The SEC rolled outs its end-of-season awards on Wednesday, with various honors being bestowed upon the league’s most accomplished players and coaches in 2025.
And of little surprise to many, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea was named the SEC’s Coach of the Year after guiding the Commodores to their first 10-win season in program history, multiple victories over ranked foes, and a No. 14 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings.
A fullback at the school from 2002-2004, Lea returned to his alma mater prior to the 2021 campaign. He’s led Vanderbilt to a 26-35 overall record through five seasons at the helm, although well over half of those wins have come within the past two years.
A rocky first season in charge resulted in a 2-10 record for the Commodores, and even after improving to 5-7 the following year, Vandy slumped back down to just two wins in 2023.
But with Diego Pavia and other key transfers joining the fray in 2024, the ‘Dores pulled off a stunning upset of then-No. 1 Alabama and took down Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl on their way to winning 7 games.
Prior to arriving in Nashville, Lea began his career in various assistant roles at UCLA and South Dakota State before ultimately working his way eastward. The 44-year-old was linebackers coach at Bowling Green in 2012, then held the same position at Syracuse for three seasons before working as Wake Forest’s linebackers coach in 2016.
That gig led Lea to land at Notre Dame, and he eventually took over as defensive coordinator under Brian Kelly from 2018-2020 before returning to his alma mater.
Lea and Vanderbilt will look to put the cherry on top of a magical season when they face Iowa in the Reliaquest Bowl on Dec. 31.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
