Why Vanderbilt Football Believes It's Getting Closer To Success Following Auburn Loss
In this story:
NASHVILLE—While Clark Lea lamented Vanderbilt’s special teams issues in its Saturday loss to Auburn, he gave it away.
Lea has been adamant about how ready to win his 2026 team is to win big and how it has a number of position groups that are as strong as they’ve ever been in his tenure. He’d affirmed his players’ beliefs that they can be a national championship contender. He’d seemingly undersold the realities that came with starting a freshman quarterback and the level of play that his team produced through three games.
Until Saturday.
Until Lea let it slip out and finally acknowledged the difficulties that his team faces while working to follow up a 10-win season with a group that doesn’t yet know how to win. He did it subtly, but he did it.
“We can’t give up the points we gave up, we’re just not going to be able to overcome that this year,” Lea said in regard to special teams after Vanderbilt decisively lost in that phase. “I think the 10 points in the game become the game–the blocked punt touchdown, the missed field goal [become the game].”
Catch that?
“We’re just not going to be able to overcome that this year.”
“This year.”
Lea’s 2025 team would’ve won Saturday against Auburn. His 2024 team may have, as well. But, this one didn’t. Instead of finding a way to win a low-scoring slugfest, it was on the other side of it. This 2026 team doesn’t control the game like those teams yet. It doesn’t look like it can compete with college basketball elites yet. It doesn’t look like a bowl team yet.
For the first time, Lea appeared to be aware of that. He dropped his facade of naivety and got real about how challenging this will be for this Vanderbilt team. It’s got a freshman quarterback, an offensive line with real question marks, it hasn’t played anything close to a complete game yet. This Vanderbilt team doesn’t look the part yet, and it knows it.
Of course its Saturday performance hurts, Vanderbilt safety CJ Heard said. If it doesn’t, Heard believes that would be an indication of a poor heart posture towards the game. He doesn’t appear to have that, but he’s not hopeless.
“We closed the gap,” Heard said. “We’re getting closer. Like, this game is gonna get us closer. Coach Lea said grieve about it tonight, but like tomorrow we'll come in the building. You know, to Georgia ready to get back to work, we’re on to work. So he's got to keep him closer, keep him closer.”
In Heard’s defense, Vanderbilt’s defense does appear to be getting closer to mounting efforts that will win SEC games. It gave up just 14 points–Auburn also scored seven on special teams–on Saturday and didn’t have many out of character moments. Its offense suffered a setback on Saturday, but it doesn’t believe that’s an indicator of what it is or can be.
The idea that Vanderbilt lost a game in which it outgained Auburn 311-279, won the time of possession battle 37:28-to-22:32, seemingly always converted in high-leverage fourth-down situations and scored nine points off turnovers as opposed to Auburn’s zero is nearly unbelievable. It’s a challeniging reality for this Vanderbilt team to fathom, but one that gives it hope.
If Vanderbilt gets any closer than it was Saturday as a whole, the results will likely follow at some point. The road is difficult for this group–which heads to Georgia on Saturday and hosts Ole Miss the following week–but it believes it has something. Even in the slopfest that was its Saturday performance, it’s not all that difficult to fathom that.
“It's adversity, and we're figuring things out,” Vanderbilt running back MK Young said. “We're gonna correct it, everything is still in front of us. And it’s in our control.”
Follow us onTwitter/X,Facebook,YouTube,Instagram,andTikTokfor the latest news.
Add us as a preferred source on Google_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
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.
Follow joey_dwy