The Onus Is On Vanderbilt Football To Prove Something Saturday Against NC State
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NASHVILLE—Remember when CJ Heard said that?
Heard stood on the podium after Vanderbilt’s 35-26 win over Delaware and brushed off any concerns that coincided with Vanderbilt’s unconvincing play through two weeks. Vanderbilt is 2-0, but it’s 0-2 in regard to taking advantage of its opportunity to put on a convincing performance.
Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said minutes before Heard took the podium that his team was still searching for identity. He admitted a few days later that it hasn’t put together a complete performance. Heard has played enough football to know Lea is on to something, but he appears undeterred.
“We can be the best team to ever play Vanderbilt football,” Heard said. “We’ve got so much potential. We’ve just got to keep working, keep staying together.”
Call Heard crazy all you want, but don’t allow him to claim naivety here. He knows what his statement means. He was on the best team to ever play Vanderbilt football. He was one of its best players. He saw what it took to put the best season in program history together.
Yet, he thinks it can be topped by the Vanderbilt take that will take the field against NC State on Saturday.
That shouldn’t be surprising considering how this Vanderbilt team has talked all offseason. Veteran defensive lineman Bradley Mann declared that the goal is the national championship–which aligns with what defensive lineman Issa Ouattara, running back Sedrick Alexander and offensive lineman Cade McConnell have said. It’s not as if they’re throwing it out flippantly, either. They’ve all been a part of losing college football teams and understand how difficult a College Football Playoff berth is. Yet, they say it anyway.
And, that’s not all. Junior Sherrill said over the summer that he intended to show that he was the most dynamic player in the country with the ball in his hands. Spoiler alert. He hasn’t been. A number of Vanderbilt players declared that they wanted to be considered for all-SEC honors in the preseason. Only a few look like they should’ve been talking in that manner.
That type of talk has been energizing and an indicator that Vanderbilt has the necessary belief to do what no national media pundit believes it can. But, it’s merely talk at some point. Vanderbilt has looked like it’s significantly closer to missing a bowl game than being a Playoff team at this stage.
As far as the national media goes, they can’t be faulted for assuming Vanderbilt’s 2025 success had significantly more to do with Diego Pavia than it did an improved program infrastructure. Through two weeks, this looks a whole lot more like 2023 Vanderbilt than 2025 Vanderbilt. This team is significantly more talented than that 2023 team, but it’s got to prove it.
Time for its confidence in front of the mic to manifest itself in on-field results. If it doesn’t in any of Vanderbilt's first three games, it will be almost entirely delegitimized.
Vanderbilt sits at a crossroads as it enters Saturday morning. If it beats NC State, it would be 3-0 with as much momentum as it’s had at any point since Pavia’s departure. It could be an AP Top 25 team on Monday morning, and it would almost certainly receive votes. If it loses, though, it would have a relatively cloudy path to bowl eligibility and would have to pull off a significant upset or two to get there. The external energy surrounding its season would be all but crushed.
It doesn’t appear to be feeling the pressure.
“It’s a big deal,” Vanderbilt linebacker Nick Rinaldi said. “ But like any game we’re 2-0 right now, but all we care about is 3-0. Not looking forward, not looking in the past. This game right now is our national championship game. We have to treat every single game like that. So it’s a very, very big, important game. Obviously a step up in competition, but that doesn't really matter.”
Rinaldi is right. It shouldn’t matter that Vanderbilt is taking a step up in competition relative to its two non-power-five opponents, but Saturday will be the indication in regard to whether it does or not. If Vanderbilt is what it believes it is in 2026 and has as much left in the tank as it claims to. If this Vanderbilt team is what it thinks it is, it should be able to make a statement on Saturday.
That statement would indicate that this doesn’t have to be a retooling year for this program. It would indicate that there may be something here that can equip this group to be more than merely a fringe bowl team. It would indicate that it shouldn’t go into every SEC game as an underdog in 2026.
But, Vanderbilt has to do it first. It has to prove that it’s good enough to earn any of the respect that it hasn’t through two weeks. Time for it to prove something.
“We need to play our best game this weekend,” Lea said. “That's really important. We've talked about that to this point this week. You know, we haven't really put out something that reflects what we are and the onus is on us to bring that to the table this weekend.”
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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