Clark Lea has merged two entities that many thought was impossible: Vanderbilt football and meaningful November games.
The Commodores are nearing the end of their 91st season as a Southeastern Conference member and have never played a more meaningful contest than Saturday’s showdown against longtime rival Tennessee inside Neyland Stadium. Vanderbilt has compiled a 9-2 record that includes a 5-2 mark within the league heading into its regular-season finale, with that success giving the Commodores an outside chance of making the second 12-team College Football Playoff field.
Vanderbilt has never assembled a 10-win season and is attempting that feat against a program that has 21 of them, including two in the past three years.
“Any time you’re talking about a rival, there are emotions in it,” Lea said earlier this week, “and the feeling like you have everything at stake kind of adds to the emotions in the best of ways. These are the opportunities that you do it for and that you dream of. It’s a meaningful game in late November against a really good team that’s also a rival in the state.
“We have a ton of respect for Tennessee and a ton of respect for Josh Heupel and the program he’s built there. We also have a ton of respect for that environment. It’s one of the best atmospheres in the country.”
The Commodores are No. 12 in this week’s Associated Press poll, while the Volunteers (8-3, 4-3 SEC) are No. 18, making this the first series pairing of ranked teams since the inception of the AP poll in 1936. Saturday’s game has a scheduled 3:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN.
Lea and Heupel are each in their fifth seasons at their respective schools, with Tennessee having won the previous four matchups by the average score of 46-17. Last year’s contest in Nashville was the closest of the four, with the Commodores racing out to a quick 14-0 lead before the Vols overwhelmed them the rest of the way in a 36-23 victory that resulted in a 10-2 record for Tennessee and a berth in the CFP field as the No. 9 seed.
“We need to win to feel like we’re doing our part in the rivalry, and I haven’t been able to do that since I’ve been here,” said Lea, a former Vandy fullback who on Friday received a six-year contract extension. “That’s a testament to the program they’ve built over there. We’ve taken a little more time to get up on our own feet here, and there are a lot of reasons for that, but here we are with a good team, and they have a good team.
“This is what a rivalry game should feel like, and it’s important for us to win the game and try to create a back-and-forth here. That pressure is on us.”
Tennessee and Vanderbilt enter Saturday as the highest-scoring teams in the SEC, with the Vols averaging 42.3 points per game and the Commodores 38.9. Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia is averaging 5.0 yards per carry, ranks third nationally in passing efficiency and could stamp his invitation to the Heisman Trophy ceremony with another stellar stretch-run showing.
The two offenses have been noticeably ahead of the defenses, especially when the ball is in the air, with Tennessee ranking 14th (allowing 247.1 yards per game) and Vanderbilt 15th (248.3) within the league in pass defense.
Vanderbilt closed out its first 7-0 season at home last weekend with a 45-17 thrashing of Kentucky, and the Commodores have convincing road wins against Virginia Tech (44-20) and South Carolina (31-7). Their two losses have come at Alabama (30-14) and at Texas (34-31), so the Commodores are 9-0 so far in venues less than 100,000 and 0-2 in monstrosities similar to Neyland Stadium.
“We started the right way at Alabama and kind of lost it there late in the fourth quarter,” Lea said. “At Texas, we didn’t show up until after halftime, and it was too late for us to punch back. You learn from those games, and what you learn is that to beat a good team in a tough environment, it takes four quarters of focused football.
“We need to be emotionally ready when the ball is put down. We need to be ready to respond when the noise hits, and we need to be ready to respond when the chaos hits.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.