“This is the new Vandy, man:” Vanderbilt Shows Progress in Blowout Win over Charleston Southern

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea walks into his postgame press conference and jokes about the group of media potentially locking him out of the room where he delivered his postgame comments, something had to have gone right.

Lea has walked into plenty of these over the years with his head down and a somber message to deliver as well as some accountability to take. Not on Saturday, though. Instead, he was nitpicking a blowout win.

“It’s not exactly how you want it to be,” Lea said. “But you’ve gotta take the time to celebrate and enjoy it. These guys have worked really hard and earned that win and I think that was a game where we started the right way. We talked a lot about ‘how do you eliminate hope early in the game? How do we play Vanderbilt football at a level that puts distance between us and the opponent?’”

From the time freshman speedster Kayleb Barnett caught it on a quick pitch from Diego Pavia and turned the corner to some open field on an eventual touchdown run that capped Vanderbilt’s 45-3 win over Charleston Southern, it appeared as if what was going to happen Saturday was a foregone conclusion.

Perhaps the moment even came before that as Vanderbilt running back Sedrick Alexander exploited a significant hole to pick up seven yards on the first play of the game, or really on any play in Vanderbilt’s opening series–in which it averaged 9.38 yards per play. Perhaps it came the next series as Vanderbilt’s defense pushed Charleston Southern around up front and forced a three-and-out. If you weren’t convinced then, you had to be as Pavia found star tight end Eli Stowers on a wheel route for a 41-yard reception that sparked an eventual touchdown.

Whenever the moment was, there was one for everyone in attendance outside of Charleston Southern’s biggest blind optimists. Perhaps Vanderbilt was even convincing enough to sway them, even if they didn’t want to admit it.

In any case, Vanderbilt doesn’t have to worry about any external narrative or perception regarding what it did on Saturday night. It came out, it took care of business and it put its foot down like it should have against an opponent of Charleston Southern’s caliber. Maybe it hasn’t always done that in Lea’s tenure, but it did on Saturday.

“We were in a deep battle with these type of teams and now it’s like we’re taking them to deep waters,” Vanderbilt EDGE rusher Miles Capers said. “That’s a big improvement.”

When Vanderbilt could’ve been tripped up by the lack of film it’d seen on Charleston Southern coach Gabe Giardina’s new offense–or the mere 19 passes that his starting quarterback threw last season–it leaned on its physical tools and eventually found a way to win out. When its lead was big enough for its starters to see the light at the end of the tunnel and their imminent exits from the game, they didn’t appear to lose all that much focus and kept their foot on the gas until Lea called on the second-teamers’ numbers.

Say what you will about Pavia’s performance–in which he overthrew two deep balls–and Vanderbilt’s offensive line–which often forced Pavia to run for his proverbial life–but Vanderbilt isn’t leaving FirstBank Stadium thinking it’s any less likely to get where it wants to than it thought it was coming in. It feels like this is just the start.

“This is the new Vandy, man,” Vanderbilt running back Sedrick Alexander said. “I can’t really say what’s for the future, but I know I’ve got a lot of dogs ready to play for the rest of the season. We’re trying to get to a national championship.”

Vanderbilt still has plenty of games–and months–to go to get to that point, but Saturday shouldn’t dissuade anyone who wasn’t already dissuaded in regards to its aspirations.

It was dominant and had the numbers to prove it. The final margin was 42 points. The difference in yardage was 346. The difference in first downs was 17. Charleston Southern crossed midfield just three times and two of the trips ended in a turnover. When Vanderbilt wanted to impose its will, it appeared to do so every time.

That’s what good–and great–teams do. It’s what teams with legitimate hopes of fulfilling their national title aspirations do. Who knows where Vanderbilt stands in those regards, but all of its hopes and dreams are still alive as a result of what it did on Saturday.

Vanderbilt can still believe without blind optimism after Saturday. That’s what matters.

“It’s good to win,” Lea said. “I’m at a point in my life where I don’t take wins for granted.”