Clark Lea: Vanderbilt is 'done talking about Alabama'

Vanderbilt was the toast of college football after Saturday, and rightfully so. Not only did the Commodores upset No. 1 Alabama, but did so in relatively controlling fashion, making history and shaking up the College Football Playoff race.

But inside the Vanderbilt football facilities this week, there’s one focus: Beating Kentucky. Head coach Clark Lea explained that while he’s happy for his team to soak in the earned and deserved limelight of the moment, dwelling on how it came won’t keep it around.

“Well, I think I’ve said this before, too: The whole point of this is to get attention to the program,” Lea said. “We can’t live in a world where once we get some attention, we don’t know how to handle ourselves. It’s just discipline. And I told the guys on Sunday when we ended practice, internally we’re done talking about Alabama. It’s burned and released to our past.

“We understand, though, that was Sunday, so on Monday our kids went to class and I’m sure all their classmates were congratulating them and when I go out in the community, everyone wants to celebrate with us, which I think is a great things. And what I told them is we’re going to be respectful to the people that want to celebrate with us and are proud of us and happy for us, but we’re letting the lingering conversation around the game go in one ear and out the other.”

Heading to play on the road against Kentucky team that upset Ole Miss and took then-No. 1 Georgia to the brink, Lea knows this week — like any in the SEC — can see his team get beat if they take their collective eyes off the ball.

He knows this in part because he’s seen it happen in Vanderbilt’s two losses this year.

“We have to be singularly focused — and we all know, listen, I’m not telling you guys anything y’all don’t know: If you’re not focused week in, week out, you leave it to chance and what we learned from Saturday is that when we put our strategy together and play a clean game, we have the ability to compete with anyone,” Lea said. “What we’ve also put on display this year is when we don’t do those things that we can get beat by anybody. And there’s enough, more than enough on Kentucky’s film to know that this is a really talented group and we’ve gotta be super focused.”