Inside Vanderbilt Football's Sellout, What it Means to Clark Lea

Vanderbilt’s 2023 matchup with Alabama A&M is a case study in how this thing has evolved. That Vanderbilt team–which strongly believed it could be a bowl team that season–came out and let Alabama A&M hang around and only had a nine-point lead at halftime while the top half of its bleachers that back up to Hawkins Field were empty and the parts that were full appeared to be more of a social setting than an intimidating environment. 

Saturday’s crowd fell short of the sell out that showed up on paper on Friday–although a source told Vandy on SI that 90-95% of ticketed fans entered the stadium–but it was a step for Vanderbilt football. The change was tangible upon stepping on Vanderbilt’s campus mid Saturday afternoon. 

“Sold out stadium, this is the new Vandy, man,” Vanderbilt running back Sedrick Alexander said. “I can’t really say what’s for the future, but I know I’ve got a lot of dogs ready to play for the rest of the season. We’re trying to get to a national championship.” 

Tailgate lots that were barren at times in that 2023 season were as full as they’ve been. Vanderbilt’s new–and improved–star walk saw Lea show a little fire in front of a filled out Natchez Trace. Students were present all throughout the walk from the Kensington Garage to Lot 2. 

That’s normal for a program in this league, but it’s not always been normal for this particular program. It appears as if it’s finally a product with the investment from the Vanderbilt fanbase, too. Just look at its stadium. 

The eyesore that Vanderbilt used to have and had to explain away in the south end zone is now destination seating for parents of its players that receive consistent playing time as well as boosters. Its student section that used to be barren was nearly full on Saturday. 

“Those moments are special to me,” Lea said. “When you see the dream coming to life and you realize what the potential, that’s special. I thank everyone who came out to support this program. I thought our students showed up and made a difference for us, that means the world to me.” 

Saturday was a stark reminder of Vanderbilt’s progress, but was also an indicator of the room that it still has to make up. On the field, it was its offensive line play that stood out as an area of needed improvement. In the stands, there still appears to be another step left to take, too. 

Time for Vanderbilt fans to celebrate what Lea has built to this point, though. The ups, downs will come in 2025. Who knows how this thing ends? Who knows if SEC fanbases still take over this place–spoiler alert, they probably will–but an environment like Vanderbilt had on Saturday used to be foreign to it. 

Now it’s created it. 

“That means the world to me because I was one of [the students],” Lea said. “I’m grateful and again, sometimes in brief moments I will kind of be able to pull up and take a big-picture view. I took a couple snapshots in my mind there in the first half where I thought ‘this is what it was always meant to be and it’s taken us longer to get here than I thought, but if I can keep putting a team out there that inspires people to show up, we can make this thing really fun.’”