NASHVILLE — After Vanderbilt football’s loss to Kentucky on Oct. 24, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea gave an interesting comment on how his defense got beat by the Wildcats after starting the night like the defense Lea felt he had going into the season.

“What I experienced in the moment was they moved down their sheet faster than we moved down our sheet. And that led to us chasing a little bit,” Lea said.

Lea admitting to his defense getting beat on the call sheet was interesting in itself. In the moment, it felt like he was perhaps calling out his defensive coordinator, Steve Gregory, or just expressing frustration in his defense after giving three consecutive touchdown drives following a good start to the game.

In his Monday press conference, Lea clarified what he meant by his comment after the loss to Kentucky.

“When I talked about getting down the call sheet faster, I’m specifically referencing just some run looks that we got. And to be super specific, it was like a nub tight end into the boundary where they gave a three-man service and they’re trying to get the ball in the corner. We can do some things to make that a little more challenging for them, but I felt like we stayed in one look a little too long,” Lea said.

Lea noted those situations he referenced were not constant explosive plays, but gains of about seven or so yards to stay ahead of the sticks. Rather than get Kentucky into second-and-long situations, the Commodores were getting beat consistently on first down and were in a compromised position defensively for the majority of the game.

So the adjustment going forward is that Vanderbilt’s defense has to win on first down so that it does not have its back against the wall consistently. 

The question is how does Vanderbilt do that. How do the Commodores not stay in one look of run defense for too long and how do they prevent considerable gains on early downs more often?

“There’s two components to this. There’s one, the call, and two, the execution of the call. We talk about elite defenses being 50% what you play and 50% how you play and we talk about getting to our technique faster than the opponent,” Lea said. “There are things we can do structurally in the formation of the call that put our player in the best position. In secondary, it’s like how do we pass the cloud, meaning a cloud corner and change leverage on the perimeter. Where do we insert a safety to change the picture offensively but also prove some protection at corner.”

Whether it be changing defensive looks in the secondary or simply winning one-on-one matchups defensively, Vanderbilt has to make the right adjustments and execute at a higher level. 

Monday, Lea recalled a play from the Kentucky game where his defense was out of the position. It was a third down and the Commodores got some pressure on Kentucky quarterback Kenny Minchey. But, a player in the secondary was a step behind a receiver on a crossing route and it resulted in a first down for the Wildcats.

Lea realizes there are two sides of the coin in plays like the one he described. It all goes back to what he said elite defenses are made of. It is both an issue of whether Vanderbilt has the right guys in the right positions as well as the right play call.

In the time he has taken to watch film of the game, Lea is more concerned with the performance of his guys as opposed to the schematics and calls of his defense. In each of the last two games, Lea has seen his defense show some identity before things fell apart. It is a matter of if Vanderbilt can put all the pieces together.

“We’ve played the right way at times, we’ve just not put it together. The 50% what, the 50% how. I think we have a clear understanding of what that needs to look like,” Lea said.