Tennessee’s had a bad couple of weekends on the football field.
Vanderbilt’s had a bad couple of months.
The Commodores jumped out to a 2-0 start in Clark Lea’s third season with victories over Hawaii and Alabama A&M, but losses to Wake Forest and UNLV preceded seven consecutive Southeastern Conference setbacks that have added up to a 2-9 record entering Saturday afternoon’s season finale (3:30 on the SEC Network) against the No. 25 Volunteers at Neyland Stadium.
It was not the season anybody had expected or desired in Nashville, especially after last year’s Commodores used November wins over Kentucky and Florida to finish a far more competitive 5-7.
“When we played at Wake, at UNLV and then Kentucky at home, we had a rash of turnovers that really put pressure on a defense that was playing better but not good enough to absorb that type of thing,” Lea said. “We had nine turnovers in those three games, three of which went back for touchdowns, and another four set up possessions inside our 15.