NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When Vanderbilt quarterback Mike Wright threw what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown pass to Will Sheppard on Saturday at Kentucky, there was only one thing running through Jack Barton’s mind.
“I just knew that the kickoff team had to go back out there, and if we wanted to win that game, we had to stop No. 2 (Kentucky kickoff returner Barion Brown),” Barton said about the final moments of Vandy’s first SEC victory in three years. “I think that return took nine seconds. They pretty much lost a whole offensive snap because of that. Then when our defense made the stop, the celebration was unparalleled.”
Sheppard’s touchdown reception left 32 seconds on the clock at Kroger Field, plenty of time for a talented Wildcats offense to receive the ensuing kickoff and find its way into field position in hopes of sending the game to overtime. Vanderbilt’s strategy to kick the ball to Brown, and not out of bounds or possibly out of the end zone, paid off.
Brown’s 20-yard return out to the 24-yard line did indeed erase nine seconds off the clock giving Kentucky only 23 ticks to work with. The Commodores’ defense took care of the rest.
“Maybe one of the best wins of my career,” Vanderbilt associated head coach, special teams coordinator and tight end coach Justin Lustig said this week. “Bowl wins and championships at different levels, that one … I’m getting goosebumps right now just thinking about it.”
That kickoff return wasn’t the only big play of the day for Lustig and the Commodores. Senior defensive lineman Nate Clifton also blocked a field goal in the second quarter, three points that turned out to be the difference in the final result.
How Lustig, or “Stig” as he’s known around the McGugin Center, and his special teams units operate is representative of head coach Clark Lea and the Vanderbilt football program as a whole. A steady, methodical group which includes of a handful of walk-on student-athletes who go about their business every day pounding at a metaphorical rock yearning for that big breakthrough.
A breakthrough like Saturday’s 24-21 win at Kentucky.
“I’ve never met someone who just has the same methodical approach every single day. But within the mythology of just showing up and swinging away at the rock and being the guy who breaks the rock on the 101st swing like he always says, he makes it fun,” Barton said of playing for Lea. “He makes practice fun. He makes…