TAMPA, FL ― Vanderbilt football has a new mantra for its trip to the ReliaQuest Bowl: “One last climb.”
This isn’t a consolation prize for the Commodores despite having hopes of the College Football Playoff. It’s a chance for the team, including a host of seniors, to play together for one last time.
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It’s the culmination of something Vanderbilt (10-2) has been building toward all season. Coach Clark Lea preaches to his team that each game is one climb. But, as running back Makhilyn Young described it, when you climb mountains, you can’t stay there too long because the air is thin and you can’t breathe, so you have to come down and wait for the next climb.
With no more games remaining, the bowl game, which will take place against Iowa on Dec. 31 (11 a.m. CT, ESPN), is the final climb.
“Team Six will not be the same,” said Young, referring to Lea’s 2026 team, which will be his sixth at Vanderbilt. “This is Team Five, and we want to embrace that. We want to take all that in, all the memories. Because so much of this only comes around so often. We’re just taking it all in.”
For Vanderbilt, “this only comes around so often” has meant once in a half-century. The Commodores have only played in one previous bowl game in Florida: the 1955 Gator Bowl that ended in a 25-13 win over Auburn. Since then, Vanderbilt has mostly ended up in bowls closer to home shortly after Christmas rather than a spotlight game on New Years Eve.
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Both Vanderbilt and Iowa (8-4) have had few opt-outs. For the Commodores, only Eli Stowers, who declared for the NFL draft, is not expected to play. The Hawkeyes have not had any known opt-outs.
In 2024, Vanderbilt finished the regular season 6-6 and got an invitation to the Birmingham Bowl, which it won against Georgia Tech. That bowl entailed spending Christmas in Birmingham. This year, players didn’t arrive in Tampa until Dec. 26. The Commodores used the Birmingham experience as a jumping off point to build on for the 2025 season.
That was part of the motivation for the 10-2 finish in 2025. Vanderbilt will have a chance to get the first 11-win season in program history.
“It’s an amazing environment,” Vanderbilt defensive lineman Khordae Sydnor said. “Who doesn’t want to be in Florida? And for the seniors, man, we’re just excited to spend one more week together. We know it’s coming to an end. We’ve just been cherishing every moment together on the field, off the field.”
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Bowl games, defensive back Martel Hight noted, are a lot more fun when you win, and that’s Vanderbilt’s goal in Tampa. With so few opt outs, Hight called the matchup “good on good,” a chance for the teams to truly compete with their best players on the field.
It’s an opportunity that’s rare in college football: for the last climb to end on top of the mountain.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt vs Iowa motto for second Florida bowl game in school history
