Clark Lea explains why he hired defensive coordinator after taking role in 2024

Spring has sprung for the Vanderbilt Commodores, and with practice underway the Commodores had their first chance to work with a new coaching staff that saw Clark Lea promote Steve Gregory to be the team’s defensive coordinator.

While at the first practice of spring, Lea explained why he made that defensive coordinator hire after filling the role of defensive play caller himself in 2024.

“I think a lot of it just had to do with paying attention a year ago to where I felt like I was effective,” Clark Lea said. “And where I felt like I lost some effectiveness. When you look at the defensive coordinator position, especially for where our program is and what we need from the head coach, where we’re still trying to build something — when I was just a D-coordinator, I would spend 100 hours a week doing that job. When you call a play, you want the process to lead to that play, and to be immersed in that process is really important for that position. As the year wore on, it felt more and more like there were gaps in my preparation that I was having to late in the week kind of catch up to.”

Gregory was listed as the associate defensive coordinator and secondary coach last season. In that role, he didn’t call plays but assisted Lea in his own preparation. This season, he’s the defensive coordinator and all of those responsibilities fall on his shoulders.

This comes a season after Vanderbilt finished 74th nationally in total defense, giving up 376.5 yards per game. That was good for 14th in the SEC. Then, Vanderbilt was 49th nationally in scoring defense, giving up 23.4 points per game. That was 13th in the SEC.

“This is all about efficiency of operation, and I felt like Steve Gregory was ready to take on that responsibility. I have a lot of trust in him. I’ve trained him in our system and process for a year. To me, we had room to be better,” Lea said. “And though we improved defensively last year, we had some gaps in our performance, and I want to see improvement this year. Steve’s going to be leading the charge to make those improvements.”

Steve Gregory is a former player who spent time in the NFL. In 2015, he began as a coach, spending most of his time as an NFL assistant before landing at Vanderbilt.

In four seasons at Vanderbilt, Clark Lea has been working to build up the program. That saw the Commodores put up their best season in the win column under Lea in 2024, going 7-6 and winning the Birmingham Bowl. He’s now 16-33 during his time at Vanderbilt.