Vanderbilt players have incredible reaction to Clark Lea extension
By Jacob Moss
Published:
The college football coaching carousel has been picking up speed heading into the last week of the regular season, but one big name has officially been taken off the board. Vanderbilt‘s Clark Lea has signed a long-term extension to remain at his alma mater for the foreseeable future.
Lea’s success with the Commodores over the past couple of seasons made him an enticing target for bigger programs currently in the hunt for a new coach of their own, but Lea reaffirmed his commitment to Vanderbilt by inking his name on a reported 6-year extension.
The former Commodores’ fullback has become beloved by both the fans in Nashville as well as the players he’s recruited to play for him in gold and black, and Lea shared a heartwarming moment with those players on Friday morning when he announced he was there to stay.
Since taking over in 2021, Lea has completely transformed a Vanderbilt program that had spent much of the previous 20 or so years in the basement of college football. After an up-and-down first few years at the helm, Lea and the Commodores burst onto the scene in 2024 with an upset win over then No. 1 Alabama.
Vanderbilt has continued building upon that moment in 2025, rising to as high as No. 9 in the country at one point, and currently sitting 1 win away from their first 10-win season in program history.
If they can manage to defeat No. 19 Tennessee on Saturday, then they could also find themselves in the College Football Playoff for the first time as well.
