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 meetings fun. The coaches have all bought in to what he says so everyone is aligned in the dame direction so it makes playing for him she easy.
“You have a leader who is the face of a program and he just exemplifies everything that you want to be when you’re older and he exemplifies everything that this team wants to be. I love playing for him, everyone in the locker room loves playing for him. He’s the best coach we could ask for and you could see tangible proof week-in and week-out that we’re getting better.”
Barton and Lea had actually been on the same sideline long before their days in Nashville together, even if it may have been unbeknownst to each of them.
As a junior in high school, Barton took an unofficial recruiting visit to Notre Dame in 2018. Barton watched as the Fighting Irish and their defensive coordinator Lea beat Florida State 42-13 in South Bend, Indiana.
But that game was much too cold for Barton’s liking.
So he set his sights on a warmer climate, like Nashville. A good friend in high school, one who is a budding musician, was already considering Vanderbilt as well. So he and Barton decided to do what whatever necessary to become Commodores.
From Dallas, Texas, Barton developed a relationship with former Vanderbilt assistant coach Marc Mattioli and eventually earned an opportunity to join the program as a preferred walk-on.
“Coach (Lustig) came in and that’s really where I found my love for special teams. He and coach Jeff (LePak) are the best coaches I’ve ever been around, especially when it comes to special teams,” Barton said. “They make it fun. They make us have pride in what we do. Every day when we have meetings it’s just as serious as the defensive meetings.
“Being a special teams player means the world to me because I know that’s my dedicated role to this team. I try to go out every week and meet extra with coach so I can perform my best. All the walk-ons, all the guys that play special teams, would say the same thing. It’s the greatest opportunity we have and we go out everyday to try to build on our last performances and just keep on getting better like the offensive and defensive guys.”
Along with Barton, there are names like Tommy Eckels, Charlie Dallape (a childhood friend of Vandy running back Ray Davis), Cooper Lutz, Nicholas Rinaldi and John Howse, among others, who have been key contributors on special teams. It’s a group that doesn’t get much recognition outside of the locker room, yet can’t be ignored in the wider scheme of what Lea and his staff are building.
And who else but to laud the efforts of those walk-ons than Lea, a former walk-on himself.
“Because of my own personal experience, to me, what you get in return from investing in a program like this will pay dividends over your lifetime,” Lea said Thursday. “They get rewarded for their involvement here, too, not just though the relationships and the playing, but also through the values that you build.
“I think if I’m looking to start a business someday I’m looking for guys that were walk-ons at a high level in football. They’re going to be tough, they’re going to show up, they’re going to be resilient, they know how to be selfless. Those are the qualities you look for.”
Lustig and Lea both credited the Vanderbilt Athletics administration for assisting with broadening the walk-on pool. General manager Barton Simmons, too, has been tasked with unearthing potential student-athletes that not only handle the rigors of Vanderbilt academics but also the demands of competing inside the Southeastern Conference.
Student-athletes like Eckels are a good example, a junior who thought he would have a career as a collegiate lacrosse player growing up until he put on a football helmet as a sophomore in high school. Eckels, from Kansas City, Missouri, was well aware of Vanderbilt football considering his father David Eckels was listed as a 6-foot-1, 195-pound defensive end on the 1998 Vandy roster.
Tommy Eckels has played in all 10 games this season for the Commodores and has recorded at least one tackle in six of those 10.
“My role right now is I play on punt, punt return, kickoff and kickoff return. It’s something I take a lot of pride in,” Eckels said. “I know coach ‘Stig’ talks about it all the time, but special teams plays, they really have a big impact on the outcome of the game. Not many fans actually pay attention to it. Not many people know just how important those plays are so I take a great deal of pride knowing I can really impact the outcome of a game through special teams.”
Lustig, a former defensive back at Bucknell, was named Coach of the Year after leading Division II Edinboro to a 9-2 record in 2016. He then spent four seasons as the special teams coordinator at Syracuse before Lea made him one of the program’s first assistant coach hires in 2021.
Lustig’s top unit this season has been his kickoff return defense which has allowed just 19.38 yards per return and ranks 62nd nationally. Vandy also hasn’t allowed a blocked field goal or blocked punt.
Saturday’s win at Kentucky was just as gratifying for Lustig as it was for Commodores like Barton, Eckels and others who have been through more losses than they care to discuss, but who also keep returning to the practice fields behind the McGugin Center to chip away at the boulder standing between them and championships.
“Nothing beats the boys in the locker room and being able to play football every day,” Barton said. “With the coaching staff change (in 2020) it could have been hard, but with coach Lea and the staff coming in, it was pretty seamless.
“The passion has always been there and it’s been great to have a coach who believes in all his players, and then recognizes when a guy can contribute, there’s a role on special teams. It’s just about grinding every day and then the coaches put us in successful positions.”
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.
