In a Selfish Era of College Athletics, Vanderbilt Football is a Rare Breed – Sports Illustrated

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In the past few years, the landscape of college athletics has drastically changed compared to the way everything was laid out just a decade ago, if that.
Benefits from Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) and the impact of the transfer portal has also had a direct influence on collegiate athletes across all sports. The positive of it all is that it has created plenty of opportunities for athletes to provide for themselves and for their families.
The negative side, and a rather ugly side of it all, is that the current era of college sports creates selfish players and therefore selfish teams. In some cases, players will only join a team if they are guaranteed a starting spot. In others, players can put the money they earn over the success of the team.
But not Vanderbilt football. The Commodores have never been shy about their beliefs about the program and the type of players they want in the program. Head coach Clark Lea and his staff have mentioned countless times about being “process-driven.” Even in press conferences, the synced chemistry between coaches and players is noticeable.
The question is how has Vanderbilt been able to retain this shared mentality that puts the team’s success above any one individual’s success.
“We believe in a process. All the portal, the NIL, all that stuff is great but it really matters nothing in you getting better as a football player and achieving the goals that you want to achieve on the field,” Vanderbilt defensive coordinator Steve Gregory said. “It’s about work. It’s about coming in and earning everything that you get. It’s about being a good teammate, about being a good person. Treating each other with respect, having discipline and then loving the game of football.”
It is that sort of mentality and belief that is echoed from the coaches down to the players. What Lea and his coaching staff have done well is drilling a belief into the players that the success of the team and the program means far more than how much money a starter makes compared to a second string player.
But rather, what has allowed Vanderbilt to have success on the field the past two seasons is that the players cherish the success of the team as a whole. The players are like-minded in the goals that they share and move together as a united group. And most importantly, the team is like-minded in the sense of having a shared reason for why the players are on the team.
Vanderbilt defensive lineman Glenn Seabrooks III said after Tuesday’s practice that during the winter, the team split up into groups of about 10 to 12 players. In those meetings, the players would talk about why they are a part of the team.
“We would explain why we’re here at Vanderbilt, our family background, the reason we play this sport to kind of get a better understanding of each other. We don’t really believe in jealousy. We believe coach Lea got his players here to help us win. Everyone’s on the same goal and I truly do believe that,” Seabrooks III said. “I would say there’s competition, but no one’s jealous because we’re all for the one goal and that’s for the national championship.”
All that belief goes back to the culture of the team that Lea created when he first was hired as Vanderbilt’s head coach in December 2020. It may have taken a few years to get his guys and to turn it into on-field success, but Lea’s vision has taken effect and it bleeds into the guys on the roster.
Lea and his team are more selective about the type of players they want on the roster. As Seabrooks III attests, Vanderbilt does not just want the best athletes, they want athletes that gel together well with the rest of the group. Ultimately, the chemistry of the team is a big reason how success is created on the field.
“I feel like what we show is we’re authentic. We’re very true to who we are. All the videos and posts we put out is not just for show, we truly are like that inside the building as well. I feel like a lot of guys have seen that fact and wanted to be here and that’s why they’re here right now. I would say we’re going to continue to stick with it. It works and that’s truly how it should be,” Seabrooks III said.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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