You woke up this morning and when looking in the mirror, Clark Lea is staring back at you. After initially fighting the urge to call a timeout - you now have access to do as you please as the Head coach of Vanderbilt University… so how do you fix this situation? Let’s hear it…
1. I’d be at @Southernpipe ’s front door asking him how many recruits/transfers is Nashville Soccer Club allowed to sponsor at once. And that’s how many 4 star recruits/transfers I’d immediately offer at whatever the going rate is. Oh you don’t want to spend money on recruits and would rather retain players instead? Look at next years schedule - how much is CJ Taylor going to help? This roster needs an overhaul. Retaining your 3/4 actual SEC caliber players doesn’t help you catch up with the rest of the conference. At some point you actually have to gain/attract talent rather than simply retaining.
Look here’s the thing - there’s NO DAMN POINT in investing 600-800 MILLION DOLLARS on facilities if there’s not going to be anyone there to enjoy them. Take 1/100th of that amount of money and you IMMEDIATELY have the best class in Vanderbilt football history. You do not have to sacrifice character/work ethic/integrity to dabble in the game of NIL. There’s always going to be 25% of the recruiting pool that Vanderbilt cannot recruit for whatever reason - I get that - but there’s still a huge pool of players that would LOVE to play in the SEC while living in Nashville. If we could just offer (near) market value - we would immediately pass the Missouris/Miss States/South Carolina’s of the SEC.
2. Fire Howell/Jackson and immediately take over play calling duties. Be aggressive, send pressure from everywhere, and if you’re going to lose at least go down swinging.
And unless a miracle occurs and this offense finishes the year strong (lol) - Fire Lynch going into the Tennessee game. Give a random assistant one game to audition but..
3. Spend top dollar for an ESTABLISHED OC/DC with Power 5 HC experience (for at least one of the hires).
Personally I’d..
-Hire a Will Muschamp (kid is committed) as DC/AHC. Someone insert the video of him punching the whiteboard.
-Hire a WARREN RUGGIERO (Wake OC) as OC - someone who will run a system that gives Vanderbilt a chance against superior talent.
- Arguably most importantly - hire a motivator. Hire someone like a Coach Chaos that can get the team motivated to play a game. Have you ever seen Clark Lea’s sidelines? No energy. No passion. Just pathetic. BRING WILL HEALY HOME!
4. Cancel all these dumb ass OOC games that are schedule. Vanderbilt should play the school for the blind and death 3x a year while facing 1 low level power 5 team (Wake, Purdue, Rutgers, Kansas, etc) every single season. Every season should start with 3 automatic wins.
5. Participate in the transfer portal.
- This sort of goes with #1 but we have failed SO miserably here that it should be restated. Vanderbilt is deliberately choosing to not take place in open free agency! “We would rather spend that money on retaining our players” - okay that’s fine, but that won’t help when you’re retaining several 4th-5th All SEC caliber players from a 2-10 team. At some point you actually have to attract new talent if you want to compete in the SEC.
6. Understand scholarships are not 4 year commitments. Want to know why Ole Miss, Tennessee, Etc can take in 20+ transfers each year? Bc after 1-2 years, you know whether or not a player is going to contribute at a high level. If they’re not? Well at Vanderbilt they sit on the sideline for 4-5 years - not at those schools. I’m sorry but you cannot have a 4th year junior 5th string fullback taking up a spot on a 2-10 football team.
1. I’d be at @Southernpipe ’s front door asking him how many recruits/transfers is Nashville Soccer Club allowed to sponsor at once. And that’s how many 4 star recruits/transfers I’d immediately offer at whatever the going rate is. Oh you don’t want to spend money on recruits and would rather retain players instead? Look at next years schedule - how much is CJ Taylor going to help? This roster needs an overhaul. Retaining your 3/4 actual SEC caliber players doesn’t help you catch up with the rest of the conference. At some point you actually have to gain/attract talent rather than simply retaining.
Look here’s the thing - there’s NO DAMN POINT in investing 600-800 MILLION DOLLARS on facilities if there’s not going to be anyone there to enjoy them. Take 1/100th of that amount of money and you IMMEDIATELY have the best class in Vanderbilt football history. You do not have to sacrifice character/work ethic/integrity to dabble in the game of NIL. There’s always going to be 25% of the recruiting pool that Vanderbilt cannot recruit for whatever reason - I get that - but there’s still a huge pool of players that would LOVE to play in the SEC while living in Nashville. If we could just offer (near) market value - we would immediately pass the Missouris/Miss States/South Carolina’s of the SEC.
2. Fire Howell/Jackson and immediately take over play calling duties. Be aggressive, send pressure from everywhere, and if you’re going to lose at least go down swinging.
And unless a miracle occurs and this offense finishes the year strong (lol) - Fire Lynch going into the Tennessee game. Give a random assistant one game to audition but..
3. Spend top dollar for an ESTABLISHED OC/DC with Power 5 HC experience (for at least one of the hires).
Personally I’d..
-Hire a Will Muschamp (kid is committed) as DC/AHC. Someone insert the video of him punching the whiteboard.
-Hire a WARREN RUGGIERO (Wake OC) as OC - someone who will run a system that gives Vanderbilt a chance against superior talent.
- Arguably most importantly - hire a motivator. Hire someone like a Coach Chaos that can get the team motivated to play a game. Have you ever seen Clark Lea’s sidelines? No energy. No passion. Just pathetic. BRING WILL HEALY HOME!
4. Cancel all these dumb ass OOC games that are schedule. Vanderbilt should play the school for the blind and death 3x a year while facing 1 low level power 5 team (Wake, Purdue, Rutgers, Kansas, etc) every single season. Every season should start with 3 automatic wins.
5. Participate in the transfer portal.
- This sort of goes with #1 but we have failed SO miserably here that it should be restated. Vanderbilt is deliberately choosing to not take place in open free agency! “We would rather spend that money on retaining our players” - okay that’s fine, but that won’t help when you’re retaining several 4th-5th All SEC caliber players from a 2-10 team. At some point you actually have to attract new talent if you want to compete in the SEC.
6. Understand scholarships are not 4 year commitments. Want to know why Ole Miss, Tennessee, Etc can take in 20+ transfers each year? Bc after 1-2 years, you know whether or not a player is going to contribute at a high level. If they’re not? Well at Vanderbilt they sit on the sideline for 4-5 years - not at those schools. I’m sorry but you cannot have a 4th year junior 5th string fullback taking up a spot on a 2-10 football team.
