ATLANTA – Clark Lea tried to warn us.

On Thursday, the Vanderbilt football coach said, “This week I felt like the mentality dropped a little bit.” That, he said, was the result of a long preseason and an emotional first game when the Commodores defeated Virginia Tech.

Such statements were easy to dismiss at the time, but then the Commodores (2-1) went on the road and lost 36-32 to Georgia State (2-1) on Saturday. After trailing the entire game, Vanderbilt finally took the lead with a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. But the Commodores had just over a minute left on the clock, and seven plays later (five of them were completed passes), the Panthers were in the end zone with the game-winning touchdown.

“We talked about it in fall camp,” Lea said. “It’s the three things: discipline, respect and competitive spirit. And I felt like we had competitive spirit tonight and showed resilience, but we weren’t disciplined and didn’t show respect for the game in the way we played. So we lacked discipline, especially in our approach off the field and everything leading up to practice this week. And we paid a price for that.”

Although no one would elaborate on what those off-field problems were, Langston Patterson and Eli Stowers agreed with Lea’s general assessment.

“I think we didn’t approach this week with the preparation we needed and it showed on the field today,” Stowers said. “… We have a good team that’s going to win games this year. We just need to prepare like we did the first two weeks and not get complacent.”

Lea dismissed the notion that this loss was similar to others the team has suffered in the past, particularly against South Carolina in 2021 and UNLV in 2023, or that it was part of a pattern. While the loss to UNLV came at a similar point in the season and against a similar type of opponent, Vanderbilt did not lead after halftime in that game (despite an early 17-0 lead) and although the Commodores tied the game several times, they just couldn’t get the lead. Against South Carolina in 2021, Vanderbilt held the lead for a larger portion of the game. The biggest similarity between the three was a final push by the opponent that involved play after play that resulted in an easy point.

“We played really poorly tonight,” Lea said. “… At the end of the day, it didn’t look like one of those games. It looked like an undisciplined, unfocused team that needs to play cleaner to win.”

Whether the games were truly similar or not, they were all devastating blows to a team whose lead is razor-thin. And with three different defensive coordinators, three different starting quarterbacks, three largely different teams, the only thing they have in common is Lea.

Stowers spoke of the game as a wake-up call, saying the team had become complacent this week. Vanderbilt beat the Hokies and then knocked off Alcorn State. Things were going well for once. But this team just isn’t good enough to let up.

SPECIALIST COACH How Vanderbilt Football’s Special Teams Success Can Be Attributed to This New Assistant Coach

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Reach her at [email protected] or via X, formerly Twitter. @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared in the Nashville Tennessean: Clark Lea saw problems for Vanderbilt football before loss to Georgia State