Okay, so I’m not about to try to put a positive spin on this, because there’s simply no way to spin losing to an FCS team. But, just eyeballing the box score, Vanderbilt probably should not have lost this game, and certainly should not have lost it by 20 points.
And I don’t know if that makes Clark Lea’s debut look better or worse.
Granted, some of this was garbage time. Ken Seals went 14-of-20 passing for 131 yards in the fourth quarter; prior to that, he was 6-of-13 for 75 yards. On Vanderbilt’s final drive — mind you, the game was already 23-3 at this point — Seals went 6-for-8 for 79 yards.