Takeaways From Vanderbilt Football's Blowout Loss To Ole Miss – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—That was an absolute mess for Vanderbilt football. 
Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea declared that Vanderbilt hasn’t felt that way after a loss in a long time, and it should. Vanderbilt was run off the field on Saturday in a 52-17 loss to Ole Miss and was outscored 28-0 in the second quarter. As a result, it was a somber postgame media session. 
Lea’s team moved to 3-3 on the season and has lost three-consecutive games 
All things considered, that was one of the program's worst losses under Clark Lea
It was different than Vanderbilt’s loss to ETSU or UNLV, but man was that significant. Man was that ugly, too. 
That was bad enough to bring back the same ole Vanderbilt title and the idea that Vanderbilt doesn’t belong on the field with that type of team. Saturday was bad enough to kill any momentum that this program has built and to lose some of the respect that it gained with its 10-win season. 
Vanderbilt was humiliated and got its lunch money taken by a team that got its own lunch money taken the last time it played. It claimed that it belongs in the same conversations with teams like Ole Miss, yet it looked like it shouldn’t even be on the same field as Pete Goulding’s team on Saturday. 
That performance embodied everything that Vanderbilt said it wasn’t for the last two years. It undermined all the progress that it’s made. 
Why in the world did Vanderbilt talk the way it did this week? 
That made it all the more embarrassing when it got trounced and ran off the field on Saturday. 
Bryce Cowan said that it wouldn’t take anything special to slow down Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss. Ja’Cory Thomas–who actually did play well individually, to his credit–said that the only impression he had of Ole Miss’ defense on film was that it offered a lot of green grass and that there were a lot of plays to be made. 
Those statements offered some positivity, but that makes what happened Saturday all the more embarrassing. It’s getting ridiculous the way Vanderbilt is talking at this point. It’s talking like it’s still a 10-win team, but it’s not. Spoiler alert. 
This Vanderbilt team is the antithesis of what Lea preaches these days
Lea has an undisciplined, arrogant, non-fundamentally sound team that insists its getting closer, but doesn’t appear to be. 
It’s losing the margins. It’s not making anyone fight for every blade of grass. It’s a group of players that have been on winning teams, but don’t act like it. Vanderbilt had 11 penalties for 92 yards Saturday. It turned it over four times to generate 17 Ole Miss points. 
It felt very 2023 esque in that way. 
What is with Vanderbilt’s defense?
This was supposed to be Lea’s best defense yet. It sure doesn’t look like it. Maybe it has at times, but it hasn’t consistently played like it. It certainly didn’t Saturday. 
Ole Miss generated 409 total yards of offense, generated 10 plays of 10+ yards, went for 196 rushing yards, passed for 213 yards and 6.29 yards per play. Vanderbilt couldn’t cover. It couldn’t get to Trinidad Chambliss. It also generated 5.6 yards per carry on the ground. 
Vanderbilt looks a whole lot better on paper on defense than it looks in practicality. 
This was expected for Jared Curtis, but not the rest of the roster
Vanderbilt probably wasn’t set for a big year with a first-year quarterback, but that was supposed to be a result of its quarterback play–not its lack of a supporting cast. But, that’s not the case. 
Curtis can only do so much considering Vanderbilt can’t run the ball, doesn’t have much at receiver outside of Junior Sherrill and Ja’Cory Thomas, has major offensive line questions and can’t stop the SEC’s best. This was only going to work this year if Vanderbilt could support Curtis adequate. It can’t. 
Clearly. 
That felt more like 2023 than any game since then
What was the last time that Vanderbilt was thoroughly outclassed like that and embarrassed on its home field? Has to be 2023. 
That looked like the same Ole Vanderbilt out there. It looked like a team that couldn’t compete with the SEC’s best and wasn’t even close to doing so. The stands were all but empty by the end of this thing, and they should be. 
Vanderbilt didn’t give its crowd any reason to stay.
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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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