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Week 9 of the college football season has begun, and multiple teams with an inside track to the playoff have big tests.

Tennessee survived its biggest challenge so far, outlasting Alabama 52-49 in Knoxville. The Volunteers will now host a Kentucky team coming off a bye that already has shown a propensity to knock off ranked opponents.

Sticking with the SEC East, Georgia and Florida will travel to Jacksonville to partake in an annual rivalry game that is still in search of its own name. Unfortunately for the Gators, they enter the matchup as more than three-touchdown underdogs, but anything is possible in Jacksonville.

Farther north, Michigan will host bitter rival Michigan State in a contest that always seems to bring fireworks, while Ohio State will travel to Penn State for the Buckeyes’ most important game to date. Ohio State has won five straight against the Nittany Lions and rolls into Happy Valley 7-0.

Oklahoma State looks to build off the momentum of a comeback win at home against Texas with an away game versus Kansas State, and out west, Oregon travels to Cal after a statement victory against UCLA in Eugene.

College football’s last weekend in October is here, and these are the biggest storylines this week.


No. 19 Kentucky at No. 3 Tennessee (Saturday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN app)

A few things have changed for Tennessee (actually a lot) since the Vols last faced Kentucky. Their 45-42 win over the No. 18-ranked Wildcats last season in Lexington snapped an 11-game losing streak against nationally ranked foes. Before that contest, which featured 1,073 yards of total offense, Tennessee’s last such victory came back in 2018 with a 24-7 win over No. 11 Kentucky.

That’s the way it’s been for the Wildcats in this series. They’ve lost 34 of the past 37 meetings, although Mark Stoops has two of those three wins in the past five years.

Stoops has built Kentucky’s program from the ground up with a pair of 10-win seasons in the past four years. Josh Heupel, in just his second season at Tennessee, has orchestrated an even more stunning turnaround. The Vols (7-0) are ranked No. 3 in the AP poll. They beat Alabama for the first time in 16 years. Tennessee leads the country in scoring offense (50.1 points per game) and is looking for its fifth win of the season over a ranked opponent.

For the first time in two decades, Tennessee is legitimately in the national championship conversation at a point in the season when the leaves are changing. A fifth win over a ranked team would match the number of coaches the Vols have had since Phillip Fulmer was fired in 2008.

These are dizzying times on Rocky Top indeed. But Heupel said his team is not about to get ahead of itself with a rested, healthier Kentucky team coming into Neyland Stadium on Saturday night.

“We’re still in the beginning stages of this journey, really the halfway point,” Heupel said. “For us, the preparation, being real with each other, competing every day is going to be critical. … So far, these guys have handled it the right way.”

In other words, any mention of the trip to No. 1 Georgia in two weeks is off-limits.

Kentucky (5-2) was off last week, which should ensure that quarterback Will Levis will be as healthy as he has been since suffering a turf toe injury against Ole Miss on Oct. 1 and missing the next game against South Carolina. Levis threw for 372 yards and three touchdowns last season against Tennessee. One of Kentucky’s chief problems this season has been protecting the quarterback. The Wildcats have allowed 26 sacks in seven games.

Levis will need to hit some big plays down the field against a Tennessee defense that is ranked 130th out of 131 teams in pass defense (329.7 yards per game). But the Vols have been stout against the run. They’re giving up just 90.8 yards per game on the ground, tied for eighth nationally. That’s where Chris Rodriguez Jr. comes in for Kentucky. He is a tough runner between the tackles, excellent after contact and can help shorten the game for the Wildcats if he is able to get it going against Tennessee’s D.

In Kentucky’s 27-17 win over Mississippi State two weeks ago, the 224-pound Rodriguez ran the ball 31 times for 197 yards and two touchdowns. — Chris Low


No. 2 Ohio State at No. 13 Penn State (Saturday, noon ET, Fox)

Before the season, an Ohio State schedule featuring Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Iowa — all before Nov. 1 — projected as one that could hold up against that of any national title contender. The way it turned out, the Buckeyes are still trying to peel off the ain’t-played-nobody label, despite their flat-out dominance.

Ohio State has won every game by double figures and the past six by an average of 38.7 points. Another convincing win at Beaver Stadium should enhance Ohio State’s profile heading into the first College Football Playoff rankings reveal, although thumping Penn State likely doesn’t carry the same value after what Michigan did to the Nittany Lions on Oct. 15.

“We know that we have to bring it every week,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said. “This is part of that competitive excellence, that competitive stamina. Going on the road and winning a game like this is going to be huge.”

Following the Michigan loss, Penn State responded well last week against Minnesota, and the Lions might match up better against the Buckeyes than the Wolverines, especially because of a talented secondary led by safety Ji’Ayir Brown and cornerback Joey Porter Jr. Michigan used Penn State’s aggressiveness on defense against the Lions, to the tune of 418 rushing yards, but Penn State D-coordinator Manny Diaz likely will keep the pressure on Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud if he can.

The Lions are looking for more sacks, collecting 15 through the first seven games.

“Obviously, we are challenging routes more in terms of the balls that are getting broken up, hopefully forcing the quarterback to hold onto the ball longer,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “So in theory, we should be able to be more disruptive on the quarterback with sacks and pressures and things like that.”

Franklin has steadfastly supported his quarterback, senior Sean Clifford, who overcame an early interception against Minnesota to pass for 295 yards and four touchdowns, winning Big Ten offensive player of the week honors. Clifford played well in last year’s loss at Ohio State but received little help from Penn State’s offensive line and run game. The hope is that with improvement in both areas, combined with home-field advantage, Penn State can beat the Buckeyes for just the second time in State College since 2005.

Ohio State star wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba (hamstring) is expected to play for a second straight game, but he could once again have a plays limit. Smith-Njigba has been limited to five receptions in three games, although teammates Emeka Egbuka and Marvin Harrison Jr. have filled his production void with 1,333 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns.

The Buckeyes will look for more in the run game after Iowa limited them to 2.2 yards per carry with a long of 13 yards. — Adam Rittenberg


No. 9 Oklahoma State at No. 22 Kansas State (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, Fox)

The Cowboys will visit K-State for one of the biggest matchups of the Big 12 season thus far and what could shape up as an elimination game for a spot in the conference title game.

Both teams have already played the conference leader, TCU, and lost. According to ESPN Analytics, Oklahoma State has an 82% chance to reach the Big 12 title game with a win while Kansas State would have a 36% chance with a victory.

Kansas State coach Chris Klieman is 0-3 against Mike Gundy and the Cowboys since arriving in Manhattan, but Klieman is emphasizing to his team that it gets to play at home for the first time since Oct. 1 and still has a chance in the title race.

“Everything is still in front of us, but it’s all about our preparation, and this is the next opportunity,” Klieman said this week. “Now we’ve got five one-week seasons left.”

Klieman will likely be going into the game with starting quarterback Adrian Martinez as a game-time decision after an undisclosed injury in the first series sidelined him in a loss to TCU last week.

“I hope Adrian is available, but I don’t know if he’ll be available. And there’s other kids like that,” Klieman said. “We tried to manage our way through Deuce Vaughn being banged up, and he carried the ball not as many times as he typically does. We hope Deuce is healthier this week, but we’ll see.”

The Wildcats got a full dose of Cowboys quarterback Spencer Sanders last year when he threw for 344 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score in a 31-20 Oklahoma State win. But the Cowboys know they will have to stop the run against a tough K-State team that averages 232.1 rushing yards and hopes to keep Sanders — and an Oklahoma State offense that averages 44.7 points per game — off the field.

The Cowboys struggled early to stop the ground game last week against visiting Texas, allowing 161 rushing yards in the first half; but they tightened up in the second half, yielding just 43 yards while rallying for a 41-34 win.

“You know, unless you’re playing Mike Leach, you’ve got to stop the run, you got to run the ball effectively,” Gundy said. — Dave Wilson


Michigan State at No. 4 Michigan (Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN app)

Michigan State handed Michigan its only regular-season loss last season in a 37-33 decision over the Wolverines. It didn’t prevent Michigan from making it to the conference championship game or the playoffs, but that loss has stuck with the Wolverines.

The teams are set to play Saturday night at Michigan Stadium in their annual rivalry game.

“Nobody’s watched the highlights of that game or the film of that game more than we have,” Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh said on the Inside Michigan Football radio show. “And also, this year’s tape. But you really want to just know them, you want to master what they’re doing so you can use it against them. And I’m sure they’re doing the same thing up the road, no question about it.”

Michigan State running back Kenneth Walker had five rushing touchdowns in last year’s victory, and the Spartans held Michigan without a rushing score. Walker is now in the NFL, and Michigan State has been trying to get its run game going, rushing for 106.1 yards per game, which is No. 116 of all FBS teams.

Michigan, on the other hand, is ranked No. 7 in rushing yards per game, and running back Blake Corum has had 666 yards on the ground in the past four games, which is the most for a Michigan running back since Mike Hart in 2004. Corum’s 13 rushing touchdowns are also the most through the team’s first seven games in program history.

That is going to make for a challenge for Michigan State to stop the Wolverines’ ground attack. Harbaugh said he expects it will be a physical game, as the team with the most rushing yards typically comes out on top, and it’s been marked on the calendar for both teams.

“We all know what this week is. It’s not just another game for us,” Michigan State coach Mel Tucker said. “Our players and staff and fans understand that.”

Tucker and the Spartans used their bye week to try to get healthy and get some players back. He noted that it’s going to take a concerted effort, whether it’s called circling the wagons, bunker mentality or “Us against the world,” to beat Michigan this weekend.

Tucker hasn’t lost to Harbaugh and Michigan over the past two seasons. And Harbaugh said that despite the Spartans having a 3-4 record, Michigan State will give the Wolverines its best.

“Old cliché, throw out the records, is very true,” Harbaugh said. “It doesn’t matter. Both sides just want it that much.” — Tom VanHaaren


Florida vs. No. 1 Georgia at TIAA Bank Stadium, Jacksonville, Florida (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, CBS)

Georgia and Florida are both coming off a bye week, but the Gators arguably needed the time to regroup a little more ahead of Saturday’s matchup.

It was one thing to lose at home to LSU on Oct. 15. But it was another thing to give up 45 points and 528 yards of offense in the process.

Florida coach Billy Napier doesn’t want to get technical or give away specifics of what’s driving his team’s defensive struggles. But he said, “I think we understand what the issues are.”

Chief among them, Napier explained, is a lack of consistency.

Defensive lineman Tyreak Sapp said the Gators are “just a few plays away.” And while that’s frustrating to be so close and yet so far away, Sapp acknowledged there’s hope in that sentiment, as well.

But digging deeper, you find a defense that desperately needs more from its front seven.

Florida is giving up the most yards per rush in the SEC East (4.47). And it is struggling to affect the quarterback with the conference’s lowest number of disrupted dropbacks at 31, a figure that includes sacks, interceptions, batted passes, passes defended and tipped passes.

Then there are the missed tackles. Florida has 67 of them. Georgia, meanwhile, has only 39.

To have any chance of pulling off the upset in Jacksonville, the Gators will need their defense to improve in a hurry, and Florida will need a big-time performance from quarterback Anthony Richardson.

Richardson has flashed first-round talent, but he also has battled consistency issues in the passing game, with six touchdowns and seven interceptions.

But Napier said he sees growth in Richardson’s understanding of the offensive system and diagnosing what the defense is doing.

“I think he’s still working hard on mastering what that process looks like Sunday to Saturday — the unwavering commitment to what’s required to play and win,” Napier said. “So that’s where he’s at. Seven games in and continues to get better.” — Alex Scarborough


Southern at Jackson State (Saturday, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN app)

For all of the headlines Deion Sanders has created with his recruiting, he has done just as well on the field itself.

His Tigers will welcome “College GameDay” to town with an unbeaten status and a No. 5 FCS ranking by their name. They have won 14 straight SWAC games, and after rolling to an 11-2 record powered mostly by defense last season, they’ve been racking up major offensive numbers this time around. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the coach’s son, has taken his development up a few notches, completing 73% of his passes with a 23-to-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio. And Jackson State is outscoring opponents by an average of 41-10. The Tigers did most of that without blue-chip freshman Travis Hunter too. He was injured in the first game of the season and didn’t return to action until last week.

If Southern maintains its recent form, however, this could be an intriguing game. The Jaguars fell to 1-2 after a shutout loss to Texas Southern on Sept. 17, but they have outscored their past four opponents by an average of 44-10. Sophomore dual-threat Besean McCray has completed 74% of his passes in that span and has rushed for over 70 yards four times this season. First-year coach Eric Dooley needed a few weeks, but he has the blue and gold rolling. Will that be enough against a superpowered Jackson State? We’ll see. — Bill Connelly


No. 8 Oregon at California (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, FS1)

For a team that lost by 45 points to open the season, it’s a long road back to playoff relevance. That the Ducks are now ranked No. 8 in the AP poll — just past the halfway point of the regular season — represents a remarkable rise. Under first-year coach Dan Lanning, Oregon is the only team that is undefeated in Pac-12 play and heads to Berkeley, where things have started to fall apart for the Golden Bears under Justin Wilcox. The matchup provides a fascinating what-if storyline considering Oregon first pursued Wilcox before it was rebuffed, leading to Lanning.

It’s a strong year for quarterback play in the Pac-12, but Oregon’s Bo Nix is right there among the best. He ranks second in the conference in QBR, first in yards per dropback (8.7) and fourth in touchdown passes (17), and he has been sacked just once all season (the fewest among qualifying QBs in the country). Since the Georgia loss, Oregon has scored at least 41 points in each game and hasn’t been overly reliant on any of the playmakers around Nix. Despite its struggles, Cal’s defense has been good, having allowed no more than 28 points in any of the Bears’ four losses.

If Oregon really is going to make a push to be part of the playoff conversation, two key things must happen:

1. Georgia needs to keep rolling. If the Bulldogs are the clear No. 1 team in the country, it’s easier to forgive Oregon’s loss.

2. Style points. The Ducks can’t leave any doubt about how much they’ve improved, and close games against teams like Cal won’t make the necessary impression. They need to be dominant.

On the flip side, Cal’s paltry offensive production makes it fair to question how long coordinator Bill Musgrave will be for the job. The Bears have averaged just 14.3 points over the past three games, which just won’t get it done. — Kyle Bonagura

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Sources: Nats near hire of Butera, 33, as skipper

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Sources: Nats near hire of Butera, 33, as skipper

The Washington Nationals are finalizing a deal to hire Blake Butera as manager and make him the youngest person to hold the job in the majors in more than half a century, sources told ESPN on Thursday.

At 33 years old, Butera will be the youngest manager since the Minnesota Twins hired Frank Quilici in 1972, according to ESPN Insights.

With their rebuild since a 2019 World Series win stalled, the Nationals fired general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez in July. Former Boston Red Sox assistant general manager Paul Toboni was hired in late September as president of baseball operations to replace Rizzo, and Washington’s search for a manager landed on an unlikely candidate in Butera.

Previously the senior player development director for the Tampa Bay Rays, Butera has managed four minor league seasons — the first at 25 years old — and compiled a 258-144 record with four first-place finishes. In his final two seasons with Low-A Charleston, Butera’s teams went 170-82 and won league championships.

Butera’s experience extends beyond the Rays, who drafted him in the 35th round in 2015 out of Boston College, where he played four years and served as team captain. He played two seasons in Tampa Bay’s minor league system before transitioning to coaching and spent a year as quality-control coach for Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Winter League as well as bench coach for Team Italy in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

With fluency in advanced metrics and the detail-oriented approach that has made Rays employees coveted by other teams, Butera was regarded in the industry as a future manager. His combination of managerial and player-development experience appealed to the Nationals, whose hiring of Toboni, 35, gave them the youngest head of baseball operations as well.

Washington’s path back to relevancy in the loaded National League East is expected to take years. While the Nationals have a franchise-caliber player in outfielder James Wood, teams plan to inquire about their willingness to trade left-hander MacKenzie Gore, who is two years from reaching free agency, and shortstop CJ Abrams, who will hit the open market after the 2028 season.

The Nationals’ farm system was ranked 22nd in MLB by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel following the selection of Oklahoma prep shortstop Eli Willits with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft. Washington’s top pitching prospect, Travis Sykora, underwent Tommy John surgery in July and is expected to miss most of the 2026 season.

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‘We’ve got to figure something out’: Dodgers must start hitting — or this World Series is over

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'We've got to figure something out': Dodgers must start hitting -- or this World Series is over

With two on and two out in Game 5’s fourth inning, Tommy Edman took his best swing on a Trey Yesavage slider that stayed above the zone. Edman got just under it. The popup fell harmlessly into the glove of Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Andrés Giménez, halting an early threat against a budding ace who was just beginning to find his rhythm.

For weeks, the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ hitters had grown frustrated not just by an overall lack of production but by an inability to finish rallies. Edman’s popup was merely the latest example. The Dodgers did not place another runner in scoring position Wednesday night, continuing a prolonged trend that has their season on the brink and many of their hitters confused.

Said Mookie Betts: “We’ve got to figure something out.”

With the urgency rising and his patience lacking, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made relatively drastic changes to his lineup ahead of Game 5. Will Smith became the first catcher in 90 years to hit in the No. 2 spot in a World Series game, sliding Betts down to bat third for the first time since 2021. Alex Call replaced the No. 9-hitting Andy Pages, who had managed just four hits in 50 at-bats in these playoffs.

The changes did not work. The Dodgers struck out 12 times and managed just three hits in seven innings against Yesavage, losing a critical game and forcing themselves to have to win on back-to-back nights in Toronto to secure a championship.

On Wednesday, Yesavage’s command was sharp, his slider was hellacious, but the Dodgers’ struggles extend way beyond him. Since cruising past the Cincinnati Reds in the wild-card round, their hitters are slashing a combined .214/.306/.360 in 13 playoff games, during which they’ve produced a .544 OPS with runners in scoring position. The Dodgers’ nine wins in that stretch are a testament to a starting rotation that is unfairly being asked to do it alone.

“It’s hard for a pitching staff to have to go every game uphill,” utility man Enrique Hernandez said. “We’re not really doing much as an offense. Whenever we get a chance, we don’t capitalize. We’re going through one of those funks right now; it’s just really bad timing to have those in the World Series.”

The Dodgers suffered through a similar low point at midseason. From July 4 to Aug. 13, when they went 12-21 and blew an eight-game division lead, they batted .235 and scored the majors’ sixth-fewest runs per game. Eventually, they got right. And though their regular season was generally underwhelming, the Dodgers approached October with the thought that their best baseball was ahead of them. It was a belief buoyed by their starting pitching, dominant enough to stifle any opposing lineup and deep enough to make up for most bullpen issues. But the offense was expected to perform.

It seemed like a given, until it wasn’t.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who aren’t hot right now,” Edman said, “aren’t feeling their best.”

It starts at the top.

In Game 5, the Nos. 1-4 hitters in the Dodgers’ lineup combined to go 1-for-15 with eight strikeouts. Shohei Ohtani has put together three masterful offensive performances — homering twice in the playoff opener, clinching a pennant with a three-homer game and reaching base nine times in the 18-inning marathon earlier this week — but he’s 6-for-48 in 12 other playoff games. Freeman is batting .235 over the last three rounds. Betts is 3-for-23 in the World Series.

“I’ve just been terrible,” Betts said. “I wish it were from lack of effort, but it’s not.”

And it’s not just the three future Hall of Famers. It’s Max Muncy (.188/.339/.354 postseason slash line). It’s Pages (.215 OPS, the lowest ever for a player with at least 50 plate appearances in a single playoff). It’s Enrique Hernández, one of history’s most illustrious October performers (.844 career postseason OPS, but 4-for-26 over his past seven games).

In 123 innings since the wild-card round, the Dodgers have scored three or more runs just three times. And though hitting is significantly more difficult this time of year, their opponent is providing a snapshot of what is possible.

The Blue Jays have outscored the Dodgers by 11 runs in this series and by a whopping 36 runs in these playoffs, even though they’ve played just one more game.

“It doesn’t feel great,” Roberts said. “You clearly see those guys finding ways to get hits, move the baseball forward, and we’re not doing a good job of it.”

After a night in which the Dodgers got a solo home run and nothing else, ultimately taking just one at-bat with a runner in scoring position, Roberts stressed to his team the importance of adjusting — of shortening up, hitting the ball the other way, working deep counts and getting the opposing bullpen more heavily involved.

“We gotta hit the ball,” Muncy said. “You look at what they’re doing, they put the ball in play a lot, and it’s finding spots. We’re not putting the ball in play a lot, and when we do, it seems to be finding the glove.”

The Dodgers are striking out at a 25.3% rate in this series, a little more than three percentage points higher than they did during the regular season. Their chase rate is 28.6%, compared to 25.9% from March to September. It’s an uptick, but not a seismic one, especially when you layer in the added difficulty of facing so many high-leverage arms in October. The biggest problem, some of their players believe, is they’re caught in between — passive at the wrong time, too aggressive on pitches they can’t slug and generally not diligent enough with their approach.

“We just have to have a better selection of pitches that we want to swing at,” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández said. “We just have to get a better plan, not trying to do too much with the pitches that they throw. Every pitcher in the playoffs, he can make the best pitches and the best location that he can make, and we have to adjust to that and just try to do damage on the ones we can handle.”

Late Wednesday night, as players gathered their belongings and prepared to board another cross-country flight to Toronto, many of them found hope in the rejuvenation of an off day. They know Rogers Centre will be rocking on Friday night, eager to celebrate the Blue Jays’ first championship in 32 years, but they took solace in whom they had to counter it — Yoshinobu Yamamoto, fresh off another nine-inning mastery.

They also know he can’t do it alone.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in him, but we’ve got to hit,” Betts said. “Yoshi is going to do his thing. We need him to, obviously. But we’ve got to hit. There’s no way around that.”

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How Vanderbilt has gone from SEC doormat to CFP contender

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How Vanderbilt has gone from SEC doormat to CFP contender

NASHVILLE — Earlier this summer, Australian Football League coach Damien Hardwick stumbled across the Netflix series, “Any Given Saturday,” which followed SEC teams throughout the 2024 season.

Hardwick, coach of the Gold Coast Suns in Queensland, was fascinated while 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 team and their first over the Crimson Tide in 40 years.

Led by an undersized, fiery quarterback and a coaching staff convinced it could take on the world, Vanderbilt flipped the script from being the SEC’s perennial punching bag to world beaters.

“The club I’m at now is very, very similar,” Hardwick said. “A bit of a laughingstock, a bit of a joke. People used to come to our place for a holiday.”

The Gold Coast Suns, an expansion team that joined the AFL in 2009, had never captured a final series berth in their 16-year history until this past season. Hardwick was so impressed by Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea and the culture he built that he and four of his assistants took a 22-hour flight to the United States and spent two days with the Commodores this week.

“He’s a connector,” Hardwick said of Lea. “We were fortunate enough to sit in his meeting, and I felt like running through a brick wall for him with the way he goes about it. He’s just a very smart operator. The way he gets his people to do great things is what makes a great coach, and that’s the reason I think they’re having success.”

Lea and quarterback Diego Pavia are two big reasons for Vanderbilt’s success, but they aren’t the only people behind its sudden transformation from SEC also-ran to legitimate College Football Playoff contender.

Heading into Saturday’s game at No. 20 Texas (noon ET, ABC), the Commodores are 7-1 for the first time since 1941 and No. 9 in the AP poll, their highest ranking since they were seventh for one week in 1937.

According to Lea, chancellor Daniel Diermeier and athletic director Candice Storey Lee deserve just as much credit as the players and coaches for providing the financial resources and other support that previously wasn’t there for the football team at one of the country’s most highly regarded academic institutions.

“Vanderbilt’s never cared about this program,” said Lea, a Vanderbilt fullback from 2002 to 2004. “Well, I shouldn’t say never because of some of the records that we’re breaking right now, so maybe back in the 1940s or whatever. But there’s never been a time where it was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to be really good at this, and we’re going to do the things we need.’

“In fact, if anything, I think there’s been almost a resistance to that for fear that it cuts against a narrative that we’re an elite academic institution. What our chancellor understands now is that this is the front porch.”

Diermeier, who was named Vanderbilt’s ninth chancellor in July 2020, is a most unlikely college football fan. He grew up in West Berlin, Germany, during the Cold War. He was a sports fan as a child, watching Olympic wrestling and World Cup soccer on TV. He was the first person in his family to attend college and went to USC as an international student in 1988.

Diermeier spoke fairly fluent English but didn’t know much about the sports metaphors that are a part of American vernacular. Someone in the USC language lab suggested he watch sports on TV to learn about phrases such as “got the ball across the goal line” and “hit a home run.”

Diermeier wasn’t familiar with baseball or American football but decided to follow the sports anyway. The first baseball game he watched was Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, in which Dodgers pinch-hitter Kirk Gibson smacked a walk-off, two-run homer against A’s closer Dennis Eckersley and famously hobbled around the bases in the ninth inning of a 5-4 victory.

That same year, No. 2 USC, led by star quarterback Rodney Peete, defeated No. 6 UCLA 31-22 in the Rose Bowl to improve to 10-0. USC lost to No. 1 Notre Dame 27-10 in its regular-season finale, knocking it out of the national championship hunt.

“The whole campus was crazy,” Diermeier recalled. “There was Rodney Peete versus [UCLA quarterback] Troy Aikman. It was fantastic, and I just loved it. I saw what college athletics can do for a community. It was a very powerful experience.”

After earning a PhD in political science at the University of Rochester, Diermeier’s academic career ascended from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business to Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management to the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where he also served as provost.

The football programs at Stanford and Northwestern were similar to Vanderbilt’s — they were trying to be competitive at high-academic institutions. They enjoyed stretches of being good but largely have struggled.

“People told me, ‘Yeah, you have seen the Big Ten and you have seen the Pac-12, [but] you have not seen the SEC and that’s a different game,'” Diermeier said. “They were right, and so it became very quickly clear that this is a different level of intensity, a different level of passion, and that we had not performed on that level.”

The Commodores went 0-9 in Diermeier’s first season on campus during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Vanderbilt fired coach Derek Mason, whose teams went 27-55 in seven seasons, and replaced him with Lea, who had been Notre Dame‘s defensive coordinator for three seasons.

It wasn’t like the Commodores had never won in the 21st century. Lea’s coach at Vanderbilt, Bobby Johnson, had some success, guiding the Commodores to a 7-6 record and bowl victory in 2008. James Franklin pulled off what had seemed impossible, directing Vandy to back-to-back 9-4 campaigns in 2012 and 2013.

But a criminal case involving four football players accused of raping and sodomizing an unconscious 21-year-old female student in a dorm room hung a dark cloud over the program. Three of the four players were convicted; the fourth reached a plea deal with prosecutors.

“Unfortunately, [Franklin] left in a manner that wasn’t great [because] you had this rape trial that really was a black eye for the program,” Lea said. “And so that stretch of success was kind of almost wiped away.”

Lea didn’t have immediate success at his alma mater. The Commodores went 2-10 in 2021 and improved to 5-7 the next season. After going 2-10 again in 2023, Lea knew things had to change dramatically if Vanderbilt was ever going to be good.

After losing All-SEC offensive tackle Tyler Steen to Alabama following the 2021 season and 1,000-yard rusher Ray Davis to Kentucky the next season, Lea realized the Commodores couldn’t be competitive in the SEC unless they took more seasoned players from the transfer portal and became more competitive in name, image and likeness payouts.

After going 9-27 in his first three seasons, Lea told his athletic director that if the school couldn’t find $3 million in donations before the transfer portal opened in December 2023, Vanderbilt wouldn’t have a program.

Lee secured $6 million in NIL contributions in one week, according to Lea.

“She knew what was going on here,” Lea said. “We’ve never been disorganized. It’s always been purposeful and intentional. But it’s so easy when things don’t go well to blame the team. It’s so easy when things don’t go well to blame the coach. She was such a partner and wanted to solve the problem. In that one week, she never flinched.”

That money helped the Commodores land New Mexico State transfers Pavia and star tight end Eli Stowers after Lea hired then-Aggies coach Jerry Kill as his chief consultant and senior offensive advisor. Lea also brought in New Mexico State offensive coordinator Tim Beck and three other assistants to help turn things around.

When Vanderbilt general manager Barton Simmons talked to Pavia for the first time, the former junior college quarterback who didn’t have a single FBS or FCS scholarship offer coming out of high school, told him: “Just tell Coach Lea if he brings me here, we’re gonna win every f—ing game we play.”

“It didn’t feel like bulls—, and it felt authentic,” Simmons said. “He wasn’t saying it in an impulsive way. It was almost like he was expressing his belief.”

The Commodores haven’t won every game with Pavia under center, but they’ve won more than most people would have believed. He’s among the Heisman Trophy favorites after passing for 1,698 yards with 15 touchdowns and leading the team in rushing with 458 yards and five scores.

Lea said Pavia has brought much more to the Commodores than his production.

“There’s only so much I can do as head coach to establish leadership in the program,” Lea said. “What I’ve learned through Diego is, first of all, there’s no one more important on the team than the quarterback. And second, you can’t manufacture alpha leadership, but once you have an alpha leader, that attitude can spread throughout.”

Simmons, a former recruiting analyst for Rivals.com and 247Sports, was one of Lea’s football teammates at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville. They won two state titles together. Simmons was a defensive back at Yale, while Lea went to play baseball at Birmingham Southern before transferring to Vanderbilt.

Simmons was among Lea’s first hires, putting him in charge of personnel and roster development, while assisting in recruiting and scouting.

A former SEC defensive coordinator told ESPN that the Commodores have done a remarkable job of evaluating transfers, especially in the trenches. All five of their starting offensive linemen are graduate transfers or seniors from other schools. The top three reserves also are transfers.

The Vanderbilt coaching staff’s message to potential recruits and transfers is clear: “If you’re coming here, this is going to be really, really hard because you’re playing in the best conference in college football,” Simmons said. “We’re going to hold you to the highest standards in college football. And you’re going to have to go to class during the week next to some of the smartest people in the world.”

While Diermeier has helped by securing athletes priority registration for classes to keep practice times open and creating more slots for graduate transfers, Vanderbilt’s academic requirements and expectations haven’t wavered.

“We say, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that we compete with Harvard Monday to Friday and with Alabama on Saturday,” Diermeier said.

Lee wasn’t done in getting her football coach what he needed, either. The ongoing Vandy United campaign has raised more than $350 million to improve athletics facilities and the student-athlete experience.

The new south end at FirstBank Stadium includes a multiuse, 130,000 square foot facility with a new football locker room, premium seating, dining facility and renovated concourse.

A previously completed north end zone project included a new videoboard, premium seating and a basketball practice facility.

Lea hopes the football investments aren’t over. He wants a stand-alone football operations building and indoor practice facility. Lea said the current weight room doesn’t allow his entire team to work out together.

The university provided $100 million to the campaign fund to get it off the ground.

“It’s essential to have alignment from the very top,” Lee said. “So in order for me to execute the vision, I do have to have support and someone in our chancellor who wants to be bold, who’s not beholden to the past, who doesn’t care about what the history was. [Diermeier] said from the very beginning that there would be no daylight between us, and he would support the vision that I had.”

With the changing landscape in college athletics, Lee realized Vanderbilt was in danger of being left behind if hefty investments weren’t made.

“The past has kind of always hung over us,” Lee said. “We’ve had these moments of success, but they’ve been fleeting. We don’t want to just experience success in a moment, right? We want to be able to sustain excellence, and that’s what this university expects across the board.”

Diermeier, a former business school professor, put it another way, comparing the rapidly evolving world of college sports to the deregulation of U.S. airlines in 1978.

“I want to be Southwest,” he said. “I don’t want to be Pan Am.”

Lee has deep roots at Vanderbilt. She was a captain of the women’s basketball team in 2002 and earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees there. She became the school’s first female athletic director and the first Black woman to lead an SEC athletic department in 2020.

While some have suggested that she and Lea have grand visions for Vanderbilt football only because they went to school there, she says that’s not the case.

“I mean, we are both alums and so we care deeply for this place, but it’s not just that,” she said. “It’s not just an emotional connection, and we do have that, but it is also because we are fierce competitors that deeply believe that this can become something great.”

While Lea once feared NIL and the transfer portal would leave the Commodores behind, he now calls their presence the great disruptor. It has leveled the playing field for schools like Vanderbilt, Indiana and Georgia Tech, if the right financial resources are in place.

“We’ve become a really attractive place because this is also different,” Lea said. “People are inspired by the idea of building something and not inheriting something.”

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