How Vanderbilt's More Explosive Offense is Paying Dividends

Nashville—-Want to win a game with 11 penalties and a turnover differential of negative two? Do what Vanderbilt did on Saturday.

The Commodores–who have often struggled to generate chunk plays downfield–did so on Saturday night with 12 that constituted as “BIG” plays on its statkeeping website, Statbroadcast. Five of those plays came through the air while seven additional ones came on the ground.

Without being asked, Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea was nearly giddy as he provided an explanation for how that happened and why it’s impactful.

“There are weapons now offensively that are going to allow us to have explosive plays,” Lea said with a tangible excitement that isn’t often present in his postgame media availabilities. “That will allow us to counter punch, that'll allow us to gain in chunks, that'll allow us to score more points.”

Lea said this offseason that if Vanderbilt was going to have a more sustainable winning product, it would have to be more capable of hitting on big plays. Its recipe in 2024 included an emphasis on ball security–which netted it the least amount of turnovers in the country–but it would only become sustainable if Lea went out of his way to do what he had to do in order for it to not have to be the only source of productive offense.

The long, laboring drives were great in 2024. Now, this Vanderbilt team doesn’t need to do that every time it scores, though. It’s got pieces like Division-II transfer Tre Richardson–who broke out on Saturday night with a performance in which he caught three balls for 54 yards and ran for 32.

Richardson is a microcosm of how Vanderbilt’s offense improved throughout the spring and summer. It got faster on the perimeter and is now more than just a one-trick pony. Vanderbilt’s group of weapons outside of Eli Stowers isn’t, either.

“Yeah,” Richardson said when asked if Vanderbilt is more explosive as an offense than it’s been in the past. “I feel like with me, [Kayleb Barnett] and then our running backs, tight ends, everybody opens up everybody. When you got guys like me and KB running around decoys anything, it opens it up for everybody.”

As Lea refers to the Vanderbilt offense, he calls Richardson “a weapon” and proceeds to list off Vanderbilt’s other weapons before ultimately coming to a close and continuing to make his point that his group is better than it’s been in the past in terms of hitting on big plays.

When it’s hitting on those types of plays, everyone can see it.

“It’s demoralizing to the defense,” Vanderbilt offensive lineman Bryce Henderson said. “You can feel it whenever you’re playing on the field. I’m sure you guys can see it with their body language, too. They work really hard and then they see an 80-yard touchdown, it’s super demoralizing.”

Vanderbilt has often felt that feeling as it’s experienced working to be perfect in the margins only to have a play blow up on it downfield and prove to be the difference in the game. If that hadn’t been the case, Lea would likely have a few more wins under his belt.

Teams like the ones that Lea has lost to in the past don’t have to be perfect, though. His did. Now it doesn’t appear to have to anymore, though.