NASHVILLE-Vanderbilt didn’t leave FirstBank Stadium with a tidy win on Saturday. It left with something messier, stranger and far more dramatic: a victory that depended on an NC State collapse, a perfectly timed punch at the ball and a final scramble that turned into a miracle ending.
Clark Lea wasn’t interested in pretending otherwise. He knows his team did not play well enough to beat the first power-five opponent on its schedule.
He knows NC State outplayed Vanderbilt. And he knows this kind of finish doesn’t happen without a chain of events that all break the right way at the same time.
NC State had the chance to end it by simply taking a safety and running out the clock. Instead, quarterback CJ Bailey had a lapse in judgment that let him come into contact with a defender as time was winding down.
Bailey’s knee was not off the ground rather than down. Vanderbilt’s block unit, with every player told to take a direct line to the ball, executed the call.
Miles Capers got the punch squared up with enough force to jar it loose. Cayden Daniels recognized the moment and got on the ball before an NC State player could.
That sequence sent Vanderbilt to a 3-0 start and sparked a locker room celebration Lea was willing to embrace, even while admitting the performance itself wasn’t good enough.
“I'm proud of our program,” Lea said. “This has become a program that finds a way to win, and I think that can't be undersold in this moment, that certainly there are plenty of teams that find a way out of that game and yet our guys found a way in.”
Lea said his 2025 team, which finished 10-3 and became the most successful in program history, almost always knew how to close out tight games. He didn’t have that same certainty about this year’s group, and he still may not after a game in which Vanderbilt also blew a chance to come back when freshman quarterback Jared Curtis got trapped on a read and threw an interception that looked like it might seal it for NC State.
But Saturday gave Lea a different kind of read on his team. He learned that this group won’t fold when the odds get long. He learned it has some fight in it.
“When you play Vanderbilt, you’re gonna have to play four quarters-and that’s till the end,” Daniels-who recovered the game-winning fumble in the end zone-said. “Through all four quarters, we play.”
There’s plenty to criticize about Vanderbilt’s showing. The Commodores fell behind 17-0.
NC State quarterback CJ Bailey carved up the defense at times. Curtis looked every bit like a freshman on several snaps.
The receivers had trouble separating in one-on-one matchups. The running game wasn’t as dependable as Lea wanted.
Still, Vanderbilt kept clawing back. Curtis helped drag the team back into the game, and the veteran defense bailed him out after his costly mistake. In the end, the turnover erased the earlier mistakes from the headline.
For Bryce Cowan, that was the whole point.
“We just played,” Vanderbilt linebacker Bryce Cowan said, “Until the game hit double zeros.”
In Other News...
Jared Curtis Just Raised Vanderbilt's Biggest Quarterback Question
Jared Curtis did more than survive his first start at Vanderbilt. The five-star freshman quarterback helped engineer a 17-point comeback against NC State, earning SEC Freshman of the Week honors in the process and giving the Commodores a glimpse of what their future might look like under center. He finished 20 of 34 for 277 yards with three touchdown passes and two interceptions, a line that reflected both the promise and the occasional rough edges that come with a young quarterback making his first real statement.
Clark Lea said Curtis showed growth throughout the game, and that may be the part Vanderbilt will watch most closely moving forward. The performance gave the staff evidence that Curtis can handle big moments, but it also sharpened the bigger question now hanging over the position: how quickly can Vanderbilt turn one impressive debut into something more stable as the season goes on? [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Gets An Early Reality Check Before SEC Pressure Hits
The Commodores are about to get an early test on the road, with Vanderbilt set to face Miami in a preseason exhibition Friday, Oct. 23, at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables. It is the kind of matchup that can tell a team plenty before the games count, especially with both programs coming off strong seasons and carrying spots in ESPNs Way-Too-Early Top 25.
For Vanderbilt, the timing makes the trip even more interesting because the SEC grind is still ahead, and early games like this can help reveal what needs tightening before the pressure ramps up. Miami coach Jai Lucas has already pointed to the value of tough preparation and the need for challenging games before his team opens the season against Florida, which gives this exhibition a little more edge than the usual fall tune-up. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Had Several Performances SEC Teams Should Notice After This Win
Vanderbilts win over NC State offered more than just a good result for the resume, because several players gave SEC opponents something to file away. The defense made one of the biggest early statements when EDGE Miles Capers forced a fumble that cornerback Cayden Daniels recovered, and Capers added three tackles and a tackle for loss to a disruptive outing.
On the other side of the ball, Sherrill kept building his case as a reliable target by leading the Commodores with six catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns, a sign that his timing with quarterback Jared Curtis is starting to look more natural. Freshman Mason Lewis also turned heads in his first start at STAR, tying for the team lead with eight tackles and giving Vanderbilt another young defender worth watching as the schedule gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]