Clark Lea: 'It's time for us to grow up'

Vanderbilt head football coach Clark Lea was animated following the team’s Tuesday practice. From the outside looking in, to some of the reporters on site, it appeared that the Commodores’ head coach wasn’t too thrilled with what he saw from his team. However, sometimes perception is not reality.

Following Vanderbilt’s practice on Tuesday, Lea asked why he was so animated when talking to his players. As he responded to that question, he detailed what his message was to the team and what would help the Commodores win more games in 2024.

“Winning for us is going to come down to three things: discipline, respect, and having a spirit and an attitude of wanting,” said Lea. “And I see a team right now that’s in the middle of camp that’s just not tethered yet to an identity and approach. We were really strong to start. I think we’re just hitting that wall that’s creating stress and you’re starting to see emotions bubble over. And I don’t trust it right now. I wanna grow to trust it.”

After 2022 saw Vanderbilt narrowly miss out on qualifying for that year’s bowl season with a record of 5-7, the following season, the Commodores dropped back down to the basement of the SEC, finishing 2023 with a 2-10 record. And Lea is doing everything in his power to galvanize the Commodores for a strong bounce-back campaign in 2024. However, things have not gone smoothly consistently enough in fall camp to convince him that his team is ready to tackle that challenge, leading to a wake-up call of sorts following Tuesday’s practice.

“… when I watch us practice, I see discipline, respect, and spirit every time we play,” continued Lea. “And so when I don’t see that, my job is to communicate to the players exactly what it is that I’m seeing; it’s time for us to grow up. I think the middle of fall camp is a great time to grow up. They don’t know unless I tell them, and my job is to be honest with them. So that’s what I was doing.

“That’s not to say that it was a bad practice. When you’re talking about 120 people you’re going to have flashes of some brilliance out there. But I think we all know that this is the best team we’ve had. I want to see this team rally around the cause and play for each other.”

Vanderbilt will get a huge test right out of the gate this season as they will host Brent Pry and the Virginia Tech Hokies for their Week 1 season opener. The Hokies are also on a quest to bounce back from their less-than-seller performance in 2023 and will look to upset the Commodores down in Nashville, TN.

Whether the Commodores can reach a bowl game by the end of the season is a story yet to be written. However, according to Lea, Vanderbilt achieves that by growing up and consistently displaying discipline, respect, and spirit every day in practice at camp.