Brian Kelly shares pride in seeing Clark Lea succeed at Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea had the biggest win of his career this past weekend, leading the Commodores to an upset of No. 1 Alabama. Prior to accepting the head coaching job at Vanderbilt, Lea was the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame under Brian Kelly.

The current LSU head coach joined Paul Finebaum on Monday and shared his reaction to seeing Lea get the monster victory.

“Really proud of Clark. He’s worked so hard, and he has such a love for Vanderbilt,” Brian Kelly said. “I know it’s what he wants. He wants to see Vanderbilt succeed, and I think he did a couple of things that were outside his comfort zone.”

According to Kelly, Clark Lea handed over some control of the program this offseason, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.

Lea hired a former FBS head coach in Jerry Kill and former New Mexico State offensive coordinator Tim Beck to lead the Vanderbilt offense. The move is paying off as the Commodores put up 40 points and more than 400 yards of offense against Alabama.

“As coaches sometimes we have to do some things that reinvent us a little bit. I think bringing Jerry Kill in and Tim Beck on the offensive side of the ball really allowed him to focus on the defensive side of the ball and really allowed him to kind of be who he is,” Brian Kelly said. “He kind of gave up a little bit of the control on the offensive side of the ball, and we’ve seen the effectiveness of controlling the offense and keeping his defense off the field and then Clark is outstanding on the defensive side of the ball.”

Clark Lea has evolved as a head coach and it’s paying off for Vanderbilt in a big way.

“It’s still his program. He still has a process in place that is highly effective, but I think some of the key additions that he made to his staff in the offseason, we’re seeing that come together,” Kelly said.