Vanderbilt Football Beat Austin Peay, But That Certainly Didn't Feel Like A Win – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—For a second, FirstBank Stadium got quiet and everyone wondered. Was someone going to do it? Before anyone could declare the thought irrational, a few Vanderbilt fans did. 
Before Vanderbilt quarterback Blaze Berlowitz could leave the field after a drive-ending incompletion–in which his feet were seemingly stuck in the ground, leaving all of the pressure to his upper body to deliver a good ball–the boo’s started coming his way. It’s not as if Vanderbilt’s fanbase wanted to boo at the expense of a two-year program veteran that paid his dues on some of the most successful teams in program history, but they had bottled in their anger all night and had to let it out. 
The boo’s probably weren’t directed at Berlowitz as much as they were directed at the mere idea of him, but he was the victim of them. In that moment, Berlowitz was the face of Vanderbilt's lackluster season-opening performance and was facing the inevitable music. He wasn’t delivering and–most of all–he was holding the fanbase back from seeing the future, five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis. 
Vanderbilt was up 21-9 when Berlowitz was boo’d, but it certainly didn’t feel like it. 
This felt far more like Vanderbilt’s 2023 season opener–a 35-28 win over Hawai’i that was overshadowed by the scary flaws that team unveiled that evening. It had the same lackluster play and feeling of avoiding the elephant in the media room. It had the same ominous weather looming that could be a precursor to the rest of the season. This felt like a step back for a program that hoped to pick up seamlessly after a program-record 10-win season in a way that felt like a step back for a group that felt like it had just broken through. This felt more like a Vanderbilt loss than a win for most of Saturday night. 
“I hope that’s the worst game we play all season,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “It was sloppy. We had penalties. I thought we were a little careless in the first half on defense.” 
For the first time since his departure, it felt like this was a program that just realized how much it misses the guy on the sideline with white Gatorade towel draped over his head and blue basketball shoes on his feet. It felt like a program that just realized it’s lost the buzz and energy that he–Diego Pavia–provided, and will have to work to get it back rather than taking the torch he tried to pass it. 
Vanderbilt’s second-half Shout tradition felt different Saturday than it did at any point a year ago, and not in a good way. The same applies to its second-half rendition of Tipsy–the song that reigned from its loudspeakers as its students stormed the field after its win over No. 1 Alabama. By the start of the second half, its student section looked more like what it did in 2023–half empty–than it did in 2024 and 2025–electric and full. 
It’s not as if there wasn’t hope and expectation for this program heading into Saturday night, the game being sold out indicated that there was. Vanderbilt just didn’t capitalize on it. The only time it felt as if there was 2025-level buzz, it was when Curtis took the field and excelled. It was only when there was a shade of what could be rather than a reminder of what is. 
Right now, what is isn’t pretty. The question isn’t that. It’s whether that had more to do with this being Vanderbilt’s opener and a wacky game that kicked off at 96 degrees. Vanderbilt’s players have an answer, but are they really to be believed? 
“First game of the season,” Vanderbilt running back Sedrick Alexander–who was one of the few bright spots on Saturday–said, “It’s going to be shaky. We don’t plan on it being shaky for the rest of the season.” 
In that way, Alexander is right. Vanderbilt is ushering in a new core group and hadn’t yet played together. That lends itself to optimism in regard to how quickly this could turn. But, his point ignores the ominous things looming over the program. 
Vanderbilt doesn’t have a consistent answer at quarterback. Its offense isn’t explosive enough. Its defense looked good, outside of a first drive that was bad enough to make you wonder how good that group really is. Its best—and most expensive—transfer additions didn’t impact the game much at all. Its offensive line is its least proven since 2023, and looked like it at times on Saturday. 
Lea will have Vanderbilt’s players celebrate this one and declared that a win is a win, but he isn’t happy with this. How could he be. He’s not leaving Saturday thinking about the 28-9 final or how Vanderbilt pushed Austin Peay around up front. When he was asked what he did and didn’t like at the podium, Lea opened by letting all the things he didn’t like out. By the end of the answer, he had more than doubled the time he spent talking about good things with time talking about what he didn’t like.
And let Lea tell you, he didn’t like Vanderbilt’s operational penalties. He didn’t like the non-operational ones that cost Vanderbilt significant yardage, either. He didn’t like how it appeared as if Vanderbilt was unprepared on its first defensive series of the game. He liked that his offense didn’t turn it over, but he couldn’t have liked Vanderbilt’s overall offensive effort. 
There’s no world in which that performance nets Vanderbilt a win against an SEC opponent. In that way, declaring it a resounding success feels as naive as calling that Hawai’i game a resounding success. Lea went to bed that night thinking about how much of an uphill climb his program had ahead of it if it were going to be successful. He has to be thinking something similar on Saturday. 
“That was not a winning formula,” Lea said on Saturday night. “We’re not good enough to play like that as we move forward.”
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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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