Clark Lea gives passionate case for Vanderbilt to make College Football Playoff

The college football regular season has come to a close. That means for the teams that aren’t going to play for a conference championship, their resumes have been set in stone. That includes the Vanderbilt Commodores, who are currently sitting on the College Football Playoff bubble.

With his team on the bubble, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea recently addressed their Playoff hopes. Ahead of his Monday press conference, Lea made a lengthy and passionate case for the Commodores to make the Playoff for the first time in program history.

“We’re here because we’ve got a really good football team here,” Clark Lea said. “This is not about narratives and stories. It’s about the facts and the data that support a really good football program. It’s my responsibility to make that case and make sure I’m fighting for a team I believe deeply in, and I believe, with every strand of my being, deserves a chance to compete for a national championship.”

Clark Lea began making his case for Vanderbilt on the back of their metrics. Among them are some of the metrics that the selection committee uses to rank teams. There, it’s true that the Commodores stack up well.

“I think it’s the best thing for college football. I think this group of players and staff have worked really hard to put an exciting product on the field. One that’s energized our national community, our Vanderbilt community, but the potential of this goes way beyond that. The merits of the case are about strength of record. The ESPN Football Power Index has us ranked 11th in terms of the strength of record. It’s also about strength of schedule. Of the teams that are ranked ahead of us, four have a higher strength of schedule ranking. We played six teams that were ranked at the time of our game against them. Four of those were ranked in the Top 15. Again, those are measures for the moment. To say that was perceived about those teams,” Lea said.

“Our two losses came on the road at Alabama and Texas. They’re a combined 19-5 on the season. Both of those games played out differently, but both we were in striking distance in the fourth quarter. We’re 10-2 against the spread. I don’t pay a lot of attention to that, but I know that record against the spread should be closer to 6-6. This is the expected point differential in games.”

Coming into the season, Vanderbilt was unranked and would not become ranked in the AP Poll until Week 4. That’s a bit odd for an unbeaten SEC team, but is likely based somewhat on the fact that Vanderbilt simply isn’t at this point often. It’s a program that historically struggles, and in that respect, the Commodores have been a surprise.

“We’ve outperformed the perception of our program, and I think this perception started at the beginning of the season. We had a team coming off of a bowl win against a really strong Georgia Tech team. We returned the most production in our league on offense and defense,” Lea said. “And it took us all the way up until a win on the road at South Carolina to get ranked and get recognized. I feel like we’ve earned every bit of respect that we’ve gotten this year, and I feel like that gap that we have to close keeps getting bigger.”

Now, Vanderbilt has put together their first 10-win season in program history. This is a team that has played since 1890. Riding a three-game winning streak, Lea believes his team is playing as well as anyone.

“We’re peaking at the end of the season. We’ve come off back-to-back dominant performances in our league, the last of which was at Tennessee against a really good Tennessee team on the road. We have the second best overall scoring differential in our league, behind only Texas A&M,” Lea said. “And we have the third best in terms of scoring differential in SEC games, behind Texas A&M and Alabama. Again, I think if the committee would look at it and take blind resumes into account here, and I know that’s not a part of their process, our team would benefit from that exercise. Just a look purely at the merits, purely at the quality wins and at the losses.”

A key in all of this for Vanderbilt has been its offense. Led by Heisman contender Diego Pavia, that unit has proven to be among the best nationally.

“Again, I think this group deserves to be competing for a national championship. What a great stage for the most exciting offensive in all of college football,” Lea said. “And when you talk about our offense… we’re No. 1 offensive efficiency, we’re No. 1 in yards per play, we’re No. 2 in DSSR, down-series success rate, we’re No. 3 in points per possession, No. 3 in third-down efficiency, No. 3 in big play percentage, and No. 8 in scoring offense, which includes being No. 4 in points per play. We’ve got the best player in the country playing quarterback for us, Diego Pavia. He is the best in college football and should be a Heisman frontrunner. We believe he belongs in New York and belongs winning that award.”

Vanderbilt had been ranked No. 14 in the last selection committee rankings. That was before beating Tennessee, though, another point for their resume. Those rankings are set to be updated on Tuesday night for the penultimate time. So, Lea knows those will go a long way in determining where his team ultimately stands.

“So, this team deserves the brightest lights on the biggest stages. They’ve earned that right. Look, I don’t care how we have to get there. They can tell me whatever they want to tell me,” Lea said. “If they want my team to play four more games, we’ll play four. If there are teams we need to play against to play into it, tell me when and tell me where. We’ll put the ball down in the parking lot and play. This group is competitive, they’re tough. It’s a blood and guts team. They’ve poured their hearts into this, and they deserve the right to have a chance to win it all.”