How Vanderbilt Football Is Approaching Daunting Georgia Matchup At Sanford Stadium – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—Clark Lea isn’t naive to the reality at hand. He doesn’t say it, but he knows Vanderbilt is a heavy underdog as it travels to Athens to face No. 2 Georgia. He knows that when the game pops up on College Gameday, Vanderbilt’s logo won’t fade into the area where each member of the panel displays their picks. 
But, Lea and company aren’t flinching. 
Doing so would be entirely out of character for this Vanderbilt program, which has branded itself on an underdog label. Lea and company know that he’s never won against Georgia as Vanderbilt’s head coach. They know the odds that they’re up against, but they’re intent on making sure that their message is clear. They’re not viewing their trip to Athens as a burden or a likely loss. If they are, at least, they’re not showing it. 
“This is exactly why you sign up for these jobs, why you come to Vanderbilt to play,” Lea said, “For challenges like this, and I've got a team that right now is focused on the details, the execution that we're gonna need for Saturday, but is putting in the work and preparing themselves to go down and fight for the result we want.”
Vanderbilt has faced Georgia three times in the Lea era and hasn’t come within 15 points of it in any of those meetings. The last time it went to Athens, it lost 55-0 and was all but embarrassed by the Bulldogs. The matchup before that at FirstBank Stadium ended in a 62-0 Georgia win and some deep reflection by Lea in regard to how this all went wrong. 
Lea’s program is clearly much more stable and talented than the last time it went to Athens, but Georgia appears to be a national championship contender while Vanderbilt appears to be in the midst of a foundational year after losing 21-15 against Auburn on the road. 
How Vanderbilt’s program maturation will manifest Saturday as it faces a team more talented than any it’s seen to this point in perhaps the most difficult environment it will play in all season is unclear, but it was clear on Tuesday. While Vanderbilt veterans Junior Sherrill and Bryan Longwell took the podium in Vanderbilt’s team room, there was no sense that they were overwhelmed by the challenges Georgia presents. They didn’t guarantee a win or indicate anything about their confidence levels, but they walked and talked like they have a chance. 
And, they appear to believe they do. 
“The mindset's just [about] us, man,” Longwell said. “We got to do whatever we got to do. I mean, it's just football. 
If you play sound solid and simple, you're gonna win if you don’t make mistakes. You can't make little mistakes, you’ve got to be focused. They're not going to give you anything. They're a good team, too. And we're a good team. So we just got to play solid and just play our game.” 
In theory, Longwell’s point holds up. What he knows well, though, is that doing what he declares is possible is significantly easier said than done. Vanderbilt played a nearly flawless game once in Longwell’s career–in its 2024 win over No. 1 Alabama–but doing it twice would be representative of lightning striking twice. This Vanderbilt team finding a way to win Saturday would likely be a more miraculous result than that Alabama win. 
Vanderbilt is still searching for an offensive identity at this stage, has a freshman quarterback entering his first matchup against a ranked opponent, still has major offensive line questions and hasn’t played a complete game through the first four weeks of the season. It’s also entering an environment at Sanford Stadium that’s as daunting as any it’s been in this season. 
Georgia had a 33-game winning streak at home prior to its 2025 loss to Alabama and is on the verge of reconstructing another streak. Vanderbilt doesn’t know what will happen Saturday, but it doesn’t appear to be psyching itself out because of all that it’s up against or the national expectation that it will be ran off the field. 
“We kind of just focus on ourselves,” Sherrill said, “Not what the external noise has got to say.”
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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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