How Vanderbilt football is working to eliminate penalties for Arkansas game

Vanderbilt football instituted a new rule in practice after struggling with penalties in three consecutive losses to Auburn, Georgia and Ole Miss.

Now, every time the Commodores commit an operational penalty, like a false start, in practice, the whole offense must do up-downs after practice. It's the same thing for the defense on offsides penalties.

All of this comes as Vanderbilt (3-3, 0-3 SEC) prepares to face Arkansas (2-4, 0-3) for its homecoming matchup Oct. 13 (6 p.m. CT, ESPN2) at FirstBank Stadium.

"You're never going to have a perfect game, but I would say confrontation is the most important word," Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said Oct. 13. "If there's not buy-in to this, the urgency that we need to address this, then we ultimately have to reimagine the people that are on the field taking the snaps."

Vanderbilt was penalized 11 times for 92 yards against Ole Miss. Five of those were offensive procedural penalties (three false starts, an illegal formation and an illegal shift). The Commodores also committed two costly personal fouls. One, on offense, occurred after Vanderbilt had driven down to the two-yard line. That push-back, then a sack, resulted in the Commodores kicking a field goal. Another occurred on defense after Vanderbilt had gotten a third-down stop in the red zone. Instead of kicking a field goal, Ole Miss got a new set of downs and scored a touchdown.

Those two penalties alone may have cost the Commodores eight points.

"We're handling it," linebacker Nick Rinaldi said. "I feel like that's all that needs to be said, and it'll definitely be handled next week."

Vanderbilt is averaging 9.3 penalties per game in 2026. Just five teams in FBS commit more — none of those teams are in the SEC. The penalties tend to come at bad times, too, often killing drives and costing points.

"Specifically about operational penalties right now, that has been a real point of setback for us this season, point of concern," Lea said. " … There's just sloppiness there. So good football is going to come from the emergence of the winning of margins."

Lea said that he was demanding action from the team on eliminating penalties and improving on special teams after the Commodores have had two punts blocked this season. He called many of the penalties unacceptable and said the team's energy level wasn't where it needed to be.

Tight end Cole Spence said that some of the false starts came from linemen being uncertain of what their job was and losing track of the snap count.

"It's everybody being locked in to knowing exactly what you're supposed to be doing, what happens when the defense shifts, and still being calm with that," Spence said. "And then having the attention to detail to know the snap counts. So it's just more time in the film room, is my guess."

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: How Vanderbilt football is working to eliminate penalties for Arkansas game