NASHVILLE — Earlier this summer season, Australian Soccer League coach Damien Hardwick stumbled throughout the Netflix collection, “Any Given Saturday,” which adopted SEC groups all through the 2024 season.
Hardwick, coach of the Gold Coast Suns in Queensland, was fascinated whereas watching the third episode, “Shock the World,” which documented Vanderbilt’s 40-35 upset of then-No. 1 Alabama on Oct. 5, 2024.
It was the Commodores’ first victory over a No. 1-ranked group and their first over the Crimson Tide in 40 years.
Led by an undersized, fiery quarterback and a training workers satisfied it may tackle the world, Vanderbilt flipped the script from being the SEC’s perennial punching bag to world beaters.
“The membership I am at now may be very, very related,” Hardwick mentioned. “A little bit of a laughingstock, a little bit of a joke. Folks used to come back to our place for a vacation.”
The Gold Coast Suns, an enlargement group that joined the AFL in 2009, had by no means captured a last collection berth of their 16-year historical past till this previous season. Hardwick was so impressed by Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea and the tradition he constructed that he and 4 of his assistants took a 22-hour flight to america and spent two days with the Commodores this week.
“He is a connector,” Hardwick mentioned of Lea. “We had been lucky sufficient to take a seat in his assembly, and I felt like working by way of a brick wall for him with the way in which he goes about it. He is only a very good operator. The way in which he will get his folks to do nice issues is what makes an awesome coach, and that is the explanation I feel they’re having success.”
Lea and quarterback Diego Pavia are two large causes for Vanderbilt’s success, however they are not the one folks behind its sudden transformation from SEC also-ran to authentic School Soccer Playoff contender.
Heading into Saturday’s sport at No. 20 Texas (midday ET, ABC), the Commodores are 7-1 for the primary time since 1941 and No. 9 within the AP ballot, their highest rating since they had been seventh for one week in 1937.
In line with Lea, chancellor Daniel Diermeier and athletic director Candice Storey Lee deserve simply as a lot credit score because the gamers and coaches for offering the monetary assets and different assist that beforehand wasn’t there for the soccer group at one of many nation’s most extremely regarded educational establishments.
“Vanderbilt’s by no means cared about this program,” mentioned Lea, a Vanderbilt fullback from 2002 to 2004. “Properly, I should not say by no means due to a number of the data that we’re breaking proper now, so perhaps again within the Forties or no matter. However there’s by no means been a time the place it was like, ‘Hey, we’ll be actually good at this, and we’ll do the issues we want.’
“The truth is, if something, I feel there’s been virtually a resistance to that for concern that it cuts in opposition to a story that we’re an elite educational establishment. What our chancellor understands now could be that that is the entrance porch.”
Diermeier, who was named Vanderbilt’s ninth chancellor in July 2020, is a very unlikely school soccer fan. He grew up in West Berlin, Germany, through the Chilly Warfare. He was a sports activities fan as a baby, watching Olympic wrestling and World Cup soccer on TV. He was the primary individual in his household to attend school and went to USC as a world scholar in 1988.
Diermeier spoke pretty fluent English however did not know a lot concerning the sports activities metaphors which might be part of American vernacular. Somebody within the USC language lab instructed he watch sports activities on TV to find out about phrases equivalent to “bought the ball throughout the aim line” and “hit a house run.”
Diermeier wasn’t acquainted with baseball or American soccer however determined to comply with the sports activities anyway. The primary baseball sport he watched was Sport 1 of the 1988 World Collection, by which Dodgers pinch-hitter Kirk Gibson smacked a walk-off, two-run homer in opposition to A’s nearer Dennis Eckersley and famously hobbled across the bases within the ninth inning of a 5-4 victory.
That very same 12 months, No. 2 USC, led by star quarterback Rodney Peete, defeated No. 6 UCLA 31-22 within the Rose Bowl to enhance to 10-0. USC misplaced to No. 1 Notre Dame 27-10 in its regular-season finale, knocking it out of the nationwide championship hunt.
“The entire campus was loopy,” Diermeier recalled. “There was Rodney Peete versus [UCLA quarterback] Troy Aikman. It was implausible, and I simply liked it. I noticed what school athletics can do for a group. It was a really highly effective expertise.”
After incomes a PhD in political science on the College of Rochester, Diermeier’s educational profession ascended from Stanford’s Graduate College of Enterprise to Northwestern’s Kellogg College of Administration to the Harris College of Public Coverage on the College of Chicago, the place he additionally served as provost.
The soccer applications at Stanford and Northwestern had been much like Vanderbilt’s — they had been making an attempt to be aggressive at high-academic establishments. They loved stretches of being good however largely have struggled.
“Folks informed me, ‘Yeah, you’ve got seen the Massive Ten and you’ve got seen the Pac-12, [but] you haven’t seen the SEC and that is a unique sport,'” Diermeier mentioned. “They had been proper, and so it turned in a short time clear that this can be a completely different stage of depth, a unique stage of ardour, and that we had not carried out on that stage.”
The Commodores went 0-9 in Diermeier’s first season on campus through the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Vanderbilt fired coach Derek Mason, whose groups went 27-55 in seven seasons, and changed him with Lea, who had been Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator for 3 seasons.
It wasn’t just like the Commodores had by no means received within the twenty first century. Lea’s coach at Vanderbilt, Bobby Johnson, had some success, guiding the Commodores to a 7-6 file and bowl victory in 2008. James Franklin pulled off what had appeared unimaginable, directing Vandy to back-to-back 9-4 campaigns in 2012 and 2013.
However a felony case involving 4 soccer gamers accused of raping and sodomizing an unconscious 21-year-old feminine scholar in a dorm room hung a darkish cloud over this system. Three of the 4 gamers had been convicted; the fourth reached a plea cope with prosecutors.
“Sadly, [Franklin] left in a way that wasn’t nice [because] you had this rape trial that basically was a black eye for this system,” Lea mentioned. “And in order that stretch of success was sort of virtually wiped away.”
Lea did not have quick success at his alma mater. The Commodores went 2-10 in 2021 and improved to 5-7 the following season. After going 2-10 once more in 2023, Lea knew issues needed to change dramatically if Vanderbilt was ever going to be good.
After shedding All-SEC offensive deal with Tyler Steen to Alabama following the 2021 season and 1,000-yard rusher Ray Davis to Kentucky the following season, Lea realized the Commodores could not be aggressive within the SEC until they took extra seasoned gamers from the switch portal and have become extra aggressive in title, picture and likeness payouts.
After going 9-27 in his first three seasons, Lea informed his athletic director that if the varsity could not discover $3 million in donations earlier than the switch portal opened in December 2023, Vanderbilt would not have a program.
Lee secured $6 million in NIL contributions in a single week, in response to Lea.
“She knew what was happening right here,” Lea mentioned. “We have by no means been disorganized. It is all the time been purposeful and intentional. However it’s really easy when issues do not go properly accountable the group. It is really easy when issues do not go properly accountable the coach. She was such a companion and needed to unravel the issue. In that one week, she by no means flinched.”
That cash helped the Commodores land New Mexico State transfers Pavia and star tight finish Eli Stowers after Lea employed then-Aggies coach Jerry Kill as his chief marketing consultant and senior offensive advisor. Lea additionally introduced in New Mexico State offensive coordinator Tim Beck and three different assistants to assist flip issues round.
When Vanderbilt common supervisor Barton Simmons talked to Pavia for the primary time, the previous junior school quarterback who did not have a single FBS or FCS scholarship provide popping out of highschool, informed him: “Simply inform Coach Lea if he brings me right here, we’re gonna win each f—ing sport we play.”
“It did not really feel like bulls—, and it felt genuine,” Simmons mentioned. “He wasn’t saying it in an impulsive method. It was virtually like he was expressing his perception.”
The Commodores have not received each sport with Pavia underneath middle, however they’ve received greater than most individuals would have believed. He is among the many Heisman Trophy favorites after passing for 1,698 yards with 15 touchdowns and main the group in speeding with 458 yards and 5 scores.
Lea mentioned Pavia has introduced far more to the Commodores than his manufacturing.
“There’s solely a lot I can do as head coach to ascertain management in this system,” Lea mentioned. “What I’ve discovered by way of Diego is, initially, there is no another essential on the group than the quarterback. And second, you’ll be able to’t manufacture alpha management, however upon getting an alpha chief, that perspective can unfold all through.”
Simmons, a former recruiting analyst for Rivals.com and 247Sports, was considered one of Lea’s soccer teammates at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville. They received two state titles collectively. Simmons was a defensive again at Yale, whereas Lea went to play baseball at Birmingham Southern earlier than transferring to Vanderbilt.
Simmons was amongst Lea’s first hires, placing him answerable for personnel and roster improvement, whereas aiding in recruiting and scouting.
A former SEC defensive coordinator informed ESPN that the Commodores have accomplished a outstanding job of evaluating transfers, particularly within the trenches. All 5 of their beginning offensive linemen are graduate transfers or seniors from different faculties. The highest three reserves are also transfers.
The Vanderbilt teaching workers’s message to potential recruits and transfers is evident: “For those who’re coming right here, that is going to be actually, actually arduous since you’re taking part in in one of the best convention in school soccer,” Simmons mentioned. “We will maintain you to the very best requirements in school soccer. And you are going to must go to class through the week subsequent to a number of the smartest folks on the earth.”
Whereas Diermeier has helped by securing athletes precedence registration for courses to maintain observe instances open and creating extra slots for graduate transfers, Vanderbilt’s educational necessities and expectations have not wavered.
“We are saying, considerably tongue-in-cheek, that we compete with Harvard Monday to Friday and with Alabama on Saturday,” Diermeier mentioned.
Lee wasn’t accomplished in getting her soccer coach what he wanted, both. The continued Vandy United marketing campaign has raised greater than $350 million to enhance athletics amenities and the student-athlete expertise.
The brand new south finish at FirstBank Stadium features a multiuse, 130,000 sq. foot facility with a brand new soccer locker room, premium seating, eating facility and renovated concourse.
A beforehand accomplished north finish zone venture included a brand new videoboard, premium seating and a basketball observe facility.
Lea hopes the soccer investments aren’t over. He needs a stand-alone soccer operations constructing and indoor observe facility. Lea mentioned the present weight room would not permit his whole group to work out collectively.
The college supplied $100 million to the marketing campaign fund to get it off the bottom.
“It is important to have alignment from the very high,” Lee mentioned. “So to ensure that me to execute the imaginative and prescient, I do must have assist and somebody in our chancellor who needs to be daring, who’s not beholden to the previous, who would not care about what the historical past was. [Diermeier] mentioned from the very starting that there can be no daylight between us, and he would assist the imaginative and prescient that I had.”
With the altering panorama in school athletics, Lee realized Vanderbilt was in peril of being left behind if hefty investments weren’t made.
“The previous has sort of all the time hung over us,” Lee mentioned. “We have had these moments of success, however they have been fleeting. We do not need to simply expertise success in a second, proper? We would like to have the ability to maintain excellence, and that is what this college expects throughout the board.”
Diermeier, a former enterprise college professor, put it one other method, evaluating the quickly evolving world of school sports activities to the deregulation of U.S. airways in 1978.
“I need to be Southwest,” he mentioned. “I do not need to be Pan Am.”
Lee has deep roots at Vanderbilt. She was a captain of the ladies’s basketball group in 2002 and earned bachelor’s, grasp’s and doctorate levels there. She turned the varsity’s first feminine athletic director and the primary Black girl to steer an SEC athletic division in 2020.
Whereas some have instructed that she and Lea have grand visions for Vanderbilt soccer solely as a result of they went to high school there, she says that is not the case.
“I imply, we’re each alums and so we care deeply for this place, however it’s not simply that,” she mentioned. “It isn’t simply an emotional connection, and we do have that, however it is usually as a result of we’re fierce opponents that deeply imagine that this may develop into one thing nice.”
Whereas Lea as soon as feared NIL and the switch portal would depart the Commodores behind, he now calls their presence the good disruptor. It has leveled the taking part in subject for faculties like Vanderbilt, Indiana and Georgia Tech, if the appropriate monetary assets are in place.
“We have develop into a extremely engaging place as a result of that is additionally completely different,” Lea mentioned. “Individuals are impressed by the concept of constructing one thing and never inheriting one thing.”