Clark Lea explains Vanderbilt football transfers, outlines portal priorities with NIL boost

When Clark Lea took the job at Vanderbilt football after a pandemic-riddled 2020 season, he inherited a recruiting class, too. Back then, his goal was to give those players the opportunity to get a degree at Vanderbilt.

Lea wanted to build his program primarily on high school recruiting and relationships without being transactional. Now, though, he sees a different opportunity.

After a 2-10 season, 18 players from Lea's team have entered the transfer portal − and that's just in the first week the window has been open. Among the defections include the team's top three quarterbacks, top three receivers and top two tight ends. Twelve of the 22 starters from the final game against Tennessee are either out of eligibility, declared for the draft, retired from football or entered the transfer portal.

Doom and gloom is one way to look at that. But there's also another way: the way Lea has chosen. In an interview with The Tennessean on Friday, Lea said the team plans to be aggressive at adding talent in the portal like the program hasn't before.

"We see it as an opportunity," Lea said. "And it's something that excites us. I think the stress comes just with the unknown and the chaos that we're in, and we try not to put too much energy on that. Just go find and recruit the guys that we think fit where we are and where we're headed."

Vanderbilt football's transfer portal needs

Vanderbilt has already had two transfers commit: MTSU defensive end Zaylin Wood and TCU safety Randon Fontenette. But there's a lot more the Commodores need. Lea said the team was looking at quarterbacks, possibly even bringing in two quarterbacks, along with wide receivers, offensive line, the secondary and pass rushers.

Lea is going "hyper speed," he said, at trying to hire an offensive coordinator after firing Joey Lynch, primarily because transfer quarterbacks want to know who is going to be calling the plays. The transfer portal allows Lea to, in some ways, start over by hand-picking players who fit the culture he wants to have and fill some of the gaping holes on the field.

Along with that, Lea said in the past few weeks the team has secured a larger commitment of NIL money than the team had previously. He credits athletic director Candice Lee with doing the heavy lifting on fundraising after he signaled the team needed a larger monetary commitment.

"Candice Lee, she's really stepped up," Lea said. "Because we can't pretend like that's not a part of this. And I think that's when you lose touch with the reality of what college football's become. I think what we what we thought would be solid has been redefined. ... With the movement in the locker room, if not for the ability to to offer the NIL experiences then you're kind of positioned differently right now. You're a little more relying on developmental high school players."

Why are so many Vanderbilt football players transferring?

Of the players who have decided to transfer, Lea said, they left for a variety of reasons. Many of them were players who were graduating and looking to use their COVID eligibility elsewhere. Some were a mutual decision that it was best to move on. But some are legitimate losses. The Commodores will need to start over in the quarterback room again, and wide receiver London Humphreys in particular looked like a star in the making.

But there were also signs of a poor program culture that Lea noticed. He pointed to the Kentucky game, when Vanderbilt threw two pick-6s and nearly a third, the team wasn't pushing the pile on runs and players weren't helping the quarterback off the ground, as an example. The transfer portal gives Vanderbilt an opportunity to inject the roster with new perspectives − but Lea has to get it right this time.

Lea did not comment on the exact reasoning for why any player chose to transfer.

"Some of those are conversations of, 'Hey, it's time for you to go,' " Lea said. "We have very high standards and expectations for what it means to be a part of this program. And then some of those, I think are a product of us not, at times, fighting for the culture that we that needs to define our program. And I think when you talk about on-field play, and and belief, certainly there were times, I think in particular offensively, where I felt like I didn't recognize what I saw and the level of compete that I was looking at as a reflection of what this program is about, and I think that's why you ultimately have to sit down and think long and hard about what changes need to be made."

It remains to be seen whether Lea's rebuild can work. Despite being able to offer NIL and playing time, Vanderbilt will still have to sell players on a 2-10 team that saw several top players jump ship. Many teams that have attempted to do the same sort of overhaul have mainly brought in lateral additions. Different isn't always better.

But Lea isn't panicking. There's no real choice now but to see portal season as an opportunity despite everything. Only time will tell whether the Commodores can seize that opportunity and make real improvements.

TRANSFER TRACKER Vanderbilt football transfer portal tracker 2023: Who is joining, leaving the Commodores

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Clark Lea explains Vanderbilt football's exodus of transfers, what's next