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Vanderbilt football will have a full house on Saturday night. Andrew Nelles, Imagn

Want to See Tangible Evidence of Vanderbilt Football's Rise? Here It Is.

Originally posted on Vanderbilt Commodores on SI
By Joey Dwyer | Last updated Aug 29, 2025 12:40 PM ET

Nashville—In a way, Clark Lea and Vanderbilt football have already won.

In the overwhelming joy of his biggest wins as Vanderbilt’s head coach, Lea has walked off the field at FirstBank Stadium looking around at a tangible sign of the progress that his program had still yet to make. When his group pulled off a stunning upset of Virginia Tech this time last year, he still referenced his disappointment with the amount of visiting fans that had taken over the stands. When his team beat No. 1 Alabama, the roar of the crowd was subdued due to the amount of crimson in the crowd.

Perhaps Lea will have to deal with those issues again later this season as his athletic department fights the perception that the place where his team plays is the ideal weekend vacation spot to come and watch your team beat up on the SEC’s bottomfeeder. He won’t on Saturday, though.

Vanderbilt football has sold out its opener against Charleston Southern.

Oftentimes a sellout announcement from this program has been met with angst. It’s been regarded as misleading and an indictment on the competitive environment Vanderbilt hopes to build. It’s regarded as getting out of the way for the big guns to come in and being okay with it.

Not this time, though. This time it’s all about Vanderbilt football. This time, FirstBank Stadium will be a melting pot for the Nashville community to come root on one of its own. This time, it won’t be overtaken by opposing fans. The FCS opponent coming into town–albeit with a coach with an infectious personality—is hardly a marketing tool here. Charleston Southern is almost a detriment to Vanderbilt’s ticket-selling efforts as it comes off of a 1-11 season.

This is all about what Vanderbilt has done. It’s about what it’s hoping to become. It’s about the buzz it has. It’s about the way that it can’t be counted out of anything.

“I think people want to see us win more," Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia said. "My job is to fill the seats, and the way we feel the seats is with winning. Our goal is a national championship."

As much as anything, Friday’s announcement is about Vanderbilt’s spunky, infectious quarterback that has three goals in mind as he wakes up each day; strengthen his relationship with God, prove that he can become an NFL player and make this Vanderbilt program into one that can compete with programs that nobody previously believed it could.

Some have called Pavia crazy. Some despise him for what they perceive to be his cockiness. What happened on Friday indicated the reach he has, though. Perhaps he’s polarizing. Perhaps his words could get Vanderbilt in trouble later this season.

They also got its program this, though.

With any other SEC program, this is hardly a story worth writing. Those programs can do this without an ounce of marketing all offseason. They’ve got all the buzz they need. Not this one, though.

Lea has had to fight for every ounce of respect over the years. When others could’ve restricted access, he had to open his doors wide to a Netflix documentary and allow them to tell his program’s story authentically, he had to open every fall camp practice to the media in an effort for his fanbase to get to know his team, he’s had to take opportunities to articulate his vision that most head coaches don’t have to.

He’s had to make this about more than football.

“It's my alma mater,” Lea said last season, “And I just believe the world needs a strong Vanderbilt football program, and part of my responsibility is to deliver that.”

Lea’s mission at this stage is clear; winning. If he doesn’t bring it up, you can find it in mural style on the wall of his team’s main meeting room. That alone doesn’t draw people in, though.

He’s had to make it personal for people. He’s had to be vulnerable. He’s had to give everything he has for the cause that he believes so deeply in. It appears as if it’s worked, though.

Saturday, he will walk out to a stadium that was half empty–and felt like more of a social event than a football game–as his team took the field for a Week 0 opener against Hawaii two seasons ago and will see it filled up. Back then, you had to squint to see his vision for this thing.

Now, it’s being fulfilled.

Vanderbilt still has to come out and take care of business, but it can’t discount what popped up across all avenues of its external communication on Friday morning in big gold letters.

“SOLD OUT.”

This article first appeared on Vanderbilt Commodores on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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