Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea can enjoy the bragging rights for a bit longer, a year after his Commodores team shocked Alabama.
“We’ve earned the right to play in a big game,” Lea told reporters on Tuesday. “We get a great stage to do it on. What’s special is the opportunity to play against Alabama. We understand it’s a great stage and there will be a lot of eyes on us, but we want to do is go play our brand of football.”
Vanderbilt has a brand as the No. 16 team in the nation at 5-0 and quarterback in Diego Pavia, who could make a run at the Heisman Trophy. Pavia has 1,211 yards passing for 13 touchdowns, versus three interceptions.
Vanderbilt puts up points in droves, and the Commodores have scored less than 44 points only once this season. The Commodores defense gave up 35 points to Utah State on Sept. 27, but 14 of that came from the Aggies in the fourth quarter with game already decided.
What Clark Lea Anticipates For Alabama
Tenth-ranked Alabama (3-1) comes into the Vanderbilt game this time with eyes wide open, of course, and won’t ride a Georgia win as highly this time around as the Crimson Tide did last year. This season’s Alabama squad already had its hard knocks in a 31-17 road loss to No. 18 Florida State in Week 1.
“Well, you know, they they have explosive skill. So, I want to be careful … and not just saying that that’s you know, we you know, if we’re tackling well and we’re covering well, then they they’re going to they’re going to be more methodical,” Lea said. “If we’re not tackling well or not covering well, you know, they can get up and over the top pretty quickly.”
“And if you if you watch, I mean, they had opportunities against Georgia where they were open down the field and just off for whatever reason. Against Wisconsin, some catch and run plays that were really impressive. And so … we have to play in structure,” he added.
Clark Talks College GameDay Opportunity
Vanderbilt has been a featured team on ESPN’s College GameDay only one other time, and that came in 2008 when the Commodore beat Auburn 14-13. This Saturday, the show will roll into Tuscaloosa for the Vandy-Bama rematch after last year’s stunner.
“It’s — the what’s special is the opportunity to go play against Alabama, you know, and we don’t control … who shows up, who doesn’t show up, who pays attention, who doesn’t pay attention,” Lea said. “But you know, we’re going to we’re going to be excited about that opportunity, and obviously, we understand that it’s a great stage and we understand that there will be a lot of eyes on us.”
“But what we want to do is go play our brand of football and we know we’re going to take that up against a team that’s really good and playing with confidence and um you know we’ll have our work cut out for us but that’s where our focus will be … and for this program to get where we want it to go,” Lea added. “We want these things not to come one-offs. We want this to become part of our operating procedure and you know, this is a great chance a great kind of … first chance to to enjoy that spotlight.”
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