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NASHVILLE—Clark Lea started by trying to diagnose each of Vanderbilt’s struggles on third down and in the red zone, then he stopped. He paused. He appeared to be done addressing specific plays.
Lea had a more granular thought coming out of Vanderbilt’s 21-6 loss to No. 3 Alabama. A few minutes prior he had called Vanderbilt’s offensive performance a mess, but he didn’t dive deep into it. He answered what he was asked about specific aspects of it, including the penalties and run game, but he didn’t make a strong diagnosis about what exactly made all this a mess.
That is, until he returned from his pause.
“It just all felt out of rhythm,” Lea said. “Even our operation from a coaching standpoint, just listening to it didn't feel confident. It didn't feel synched up. If we’re not confident and synced up, then the play on the field represents that.”
If you ask Lea, it certainly did Saturday. Lea was seemingly relentlessly frustrated with Vanderbilt’s 14 penalties for 92 yards, 1-for-4 mark on fourth down, three red-zone trips without a touchdown and three points off of turnovers.
Lea credits his defense for holding Alabama to 21 points and keeping the game within striking distance for it for most of Saturday evening, but he believes that Vanderbilt’s offense didn’t do its part.
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Vanderbilt ran the ball for just 12 yards on Saturday, and 39 yards without sacks included. It went for 0.5 yards per carry with sacks included and 2.2 without sacks included. Vanderbilt’s offense generated just 32 yards in the first half relative to its 52 penalty yards. Alabama won the time of possession battle 30:29-to-26:57. Vanderbilt quarterback Jared Curtis was sacked five times for 27 yards.
Saturday was Vanderbilt’s lowest-scoring game of the season and its first-half yard total was its lowest in over two decades. Alabama outdid Vanderbilt in nearly every offensive category outside of turnover. Vanderbilt believes that may have been different if not for its penalty troubles, but it won’t have the luxury of knowing. As a result, it’s left to find the trend here. It appears to have done that.
“It’s always Vanderbilt football beating Vanderbilt football,” Vanderbilt running back MK Young said.
Lea said entering Saturday that Vanderbilt beating No. 1 Alabama in 2024 required the three phases interlocking, a physical run game and sustaining the good performance that allowed Vanderbilt to get out to a big lead early through all four quarters. He hoped that his team would do that again this time and emphasized the importance of all three categories.
As he leaves FirstBank Stadium on Saturday night, he can clearly say that Vanderbilt didn’t do any of those things at a high enough level. The numbers would indicate that Vanderbilt didn’t do much of anything that it did when it pulled that upset in 2024. Lea has reminisced that Vanderbilt had masterful playcalling, dynamic quarterback play, great play up front, stayed on schedule offensively, had a few turnovers that swung the game in its favor, dominance in the time of possession margin and had a little magic on its side that October day in 2024. Saturday, it didn’t.
At least, its offense didn’t.
“We just weren’t able to capitalize offensively,” Lea said in his opening statement on Saturday. “It just felt like a mess on offense.”
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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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