‘Best program in the country’? Maybe not, but Clark Lea and Vanderbilt show real progress
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Pete Thamel, ESPN
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — If they issued Vegas odds on coaches most likely to dish a viral media day quote, Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea wouldn’t exactly be among the favorites.
Lea is so defiantly pragmatic and generally thoughtful that his players have joked with him over the years that he profiles more as a philosophy professor than a fire-breathing football coach. A copy of the book “101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think” sits on his desk.
In other words, they’d pass Prohibition laws on Broadway in Nashville before Lea would earn a reputation as a carnival barker.
Last year at SEC media days, however, Lea delivered a quote that was the most memorable one of the event and got aggregated everywhere from Fox News to Bro Bible: “We know in time Vanderbilt football will be the best program in the country,” Lea declared from the podium.
At a program that once went a half-century between bowl wins — from the 1955 Gator Bowl to the 2008 Music City Bowl — the quote went viral because it strained credulity.
A year later, some of the root of Lea’s boundless Commodores optimism is coming to life. There’s a massive, sprawling and noisy athletic facility overhaul underway at Vanderbilt — known as Vandy United — that projects to cost somewhere between $600 million and $700 million. It should deliver Vanderbilt the type of facilities that match the quality of the education on campus.
While Vandy United will touch every sport at Vanderbilt, the significant upgrades to every aspect of the football program’s infrastructure and stadium are signs that, finally, Vanderbilt is committed to being more than an attractive weekend getaway for opposing SEC fans.
“I would not have chosen to come here if I didn’t know the commitment would be there,” Lea told ESPN in his office on Monday, the same day he agreed to a three-year contract extension through 2029. “I think sometimes because I know what that commitment is and I believe in it, sometimes it feels a little lonely when you’re pushing that narrative without the visual representation of. So I think the construction is something that we can point out externally to say this is happening, now’s the time.”
The visual and audio evidence was apparent out Lea’s window. A crane nearly eight stories high marked the skyline at the far end of the stadium. At least four different backhoes clawed the ground, as the horseshoe at the end of the stadium had been gutted. Enough construction equipment was scattered around the stadium — only about 60 yards of which is usable for football for now — that it looked like something out of a toddler’s fever dream.
The corresponding build has already begun on the field. Vanderbilt showed meaningful improvement from Lea’s first year to his second — the Commodores went from 2-10 and winless in the SEC to 5-7 and winning at Kentucky and over Florida. Lea made clear that no one should throw a party for 5-7, but the progress has been significant.
“I think we’ve got to draw some lines at the idea that we’re celebrated for 5-7,” Lea said. “That’s not what we’re in this for. And we can look at progress and acknowledge that it’s being made, but we’re not going to be left satisfied with that.”
While the Commodores still have a ways to go on the field, there’s a long overdue plan in place for Lea and athletic director Candice Storey Lee to help solve one of the past century’s most vexing riddles: Why can’t Vanderbilt football’s brand aspire to the same rare air as the university’s brand?
The massive facility overhaul is a significant sign of that commitment and Lee’s vision. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey points to Chancellor Daniel Diermeier being bullish on athletics in his short tenure and Lee’s determination to see it through. “You now see the movement,” Sankey told ESPN. “It’s exciting for the future.”
The pitch is simple, as Lea calls it “one of one” in college football: the brand of Vanderbilt’s elite academics, the competitive platform of the SEC and the boom that Nashville is undergoing all combining for Vanderbilt to finally become a destination for top football recruits. Vanderbilt is building, with the hopes they will come.
“It speaks to the level of commitment the university has for our program,” Lea said over the construction rumble. “That football is important here. And that’s a hell of a statement. But it also just pushes this further down the line of saying you don’t have to make compromise in your choices.”
There are some quality players in place for the Commodores to capture a bowl bid on the field in 2023. Most promising is sophomore quarterback AJ Swann, who showed the moxie, arm talent and production — 10 touchdown passes and two interceptions in six starts — to win the job as a true freshman and cement himself as the program’s quarterback of the future.
He’ll be throwing to a strong crew of receivers, including Will Sheppard, who is one of the SEC’s most productive returning receivers with nine touchdown catches last year. (That was good for second in the SEC.)
There’s also a feeling that the accumulated talent on defense, including junior tackling machine CJ Taylor and rangy safety De’Rickey Wright, will put up more resistance. Vanderbilt finished No. 124 in scoring defense last year, and that included being near the bottom of the country in nearly every pass defense category.
“I hope that this season reveals the power of retention, retaining players, retaining systems, retaining staff familiarity, deepening relationships, deepening understandings,” Lea said. “That’s really what makes me most excited about what’s ahead of us.”
For the players and fans, there will be temporary inconveniences. The capacity for FirstBank Stadium at Vanderbilt this season will be nearly 30,000, down from 40,000. When the entire project is completed around 2026, there will be a plethora of premium ticket experiences available in a stadium of around 34,000 that better fit with the entertainment and sports options in Nashville.
Vanderbilt deputy athletic director Tommy McClelland, who is running point on the Vandy United project, said the alignment at the school between the chancellor, board and athletics has allowed such significant change to happen so quickly. And one byproduct is the Frist Family Athletic Village, which is the umbrella name for the massive building overhaul.
He points to the success that Tim Corbin’s baseball program has had — two national titles in the past decade — as a blueprint for what can be done when all the forces at Vanderbilt are aligned.
“We are situated so uniquely geographically in the conference that we’re in. The city that we have is a growing, vibrant city,” McClelland said. “It is a world-class education. When you combine the experience of elite athletics, elite academics and the ability to pursue all your athletic dreams, what’s possible is achieving at the highest level.”
Not surprising for a coach who keeps extra copies of the book “The Mountain Is You” to lend to his players, Lea is more about results than rhetoric. But as the ground moves around at Vanderbilt, it’s increasingly evident that for the first time in school history, there’s a clear desire for Vanderbilt to invest in football so the program matches the school’s academic brand.
“We shudder at the thought of being an academic school that plays football,” Lea said. “We want to be known as a really good football school. That means we take our football really seriously.”
Those signs are finally visible on campus. If you want to see them up close, a hard hat is required.
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Heather Dinich, Senior College Football Insider
ATLANTA — Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said the independent Irish are comfortable continuing to give up access to a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff — something currently granted to only the four highest-ranked conference champions — as long as the fate of conference championship games remains the same.
“We’re comfortable that if conference championship games continue as they’re currently configured, part of the deal we made is that we wouldn’t get a bye, and that’s understandable,” Bevacqua said Saturday, speaking to a small group of reporters at the national championship game media availability at the Georgia World Congress Center. “And quite frankly, I wouldn’t trade that [first-round] Indiana game at Notre Dame Stadium for anything in the world, but you also have to be smart and strategic, and your odds of making a national championship game are increased if you get to play one less game.
“So I think a lot is going to depend on the fate of the conference championship games,” he said. “Should they go away? And that’s obviously not my decision. Should they be altered in some sort of material way where it’s not the top two teams playing for a championship, but something else? Then I think we absolutely have to re-look at Notre Dame’s ability to get a bye if we end up being one of the top four teams.”
Bevacqua’s comments come as he and the FBS commissioners prepare to meet Sunday to begin their review of the inaugural 12-team field, which will produce a national champion on Monday with the winner of Ohio State vs. Notre Dame.
Bevacqua is part of the CFP’s management committee, which is also comprised of the 10 FBS commissioners tasked with determining the format and rules of the playoff to eventually send to the 11 presidents and chancellors on the CFP board for their approval. The commissioners and Bevacqua will have a 90-minute business meeting to start to discuss possible changes for the 2025 season, which would require unanimity, leaving many CFP sources skeptical that next season will look much different.
Bevacqua said he thinks “there’s a chance” the group could agree on a change to the seeding, but one option that has been floated by sources with knowledge of the discussions is having the committee’s top four teams earn the top four seeds — which opens the door for Notre Dame to earn a first-round bye without playing in a conference championship game.
“I think everybody wants what’s best for the overall system,” he said. “It was interesting, when you think about those four teams that got a bye, they didn’t advance. Now I don’t think that has anything to do with the fact that they got a bye, I think that was mostly competition and happenstance. But I think there’ll be a good, honest conversation that will start tomorrow. Are there any changes that we ought to make from this year to next year and make something that’s worked really well work even better? Will there be changes? I’m just one person. I’m not sure.”
CFP executive director Rich Clark, who also spoke to a small group of reporters at the media day event, said some changes for 2025 would require “more lead time than a few months to implement,” so no major structural changes like the size of the bracket are expected for 2025.
Clark said the commissioners will talk about every aspect from “cradle to the grave,” including seeding and re-seeding possibilities.”
Clark said whatever changes are made for 2026 and beyond — the start of a new, six-year contract with ESPN — need to be determined by the end of the calendar year. That could include increasing the bracket size, possibly to 14 or 16 teams.
“We’re trying to beat that timeline,” Clark said. “We don’t want to obviously wait until the limits of it. So we want to move smartly on these things, but we don’t want to make bad decisions, either.”
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