Two days before his debut as Vanderbilt’s head coach, Clark Lea ended practice by lining up his roster on the sideline. The players had to spread out between the 25-yard lines, none bunched up more than three-deep. Then they had to walk forward and spend the next two minutes
visualizing what it would be like to shake hands with East Tennessee State after the game on Saturday night.
Lea said nothing about the outcome, barely acknowledging there would be one. This was an exercise in behavior, not a predictor of results.
After simulating handshakes, Vanderbilt drilled another postgame ritual, singing the alma mater. The team stood together in the southeast corner of an empty stadium on a Thursday evening, addressing what it hoped would be a full student section. They all sang. Then they sang it again. Then Vanderbilt moved to midfield and sang the school’s fight song, lyrics on the north end zone video board in case anyone needed them. It was the kind of thing teams do after they win.
Lea tries to see every angle from every angle. He’s been preaching that ever since he returned to Nashville after four seasons and two trips to the College Football Playoff in South Bend.
Everyone understood the message. Then Saturday night happened.
In a revelatory gut punch,
East Tennessee State routed Vanderbilt 23-3. Even for a program that has put together a winning record in SEC play once during Lea’s lifetime, this was difficult to stomach.
Vanderbilt was pushed around in the trenches by an FCS program that played a spring season.
Yet Vanderbilt stuck to its script postgame, shaking hands with East Tennessee State when the Buccaneers weren’t celebrating. They sang the alma mater in front of the few students who remained in a section that was nearly full at kickoff.
There would be no fight song in the locker room.
