The Vanderbilt Commodores were picked to finish last in the Southeastern Conference’s first 16-member football race.
Doesn’t mean they’re required to finish there.
Vanderbilt opened its 2024 season Saturday by posting the league’s most surprising result, a 34-27 overtime victory over Virginia Tech as a two-touchdown underdog. The Hokies arrived in Nashville having been pegged sixth in the first 17-team Atlantic Coast Conference collection.
The Commodores missed a 43-yard field-goal attempt on the final play of regulation before scoring a touchdown on their overtime possession and stifling Virginia Tech on downs.
“I don’t know if the script could have been written any differently for our program,” an emotional Vanderbilt fourth-year coach Clark Lea said in his news conference, “because part of the demons of our past has been giving in to the adversity that you’re going to inevitably face in a football game. Our players went out and won that game, but there is so much to clean up.