"We'll Use it as Motivation," Vanderbilt Looks for Revenge Against Georgia State

NASHVILLE—If rock bottom was a tangible place for the 2024 iteration of Clark Lea’s Vanderbilt team, it would’ve been the makeshift tunnel that was plopped in the middle of what used to be right field at the old Turner Field.

Vanderbilt entered that tunnel over two hours before kicking off against Dell McGee’s Georgia State team thinking it was going to come in and take care of things against a team that had no business beating it, a few hours later it entered the tunnel and had to hear it from the small contingent of Georgia State fans left hanging on the railing.

“Vanderbilt sucks,” they yelled as each of its players walked in.

That Vanderbilt team didn’t suck–it ended up finishing the season 7-6 with a win over No. 1 Alabama and its first bowl win since 2018–but it certainly didn’t do anything that mid-September night to shut those fans up. It had just lost 36-32 to Georgia State and realized that if it screwed around and didn't prepare properly, it could lose to just about anyone.

“That was a tough game, man,” Vanderbilt STAR Randon Fontenette said. “Terrible feeling afterwards.”

Perhaps that outcome didn’t generate all that many tears, but as Vanderbilt’s players packed their stuff and walked to the bus they looked as if they’d just seen a ghost.

Clark Lea — Georgia State took down Vanderbilt 36-32 last season. | Georgia State athletics

After knocking off Virginia Tech in a statement victory of sorts and dismantling Alcorn State seven days prior, this Vanderbilt program appeared to believe it was above a loss like it had that September night. Turns out that it wasn’t, though.

“I was disappointed because we were a better team than that,” Vanderbilt three-way standout Martel Hight said on Tuesday. “We came out lackadaisical and we kind of just had in our mind that we were going to win that game already and that’s where we failed last year.”

Vanderbilt failed to establish any sort of consistent run game that night. It failed to find any answer for standout Georgia State receiver Ted Hurst–who finished the day with 128 receiving yards and two touchdowns. It failed to put Georgia State away in the game’s final minutes. Perhaps worst of all, it failed to demonstrate that it had matured as a program.

Clark Lea nearly predicted the loss as he stood off to the side in Vanderbilt’s indoor practice facility two days prior. He knew that his team–at the very least–was leaving it up to chance. Too many guys late for meetings, too many guys with lapses in focus, too many habits that could easily come back to bite a team.

Perhaps that game has since served as a lesson, though.

“I was not happy a year ago with the level of discipline that we were carrying on campus and cutting some of the process-driven stuff we do in our preparations, so that was a starting point and I think it carried over to the game,” Lea said. “This is something we’ve talked about since January, this game. So this is a really big one for us and we want to play really well.”

If there’s anything that drives Vanderbilt’s fifth-year head coach crazy, it’s a lack of intentionality and effort that leads to leaving a game up to chance. He can deal with some fundamental technical errors. If they’re just better than you and beat you on a rep, fine.

Late for meetings, lack of focus, lack of process? Nope. That won’t fly.

That fateful September night has hung over these returning Vanderbilt players’ heads because of the result ever since it happened. If they tried to forget it, Lea will find a way to hold it over their head again. That’s likely the only way it’s going to be a catalyst for change.

Georgia State took down Vanderbilt, now Vanderbilt looks to avenge its loss. | Vanderbilt football

So far, so good in that regard, it seems.

“This year we’re more intentional,” Fontenette said. “No guys on lists, everybody showing up to where they’re supposed to be and doing what they’re supposed to do. Last year, it wasn’t that and you know how it happened. This year we need to tighten up on all that.”

Lea won’t be afraid to let anyone know this week that Georgia State is “athletic and very capable on both sides of the ball.” If he doesn’t he likely fears what will happen. He feels as if his program has grown since what happened against Georgia State this time last year, though.

In a way, that team of newcomers that had gotten too high on themselves needed to learn a lesson to realize that they weren’t invincible.

“I’ve had really disappointing, kind of jarring performances that allow you to find your actual identity, it reveals kind of those gaps in prep or those gaps in mentality and sometimes it takes that,” Lea said. “We were not ready to win that game last year.”

Vanderbilt is now 3-0 and is ranked 20th in the AP Top 25–which is its highest ranking of Lea’s tenure–but it knows that it “can’t just roll the ball out and expect to be better” than Georgia State or skip steps and expect to win. It’s got to earn it.

This group thinks that they’ve got too much hurt to not do that this time.

“I would say it’s way more motivating knowing last year we let one slip and it hurt us in the end,” Fontenette said. “This year we’ll use it as motivation and go in swinging and we’ll come out on top.”