How Clark Lea Approaches the Playoff Conversation With His Team

Vanderbilt football head coach Clark Lea talked about his team’s playoff position in Tuesday’s press conference.

Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea and senior offensive advisor Jerry Kill walk on the sidelines during the third quarter against Kentucky at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. | Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NASHVILLE – No. 14 Vanderbilt football is still in the playoff conversation, but it is not in control of its own destiny.

In the latest rankings of the college football playoff, the Commodores stayed at No. 14 despite beating Kentucky 45-17, while No. 13 Utah only dropped a spot, below Miami. The rankings Tuesday night made a clear statement to Vanderbilt: it needs plenty of help even with a win at No. 19 Tennessee this weekend.

Vanderbilt feels that it not only deserves a spot in the playoffs, but the players and coaching staff feel that it is one of the 12 best teams in the country and should be in the playoff if it were to go into Knoxville Saturday and take down Tennessee.

Outside of that, Vanderbilt is not thinking much about it. The focus this week is how to finish the regular season the right way and force the committee into a position where the 13 members have to include Vanderbilt in the conversation going into the selection show on Dec. 7.

Throughout the season, Vanderbilt has done a good job of handling distractions and keeping its focus inward, letting prognosticators do their job while the Commodores continue to look to improve each week. There have been plenty of distractions that Vanderbilt has ignored this season. From being on the national stage twice on ESPN’s “College Gameday” to now the playoff picture, Vanderbilt has handled it all well, which is a mark of a good coach in head coach Clark Lea.

This week, rivalry week adds an additional layer of outside noise on top of the playoff talk. Vanderbilt is looking for its first win over Tennessee since 2018. Does all of that noise make this weekend the most difficult to avoid distractions?

I think they're all hard,” Lea said. “I'm trying to picture the faces of my team and just the way I saw them this morning and the way they practiced today. I think, if anything, those things actually help them channel their focus. Because you live for this. And so what I want them to do is experience it. I want them to be in the moment.”

Vanderbilt enjoys being in the position it is currently in. This season, Vanderbilt has won nine games in a regular season for the first time since 1915. The times where the pressure has gotten higher for the Commodores, the more comfortable they seem to look. The higher the stakes games are, the tighter the focus is. All season, Vanderbilt has been a team that has put it head down and gotten to work while all the outsiders talk about various scenarios.

But with that, Vanderbilt thinks it should be playing for a championship should it beat Tennessee. After all, getting to the College Football Playoff was the preseason expectation for the Commodores since the calendar year began.

“It was an expectation for us. Sometimes I don't know that we're understood all the way. I think the world kind of wants you to play small and know your place. And we don't whisper our beliefs here. This has always been what we've aimed for since Jan. 7. We've been talking about this,” Lea said.

The focus throughout the offseason and this season is how Vanderbilt manages one score games and wins them. A year ago, it went 4-4 in one score games. A few plays throughout the season was the difference from what could have been a 10-2 season and a potential playoff spot a year ago. Now that Vanderbilt is in a position to have a 10-2 season, Saturday is the type of game that it has lived for.

“This is what team sport is about. It's the mountain, it's the climb, it's the task. It's binding together to do something you believe in. You got to earn it, and those are the things that we talk about,” Lea said.