on the rushing attack. As it were, we were playing from behind the entire game,” Lea said.

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