Vanderbilt Football Sits At Dangerous Crossroads Ahead of Matchup With Arkansas – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—-It’s really not about the matchup with Arkansas, or the X’s and O’s as Vanderbilt football takes the field Saturday. It’s not about whether it wins the one-on-one or whether it breaks the big gain. 
It’s about what this Vanderbilt team is willing to tolerate.
It’s about how much this group has left in the tank. This Vanderbilt team thought it knew the formula to win big in the SEC, but Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has spent the week alerting it that it’s not acting like it. Lea is right.
All he needs to do in order to prove that is point back to what it did a week ago against Ole Miss. Vanderbilt linebacker Bryce Cowan declared that it would take “nothing special” to stop Star Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss. Instead of offering a compliment, Vanderbilt receiver Ja’Cory Thomas declared that Ole Miss’ defense offered plenty of green grass and plays to be made. He said Vanderbilt would certainly make those plays.
Well. Guess what. It didn’t. And clearly stopping Chambliss was more difficult than Cowan led on. Vanderbilt was embarrassed by that Ole Miss team on its own field. Maybe this Vanderbilt team doesn’t want to hear it, but Lea has the reason why. Now, he’s hanging it over their heads in the most constructive—yet confrontational—way possible. 
“Right now, we’re playing as if we’re entitled to an outcome and we’re offended when it doesn’t go the way we want it to go,” Lea said. “That mentality and attitude is what I’m attacking right now internally. I say that in a way that’s meant to be reflective, not judgemental, because ultimately I’m responsible for it. I don’t see these things as independent of my imprint or my influence. I think this is a 24/7 self reflection that gives way to processing about where the team is and what my message needs to be.” 
Lea is clear that at this point—while Vanderbilt sits in the fallout of three-consecutive losses—this is no longer about what he says. It’s about this group taking action. They’ve shown Lea they care about this, but he needs them to show him they can do this the right way. 
He needs them to approach each play with the proper intensity. He needs them to realize that the margins are smaller than they think they are. He needs them to realize that whatever is going on with them needs to be over quickly. He won’t say it, but what he really needs them to realize is that they aren’t as good as they think they are. 
It sounds harsh, but that may be what it takes for Vanderbilt to finally unlock what it can actually be. It’s declared for months that it can be the best team in program history. It no longer needs to worry about that. 
Now, it needs to worry about the crossroads it’s at. 
Vanderbilt’s Saturday matchup with Arkansas is clearly its best chance at an SEC win the rest of the way and is its chance at a reprieve from a grueling losing streak. Lea and company have already dropped three in a row, but this could get significantly more bleak if it drops one to Arkansas on Saturday. 
Arkansas is playing better football than appeared to be imaginable a few weeks ago, but this is still a game that Vanderbilt should win and is expected to in spite of its struggles. It’s more talented than this Arkansas team. It’s more experienced than it, too. It’s also at home. If that doesn’t lead to a win, then it’s difficult to imagine what will. 
If it does, then Vanderbilt has hope of getting this thing back on the rails and could theoretically still push for bowl eligibility with two wins left to get in its final five regular season games. It would indicate that this group still has enough belief to have a hope. In the best case scenario, it would be an indication that it’s shed its past transgressions and has turned over a new leaf.
If it doesn’t, though. Oh boy, if it doesn’t. That would be difficult to bounce back from. Not only because of the result, but because of what it would indicate about where this group is at.
“It’s a huge game,” Vanderbilt linebacker Nick Rinaldi said. “We’re not really focused about what everyone else thinks about us. We need to prove to ourselves that we have what it takes. And I know that we have what it takes, guys that have been here who have seen other teams know that we have what it takes.”
That quote and a number of others from Lea throughout the week are damning and indicative of the idea that the season Vanderbilt expected to have is gone. Now, it’s left to salvage what’s left of it and leave it on a positive note. 
Time for Vanderbilt to prove it’s still got something in the tank. Time for it to demonstrate that it’s still about what it says it’s about and that it’s not demoralized entirely by what’s happened between its win over NC State and now. Time for it to win. 
“We need to be a team that’s out to prove something–not to the world and not to Arkansas, but to ourselves,” Lea said. “I want to see this team play better football. In that sense, there’s nothing bigger.”
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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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