Inside Vanderbilt Football's College Gameday Set Up, The Buzz Surrounding it

NASHVILLE—-Think Notre Dame’s Touchdown Jesus, Clemson’s Howard’s rock, Florida’s Steve Spurrier statue or Michigan’s massive maize Ms that draw all the attention to themselves at the Big House.

Perhaps it’s quite that, but it’s Vanderbilt’s version of those things—at least for this weekend. There it was sticking out, blocking traffic on Vanderbilt’s Wyatt Lawn as its students walked through with backpacks on.

It was big, it was orange and it was a beautiful sight for this program and place that has so often been irrelevant to it. In the middle of Vanderbilt’s campus, College Gameday was there getting ready to celebrate its football program.

The goalpost for Pat McAfee’s patented kick went up on Friday—a few days after Vanderbilt kicker Brock Taylor and punter Nick Haberer held a kicking event for Vanderbilt students—Home Depot’s intention towards product placement was prevalent and Vanderbilt students were camped out.

It was a dream come true for this program.

“I did watch Game Day growing up,” Vanderbilt defensive lineman Josh Singh said on Tuesday. “I watched all these big teams, players. It's a blessing being the SEC now. Cool to see like that change.  It's a little bit bigger stadiums now, so it's cool to see that.”

Perhaps the best indicator of the magnitude of College Gameday’s arrival on Vanderbilt’s campus comes in the form of 10 students that sat in lawn chairs alongside its stage on Friday morning—nearly 24 hours prior to the start of Saturday’s show.

A normal College Gameday show brings a community out well before the start of action due to its first-come, first-serve nature. The idea that anyone within this fanbase is hungry enough to be a part of the action well over 24 hours before kickoff is a testament to how starved this program and fanbase has been throughout its history.

The show hasn’t appeared on Vanderbilt’s campus since 2008 and may not soon return again. A piece of its compelling story is its journey from irrelevancy to… well…this.

Murmurs of Saban riding around Vanderbilt’s campus in a golf cart have commenced. A student in the cafeteria line has become noteworthy for their disguise as “Pavia.” Pat McAfee held a live show within Vanderbilt’s FirstBank Stadium and raved about the financial investment the athletic department has made.

Vanderbilt’s students plan to begin camping out throughout the middle of the night, Vandy on SI has learned. The 400-500 “pit” spots next to Gameday’s set will likely be accounted for well before the sun comes up.

When the sun rises and Gameday’s set of Saban, Pat McAfee, Desmond Howard, Rece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit gets rolling, the celebration of what this Vanderbilt program has done will commence.

“I think it'll be great. I think people are excited to show the nation that the Commodores are for real,” Herbstreit said in his Friday media availability on Vanderbilt’s campus. “We just try to be like a big tailgate for three hours, and we're hoping people come out and have some fun and include this in their pregame festivities before they get ready to go at it.”

Vanderbilt has business to tend to as it takes the field against No. 15 Missouri and determines how special of a day this will really be for this program. The last time this stage was involved with this program, Herbstreit recalls that Vanderbilt may not have won another game after the show left town. Herbstreit believes the difference this time is that there’s more “staying power” for this Vanderbilt program this time around.

It will be over around kickoff, but until then the hats will be handed out, the picks will be made, Kenny Chesney and Dierks Bentley will perform and this program will be celebrated for what it’s already done and what it’s capable of doing.

Vanderbilt can’t use it as an excuse or allow this to hinder its performance. It won’t take a second to realize the magnitude of this until it’s over. That’s okay, though.

For now, everyone else can party and embrace it like it’s 2008–or better.

“It's a real tribute to them for being able to have this type of success,” Davis said. “I hope it's gonna be electric. I think it's gonna be fantastic.  I mean, I think we're gonna have Dierks Bentley, and Kenny Chesney in addition to our normal show, which we hope is never normal, but you know what I mean. We have Gameday, but I think it's going to be a fantastic crowd.”