For Clark Lea, it was a 'reinvigorating' spring with new-look Vanderbilt football | Estes

What was never easy is only getting more difficult. True these days for any college head coach, but even more so if it’s Vanderbilt football — and you’re entering a pivotal fourth season in a beefed-up SEC while starting over with a reshaped team your most die-hard supporters wouldn’t recognize.

No getting around any of that.

So, as Clark Lea saw it, he had a choice. He’s picking happiness.

“This is the most fun I've ever had coaching,” he said. “Whatever that amounts to, it means a lot to me. Because I think we're in a time right now in college athletics where you can choose to be miserable amongst the chaos or you can choose to kind of find joy in what you are a part of.”

On Saturday morning, spring practice ended quietly for Lea’s team. Lingering stadium construction on campus meant no formal Black and Gold spring game this year, leaving a small crowd of friends and family on hand to survey the final spring scrimmage at Ensworth.

How’d it go for the Commodores? Tough to tell.

A lot of construction going on with them, too.

Vanderbilt welcomed 16 new players this spring, the majority being transfers acquired in a flurry of two-way portal traffic after a 2023 season so disappointing that it also prompted sweeping change on the coaching staff. Both coordinators are new. Tim Beck arrived from New Mexico State to install a new offense and mentor a rebuilt quarterback room.

And Lea turned Vanderbilt’s defense over to someone he knew: Himself.

“That has been so much fun,” said Lea, who was Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator before returning to his native Nashville after the 2020 season. “I also think I've gotten better in my role, because I see it a little differently now having been head coach for a few years.”

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It’s common for an embattled head coach — and Lea, with a 9-27 record and no bowls at Vanderbilt, became embattled while stumbling to a 2-10 finish in 2023 — to seize additional responsibility. Lea originally didn’t want to run the defense, too, but since he has, “the change for me has been reinvigorating,” he said.

“He's loving it,” Beck said. “Obviously, a very, very sharp defensive-minded coach, so it's awesome to have him as a defensive coordinator. It's been a very competitive spring, and it's been a spring where we've all learned a lot.”

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Lea taking over the defense wasn’t about titles or appearances. He truly has been taking over the defense, implementing a new scheme, authored by Lea the coordinator on behalf of Lea the head coach.

Vanderbilt’s defensive players keep talking about an “NFL-type” of defense that’s designed to deceive. It features “a lot of layers,” linebacker Prince Kollie said, “a lot of stuff to really throw off a quarterback.”

“We're really structured, and we understand the ins and outs of the game this year,” said Kollie, a former four-star recruit who transferred from Notre Dame prior to missing last season because of a concussion. (I’d rate him as the most impressive player on the field Saturday.) “We don't just do our job, but we do our job and know the next person's job. That's the biggest difference.”

Vanderbilt’s defense, generally, was ahead of the offense this spring. That’d be expected, given that a new offense is being installed and that the odds-on favorite to start at quarterback — New Mexico State transfer Diego Pavia — won’t join the team until after the spring. But this offense has already sprouted teeth. It had moments Saturday, with different quarterbacks throwing touchdowns.

The Commodores aren’t done in the portal, either, with Beck saying a priority on offense must be to add depth on the offensive line and at wide receiver.

On defense, meanwhile, the fact that Lea is in charge was made clear by Saturday’s setup. In previous years, he perused scrimmages from the center of the field. This time, he was on the defensive sideline with a call sheet.

Afterward, Lea spoke with reporters as normal. But this time, the offensive coordinator spoke publicly, too, the thinking being that Beck would be able to better speak on the offense’s performance because Lea had been focused on the other side.

And of course, the big picture.

Vanderbilt's 2024 schedule opens with Virginia Tech and includes Alabama, Texas, Auburn, LSU and Tennessee.

It’ll be brutally difficult, but hey, when has that not been the case on West End?

“For us to win,” Lea said, “we're not going to be able to just roll the ball out and play. It's got to be a high level of awareness, a high level of execution. We've got to get the absolute best out of every player we have in this program. So that's what we'll do, but I'm pleased with the work.”

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes. Click here and bookmark to follow his work.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Clark Lea enjoys 'reinvigorating' spring with Vanderbilt football