Williams-Brice Stadium is ‘a party.’ How Vanderbilt is preparing for Gamecocks
Last week, Vanderbilt football was getting ready for “Enter Sandman.” This week it will be “Sandstorm” as the team prepares for its Southeastern Conference opener against South Carolina at Williams-Brice Stadium.
The Commodores were able to withstand the hostile environment against Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium and the pre-game hype, which involves playing Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” as the Hokies enter their home field in Blacksburg.
Vanderbilt overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat the Hokies, 44-20. Now, they look to do it again this week with the towel-waving crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium that gets amped as the song “Sandstorm” plays before every kickoff.
The school announced Tuesday afternoon that the matchup with the Commodores is a sellout.
“It will be different. It is not a copy and paste. There is a different song. It has sand in it. We’ve got to let go of ‘Enter Sandman’ and move on to ‘Sandstorm,’ ” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said Tuesday during his weekly press conference. “Virginia Tech was a great experience for us and challenged us in the right ways, and I thought we handled it well, too. We fed the environment early and made it harder on ourselves than we needed to.
“... South Carolina is as charged of an environment as we have in our league. Playing there at night, it feels like a party. If we play well, we can help water some of that down. If we don’t, it is going to be a party.”
Like it did last week to prepare for Virginia Tech, Lea said they will pump extra crowd noise and music at practice to get ready. Playing in front of a raucous crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium is something the Vanderbilt coach should embrace.
Lea pointed out to when players and teams were playing in front of thin crowds a few years ago during the COVID pandemic.
“What I talked to our team about is the environment is for us and what you want as a player. If you were playing in the pandemic in front of empty stadiums, it was brutal. This is exactly what we want,” Lea said. “That crowd is there for you and they aren’t going to make it easy on you. We can enjoy that part of it and will prepare.
“If we can’t operate, we give them a license to participate. That makes it extra hard. I will let the guys have fun with it and enjoy it. It will be everything it is made out to be.”
Vanderbilt enters Saturday’s game with a 16-game losing streak against the No. 11 Gamecocks, who defeated the Commodores, 28-7 in November last season in Nashville. Vanderbilt came into last season’s matchup as a ranked team, but the loss to USC started a three-game losing streak to end the regular season. The Commodores finished the season with a win over Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl.
But the loss to the Gamecocks still stings for Lea, who made it a point of emphasis to his team this season.
Lea admitted he lost his emotion to his team at halftime and said his team didn’t have the “spirit and energy” against USC.
“It was really painful,” Lea said. “It was a learning moment for me and our team. Not to make it about South Carolina. But to make it about the spirit and energy we need to sustain and win games.
“It was very frustrating last year, having a team play us at our home with an identity that mirrored ours and to play better with that identity,” he said. “I thought they were a more physical team, sustained energy longer. That hurt and it hurt our players. We referenced that feeling a few times in the spring and summer as what the next evolution of our program is to never have that feeling. … You got to give them credit in last year’s because they did a better job than we did.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM.
