No. 25 Vanderbilt is looking to deliver their second upset victory of the season. The Commodores aim to make another statement in the SEC by taking down No. 5 Texas Longhorns. While the pressure is on Texas to bounce back after their loss to Georgia, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea made an honest admission about Steve Sarkisian’s program ahead of their matchup in Nashville this weekend.
Once is a fluke, twice is a pattern. If Vanderbilt takes down another Top-5 team in the country, then Lea’s program will be acknowledged as the giant’s slayer in college football. The Commodores are on a three-game win streak, this run started with the shocking victory over Alabama. Lea and the program hope it doesn’t come to an end when they host the Horns.
Texas’ season has shifted at the drop of a hat, perhaps a golden one. After the triumph in the Red River Shootout, Sarkisian’s team fell to the Bulldogs and the bubble may have burst on their dream season. Though frustration is palpable in Austin, Vanderbilt HC Clark Lea made a big admission on how the Longhorns could fuel off it, rather than drown in it.
“It can swing either way,” Clark Lea said, per On3. “When we’ve had a tough loss, the game at Missouri, there’s a world where that can be taken as heartbreaking, and how do you come back from that? How devastated is the locker room? Or you can take it and say the guys will be motivated, they’re so close, they’re going to keep inching towards that breakthrough. I think you can take that and go either way with it.”
Clark Lea on preparing for Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning
When Steve Sarkisian subbed out Ewers and put Manning into the game against Georgia, he didn’t just send a message to the locker room but to the rest of the NCAA watching. Much talk had focused on the Longhorns’ depth at quarterback and how Sarkisian might play both QBs depending on game situations. That may come to fruition, and Vanderbilt will not be risking coming out flat-footed with their defensive gameplan.
“I believe that this is a system on offense that doesn’t change dramatically with respect to who’s taking the snaps,” Clark Lea stated. “So, we’re preparing to defend the system. Obviously, both quarterbacks have played so I wouldn’t be surprised to see both. They got injury history there and you just never know.“
Can Vanderbilt talk Playoffs yet?
The Commodores are one of the biggest Cinderella stories in the country. After their statement triumph over Bama, the program has built on their success and strung together consecutive wins to earn a place in the AP Top-25.
Though they are still a long way from earning a playoff berth, the team does not shy away from dreaming of making the extended NCAA postseason, however, coach Lea was wary on his thoughts.
“With respect to the potential of what this year could come to, is the understanding that we’re going to have to play really well from here to the finish line have a chance at the postseason. So we’re not getting ahead of our skis.”