Clark Lea addresses his plan, expectations for Vanderbilt's offense, facilities
As Clark Lea transitions to becoming the new head coach at Vanderbilt, two of the main questions he faces surround the offense and facilities, and how he sees both areas improving.
Lea explained that in terms of facilities, he has a voice, but he is more focused on the players, and building a culture, and once that happens, the buildings will follow.
“There’s so much to be energized about around the facility,” Lea said Sunday morning at his introductory news conference. “But the structures simply don’t matter, it just doesn’t matter, the focus has to be on the players. Obviously sustaining success and reaching our potential, being in new buildings and that commitment that’s shown will be important in pushing this program forward. But my primary focus here, knowing that those things will happen is not about being the architect, or helping decide what color the seats are, or anything like that. That’s just not what’s important to me. What’s important to me is that when you watch a game, you’re watching a team that you can get behind, that you can rally behind, that you can believe in. Again, a team that’s competitive and a team that’s tough and a team that’s reflective of this university.”
As an alumnus and former athlete at Vanderbilt, Lea said it is very personal to him.
“The facilities, when they come, they’ll come, we’ll all celebrate them, it’ll be great,” he said. “But before the buildings, I’m interested in what this team’s going to look like and how we’re going to build that competitive mindset day in and day out.”
About the offense, Lea said, “I understand the question and I want to assure everyone that as a defensive coordinator, I’ve been dying to focus on offense for a while. Because that stresses me out … There will be time and energy put into finding the right coordinator.”
It also comes down to finding a balance.
“This has to be about getting the ball to our playmakers in space,” Lea said. “There has to be an explosive element to this, and I’m excited to create that. The way you win games in the fourth quarter is with a powerful running game.”
Sounds like Derek Mason, 2.0. This guy is quite naive if he thinks he is going to get big time SEC talent to a school where the air conditioning and hot water aren’t fix for months in the player facilities.
It could be that other candidates opted out when they were told there would be no guarantees on facilities upgrades. Without a major commitment to facilities similar to what Northwestern has, you can forget doing much better than an average SEC record of 1-7 year after year. I was still covering the program when they hired Rod Dowhower off Bill Belichick’s staff at Cleveland, who brought Woody Widenhofer with him to coach the defense. Improvements were unofficially promised Dowhower in his first 12 months on the job, and after 20 months, he began cursing his bosses as liars and other things. He was done after two years when it was apparent that having to get approval to purchase supplies for his secretary and the offices was far from unofficial guarantees to improve the facilities. He compared Vanderbilt to Stanford athletic facilities in a very profound and uncouth manner.
I tend to think that it will be more of the same for the duration. Next, it will be time to discuss new men’s and women’s basketball coaches when both of the current coaches maintain the malaise. The men’s basketball team is supposed to be stressing defense, but the only defense they play is “invite the pass inside the paint for an easy two defense.” Their only defensive stopped inside is Obinna, and he’s the 9th or 10th player on the roster with this regime. The current starter, Millora-Brown, is a matador defensively who pads his rebound stats by grabbing a lot of missed free throws.
I do like what Coach Lea said. He keyed on the three recruiting elements that he would sell. 1. Nashville 2. A VU education 3. Compete in the SEC. I like that. He obviously didn’t mention National titles, recent success, etc. He emphasized what VU currently has. It will not be easy, but success sometimes takes time. He knows the program, so he may be more committed for the long haul than the other candidates. Sounds like he wants a passing attack balanced with a ground game. Hope he gets the players to make it happen. I wish him the best and maybe with a little success, the upgrade in facilities might follow.
My friend sent me the best concise statement that can be made concerning Vanderbilt’s two revenue producing sports–football and men’s basketball.
In his email to me telling me why he hasn’t watched one second of Vanderbilt sports since 2019, he said, “Vanderbilt is a perpetual expansion franchise in the SEC from the days when expansion franchises were like the 1962 Mets.”
As I watch the basketball team look worse than the football team, with talent that would not be third string at middle of the pack SEC teams, and with a coach that cannot make adjustments and continues to play a perimeter pressure defense when it merely leads to wide open looks within 1 foot of the basket, and with a new football coach that will try to implement what Notre Dame does but with 2-star and 3-star players, Vanderbilt will remain the 1962 Mets of the SEC. 1969 may be decades away. Monken might have given the football program a chance to compete. As for basketball, Chris Jans isn’t ever going to be hired. They could have had Eric Musselman, but when they didn’t act, Arkansas knew what it was doing getting the best college basketball coach since Dean Smith.
One often overlooked coaching responsibility is player development. Maybe, just maybe, Coach Lea and his staff can through nutrition, weight room dedication, and teaching skills, develop some of these 2 and 3 stars into productive players.