On New Year’s Eve, thousands of fans gathered in Tampa Bay, Florida, to watch Vanderbilt take on Iowa in the 2025 ReliaQuest Bowl. The Commodore Faithful flocked from all over the nation to support the Black and Gold in their final game of a historic season and the best in Vanderbilt history on many levels. The Hustler took some time to speak to these fans as they gathered outside of Raymond James Stadium ahead of the game.
The first person we spoke to was Melissa Walden, Class of 2005, who has been a season ticket holder for 16 years. Though she lives in North Carolina, she makes the drive to Nashville for each home game.
“I drive over from North Carolina to Nashville — it’s a four-and-a-half-hour drive — every week for home games, and then I try to follow [Vanderbilt] when it’s on the road.”
Through those 16 years, Walden has seen it all, from seasons without a single win to the James Franklin era, where things were looking up for Vanderbilt. And of course, the past two seasons with Diego Pavia and head coach Clark Lea at the helm, where the ‘Dores have made consecutive bowl appearances for the first time in program history.
“In my lifetime, I have not missed a Vanderbilt bowl game,” Walden said. “The last bowl game we went to before my lifetime was 1982, so it wasn’t an option to miss [this one].”
The past two years seeing the Commodores compete has been a lot of fun, she said.
“It’s been a lot of fun to succeed and see the success the players are having,” Walden said. “I’ve always said, ‘I just want a 6-6 season.’ I want somewhere to go in December, but I would like somewhere warm as a preference and you’ve got to be 8-4, 9-3 to do that. We’re in Florida this year and it’s great.”
She also showed appreciation for Lea, who attended Vanderbilt at the same time she did.
“Its been fun to have an alumnus at the head [of the program],” Walden said. “To know what it’s like to be a true Vanderbilt fan and suffer through those 0-10 and 1-11 seasons and still make it here, it’s been fun.”
McKenzie Coleman-Bowman, class of 1984 and her children all attended Vanderbilt — her son even played for Vanderbilt Football under James Franklin. Coleman-Bowman echoed Walden’s thoughts on the recent success of Vanderbilt, both in Football and across the entire athletic department.
“We love Candice Storey Lee because she’s brought athletics back to Vand[erbilt] and I think she’s done a fantastic job,” Coleman-Bowman said. “[Both] the basketball teams [are doing well] and [so did] women’s soccer.”
Other fans, such as Doran Eiste, class of 1998, came to Tampa to see Pavia’s last game in a Commodore jersey.
“I came to see Pavia’s last game and the first good Vanderbilt Football team in forever,” Eiste said.
Eiste noted how Pavia, alongside Lea and the entirety of the Vanderbilt Football team this year, have changed the narrative surrounding it — both on campus and on the national stage.
“[Lea and Pavia] have added excitement and a sense that [Vanderbilt] can actually win,” Eiste said. “When I was [at Vanderbilt] in the ‘90s, that was not the feeling around the program, and it wasn’t anything to be proud of. But this team is fun to watch.”
Eiste, as an alumnus, also spoke to the fact that Lea, who is also an alumnus, has chosen to stay with Vanderbilt despite the fact that he had a myriad of head coaching offers from other power four programs.
“I think it’s great [that Lea has chosen to stay with Vanderbilt],” Eiste said. “He had other opportunities, I’m sure, and will continue to have them. But I think that he’s sticking with the program and trying to see it through. It’s been a sad state of affairs for a long time. So to have this energy around the program, I think, is great.”
Jake Wade, who became a Vanderbilt fan because his father and many other relatives went to Vanderbilt, also emphasized the transformational job that Lea has done in his tenure at Vanderbilt, particularly in utilizing the transfer portal.
“[Lea] is awesome,” Wade said. “I’m glad he was able to get [players like] Pavia and Stowers and that whole offensive line in. [He’s] done a great job doing things in the portal.”
As Vanderbilt closes the chapter on a historic season where the Commodores gained 10 wins for the first time in program history, its fans are excited and proud to support the program as it competes in a New Year’s Eve Bowl.
