Takeaways From Vanderbilt Football's 31-21 Loss To Arkansas – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—Vanderbilt football’s disaster skid has turned into normality following its 31-21 Saturday loss to Arkansas, which entered Saturday with a 2-4 record and no SEC wins. Now, it’s left to search for answers. 
The Commodores are 3-4 and have lost four games in a row entering the rest of its schedule–which is littered with ranked opponents. Saturday was likely the only game it will be favored in throughout SEC play, and it squandered its opportunity. 
“We have to clean our game up, we have to protect the ball and if we don’t do those things we’re not going to win games,” Lea said. “We can’t be surprised when we don’t do them and we lose. We can’t be so entitled to this that we somehow feel like we were robbed tonight, because we weren’t.” 
Here’s our takeaways from Vanderbilt’s fourth-consecutive loss. 
Arkansas was the most winnable game on Vanderbilt’s schedule, but it didn’t take advantage. As a result, it’s got to pay. 
This group’s aspirations of making a bowl game are now unrealistic. So is the narrative that it’s getting closer to being the team it wants to be. The wheels are falling off this thing and Vanderbilt has to know that. It just lost the easiest remaining game on its schedule and has serious odds of suffering a winless SEC season, which it believed it was well beyond at this stage of the build. Vanderbilt has now lost four games in a row and each of them feels worse than the last. 
Saturday was particularly bad in that it should’ve been a win for this Vanderbilt team. It was talented enough to win and it had its chances, but it couldn’t get over the finish line. As a result, hope is wearing thin–at least, externally it is. 
Arkansas was supposed to be the worst team in the SEC, but it came into FirstBank Stadium and beat Vanderbilt. What does that make Vanderbilt? 
Well. 
This Vanderbilt team is in last place in the SEC–and, thus, is the worst team in the league. It declared that it could be the best team in program history, but it now represents one of Lea’s worst coaching jobs to date. It believes it can beat anyone on its schedule if everything comes together for it, but nothing is coming together. It’s been saying the same things over and over again trying to cling to a belief that feels more rooted in optimism than any tangible result. 
Curtis’ Saturday performance had everything necessary to make conclusions on the state of his development at this point.
It had the beautiful throws–particularly one to Ja’Cory Thomas that got Vanderbilt in the red zone and strike in the front corner of the end zone to Junior Sherrill. It had runs that showcase that Curtis isn’t one dimensional. Yet, Curtis also had a pick six that let Arkansas back into the game and threw the game-sealing interception while trying to play hero ball. 
Curtis is clearly as talented a quarterback as Vanderbilt has had in the Clark Lea era, but he still has significant room to go before becoming a winner in the SEC. 
He finished Saturday by completing 19 of his 31 passes for 274 yards, rushing for 13 yards on 1.6 yards per carry, throwing a touchdown and two interceptions. 
Vanderbilt still has too many deficiencies around Curtis to expect him to play a complete game. 
It ran for just 4.0 yards per carry Saturday–-including Curtis’ rushes–it recorded five penalties, it still doesn’t get its tight ends involved and puts Curtis in compromised positions because of a lack of pass protection. 
Curtis can’t make mistakes like the pick six, but this also isn’t on him. 
It appears as if no role on this Vanderbilt team is safe at this point. At least, that’s the message Lea is trying to send. 
Lea started reserves CJ Williams, Talan Carter, and MK Young rather than Beau Johnson, Jaylon Stone, and Sedrick Alexander, respectively. Johnson and Alexander’s demotions are particularly surprising considering Johnson was one of Vanderbilt’s most highly-touted transfer additions and Alexander is supposed to be its bellcow back. 
Alexander has seen his carry volume go down significantly through the first six weeks of the season, but he scored a touchdown Saturday while splitting carries with Young. 
This is clearly a talented defense, but whether it will ever reach its potential is clearly in question. 
Arkansas realistically should’ve had a hard time scoring on Vanderbilt’s defense at all, but it missed tackles, was out of sync and demonstrated that it shoots itself in the foot far too often to be one of the SEC’s best units. It’s as if this group just can’t fathom getting a few stops in a row and has an irresistible urge to let something up. 
It truly is odd for a veteran-laden group that’s as talented as any defense in Lea’s tenure to stoop to this level, but here it is. Arkansas went for 438 total yards of offense,  189 yards on the ground and 192 total yards in the third quarter alone. 
Vanderbilt clearly doesn’t have enough pass rush without blitzing. It isn’t forcing turnovers. It has a controversy at cornerback. It still doesn’t have an identity. 
That could go for its whole team.
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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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