Same ol' Vanderbilt football? Hardly. Rout of Hawaii felt like a turning point | Estes

Yeah, I’ll admit it. I was thinking it, and I bet I wasn’t the only one.

Same ol’ Vandy.

Because that’s who showed up for Saturday night’s season opener at Hawaii. In the game’s first 10 minutes, same ol’ Vandy permitted a 37-yard touchdown without even touching the running back. Same ol’ Vandy lost its first possession to a silly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and its second possession on a fourth-and-5 pass thrown out of bounds by quarterback Mike Wright.

Vanderbilt had been a 9.5-point favorite to beat rebuilding Hawaii. But same ol’ Vandy dropped that spread to 1.5 during the first quarter.

Oh my, so little faith.

And such easy money.

Maybe it won’t mean much in the long run this SEC season that Vanderbilt roared to life and dominated a bad nonconference opponent by a convincing score of 63-10.

[ How Vanderbilt football exorcised the demons of 2021 to annihilate Hawaii in season opener ]

Too much can be made of first games anyway, and it's going to be difficult for these Commodores to resist enjoying this one too much.

Because it was so very different. So much fun, for once. For all there was to like about this late-night showcase, above all, it left zero doubt about the following certainty: This was NOT the same ol’ Vandy.

These Commodores, instead, stared that stigma down for an instant and slung it aside, along with a lot of Hawaii players. And they did so with a lot of people watching, too. A lot of football-starved fans – and a lot of recruits – surely stayed up late to watch this Week Zero drubbing.

They saw that Vanderbilt isn’t just a better team in Clark Lea’s second season. It’s a much more aggressive team. A much tougher team, physically and mentally.

This was how an SEC team is supposed to look against the Mountain West.

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Vanderbilt controlled the lines of scrimmage, rushing for 404 yards and allowing 108. It scored two defensive touchdowns via fumbles and stuffed a fourth-and-1 run early in the third quarter, the play that said aloha to the competitive portion of the evening.

From there, it got out of hand in a hurry. Vanderbilt outscored Hawaii 35-0 in the third quarter. Wright totaled 309 yards of total offense (163 rushing, 146 passing) in about three quarters before giving the ball to freshman backup AJ Swann.

Hawaii crumbled in the second half, sure. But that doesn’t take away from how important this was for Vanderbilt, which – as you probably remember – lost by 20 to ETSU at the beginning of last season.

Could you imagine greater improvement from one season opener to another?

"With the pain that we experienced a year ago and having an early setback, there was a different feel on the field," Lea said. "The team responded offensively. We responded defensively. I'm proud of the guys and I'm happy for them."

Lea resisted making too much of one victory, saying it wasn't "an end point but a beginning." Wright echoed his coach: "We haven't arrived yet."

Maybe not.

But at least the Commodores are finally on the road. In that way, this was a turning point for Lea’s tenure and for a program in need of credible reasons for hope and confidence.

Felt earned, too. Felt like this victory affirmed the improvement that Lea has been selling since the moment last season ended – and the investment it took to get there.

It was a reward for the veteran players who bought in and stayed.

Seniors like linebacker Anfernee Orji and safety Maxwell Worship. A breakdown by those two appeared to be responsible for Hawaii’s touchdown run. But then, Worship forced a fumble that created Orji’s 28-yard touchdown late in the first quarter.

"That play really just got us ready to really do what we came here to do, and that was to make a statement," Worship said. "And that's what we did."

It was a huge, game-changing play. You just had no idea there’d be so many more. Vanderbilt had more highlights in this game than it had in the first half of last season.

Clearly, it's a different Vanderbilt. How different? We’ll see. There is still a 21-game SEC losing streak to confront. There’s still a rough schedule and a long season ahead.

But a great opening track can sometimes shape an album.

In the Music City, Vandy's 2022 season has already gotten more interesting.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Same ol' Vanderbilt football? Commodores make statement in Hawaii rout