Time For Vanderbilt Football To Be About What It Says It Is And Prove It Against Auburn
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NASHVILLE—Time to stop taking Vanderbilt football at its word.
It’s said all the right things. That its goal is to win the national championship. That this team has the pieces to be the best in program history. That its program-best 10-win season was a result of Diego Pavia and improved program infrastructure, not just a Pavia-induced flash in the pan. They’ve said they have a chip on their shoulder, that they still relish in the role of underdog like that legendary 2025 team did. That this doesn’t have to be a foundational year anymore.
Well, bad news. Vanderbilt hasn’t lived up to its word.
It’s 3-0, but has been entirely unconvincing as it’s gotten there. It beat Austin Peay 28-9, a game that it was sloppy in and didn’t appear to have an identity in. A number of the areas in which it had unconvincing play in that game weren’t fixed when it beat Delaware 35-26 a week later. It won in week three against NC State, but it was a miracle away from losing and being subject to an entirely different narrative in regard to where it stands.
When Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea took the podium for the program’s first meeting after its win over NC State, he led with shouting out Vanderbilt’s players of the game. Then, he hit them with reality. Lea honed in on the moments where he felt his team “wasn’t even close” to synching up and playing the level of football that he believes it’s capable of. Vanderbilt’s coaching staff ended the meeting with encouragement, but Lea acknowledges that the overarching intention of the meeting was to deliver a challenge to Vanderbilt’s players.
Now, it’s time for that group to demonstrate that they’ve taken what Lea said to heart. Time for them to back up everything they’ve said since they walked off the field in Tampa in the moments following a ReliaQuest Bowl to Iowa. Time to go be the team that they say they are, to play what they refer to as Vanderbilt Football.
“We’ve got a lot to prove,” Vanderbilt defensive end Miles Capers said Tuesday. ”We always feel like we’re the underdog, and we still got to keep winning to prove everybody wrong.”
Capers is right. Vanderbilt is the underdog. It should be. It’s going on the road to face an Auburn team that’s looked better than it throughout the first three weeks of the season. So, yeah, it does have a lot to prove.
This Vanderbilt team still has to prove that it’s good enough to be competitive in the SEC. It’s still got to prove that it’s closer to the team that thoroughly outpaced Delaware in the second half than it is the one that struggled out of the gates against Austin Peay. It’s still needs to prove that it’s not the fringe bowl team that showed up at FirstBank Stadium in the first three weeks of the season.
Vanderbilt very clearly has more in the tank than it’s shown at this point and will almost certainly make significant strides by season’s end, but it believes it’s in a competitive window here. Its standards are higher than merely getting to a bowl game or doing just enough to generate buzz in regard to what it can be in 2027. It wants to win big.
That’s why Lea is talking the way he is.
“This isn't Vanderbilt football, but let me tell you the good news,” Lea said in regard to his message to the team. “The good news is that we haven't played to our level yet, and when we do, I tell the guys we're good enough to win every game we play. We're not good enough to play that way and expect to win.”
Lea hasn’t dwelled on the negative and has made an effort not to be a “storm cloud” in Vanderbilt’s facility every day, but he intends to be crystal clear in regard to where his team is falling short and needs to evolve.
He’s addressed the sloppiness. He’s addressed the penalties. He’s addressed the poor decision making, and the miscommunications. He’s ingrained it all in this Vanderbilt team’s mind. The question is when this will all click for this Vanderbilt team. The question is whether it will be too late, or not happen consistently enough.
If it does happen Saturday, Vanderbilt will be leaving Auburn with a win for the second-consecutive trip. This isn’t a situation of Auburn entirely outclassing Vanderbilt in regard to talent, it’s a question of whether Vanderbilt can unlock its level.
Vanderbilt’s defense hasn’t necessarily lived up to expectations, but it’s shown flashes of excellence. Vanderbilt clearly has its quarterback in Jared Curtis, who Auburn coach Alex Golesh called “really, really special.” Vanderbilt has real standouts on the roster in veteran receiver Junior Sherrill, veteran running back Sedrick Alexander and a core group of reliable pieces on the second and third levels of the defense.
Those players didn’t come here to fall short of expectations and disappoint. Now, they have their best opportunity yet to prove themselves.
“I think it's a huge positive that we haven't played our best yet and that gives me hope,” Lea said. “I love the challenge of trying to find a higher performance. And I think I have real clarity on what that looks like on Saturday. It's ‘are we doing the right things Sunday to Friday that give way to that performance.’ Some of that is coaching and some of that's allowing it to emerge from the player leadership too, but we're on the right track.”
Time to prove that, not just say that.
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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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