From The Athletic:
Rexrode: If Vanderbilt football dropped the ‘Vanderbilt,’ no one would question the progress
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Branding is Vanderbilt’s largest remaining obstacle on the way to winning football, bigger than any SEC opponent’s NIL collective cache, because history makes “Vanderbilt football” a tough sell — like if Ford came up with an exciting new sportscar and decided to call it the Pinto 2.0.
Also because, for those who haven’t noticed, Vanderbilt has in a couple of years vaporized the obstacles it spent decades placing in the way of all who dared wear the whistle on West End. And because the guy who does now is as committed as his support is transformative. Clark Lea said Vanderbilt will be “the best program in the country” a year ago at SEC media days, and on Tuesday at the same event, he trotted that out again along with terms such as “dominant program” and “toughest team in our conference.”
Lea’s 7-17 record in two seasons at his alma mater has a long way to go to catch up with those forecasts. They sound hyperbolic for a program that was last nationally relevant when the Model T was Ford’s best seller. But Vanderbilt fans shouldn’t let grandiose visions or time-tested insults distract from what he’s actually doing: building a winner.
How big, how fragile, how sustainable, these are all great questions. Based on actions and no words, though, I’ll make a prediction that is bolder than it may sound given Vanderbilt’s competition: Lea’s Commodores will soon stack together three straight winning seasons.
That last happened at Vanderbilt from 1957-59 under Arthur Guepe. And those records were 5-3-2, 5-2-3 and 5-3-2. That fuels the default dismissals of the seriousness of Vanderbilt, dismissals that surely reach the ears of all prospects considering the Commodores and all Commodores considering the transfer portal.
The best conditions for serious football in modern program history should start making Vanderbilt more difficult to dismiss. Lea has to start with one winning season, of course. He has a chance with this third team, after a 5-7 second season featuring Vandy’s first multi-win SEC performance since 2018. And after another offseason of adding talent and minimizing portal attrition.
Either way, Vanderbilt football is checking boxes it hasn’t checked. You’d have a hard time finding a college football coach whose list of needs would start with anything but “administrative support” and “resources” in some order. All success prior to Lea has been done without those things at sufficient levels — though James Franklin did get some things done in his three-season outlier of a tenure — which makes it more unlikely and impressive than some may realize.
Lea has chancellor Daniel Diermeier and athletic director Candice Lee behind him in words and deeds. Hundreds of millions of dollars in facilities improvements are underway. This isn’t as important as it once was, not for most, not with collectives competing for booster dollars. But it is at Vanderbilt because it has been so neglected, so embarrassing, so reflective of unserious football.
That’s done. The loud construction happening around Vandy’s soon-upgraded football building is shutting up a lot of people who said this would never happen.
“Before I was the Vanderbilt coach, I was a Vanderbilt player, a Vanderbilt fan,” Lea said. “We’ve been screaming for this for 30 years. Here it is. Now we get to choose to set our attitude and see the joy in the progress and celebrate advancement. We know in short order Vanderbilt football will be situated as a top-15 school playing in the best conference in the country, in the middle of the best city in the country, with first-class, best-in-class facilities.”
There’s a recruiting pitch. Emboldened by resources. But true administrative support means more than that. Genuine, give-and-take relationships must exist to meet daily challenges. Lee and Lea both recently got contract extensions, accompanied by press releases with the usual kind words. Thing is, when they actually talk about each other, the words are stronger.
The people who matter most in this thing are in this thing, on the same page. That’s less prevalent and more important than some may realize. Ask any college football coach.
“She doesn’t sweat the small stuff, but she makes sure we maintain an alignment on our values,” Lea said Tuesday of Lee. “She gets to listen to me as a football coach, too. We have certain things we like to talk about sometimes, and she always entertains those conversations and she’s a great listener. So independent of anything else, to me, I’m paired with one of the best leaders in our sport. And really one of the best leaders in college athletics. And I couldn’t be more grateful for her partnership.”
Lee has achieved a lot in three years as AD. She’s not the first Vanderbilt AD who has supported her coaches. She’s the first in recent memory who has not been roadblocked from above. Everything is possible from there.
On to other boxes.
Access to talent? Check. Modernized approach to evaluating talent? Check. Resources committed to having enough talent? Check-ish.
Three of Vanderbilt’s most poach-able players — quarterback AJ Swann, receiver Will Sheppard and linebacker C.J. Taylor — signed deals with the Anchor Collective (which has since merged with the Anchor Impact Fund) in December. It was a clear sign they were staying. And that Vanderbilt was at least getting into the business of committing resources to player retention. That’s critical.
“I know with NIL, you’ve got other schools that are able to throw around millions of dollars or whatever,” Sheppard said Tuesday. “We’ve got our AD. She’s working very hard to get us the things she believes we deserve and that we’ve earned with NIL. We’ve got the collective coming on and everything. At the end of the day, it’s got to be earned, we’re not just going to be giving away things. But if you earn it, you’re gonna receive it.”
I’d argue Vanderbilt won’t approach the upper reaches of the best conference in college football anytime soon without a few bucks for some of the players everyone wants. And that Vanderbilt can find those bucks despite a smaller alumni base and fan base than other SEC programs. That’s wait and see.
So is winning football under Lea, though I present two more boxes — a coach who is authentic and can relate to players, and a coach who won’t be looking for the next decent job when success comes. Check them both.
Before recent events, Pat Fitzgerald’s tenure at Northwestern was the model for Lea at Vanderbilt. A lot of it still is. When reports of the hazing allegations within the program that cost Fitzgerald his job came out, Lea texted a link to his players so they were aware. He was asked about it Tuesday.
“It’s unfortunate on so many levels,” Lea said. “And short of commenting on Northwestern’s program, because I’m not a part of Northwestern’s program, yeah, I believe that the day (that this sport) becomes anything other than a value add for the student-athlete … then we’ve lost our way as coaches. … I think a lot of the issues — and again, this isn’t speaking specifically about Northwestern — but a lot of the problems we’re facing now in the broader culture of our sport have to do with a lack of boundaries and a lack of know.”
Lea said a culture must exist “where people can speak up and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t quite what I like or this isn’t what I wanted,’ and give us a chance to make adjustments and shifts before you get anything that’s big that blows up on you.”
He also said “true brotherhood” is a program covenant and that “there’s no brotherhood that I know that starts with a level of abuse in the locker room.”
Vanderbilt football under Lea, beyond weighty proclamations that bring out well-worn wisecracks, is accumulating substance. I wouldn’t expect casual observers to buy it. If you’re a close observer, you have every right to hesitate.
The Ferraris and Bugattis of this league and sport are on a different track altogether. The ride from here won’t be smooth or linear. But I think it’s about to get fun. And I don’t think it’s going to blow up on you.
Rexrode: If Vanderbilt football dropped the ‘Vanderbilt,’ no one would question the progress
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Branding is Vanderbilt’s largest remaining obstacle on the way to winning football, bigger than any SEC opponent’s NIL collective cache, because history makes “Vanderbilt football” a tough sell — like if Ford came up with an exciting new sportscar and decided to call it the Pinto 2.0.
Also because, for those who haven’t noticed, Vanderbilt has in a couple of years vaporized the obstacles it spent decades placing in the way of all who dared wear the whistle on West End. And because the guy who does now is as committed as his support is transformative. Clark Lea said Vanderbilt will be “the best program in the country” a year ago at SEC media days, and on Tuesday at the same event, he trotted that out again along with terms such as “dominant program” and “toughest team in our conference.”
Lea’s 7-17 record in two seasons at his alma mater has a long way to go to catch up with those forecasts. They sound hyperbolic for a program that was last nationally relevant when the Model T was Ford’s best seller. But Vanderbilt fans shouldn’t let grandiose visions or time-tested insults distract from what he’s actually doing: building a winner.
How big, how fragile, how sustainable, these are all great questions. Based on actions and no words, though, I’ll make a prediction that is bolder than it may sound given Vanderbilt’s competition: Lea’s Commodores will soon stack together three straight winning seasons.
That last happened at Vanderbilt from 1957-59 under Arthur Guepe. And those records were 5-3-2, 5-2-3 and 5-3-2. That fuels the default dismissals of the seriousness of Vanderbilt, dismissals that surely reach the ears of all prospects considering the Commodores and all Commodores considering the transfer portal.
The best conditions for serious football in modern program history should start making Vanderbilt more difficult to dismiss. Lea has to start with one winning season, of course. He has a chance with this third team, after a 5-7 second season featuring Vandy’s first multi-win SEC performance since 2018. And after another offseason of adding talent and minimizing portal attrition.
Either way, Vanderbilt football is checking boxes it hasn’t checked. You’d have a hard time finding a college football coach whose list of needs would start with anything but “administrative support” and “resources” in some order. All success prior to Lea has been done without those things at sufficient levels — though James Franklin did get some things done in his three-season outlier of a tenure — which makes it more unlikely and impressive than some may realize.
Lea has chancellor Daniel Diermeier and athletic director Candice Lee behind him in words and deeds. Hundreds of millions of dollars in facilities improvements are underway. This isn’t as important as it once was, not for most, not with collectives competing for booster dollars. But it is at Vanderbilt because it has been so neglected, so embarrassing, so reflective of unserious football.
That’s done. The loud construction happening around Vandy’s soon-upgraded football building is shutting up a lot of people who said this would never happen.
“Before I was the Vanderbilt coach, I was a Vanderbilt player, a Vanderbilt fan,” Lea said. “We’ve been screaming for this for 30 years. Here it is. Now we get to choose to set our attitude and see the joy in the progress and celebrate advancement. We know in short order Vanderbilt football will be situated as a top-15 school playing in the best conference in the country, in the middle of the best city in the country, with first-class, best-in-class facilities.”
There’s a recruiting pitch. Emboldened by resources. But true administrative support means more than that. Genuine, give-and-take relationships must exist to meet daily challenges. Lee and Lea both recently got contract extensions, accompanied by press releases with the usual kind words. Thing is, when they actually talk about each other, the words are stronger.
The people who matter most in this thing are in this thing, on the same page. That’s less prevalent and more important than some may realize. Ask any college football coach.
“She doesn’t sweat the small stuff, but she makes sure we maintain an alignment on our values,” Lea said Tuesday of Lee. “She gets to listen to me as a football coach, too. We have certain things we like to talk about sometimes, and she always entertains those conversations and she’s a great listener. So independent of anything else, to me, I’m paired with one of the best leaders in our sport. And really one of the best leaders in college athletics. And I couldn’t be more grateful for her partnership.”
Lee has achieved a lot in three years as AD. She’s not the first Vanderbilt AD who has supported her coaches. She’s the first in recent memory who has not been roadblocked from above. Everything is possible from there.
On to other boxes.
Access to talent? Check. Modernized approach to evaluating talent? Check. Resources committed to having enough talent? Check-ish.
Three of Vanderbilt’s most poach-able players — quarterback AJ Swann, receiver Will Sheppard and linebacker C.J. Taylor — signed deals with the Anchor Collective (which has since merged with the Anchor Impact Fund) in December. It was a clear sign they were staying. And that Vanderbilt was at least getting into the business of committing resources to player retention. That’s critical.
“I know with NIL, you’ve got other schools that are able to throw around millions of dollars or whatever,” Sheppard said Tuesday. “We’ve got our AD. She’s working very hard to get us the things she believes we deserve and that we’ve earned with NIL. We’ve got the collective coming on and everything. At the end of the day, it’s got to be earned, we’re not just going to be giving away things. But if you earn it, you’re gonna receive it.”
I’d argue Vanderbilt won’t approach the upper reaches of the best conference in college football anytime soon without a few bucks for some of the players everyone wants. And that Vanderbilt can find those bucks despite a smaller alumni base and fan base than other SEC programs. That’s wait and see.
So is winning football under Lea, though I present two more boxes — a coach who is authentic and can relate to players, and a coach who won’t be looking for the next decent job when success comes. Check them both.
Before recent events, Pat Fitzgerald’s tenure at Northwestern was the model for Lea at Vanderbilt. A lot of it still is. When reports of the hazing allegations within the program that cost Fitzgerald his job came out, Lea texted a link to his players so they were aware. He was asked about it Tuesday.
“It’s unfortunate on so many levels,” Lea said. “And short of commenting on Northwestern’s program, because I’m not a part of Northwestern’s program, yeah, I believe that the day (that this sport) becomes anything other than a value add for the student-athlete … then we’ve lost our way as coaches. … I think a lot of the issues — and again, this isn’t speaking specifically about Northwestern — but a lot of the problems we’re facing now in the broader culture of our sport have to do with a lack of boundaries and a lack of know.”
Lea said a culture must exist “where people can speak up and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t quite what I like or this isn’t what I wanted,’ and give us a chance to make adjustments and shifts before you get anything that’s big that blows up on you.”
He also said “true brotherhood” is a program covenant and that “there’s no brotherhood that I know that starts with a level of abuse in the locker room.”
Vanderbilt football under Lea, beyond weighty proclamations that bring out well-worn wisecracks, is accumulating substance. I wouldn’t expect casual observers to buy it. If you’re a close observer, you have every right to hesitate.
The Ferraris and Bugattis of this league and sport are on a different track altogether. The ride from here won’t be smooth or linear. But I think it’s about to get fun. And I don’t think it’s going to blow up on you.
