Clark Lea admits Vanderbilt's offensive line was not pretty during first game

Nothing was perfect about Vanderbilt’s 35-28 season-opening win over Hawaii during Week 0. However, one thing that Clark Lea wants to address right away is the Commodore’s poor offensive line play against the Rainbow Warriors.

Lea spoke about the offensive line’s issues following Vandy’s victory on Saturday night. His main frustrations were, whether simple defensive attacks or bad penalties, their mistakes were costing them as they were getting their offense off schedule in a matchup where they were finding success when they were on time,

“I mean it was not pretty,” Lea admitted. “The sacks hurt. And I felt like, offensively, when we were on schedule? We were driving and scoring. But, when we got behind the chains, we had trouble digging ourselves out of the hole.”

“Obviously our protection issues? Some of those were four-man rush. I mean it wasn’t complicated. We’ve got to look at the film and see where we need to enhance but, obviously, we need to enhance,” said Lea. “I didn’t like how we had, I think, three procedural penalties in the game too. One of the keys to victory for us offensively for us was to weaponize our operation. If you’re jumping offsides, the snap infractions? Those things certainly don’t help.”

In total, Hawaii finished with three sacks and nine tackles for loss in the game. That’s not even including Vanderbilt’s own mistakes as their offensive line committed a handful of the team’s eight penalties that cost them 72 yards on the night.

To be fair, every team is going to leave their first games with problems to solve, or at least smooth over, as they enter their second game and so forth. With a line that’s full of experienced upperclassmen too, Lea has every expectation that they’ll correct what’s necessary to be better as a unit against Alabama A&M on Saturday.

“There’s a lot to clean up there but, again, I believe in that group and we’re going to be okay,” said Lea. “We’ll be better and I certainly believe in that group.”

Lea: Vanderbilt was fortunate to come away with ‘sloppy’ Week 0 win

Vanderbilt didn’t beat Hawaii quite like they did last year but the Commodores are just happy to be 1-0 after Week 0.

Vandy did control the game throughout, though, and held a three-touchdown lead early in the fourth quarter before a late and furious rally from the Rainbow Warriors gave Clark Lea a more stressful finish than he would have liked. Afterward, he was glad to come away victorious but saw plenty of flaws in the team’s first outing.

“It was a sloppy game. We were fortunate to come away with a win,” he admitted in the postgame presser.

Lea was especially disappointed in his team losing focus towards the end of the game.

“You know, we can certainly do a lot on our end to clean up our performance,” Lea continued. “If I was disappointed about anything? It was just feeling like our energy waned through the game. And when we were opening ourselves up for them to take ground? It, I think, had a lot to do with our performance and the lack of inspiration in that performance that we can correct.”