The 12-team playoff has given two dozen teams hope for the postseason, filling the minds of alumni and boosters with previously unattainable dreams of championship glory… or, at the very least, relevance come December. But the twelve-team playoff has also led to the creation of a whole separate class: the Ruiners.
The more teams in the postseason hunt, the greater the chance that schedules, dreams and entire seasons will be blown to pieces thanks to one unexpected, chaotic, all-in opponent. Northern Illinois crooked the entire arc of Notre Dame. Tennessee kneecapped in Arkansas. South Carolina nearly knocked out LSU early and then destroyed Texas A&M last week. Texas Tech just knocked Iowa State out of the playoffs. Cal resurrected the #Calgorithm and unleashed it on hapless programs across the South.
But no program is enjoying its newfound ability to ruin things than the Harvard of the South, the Landed Aristocracy of Nashville, the Blue-Bloods of Middle Tennessee… ladies and gentlemen, you Vanderbilt Commodores, the fun-loving, exuberant Ruiners of the Year of 2024.
The 40-35 loss to Alabama a few weeks ago was, at the time, one of the most stunning results in recent college football history. But as the season progresses, that victory – while no less impressive – looks less like a miracle and more like the end result of a long-planned strategy. Combine that with Vanderbilt’s narrow loss to Texas, which helped expose the shortcomings in the Longhorn program, and a Yellowhammer State win over Auburn, and something other than bachelor parties could be happening in Nashville.
Although Vanderbilt was once a Southern football titan — no, look it up — the program has spent most of the last century as the SEC’s version of the nerd brought in to actually execute the group project. Aside from a pair of nine-win seasons in 2012-13 that James Franklin parlayed into a job at Penn State, Vanderbilt hasn’t won more than seven games in a season since 1982. Even in an era when bowl invitations are thrown around like Halloween candy, the Commodores have only played in six bowls in the last 40 years.
Just over two years ago, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea stated during a speech at SEC media days, “We strive to build the best football program in the country at Vanderbilt University, where we have the best school in the best city in the best conference with the best facilities on the horizon.”
It was easy to smile and think: Sure, Clark, whatever. Maybe try to get to .500 first before you start talking about winning titles. The Commodores were coming off a two-win season in 2021, and they would post another two wins in 2023.
Now, however, everything has changed, from the atmosphere around the program to the quarterback in charge. Diego Pavia, the portal transfer from New Mexico State who is confusing opposing defenses, personifies this new Vanderbilt mentality, afraid of no one and ready to challenge anyone.
Granted, Vanderbilt isn’t exactly challenging the conference leaders in any major statistical categories. But here’s the key: the Commodores aren’t in last place either. They’re firmly in the middle… which won’t get you playoff invites, but it will get your previously moribund campus excited about something other than basketball and baseball.
No school in the SEC is having more fun these days, because no school in the SEC is playing further above its expected station. The Georgias, Tennesseans and Texases are terrified of falling in the playoff standings, the Alabamas and LSUs are one loss away from irrelevance, and the Auburns and Mississippi States are counting down the days until their rivalry games. Vanderbilt is playing with house money… a lot of house money.
SEC Shorts, the social media sports/comedy collective, are all aboard the new rich Vandy train. College football comedian Josh Mancuso captures the Commodores’ complete inability to talk trash… because when would they have learned that?
This weekend it’s Ruiner vs. Ruiner, as South Carolina comes to Nashville. How’s it going to go? Who knows? Each of these teams is capable of creating complete chaos, so it could be a 48-42 shootout or a 6-3 feather duel.
Vanderbilt is breaking a lot of new ground this year and is on a 15-game losing streak against South Carolina through Saturday. But to hear Lea tell it, that’s never a problem.
“Sincerely, it does not occupy any part of my thoughts. I just don’t hold on to those things,” he said, then offered a humble brag about the ages: “I didn’t realize it had been since 1955 that we beat Auburn and Alabama. These are things that are fun to discover after the match, but that are not part of our approach or process.”
After South Carolina, Vandy ends the season on the road against LSU and at home for the annual Tennessee rivalry. Depending on how the next few weeks go, either or both could be another opportunity for Vanderbilt to demolish a season. And winning two of the next three would give Vanderbilt only its second five-conference winning season since – wait for it – 1935.
The Commodores will face tough questions about how to translate this year’s success into next year’s improvement. But that’s a 2025 problem. For now, the only question is whose year they will ruin next.
