NASHVILLE - Clark Lea made sure the first team meeting after Vanderbilt’s win over NC State was about more than the scoreboard.
Sunday after a victory always carries a different feel, and Lea used this one to push his players in a couple of directions at once. Before he ever got to the finish of the game, he challenged the group to tighten up its chemistry and get better at syncing together on the field. Then he singled out the players who delivered in the biggest moments: wide receiver Junior Sherrill for his clutch fourth-down play and safety Ricardo Jones for his stop on a NC State fourth-down attempt.
Only after that did Lea bring up the play everybody will remember.
With six seconds left in Vanderbilt’s 35-31 win, Miles Capers knocked the ball free from CJ Bailey and Cayden Daniels recovered it to seal the game. The ending has already been stamped into Vanderbilt history, but Lea’s focus in the meeting was not the mechanics of the play. He wanted his team to see what happened around it.
“When I showed the finish to the game, the end zone shot in our coaches film pans out. And you see the chaos emerging from our sideline and then the stadium erupting, too,” Lea said.
“There were some beautiful shots of two people running on opposite sides of the section of the end zone. They ran on the second level - thank God they’re okay - into a big embrace.”
For Lea, that reaction mattered because it showed his players the reach of what they do in Nashville. The moment wasn’t just about football. It was about how a team can spill into a community and pull that community along with it.
“The message was ‘How cool is it that we get to do something we love with people we love?’ That can ripple out into a community that shows up in support of us and inspires them in this way.
Like, that’s a really neat thing. We can't lose sight of that,” Lea said.
He also used a different visual to drive home how unlikely the finish looked in the moment. Lea showed his team ESPN’s win probability chart from the NC State game.
After five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis threw an interception with 1:04 remaining, NC State had a 99.9% chance to win. With six seconds left, the chart still had NC State at 99.9%.
That was the backdrop to Vanderbilt’s field block play and the recovery that turned the game upside down.
“What I said to the team was ‘I’m glad the 0.1% was in the room’ because it’s a testament to the power of the internal, which is so important to us in this program. And the only reason we’re where we are is because we’ve tended to the internal. We haven’t listened to the external,” Lea said.
Lea has built a program that, by his own description, doesn’t waste energy on what the outside world thinks about Vanderbilt. He said the win was fortunate, even while others have pointed to it as a “culture win.” But he also believes the result can do more than live as a single wild finish.
Vanderbilt sees Saturday as something it can build on over the next few months of the regular season, and Lea made clear what he wants his team to carry forward from it.
“Let us never forget that we may be doubted everywhere, but if we are together and fighting and in belief in what’s possible, that we can make it happen,” Lea said.
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Clark Lea Sent Vanderbilt A Clear Message Before Auburn
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Miles Capers and CJ Heard echoed the mindset inside the locker room, embracing the underdog label while recognizing the chance in front of them. For Vanderbilt, the next stretch is about more than protecting an unbeaten start - it is about showing the team can put complete performances together and play with the kind of cohesion Lea has been demanding. [Read more 🡒]
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